The royal regalia of ancient Myanmar kings, on exhibit at the National Museum, are bound to be of great interest and fascination not only for historians and other scholars but also for the public in general for they are absolutely superb works of art.

The royal regalia are ornamental objects and utensils belonging to the King and Queen, which are displayed on important ceremonial occasions.

With the Great Throne as the centre-piece of the royal regalia are arranged to its left and right, each object occupying a special place of its own.What you see now is the royal dagger or short jewelled sword used exclusively by the King. The hilt and scabbard are made of ivory with the black of the knife encusted with gems and futher ornamented with gem-studded gold rings, with three such rings on the scabbard.

This royal dagger was part of the regalia of the last Myanmar monarch, King Thibaw.Here you see a pair of royal footwear that forms part of the regalia. The heels are made of gold and the soles of silver. The borders are ornamented with three rows of rubies and above them is a gold-filigree border. The strap is of velvet and each strap has patterns of flowers fashioned from an arrangement of rubies.

What you now see is the royal crown worn by the King. It is made of gold filigree and the dicorative frontlet is a band of gold with more gold filigree work at the sides. The topmost part is encrusted with priceless gems large and small.

This next item is the Large Betel Receptacle. It is a receptacle to serve betel leaf to the King. It is made of pure beaten gold inlaid with priceless rubies. This gold receptacle shows plainly that our ancient goldsimths were skilled craftsmen and artists of high standard.These items, you have just seen, are those that the Myanmar Govrnment recovered from the British in 1964.A study of the royal regalia will show clearly the high standard of the art of gold smithy, which is one the Thn Arts and Crafts of traditional Myanmar culture.