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After breakfast we drove to Nyaung Shwe and on the way stopped to see how local craftsmen make umbrellas. They use Shan paper which is from this area being Shan State. The paper is the same format as the elephants but different.
First process in the paper making is to strip the bark from young branches of the Paper Mulberry, Morus papyrifera, a tree native to eastern Asia. It grows to 15 metres, is a rapid grower and is really rather a weed, so it’s a resource that regenerates quickly. The bark is composed of very strong fibres and makes high-quality paper that is generally tougher than ordinary paper made from wood pulp. The bark is first soaked for a day or so and then boiled for about eight hours. Then the bark needs to be sorted for variations of hue and roughness. The most delicate and regular-hued segments are chosen for paper, while rougher and darker segments are destined for rope or thicker boards and paper such as that used for the umbrellas. Then the process of pounding the fibres to a pulp begins like the elephant paper but by hand. Mashing the boiled fibres is a long process of rhythmically pounding with two mallets. We watched as the girl pounded away, sitting on a very uncomfortable looking small wooden block. When the pulp is soft enough, it’s rubbed into a small bowl of water and swished to mix. A rectangular wooden frame/screen with a stretched cotton base is placed into a bath of water. When the pulp in the bowl is liquid enough, it’s carefully poured into the water. A good swishing spreads the pulp evenly in the water across the cotton base. After the pulp has settled, petals and leaves are added to decorate the paper. These were bougainvillea petals but sometimes dendrobium orchid petals are used – whatever is available locally and in season. After a minute or two of settling, the frame is lifted from the water bath and put into the sun to dry. The finished paper is then very carefully prised from the cotton backing.
The umbrellas they make are used to protect from both sun and rain. For the farmers, especially, the umbrellas are lacquered to make them shower proof.
A variety of wooden pieces are required to make an umbrella. A very simple lathe made from pieces of wood has been in use for many years in this family business. No electricity is used, no pollution, foot power alone pumps the rope that drives the lathe. Toes are a useful tool to hold the bits when piecing together the fine wooden spokes of the frame. Each part of these rib sections are made by hand and put together by hand and toes. The first layer of paper is pasted onto the spokes. The smaller spokes will slide in the slots of the larger spokes. Nothing is precision made by machine, it’s years of practice makes perfect. For parasols, only two layers of paper are added. For the umbrellas regularly used by farmers in the fields, or anyone wanting an umbrella to shelter them from rain, five or more layers of thicker paper are added. The paper on those umbrellas is then lacquered to make them shower proof. There are a lot of other items made with Shan paper such as fans, light shades, envelopes, writing paper and invitation cards.
We then boarded a motorised long boat with our luggage and ventured off over Inle Lake. The lake, which measures 22 km long by 10 km wide, and sits in a valley between two mountain ranges, is a different world to the rest of Myanmar: in villages and towns across the lake, wooden houses are built on stilts and fishermen steer their one-man boats with a characteristic rowing style, wrapping one leg around their oar. We ventured around the villages sticking out of the water as locals went about there daily activities. After lunch and the obligatory temple we went to our hotel which after gliding through floating fields of lotus leaves the sight of the Sanctum Inle Resort was a breath of fresh air.
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