Burmese clothing

Pre-colonial era

Burmese courtiers and the monarch dressed in royal ceremonial costume during a Royal Ploughing Ceremony.

In the pre-colonial era, sumptuary laws called yazagaing dictated life and consumption for Burmese subjects in the Konbaung kingdom, everything from the style of one's house to clothing suitable to one’s social standing from regulations concerning funerary ceremonies and the coffin to be used to usage of various speech forms based on rank and social status.^[1][2][3] In particular, sumptuary laws in the royal capital were exceedingly strict and the most elaborate in character.^[4] Sumptuary regulations regarding dress and ornamentation were carefully observed. Designs with the peacock insignia were strictly reserved for the royal family and long-tailed hip-length htaingmathein jackets and surcoats were reserved for officials.^[5] Velvet sandals were worn exclusively by royals.^[6] Gold anklets were worn only by the royal children. ^[1] Silk cloth, brocaded with gold and silver flowers and animal figures were only permitted to be worn by members of the royal family and ministers’ wives. ^[1] Adornment with jewels and precious stones was similarly regulated. Usage of hinthapada (ဟင်္သပဒါး), a vermilion dye made from cinnabar was regulated.^[1]

Colonial era

A Mandalay woman dressed in a trailing htamein.

During the British colonial era, Burmese nationalists associated traditional clothing, in particular Yaw longyi (ယောလုံချည်), a type of longyi from the Yaw region, and pinni taikpon (ပင်နီတိုက်ပုံအင်္ကျီ), a fawn-coloured collarless jacket, with anti-colonialism and nationalist sentiment, because of a clampdown in the 1920s over increasing dissent.^[7] Wearing "traditional" clothing was seen as a mode of passive resistance among the Burmese.^[7] The female sarong (htamein) became shorter, no longer extending to the feet, but to the ankles, and the length of the sarong's top decreased to reveal more waistline.^[8] This period also saw the introduction of a sheer muslin blouse for women, revealing a corset-like lace bodice called za bawli (ဇာဘော်လီ). British rule nonetheless influenced hair fashion and clothing. Cropped short hair, called bo ke (ဗိုလ်ကေ) replaced long hair as the norm among Burmese men.^[8] Similarly, women began wearing hairstyles like amauk (အမောက်), consisting of crested bangs curled at the top, with the traditional hair bun (ဆံထုံး).^[8]

Modern era

A saung (harp) musician dressed in a traditional blouse and acheik htamein.

Longyi

A Burmese woman dressed in a pre-colonial htamein.

The national costume of Myanmar is the longyi (လုံချည်, Burmese pronunciation: [lòʊɴd͡ʑì]), an ankle-length wraparound skirt worn by both males and females. The longyi in its modern form was popularized during the British colonial period, replacing the traditional paso worn by men and htamein worn by women in pre-colonial times. The pre-colonial htamein features a broad train called yethina (ရေသီနား) and is only seen in modern times as wedding attire or a dance costume. Similarly, the pre-colonial paso is only commonly worn during stage performances, including dances and anyeint performances.

Acheik textiles

Members of Myanmar's State Peace and Development Council dressed in acheik longyi

The indigenous Burmese pattern, called acheik (အချိတ်; [ʔət͡ɕʰeɪʔ]), features intricate waves interwoven with bands of horizontal stripes, embellished with arabesque designs. Acheik is also known as luntaya (လွန်းတစ်ရာ; [lʊ́ɴtəjà]), which literally means a "hundred shuttles,"^[9] referring to the time-consuming, expensive, and complex process of weaving this pattern, which requires using numerous individual shuttles, each wound with a different color of silk.^[10] Acheik weaving originates in Amarapura,^[11] and became popular during the Konbaung dynasty.

Taikpon jacket

For business and formal occasions, Bamar men wear a Manchu Chinese jacket called a taikpon eingyi (တိုက်ပုံအင်္ကျီ, [taɪʔpòʊɴ]) over an English collar shirt. This costume was popularized during the colonial era.

Female eingyi

Burmese women wear blouses called eingyi (အင်္ကျီ [ʔéɪɴd͡ʑì]). There are two prevalent styles of eingyi: yinzi (ရင်စေ့) buttoned at the front, or yinbon (ရင်ဖုံး), buttoned at the side. For formal and religious occasions, Burmese women typically don a shawl.

Htaingmathein jacket

In this colonial-era photo, a woman is dressed in a yinkhan (bodice), and htaingmathein (jacket).

The most formal rendition of Myanmar's national costume for females includes a buttonless tight-fitting hip-length jacket called htaingmathein (ထိုင်မသိမ်း[tʰàɪɴməθéɪɴ]), sometimes with flared bottoms and embroidered sequins. Htaingmathein in Burmese literally means "does not gather while sitting," referring to the fact that the tight-fitting jacket does not crumple up when sitting. This jacket was popular among the aristocratic classes during the Konbaung dynasty, and is now most commonly worn by females as wedding attire, or as traditional dance costume. The htaingmathein is worn over a bodice called yinkhan (ရင်ခံ, [jɪ̀ɴkʰàɴ]). Historically, the htaingmathein also had a pair of pendulous appendages on both sides called kalano (ကုလားနို့).

Gaungbaung

Aung San dons a gaung baung and taikpon (jacket).

The Burmese national costume for men includes a turban called gaung baung (ခေါင်းပေါင်း, [ɡáʊɴbáʊɴ]), which is worn for formal functions. During the colonial era, the gaung baung was streamlined as an article of Burmese attire. The design of the modern Burmese gaung baung emerged in the mid-1900s and is called maung kyetthayay (မောင့်ကျက်သရေ).^[12] It is a ready-made gaung baung made of cloth wrapped in a rattan frame and can be worn like a hat is worn.

Formal footwear

Both genders wear velvet sandals called gadiba phanat (ကတ္တီပါဖိနပ်‌, also called Mandalay phanat) as formal footwear.