14 
Indian Forest Records. 
[Vol. VI 
“ At the foot of the pillar or plinth base and pedestal the thitsi is 
usually overlaid with vermilion or crimson paint, but often enough the 
base and pedestal are gilded, and the capitals are finely carved and 
gilded.” 
A very detailed account of the C£ Glass Mosaics of Burma ” is given 
by Mr. Tilly in his interesting note which contains many excellent photo¬ 
graphs, and is obtainable from the Superintendent, Government Print¬ 
ing, Burma, Kangoon, price Bs. 9 or 13 shillings and 6 pence. 
5. Manipur varnished wares. 
As has already been stated, the tree yielding the varnish occurs 
only to a very limited extent in the Manipur State. The lacquer art 
is practically unknown there, and the varnish is merely used for 
ordinary domestic purposes and at the present time is rarely met with. 
6. Other lacquer-work. 
Besides the abovementioned types of lacquer work several others 
should be mentioned, the chief centres of which are in the Shwebo 
district, where mud images of Buddha are lacquered ; also in the Lower 
Chindwin district and elsewhere, certain villages manufacture plain red 
and black lacquer ware in considerable quantities. At Maungdaung in 
the Lower Chindwin the workers have recently started a Co-operative 
Society. In the Northern and Southern Shan States there is also a 
fair trade in this work ; in the Northern States we find the red lacquer 
ware used principally to contain religious offerings. 
The chief lacquer working centre in the Southern Shan States is 
Laikha. There the work is crude and unfinished, but interesting because 
the workers are said to have learnt the work from Pagan a century or 
two ago and it is possible that the very rough patterns represent the work 
done at Pagan in old days. Generally, a red background is used by 
mixing hinthapada with the thitsi, and on this very crude patterns are 
scratched. Variety of colours is not used, and the pattern is often put 
in with silver paint, the surface being afterwards varnished with kanyin- 
si (wood-oil of Dipterocarpus sp.), which, being a yellow varnish, makes 
the silver appear a dull gold. The use of kanyin-si makes the articles 
unsuitable for holding hot water. The Pagan lacquer ware will stand 
hot water quite well. 
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