YET ANOTHER DHA!!

Mark · 30th May 2008, 07:14 PM

Thanks for the extra pictures Stuart. What I saw as a tricorner hat could well be a turban. It also makes more sense, and makes me wonder if this is a Kachin's dha. The Shan and Kachin live very inter-woven lives, even to the point of changing "race" depending on where they live. The style may be Shan, but the decoration Kachin, if that makes any sense.

The panels with people look to be illustrating aspects of every-day life. I see a house and a stamp mill in the second set of panels, and a porter and (maybe) a spear-fisher in the fourth set. Or maybe he is stirring something with a paddle? The presence of an axe in a couple of the panels strikes me as odd, though, because I would expect to see a dha mauk being used instead. I have no idea what the guy in the first set of panels is doing, holding what looks like a musical instrument or maybe a dha with the handle near his mouth. He seems to be blowing into or on it, or about to, but I don't see finger holds like on a flute. The basket on stilts behind him is sort of intriguing as well. I don't think he is blowing a bellows into a forge, because traditionally vertical pump bellows are used.

The squirrels and dogs look like squirrels and dogs to me, too.

30th May 2008, 07:14 PM	#13
Mark Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 987	Thanks for the extra pictures Stuart. What I saw as a tricorner hat could well be a turban. It also makes more sense, and makes me wonder if this is a Kachin's dha. The Shan and Kachin live very inter-woven lives, even to the point of changing "race" depending on where they live. The style may be Shan, but the decoration Kachin, if that makes any sense. The panels with people look to be illustrating aspects of every-day life. I see a house and a stamp mill in the second set of panels, and a porter and (maybe) a spear-fisher in the fourth set. Or maybe he is stirring something with a paddle? The presence of an axe in a couple of the panels strikes me as odd, though, because I would expect to see a dha mauk being used instead. I have no idea what the guy in the first set of panels is doing, holding what looks like a musical instrument or maybe a dha with the handle near his mouth. He seems to be blowing into or on it, or about to, but I don't see finger holds like on a flute. The basket on stilts behind him is sort of intriguing as well. I don't think he is blowing a bellows into a forge, because traditionally vertical pump bellows are used. The squirrels and dogs look like squirrels and dogs to me, too.