“Shan chiefs watching the Durbar” by Mortimer Menpes, R. I.

Shan chiefs watching the Durbar

Mortimer Menpes

1903

Watercolor

Source: The Durbar, facing p. 120

“One of these chiefs has fifty wives, and is known as ‘The Flower round whom the Butterflies flutter’.”

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Other depictions of the Shan people from Burma

The Shan Chiefs’s Retainers at the Native Review

Shan Chief at the Durbar

In the Procession

Shan Retainers Carrying a Brass Gong

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of California and the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one. — George P. Landow]

“This Burmese Camp was quite distinct. Here one met with perfect joy. It was all happiness, and the people showed their joy in every way; yet it was not an energetic, it was a languid, happiness. We were entertained there by one of the Shan Chiefs, and presented to his wife and family with much ceremony. When we arrived they were all smoking enormous cheroots the wife, the servants, and even the pretty children and cigars which were quite a foot in length. I never saw people who were slower or more dignified. We were presented to them by an official, and quite five minutes passed before anything was said to us at all. The Chief went on smoking and drinking small cups of strong tea, and so did the family. Then the lord and master spoke, but only for a few seconds: he went on again smoking and sipping his tea. It was quite ten minutes before we were made known to the wife and family. These last were more or less subservient: they all seemed to be occupied in looking after the Chief his tea, and the lighting of his cigar. They all sat for me just in front of the tent, surrounded by their paraphernalia for tea-drinking and smoking.

The women were exceedingly pretty; their hair was dressed very smartly, as neatly coifed, indeed, as that of American women: it was carefully brushed until it was glossy. Their faces were whitened and their lips painted a brilliant carmine. They all wore a flower, generally a pink one, in their hair. Each costume composed a different scheme of colour. They all wore silks, and the wife had a soft, rose-coloured skirt, with a little white cambric bodice and black satin band round her waist. She was quite a poem! Throughout the whole Camp I noticed that the colouring was fair and delicate not the rich vermilions and reds of India, but delicate rose tones, pinks, and blues. This was the colouring that met one's eyes everywhere in the Burmese Camp. It was a gracious relief” [165-66]

Bibliography

Menpes, Mortimer. The Durbar. Text by Dorothy Menpes. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1903. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California at Los Angeles Library. Web. 27 May 2017.

Last modified 28 May 2017