Man with a dha ?

[Mark]

Very interesting. Perhaps the artist was going by a set of costumes themselves, rather than painting actual people posed wearing them. That could account for the mis-matched head gear. It really could almost be the same dha the middle man is holding.

[RhysMichael]

There was a huge indian influence in burma also so this could be part of what inspired this
Control of Assam, Manipur, Arakan and the Tennasserim was granted to Calcutta after the first Anglo-Burmese war,

After the second Anglo-Burmese war (1852-53) Britain annexed Lower Burma and made it a province of India.

In "AN AUSTRALIAN IN CHINA
BEING THE NARRATIVE OF A QUIET JOURNEY ACROSS CHINA TO BURMA"
BY
GEORGE ERNEST MORRISON, 1902

he says
"There is a wonderful mixture of types in Bhamo. Nowhere in the world, not even in Macao, is there a greater intermingling of races. Here live in cheerful promiscuity Britishers and Chinese, Shans and Kachins, Sikhs and Madrasis, Punjabis, Arabs, German Jews and French adventurers, American missionaries and Japanese ladies."

Wikipedia said this ( and yes I always look on that source as being of mixed use )
"British Rangoon was heavily populated by Burmese Indians in British colonial times constituting 53% in Rangoon alone at its peak (c. 1930). The Burmese dubbed the city kala myo (Indian town) and even the Bamar and the Chinese residents of Yangon learnt to speak Hindi."

In a tread elsewhere on an Indian sword carried by a burmese Ian said
"There is no doubt that in the early 19th C. the Burmese viewed neighboring areas of India as their sovereign territory, extending as far as Assam. "

Couldn't all this be why we see this mix in the picture ?

[~Alaung_Hpaya~]

It explains why we have this picture but not the fanciful and unlikely mingling of dress elements .


These uniforms disappeared with the monarchy. More likely is that this is a representation of a Burmese diplomatic mission to neighbouring India .

[RhysMichael]

Originally Posted by ~Alaung_Hpaya~

It explains why we have this picture but not the fanciful and unlikely mingling of dress elements .


These uniforms disappeared with the monarchy. More likely is that this is a representation of a Burmese diplomatic mission to neighbouring India .

My intial thinking was that there would be a mixing of clothing styles but I keep forgetting sumptuary laws. You and Mark are far better to address that. As to the similarities to the first picture there are clear enough I would not be surprised if they had been done by the same person though they ended different collections here ( One at the Met the other at the Smithsonian )