Burma of the early Eighteenth Century AD was a story of decline. The Taungoo Empire, which had dominated Burma since AD 1510, had overseen a period of energetic expansion and reform, replacing the tribal patchwork of Burmese chieftains with one all-powerful king, able to direct the policy of the entire Burmese state. The rights of Shan chiefs were greatly reduced, and replaced with centralised hereditary governorships. The Taungoo crown had overseen a period of eighty years of economic growth, had reined in the power of the Buddhist monasteries, and had defended Burma’s territory from incursions by the powerful Kingdom of Siam. But the Taungoo kings could not maintain their grasp on power; the power of the central monarchy declined, and rebellions by the Meitei, the Lan Na, and the Mon fatally weakened the dynasty. The Mon revived the long-defunct Hanthawaddy Kingdom, and by AD 1752 had ended the Taungoo Dynasty. The ensuing chaos, however, presented an opportunity to a small village chief called Alaungpaya, who raised an army and challenged the Hanthawaddy. By AD 1759, he had reunited Burma, and for a hundred years thereafter, the Konbaung Dynasty which he founded managed to ensure Burmese prosperity, and avoid the encroachment of three great imperial rivals: China, Siam and Britain. It was not until AD 1886, and after three devastating wars, that the British finally asserted control over Burma, ending three centuries of native Burmese monarchy.

The Konbaung Period, and the peace it engendered, saw a development of Burmese art and culture. For the first time in history, the Burmese language predominated in the Irrawaddy River Valley, and a high (for the period) adult literacy rate of around 50% of males led to a resurgence of interest in Burmese history. The Konbaung monarchs oversaw the creation of the first state histories of Burma, and the growth of Burmese theatre brought stories from their distant past to villages and towns throughout the Empire. These stories were retold alongside tales from the life of the Buddha, and the great Hindu epic the Ramayana, which had survived in the popular imagination in spite of the move to state Buddhism during the Eleventh Century AD reign of King Anawrahta. In a unique Burmese tradition, these three genres – Burmese national history, Buddhist legend, and retellings of the Ramayana – were expressed in remarkable repoussé silver bowls, known as thabeik.

The thabeik was originally a begging-bowl used by monks who, having eschewed all earthly possessions, relied on the alms of strangers to survive. This style of bowl was then imitated by the less pious, often in extravagant materials. Silver thabeik were a specialty in the region known as Lower Burma (the Irrawaddy Delta and coastal regions). They became especially popular after the Second Anglo-Burmese War, when the British occupied much of Lower Burma, and, impressed with the craftsmanship of the locals, sent many silver thabeik home. The bowls were decorated with a kind of low relief, known as repoussé, which was hammered from the reverse side with a variety of small punches, which achieve different degrees of granular detail. The workmanship on this exceptional thabeik is remarkable, considering it was all created by hand. The main frieze of the globular vessel depicts a scene from the Ramayana. In a lively style, we are presented with a series of figures in a verdant landscape, wearing traditional South Asian costumes, including conical mokot crowns, and the sampot seng, a short kilt tied with a fishtail sash. Two of the figures have grotesque facial features: they are the demons Subahu and Maricha. These supernatural brothers terrorised the people living along the banks of the Ganges, devouring anyone who ventured into the forest, and defacing the altars of the sages. Their chief misdeed was the kidnap of Prince Rama’s wife Sita. On the bowl, Rama, bow in hand, hunts after Sita’s kidnappers, and attempts to despatch the demons at the request of the sage Vishvamitra.

References: a similar bowl, with a Ramayana scene, can be found in Singapore (Asian Civilisations Museum 2010-00476).