3-028-779 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Burmese ladies and gentleman, with an attendant, 1870. Burmese people '...attired in the usual costume of persons of good social rank. The chief article of female dress is the tamine, a scanty strip of silk, or cotton, encircling the waist and hanging down as a close-fitting skirt...unmarried women have a tight bodice, adorned with many buttons. Over the tamine is a jacket...with long tight sleeves, gathered up into folds at the wrists...they adorn themselves with gold chains, necklaces, and rings...They live as free from conventional restraint as the women of any European nation...The Burmese gentleman is a "Loagyee," which means any person of wealth or rank, or official or professional distinction. The attendant of such a person always waits upon him kneeling...The dress is rather costly; its most important article, the "putzo," or waistcloth, being sometimes bought for £25. It is wound about the loins, and falls in graceful folds to the knees...[He] also wears a cloth jacket like a lady's mantle, with very tight sleeves, and a cotton under-vest; his long, well-oiled hair is gathered in a top-knot, and his head is wrapped in a piece of clean muslin, or a silk handkerchief...The Loagyee is...a pleasant, good-humoured, hospitable fellow'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.