Even in the Pyu era, the oldest era on Myanmar land, cotton could be produced and the quality was probably good, U Kyaw Myo Win, director of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture (Bagan Branch), who had worked in ancient Sri Ksetra city, said on the social network.
When studying the Pyu dresses, he had to rely on Pyu-era reliefs because there were no mural paintings available.
“There are two types of clothes: the first is the elite upper class and the second ordinary civilians. Most of the reliefs showed men. Ordinary men wore a tucked-up lower garment that covered the knees and no clothes in the upper body. Upper class men wore the same in the lower part, but with patterns of high quality. They also wore arm bracelets, necklaces and head ornaments,” he said.
Pyu women wore a sarong-like lower part (Htamein) and likely used a belt for men as belts for women may have not yet appeared, according to studies, he added.
“When big and small gold-panning pits in Sri Ksetra palace site were studied after the bushes had been cleared, the gold finders discarded the tiles they found as worthless. But, these tiles are much valuable to the archaeologists. We found that a cloth was used to separate the mould and clay in making tiles. It proved that the Pyu people had produced cotton with patterns. They appeared to be of great quality. Some are thick and some are thin. Cotton cloth seems to be essentially used,” he said. — MT/ZN/ED
