Shoulder bag

This shoulder bag is formed of four rectangular panels of green brocade. There are two vertical parallel rows of jobs’ tears running down either side of the bag. At the edges of the bag on each side are four stars of jobs’ tears and a double row of them edge the two bottom tassels. The top carrying-sling is woven in the same colours as the tassels.

The bag is worn by a man. Although donor information is unavailable for this item, and therefore details of exact provenance are unknown, its style is representative of the people of Taungthu (Pa-O). The James Green Centre, Brighton, has an almost identical example currently on display in their collection – G000192, which has also been documented in ‘Textiles from Burma’ (Dell 2000:93). Original photographic evidence also from the James Green Centre, Brighton, shows a Taungthu (Pa-O) man wearing an almost identical bag to 106/2000/16 (photo – P0026). The Victoria and Albert Museum also have similar examples, see reference IM.328-1924.

In this case the photographic evidence for the James Green Centre, Brighton, is vital in preventing possible misinterpretation of the origin of the shoulder bag. As noted by Scott in 1932 ‘that while the Taungtho (Pa-O) men tended to dress exactly like the Shans, the women tended to carefully preserve their traditional patterns’ (Dell 2003:80). Similar examples of these bags are also used by the Jingpho (Kachin), and also in the Shan States (East Burma).