“Shan Retainers Carrying a Brass Gong” by Mortimer Menpes, R. I.

Shan Retainers Carrying a Brass Gong

Mortimer Menpes

1903

Watercolor

Source: The Durbar, facing p. 118

“A Burmese gong which was sounded during the procession gave out a rich and resonant sound.”

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Other depictions of the Shan people from Burma

The Shan Chiefs’s Retainers at the Native Review

Shan Chief at the Durbar

In the Procession

Shan chiefs watching the Durbar

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of California and the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one. — George P. Landow]

It is a far cry from Delhi to Burma; but there were the Shans from the farthest corner of their country, dressed in orange-red plush skirts, carmine jackets, and great waving straw hats bent about in fan-tastic shapes. They walked with great dignity. Some carried banners, others golden umbrellas ; and two stately people held between them a huge gong, hung on a vermilion carved pole, which every now and then gave out a deep mellow booming sound in accord with the stateliness of the procession. I caught a glimpse of them just as they were entering the arena, and I saw the ever-present, active Dunlop Smith dash up on his white arab and say a few words to them. In an instant a blaze of gold shone over their heads: the umbrellas were opened, and looked like a cluster of golden toadstools. I saw the Major afterwards. "I thought they made a better picture so," he said ; and there was no doubt about it. [90]

Bibliography

Menpes, Mortimer. The Durbar. Text by Dorothy Menpes. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1903. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California at Los Angeles Library. Web. 27 May 2017.

Last modified 28 May 2017