Living tradition, Myanmar
Yangon and Myanmar's thanaka
Myanmar, where women, children and many men wear pale yellow thanaka paste on their cheeks every day.
Across Myanmar, from the streets of Yangon to villages in the dry central plains, people wear thanaka: a pale yellow paste of ground tree bark painted on the cheeks, forehead and nose. Women and girls wear it most, often in circles or stripes on the cheekbones, and many boys and some men wear it too. It is one of the most visible face traditions in the world.
From bark to paste
Thanaka comes from the bark and wood of trees such as Limonia acidissima, which grow in the dry zone of central Myanmar. Logs are sold in markets in short lengths. At home, a piece is rubbed with a little water on a round stone slab called a kyauk pyin, giving a fragrant paste. Ready-made powders and creams are also sold. People value it for cooling the skin, as protection from the sun and for its scent.
A daily look
Thanaka is applied in the morning after washing, with a brush or the fingers. Patterns range from simple circles and stripes on the cheeks to leaf shapes and full coverage for children. Its use has been recorded for centuries and appears in old Burmese literature. Myanmar's other face tradition, the tattoos of Chin women in the west of the country, is now rare.
Guides of Yangon and Myanmar's thanaka
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Tattooing in Myanmar: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Thanaka: Garonzi Stefania, CC BY-SA 4.0, source