Daw U-Thiri Dewi of Myanma Khitt (Burmese)

A concept drawing for the Burmese (Bamar) Woman Warrior in the Historically Wrong Sketch Series: Medieval Revisited, which is roughly based on the Middle ages covering 800s AD to 1400s AD. The name Myanma Kitt is a badly translated/made up name for the Burmese faction in the series, which is based on the powerful Pagan Kingdom (No, not the religion, its an actual name) that became the basis of Modern day Burma.

Inspired by the music: Theme of Wei - ROTK XII OST



The History of Burma, or for the matter of fact, the country itself, is unknown to many westerners as compared to its neighbor Thailand. Even to the eyes of neighboring Asian and South-East Asian people, Burma remains a relatively unpopular country. What do we know of Burma? whose humble begining as separate independent city states and various other rivaling power surrounding Irrawaddy River, became united under the banner of the Pagan Kingdom from 8th century to its downfall in late 13th century, marking itself as one of the largest Kingdom in south-east Asia. But their legacy did not stop there, for another powerful state emerged from the ashes in the late 15th century, ruled by the dynasty called Taunggu. For a brief period, the Taunggu Empire was the largest empire ever recorded in the History of South East Asia, feared by its neighbors including the Chinese. But alas, it is sad that the legacy remains largely forgotten to this day.



After my recent art-block, concerning the death of my friend in Air-Asia flight QZ851, as well as some unpleasant events during the Charlie-Hebdo hysteria, my mind got pretty stuck on what to draw, especially in continuing the historically wrong sketch series. Nevertheless, I was watching a documentary about Aung San Suu Kyi and her struggle in fighting the Burmese military Junta, and the overall freedom of speech issue in Burma. Somewhere in the middle, it clicked my brain and suddenly some creative juices flows, and my eagerness to draw something about Burma resulted in this drawing

I have to admit, Burma is something that's unfamiliar for me, especially when it comes to the Middle ages. While the history materials are not that many, I was lucky that there's a lot of paintings which depicted the warriors of Burma, notably during their height, probably as a Propaganda of Burma to instill nationalism to the diverse people living in modern day Burma.

In this drawing, Lady U-Thiri Dewi of the Myan dynasty, is a Barmar native depicted in stylized armor worn by the elites and the nobility inspired by those worn during the time of Pagan Dynasty. She wears a highly decorated headgear, similar to European kettle helmet based on contemporary paintings (the style is also similar in Thai). Her armor is of mixed combination, with decorated Gorget to show her status and wealth, vest made of (probably) hardened leather, on top of purple cloth (Purple dye was one of the most expensive colors, even prized by Byzantines of the same era). As for the armaments, her weapon is a straight sword, probably similar to Chinese Jian or Tibetan sword, as well as oriental bow, either produced locally or imported from neighboring India or China. Similar variant of armor can be seen on the warriors in the background, though the one on the right is shown wearing Chainmail, probably imported from India which would be highly prized and expensive. These depictions are anachronistic at best but please pardon the artistic license