Bagan House Artistic Lacquerware

Bagan House's own history page dates the business to 1930, when it was founded by U Pho Guang under the name Saya Gaung during the British colonial period. Lacquer caskets bearing that original Saya Gaung name have survived into museum and private collections, including the British Museum, giving the workshop's early output a documented trail independent of its own marketing.

Ownership has passed down four generations: from U Pho Guang to his daughter Daw Wei, who sold lacquerware traveling to the Shan states; then to U Tint Aung, who worked as a production manager at a government lacquerware institute and studied at the Wajima Lacquerware School in Japan between 1969 and 1971; and finally to the current owner, Ma Maw, in New Bagan.

The workshop produces yun-de, Burmese lacquerware made from the sap of the Melanorrhoea usitata tree, decorating pieces using Pan Yun, a needle-etching technique applied by hand. A single well-made piece can take three to six months to complete, reflecting Bagan's broader standing as one of Myanmar's two main lacquerware production centers alongside the craft's roots reaching back centuries in the region.