Found his feet

Inle Lake in the middle of Myanmar is well-known for its fishermen with round nets, floating villages and manufacturers of all sort of souvenirs. The most typical souvenirs from this area are black lacquered doses, cups, badges and boxes of various shapes. You can find them everywhere. And you don´t even have to look for them. While visiting Burmese pagodas at the In Dein Temple, they will find you. At this temple, the lacquerware is not only sold but also hand-made. And so you can see how the father of the family, in whose village is this craft inherited from generation to generation, cuts the base from bamboo wood, his two-year-old son paints it with black lacquer, and his wife engraves learned patterns into a dry bowl.

 

However, tradition does not ask whether you are adequately equipped to produce these souvenirs or not. It doesn´t even matter if you miss your hands for example. And so we were amazed by a limbless boy lifting a bowl with one foot, taking a brush to the other and starting to draw tiny patterns. He literally found his feet.