G. Dubbini, "Unveiling the Kingdom of Ava: the British representation of Burma and its monuments from 1795 to 1826", SOAS - MA dissertation, 2013. (original) (raw)

MA dissertation, The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

The purpose of this dissertation is to show the link between British scholars and artists who were travelling from India to Burma with the colonial authority of the East India Company (E. I. C). As in India, they cast a ‘new view’ on the representation, both scientific and ‘picturesque’, of the antiquities of Burma from c. 1795, until the end of the First Anglo-Burmese war (1826). The main interest of this research is to verify the cultural intercourse between different characters all acting during the early formation of the British Raj in Burma. During dramatic and significant times they contributed to modifying a specific vision and a system of opinions. Characters such as M. Symes, F. Buchanan, W. Daniell, C. Mackenzie, J. Crawfurd, artists and draughtsmen of the British army and others, began to consider the representation and interpretation of the Burmese tradition and of its religious monuments. This research is considered a verification of the ways in which Burmese antiquities were represented and are here considered, using various examples, in a critical perspective.