Traditions & vernacular · 1752–1885 · Southeast Asia

Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books)

Also known as Parabaik, Parabeik, Parabaik phyu (white parabaik)

Painted Burmese folding books of the Konbaung court and its monasteries. A long sheet of mulberry paper, folded like a concertina between lacquered or tooled-leather covers, carries a sequence of watercolour scenes in ruled panels, often with a short Burmese caption in a yellow band beneath: royal ploughing, elephant catching, barge processions, donations, the life of the Buddha and the Jataka. By the mid-19th century painters had added European shading, perspective and a horizon to rows of small stylised figures.

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Twelve bordered narrative panels depict a crowned figure in ornate Thai-style clothing with attendants, forest animals, boats, temples and Buddhist monks. Repeating yellow flowers and green vines frame the scenes, which are rendered in muted red, gold and green on a cream ground. — AI-generated by Stylogeny from the style’s design choices. Not a real or historical work.

Use it with care

Many parabaik show the life of the Buddha, previous Buddhas and Jataka stories and were made as acts of merit; treat these scenes and every Buddha image as sacred to Myanmar's Buddhists, and do not crop them into decoration, merchandise or tattoos, place them low or on footwear, or alter or parody the Buddha. The captions are real Burmese texts: have a Burmese reader write or check any caption and never fill the bands with invented script, which image models produce. Many court books left Mandalay Palace after the British captured it in 1885 (the V&A's 1882 manuscript IM.128-1918 was taken from Queen Supayalat's apartments), so credit each book to its court, place and present collection, work with Burmese scholars and painters, and never present a generated image as a historical parabaik.

How it works

Fold one long sheet into a concertina book and plan the story fold by fold: compose each scene across two, four or six pages, so that a procession runs over several folds, and let the book read a spread at a time or open out into a single strip.
Hold every scene in a ruled panel and write a short caption in Burmese script in a coloured band beneath it, so that picture and words form one unit.
Paint on the cream of the paper: leave the ground open and lay crisp watercolour and touches of gold on figures, buildings, elephants and boats.
Line up small, stylised courtiers, dancers, boxers and elephants in rows and processions that carry the eye along the fold.
Borrow European shading, perspective and a horizon for buildings and landscape, and set the stylised figures into that space.
Keep the rich ornament on the outside: close the calm painted pages between gilded red-lacquer covers or covers of red tooled leather.

Court workshops and monasteries of the Konbaung dynasty (founded 1752) in Burma (Myanmar), at its capitals, above all Amarapura and Mandalay (and Ava, 1765–1783 and 1821–1842). The folding book itself had been used beside palm-leaf since before the 16th century; this style is the painted white parabaik (black parabaik, coated with charcoal and written in white soapstone, served as erasable notebooks and lie outside it). The painted court books end with the British capture of Mandalay in 1885, after which the European codex usurped the parabaik; former court painters such as Saya Chone carried palace scenes and Jataka tales into colonial-era painting for monasteries and donors

Its design choices

From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

Layout & composition: Framed panels defining
Central symmetry occasional
Modular grid occasional
Space & hierarchy: Sequential narrative defining
Repetition & rhythm characteristic
Layered information characteristic
Illusion of depth characteristic
Measured density characteristic
Flat hierarchy occasional
Typography: Brush & pen calligraphy characteristic
Hand-lettering occasional
Colour: Light ground defining
Full polychrome characteristic
Jewel & metallic characteristic
Flat fields characteristic
Earth & mineral occasional
Form & shape: Stylised figuration defining
Naturalistic depiction occasional
Rectilinear occasional
Surface & texture: Flat occasional
Paper & letterpress bite occasional
Painterly brushwork occasional
Ornament: Borders & frames defining
Rules & bars characteristic
Restrained accents characteristic
Floral & vegetal occasional
Folk & sacred symbols occasional
Imagery: Painterly illustration defining
Line illustration characteristic
Medium & production: Hand-painted defining
Pen, brush & ink characteristic
Tone & intent: Authoritative & institutional defining
Spiritual & sacred characteristic
Luxurious & glamorous characteristic
Communal & popular occasional
Avoids: Horror vacui, Dark ground, Full bleed, Type as image, Non-representational, Straight photography

Palette

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Typefaces

Burmese round script (Myanmar script) written in ink as captions in the band beneath each scene
Burmese and Pali in Burmese script for the texts of Buddhist and court parabaik
Padauk or Noto Serif Myanmar for setting modern Burmese captions

Known for

[Royal entertainments], British Library Or 16761 (19th century)
40 folios with 17 watercolour scenes in yellow panels and short Burmese captions beneath (white elephant capture, royal procession, ceremonial ploughing, chinlon, Burmese boxing, a royal barge procession, tribute to the king), between gilded red-lacquer covers
Royal processions, ceremonies and entertainments (1870s–1880s), Metropolitan Museum of Art 2017.209
watercolour and gold on mulberry paper with gilt lacquered wood covers, fifteen scenes of court processions, ceremonies and entertainments in two-, four- and six-page compositions over 66 pages, attributed to the court of King Mindon or Thibaw, or associated workshops
Depictions of royal donations, British Library Or 13681
seven merit-making ceremonies of 1853–57 (B.E. 1215–1219), the donations probably those of Queen Tharasein, a queen of Mindon, whose name is on a label on the back cover; 34 painted sides, each with Burmese text in a yellow border beneath; red tooled-leather covers with a gilded title
[Scenes from the Life of Buddha], British Library Or 14297 (mid-19th century)
52 folds from Sumedha and the birth of Siddhattha to the Great Renunciation, the Enlightenment and the teaching
Folded book (mid-1880s), Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, 1999-01421
48 painted sides of temple donations, the restoration of Buddha images and a novice's initiation, with shading, perspective and a horizon
Burmese illuminated manuscript, Edinburgh University Library Coll-1768
an early or mid-19th-century painted parabaik of the Singapatta story from the Pannasa Jataka, with hunting scenes and domesticated animals
Parabaik of court and military activities (probably Mandalay, c. 1880), Victoria and Albert Museum IM.87-1936
watercolour on paper-mulberry (mahlaing) paper, eleven scenes from the towing of the royal barge and an elephant procession to polo, war elephants, a royal audience and a dance drama with orchestra, probably for the court of King Thibaw

Make something in this style

Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books)’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.