Last December I spent three weeks in Nyaungshwe, on the southern shore of Inle Lake, watching U Thein Naing split a single stalk of rattan into eight ribbons thinner than linguine. He is seventy-four. His hands do not shake. The knife he uses — a curved blade set into a teak handle — was forged by his father in 1961, and the stone he sharpens it on was his grandfather's. There is no catalogue for any of this. The knowledge lives in the angle of his wrist.
The Basket Economy Nobody Counts
Government statistics record Inle Lake's floating gardens and their tomato yields, but nobody tracks the cane-weaving families who supply the underframes for every tray, every carrying-basket, every lacquer vessel that leaves the Shan plateau. U Thein Naing estimates there were forty households weaving in his village when he was young. Today there are seven. The others have moved to Yangon to work in construction or garment factories.