To: yuri12apple@gmail.com
Subject:
Hi Yuri,
How are things? Everything’s okay here. Thank you for your last mail.
I find the tea culture in Japan you told me very interesting. I’d also like to tell you about a cosmetic unique to Myanmar only. I hope you’ll find it interesting too.
Thanakha is a yellowish-white
cosmetic paste made from ground bark. It is a distinctive feature of the culture
of Myanmar, seen commonly applied to the face and sometimes the arms of women and girls, and is used to a lesser extent also by men and boys. The use of thanakha has also spread to neighbouring countries including
Thailand. The wood of several trees may be used to produce thanaka cream; these trees grow abundantly in central Myanmar.
The two most popular types of thanakha
are Shwebothanakha from Sagaing Region and Shinmadaung thanakha
from Magway Region.
A more recent contender sold as a paste is Taunggyi Maukme thanakha from southern Shan State. A thanakha tree must be at least 35 years old before it is
considered mature enough to yield good-quality cuttings. Thanakha in its natural state is sold as small logs individually or in bundles, but nowadays also available as a paste or in powder form.
Thanakha cream is made by grinding the bark, wood, or roots of a thanaka tree with a small amount of water on a circular slate slab called kyauk pyin, which has a channel around the rim for the water to drain into.
You can apply thanakha on your face, and it protects from the harmful solar rays, makes the skin glow, and helps to prevent pimples and freckles. You can simply smear it on, or you should use it to make good facial work. It is all pure, and the perfect Myanmar traditional make-up for the human skin. It is the best a human can get.
Well, let me stop my mail here. That’s
all I know about thanakha. Please drop me a line if you have free time whether you’re interested in thanakha or not.
Yours lovingly,
Si Si
sisi123@gmail.com