Next up in our village hopping tour in Inle Lake is the Silversmith workshop. It is known that Myanmar is rich in natural resources such as rubies and as I found out, silver. This particular village here specializes in the the crafting of silverware. And not just he normal fork and spoons as you will see.
The manager of the workshop warmly welcomed us inside. Right at the entrance you can see where the workers will be doing their thing. The owner showed us a large piece of silver ore. The silver can be easily seen in the rock itself. It says it was mined from a mountain nearby. To get to the silver, the rock is subjected to high temperature such that the rock and silver separate yielding pure silver. The silver is then hammered into different shapes depending on the the nature of the product.
It was fascinating to see all this working. The owner even gave me a piece of silver to feel but of course I had to reluctantly give it back. The melted silver is carefully weighed on one side of the room before it is hammered into shape. Naturally, the workshop also has all sorts of silver stuff to sell. Cups, chopsticks, plates and of course cutlery. What I found most interesting were the jewelry, they have earings and necklaces made of silver and the quality is quite impressive. I’m no jewelry lover but I thought they did look nice.
What caught my eye was a woven purse made entirely of silver. I didn’t even know you can make shape silver that much! It was certainly an eye catcher and I was sure it would also cost quite a bit. Fortunately, I am not into such things. The large cups and bowls on display were also quite a pleasure to see since they have very intricate patterns on them. I normally dislike going to such places but this place was really interesting. They don’t even pressure you into buying stuff. I think the products they have already speak for themselves.
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