About
A canvas, not a headline
Myanmar cannot be understood through headlines. It has to be understood through its people — one market stall, one monastery, one festival at a time.
Behind every market stall is a family. Behind every monastery is a tradition. Behind every festival is a story passed from one generation to the next. Myanmar Canvas documents these moments with honesty and care, and keeps them somewhere they can be found again.
This is an independent project. It carries no advertising, takes no government or organisational funding, and answers to no one but its readers. It is slow by design: a story is published when it is ready, not when a schedule demands it.
How we work
- Sourced honestly. Most stories are desk-researched — built from published records, museum and auction-house documentation, and credited photography — rather than original interviews, and we cite what we draw on. That research sits alongside a native perspective: Myanmar Canvas is written by someone born and raised in Myanmar, who left the country as an adult, and that upbringing shapes how these stories are chosen and told. Where we do speak with someone directly, in the Voices series, we explain what we are doing, how their words and image will be used, and we honour requests to stay anonymous.
- Context over spectacle. We avoid framing that treats the country as either a postcard or a tragedy. Both are distortions.
- Corrections in the open. When we get something wrong, we fix it and note the change in the Journal.
Safety
Some subjects and contributors face real risk. Where publishing a name, a face, or a location could cause harm, we change or omit it, and we say so. If you have contributed and your situation has changed, contact us and we will take the material down.
Language
The site is written in English, with Burmese and other languages quoted where it matters. Place names follow common current usage; where a name is contested we try to note it rather than pretend there is one answer.
Use and permissions
Story text is original to Myanmar Canvas. Photographs are a mix of original work and freely licensed or credited third-party images, drawn from sources such as Wikimedia Commons, Pexels and Pixabay under their own open licences; each is credited where its licence requires it, directly beneath the photo. For republication of our writing, classroom use, or research access, write to info@myanmarcanvas.com.
Get in touch
Story tips, corrections, and offers to be interviewed are all welcome. The address again is info@myanmarcanvas.com.