This beautiful girl was selling scarves at the local market. The yellow paint on her face is called thanaka and is made of ground tree bark. It’s mainly used to protect the skin from sunburn but also as cosmetics. This girl played with it to draw some cute patterns on her face.
This is a “recycled” photo that some of you may have already seen but it’s still one of my favorites from my trip to Myanmar last year.
I’ve found out since then that she appeared in other photographs, sign that not only she knows what she’s doing and knows how to charm tourists, but also that if you have plans to visit Myanmar, you should plan fairly soon, as tourism is booming and it won’t take long before everyone gets to see an embellished version of the country suitable to tourists but leaving the ones in search for authenticity hungry for more.
