As though we needed one

A woman stood on the street selling home made sweets and I noticed a tan colored paste daubed on her cheeks. Called thanaka, it is a natural cosmetic paste made by finely grinding a variety of sandalwood tree with water on a traditional stone slab. Out and about in Myanmar, I’d seen thanaka on the faces mainly of women and children (usually girls but sometimes young boys, too), and was told it is a 2,000-year tradition. Though partly for beauty, it is said to provide sunburn protection, medicinal qualities and perfume the wearer.

On a drive from one Red Cross training site to the next we passed farming villages where women in fields worked with thanaka applied thickly to every inch of their face for sun and mosquito protection. Myanmar women DO have beautiful skin, and their darker skin contrasts beautifully with the thanaka. The powder is available at outdoor markets, but perhaps before long The Body Shop will introduce it to the west to become mainstream.