18th Century
The origin of today’s Myanmar men’s outfit
There is a misconception that the outfit Myanmar men wear today is a very old one. In fact, it is around a hundred years old. It was only in the early 20th century when the traditional paso began to be replaced with the much simpler India-derived longyi and men began to wear English collarless shirts together with a Manchu ma gua (literally "horse jacket" for riding). A precursor of today's taik-pon, the fur-lined ma gua had been worn by the Manchu (Qing) men in China since the 1640s. It was originally restricted to the elite Qing Bannermen cavalry but, by the 18th century, was fashionable (and allowed to be worn) by rich Chinese.
In these photographs these unidentified but clearly fashionable young men are wearing their paso with variations of the Manchu ma gua jacket (taik-pon in Burmese), but only one has on an English shirt underneath. In the group photograph, all are wearing English shoes, a practice now almost entirely gone.