Burmese dancers, Myanmar, s.d.

Burmese women dancing at festival.; From a set of lantern slides entitled "The Kingdom in Burma" compiled by Rev Frank E Skinner who served as a missionary with the [Wesleyan] Methodist Missionary Society in Burma from 1916 to 1930. The Wesleyan Methodist mission to Burma started shortly after the British annexation of Upper Burma in 1886. The pioneer missionaries were W. Ripley Winston and Arthur H. Bestall who established a mission in Mandalay in 1887/8. Due to strongly-rooted Buddhist beliefs the mission made slow progress. However, a Home for Lepers in Mandalay was built in 1890 and mission stations eventually opened in Pakkokku, Kyaukse and Monywa. Work was also carried out among the Taungthus people in the Shan Hills.