Mandalay keeps its art in workshops rather than vitrines. In three days you move from Mindon's carved teak monasteries to the marble-cutters' row at Mahamuni, then to a 70-seat puppet hall and an a-nyeint troupe still playing nightly in a living room.
The only surviving building of King Mindon's wooden palace, dismantled and moved here in 1880, then smothered in relief carvings of nats and Jataka scenes. Open 08:00–17:00; teak panels still hold traces of gold lacquer.
A merchant's monastery rather than a king's: Chinese jade trader U Set Shwin paid for it in 1895, and its teak balustrades carry mice, monkeys and mythical beasts instead of court scenes. Novices still study on the shaded verandas.
Hundreds of open-fronted workshops line 84th Street near Mahamuni, cutting Sagyin marble into Buddha images with angle grinders and chisels. White dust coats the trees and the workers; carving runs roughly 08:00–17:00 daily.
The four-metre bronze Mahamuni, hauled from Rakhine in 1784, is now lumpy with several tonnes of gold leaf pressed on by male pilgrims. Its northwest courtyard holds six Khmer bronzes carried off from Angkor via Ayutthaya.
Konbaung court dress, royal palanquins, lacquerware and Pyu-era artefacts fill two floors on 80th Street. English labelling is thin, but the textile and marionette cases are the best-kept collection in Upper Myanmar. Closed Mondays.
Myanmar's northern conservatoire trains classical dancers, saung gauk harpists and hsaing waing percussionists. Rehearsal rooms open onto a courtyard, and the gatehouse staff often wave visitors through to listen to afternoon classes.
Ma Ma Naing's troupe has kept yoke thé puppetry going since 1986 in a 70-seat hall on 66th Street. Afternoon callers get into the back workshop where the 28-string figures are carved, jointed and dressed before the evening show.
The family a-nyeint troupe on 39th Street between 80th and 81st has performed in its own front room for decades — slapstick patter, Burmese classical dance, and hand-painted backdrops propped against the wall.
Around 1,500 monks queue in silence for their last meal of the day at 10:15, the alms line stretching past the teak refectory. Morning scripture classes break up about 09:45, so arrive before the courtyard fills with coaches.
Open-sided sheds weave acheik luntaya, the hundred-shuttle wave patterns once reserved for the royal court. Two weavers share a single loom and manage barely a metre a day; the clatter of shuttles carries down the lanes.
Traders cut, wet and haggle over Kachin jade behind a wall on 87th Street, from dawn until late afternoon. The grinding sheds along the back wall are where rough boulder becomes cabochon, sprayed constantly with water.
Pottery boats down from Yandabo unload water jars onto the sand while ferries load for Mingun. Tea stalls and plastic stools appear at dusk and the whole strand turns into a neighbourhood promenade of families and hawkers.