Postcard Story : The Burmese Juggler Maung Law Paw

From my postcard collection of Burma Pavilion in 1924 Wembley British Empire Exhibition,most of the cards shows the exhibit building.  Only a few cards shows the performers at the Burma pavilion.  One of them shows the Burmese Juggler Maung Law Paw, juggling with six Burmese cane ball which we call chinlone.  So, lets find out about Maung Law Paw.

Ottavio Canestrelli performed with the Krone Circus in Italy and Germany from 1922 to 1924.  In 1929, he toured from India to Rangoon and performed the act.  Durin his stay in Rangoon, he met with Maung Law Paw.  He retold the meeting as "While performing my juggling act with the Isako's Circus in Rangoon, Mr. Maung Law Paw, the Burmese champion juggler, came to see the show.  Afterward, he came to my dressing room and was very interested to see my juggling balls.  He was amazed that they were made of rubber because his were made from rattan strips, as cen be viewed in this picture he gave me in 1929." [1].  The picture he mentioned is exactly as the below postcard of Maung Law Paw performing at the Wembley British Empire Exhibition in 1924.

Maung Law Paw at Wembley

Prior to Maung Law Paw, Moung Toon was famous in Burmese Juggling and he has been performing in London and other part of Europe since 1896. [2]  At that time, Burmese Juggling is a "statue trick".  It consists of multiple balances on various body parts at the same time.  The early versions of such tricks, like performance by Burmese Jugglers Moung Toon and Maung Law Paw, includes balances of multiple balls on the body. [3]

Moung Toon

Moung Toon

The documentation on Maung Law Paw's performance at Wembley Exhibition is hardly seen.  According to [4], he performed at Alhambra and Coliseum theaters prior to the Exhibition.


References
[1] Ottavio Gesmundo, "The Grand Gypsy : A Memoir", Lulu publishing services, 20 Jun 2016, pp. 92.
[2] Jonathan Saha, "Burmese Jugglers in Imperial Britain", in Colonizing Animals, Retrieved from https://colonizinganimals.blog/2013/05/08/burmese-jugglers-in-imperial-britain/ on 5 Mar 2020.
[3] David Cain, "Statue Juggling Tricks", Retrieved from https://www.juggle.org/statue-juggling-tricks/ on 5 Mar 2020.
[4] Ashley Jackson, "Building of Empire", Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 254.