About the Author

---

Sylvia Fraser-Lu spent many years as an educator in East and Southeast Asia. Her interest in Asian arts and crafts led to a writing career. She contributed articles for Arts of Asia and Oriental Art in the 1970s and early 1980s. She is the author of several books on Burma, including Burmese Lacquerware (1985 and 2000), Burmese Crafts: Past and Present (1994), and Splendour in Wood: The Buddhist Monasteries of Burma (2001). She also co-curated and co-edited the first stateside exhibition and catalogue on Buddhist Art of Myanmar (2015) at the Asia Society in New York. Linda McIntosh received a Master of Arts degree in Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and a doctorate from Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada, focusing on the roles of handwoven textiles in Laos and Thailand. Linda was a consulting curator at the Tilleke & Gibbins Textile Collection from 2005 until 2013. During this period, she also curated two exhibitions and wrote the accompanying catalogues: Status, Myth, and the Supernatural: Ritual Tai Textiles and Weaving Paradise: Southeast Asian Textiles and Their Creators at the Jim Thompson Art Centre where she was designated senior curator at the James HW Thompson Foundation. She authored Art of Southeast Asian Textiles: The Tilleke & Gibbins Collection published in 2012 by Serindia Publications. She expanded her research areas to Insular Southeast Asia. Another of her major publication is Thread and Fire: Textiles and Jewellery from the Isles of Indonesia and Timor published by River Books. She has also been designated a national mentor for the intangible cultural heritage of Laos by UNESCO-Bangkok. She is currently based in Luang Prabang.