The pattern of the pha lai yang was designed by the Siamese royal court and the cloth was then sent to India, when an artist would painstakingly draw it on finest quality white cotton fabric made in Manchester, England. Common motifs included garudas, praying angels and dancing angels. The fabric is also known as pha kien thong or pha phra pusa lai kien thong in a nod to the manufacturing process, which involves drawing on the fabric using gold powder mixed with fig rubber.
The adjacent display of Myanmar textiles explains that the longyi is the Burmese version of the panung, a wide sheet of cloth sewn together in a cylindrical shape, the most important part of the Burmese costume worn by both men and women. The longyis on show are made from the luntaya acheik cloth, a unique woven textile of Burmese people. Literally translated as "one-hundred-shuttle weave", it is made by using wooden shuttles to construct the double-interlocking tapestry weave structure. In tapestry weaving, weft yarns are typically discontinuous. Artisans interlace each coloured weft back and forth it its own small pattern area. A difficult weaving technique, it is also one that strengthens the fabric. The motifs are inspired by the currents in the Irrawaddy River.