One of the most colorful festivals in the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, involving scores of rowed boats and a spectacular gold-gilded barge, is being celebrated this month after a three-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic and violent political instability.
The venue is Inle Lake in southern Shan state, about 420 kilometers (260 miles) northeast of Yangon. Inle, the country’s second largest freshwater lake and a popular tourist attraction year-round, is famous for its fishermen from the Intha ethnic minority who practice a unique style of rowing while standing with one leg wrapped around a single oar.
Their skills are full display during the annual Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival, which lasts almost three weeks. The fishermen row their boats to pull the Karaweik barge, an ornate vessel with a golden image of a mythical bird at its bow that carries four statues of Buddha to tour 21 villages around the lake so that people can pay homage to them.
The festivities also include leg-rowing boat races with each boat carrying 40-100 rowers. Hundreds of local residents on Thursday observed the activities from small craft on the lake, and more from onshore.
The festival is being celebrated despite armed conflict across much of Myanmar, as the army seeks to quash resistance to its takeover in February 2021 that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Thousands of people have died in the conflict and more than a million have been uprooted by army offensives.
Opponents of army rule urged people not to attend the festival because the military could use it as a propaganda to claim that the country is back to normal under its control.
There were no incidents reported at the festival, where security was tight, but very few foreign tourists attended.
