Comments on: What a Manau looks like

By: Thai News

Thai News — Sat, 05 May 2007 17:24:04 +0000

Those people are wearing somany colors!
I’s very beautiful.
Do they have any special meaning in this case?

By: aiontay

aiontay — Fri, 04 May 2007 22:57:11 +0000

The version I heard from a Kachin jade merchant linked to the origin of the manau to the ancestor of his clan, which was not the standard Maran, Lahpai etc, but a rather small clan that was limited to the Hkahku region. I can’t find my notes right now which has the clan name. Anyway, in this version, the boy was born with the ability to speak from birth, which scared his mother, so she left him in a tree to die. While in the tree, the birds assembled and planned the dance, and it turned out the boy could understand their language as well, and hence got the ritual of the dance. Later, he managed to persuade a passing stranger to rescue him and when he grew up he initiated the dance.

I suspect there are several different versions beyond the ones Tara and I have heard. I’d be really interested in hearing any Singhpo versions. I suspect the bird element of the story stays constant- since that is a completely plausible origin, but other details may vary.

By: Tara

Tara — Fri, 04 May 2007 17:34:38 +0000

I have a good friend in Thailand who enjoys telling Jingpho stories. I don’t remember the story exactly anymore, but one related to how the Kachin learned the dances for the Manau festival. I think it involved a boy who was raised by his grandmother and was left under a tree while she worked. He grew up knowing the language of the birds from the tree, and this later allowed him to win the hand of a chieftan’s beautiful daughter. The birds taught them the Manau dances as a celebration.

I could be mixing up stories there, though I’m sure at least one story had the Manau dances being learned from the birds. Is anyone else familiar with this story (or stories), or what the mythological origin of the Manau is?

By: Nicholas Farrelly

Nicholas Farrelly — Fri, 04 May 2007 12:55:23 +0000

Thanks Roger P., This is certainly a useful reference for interested New Mandala readers. Somewhat surprisingly, Leach has very little of substance to say on the topic of Manau, and doesn't claim to have seen a "genuine example". In Political Systems of Highland Burma (1954: 119), he explains the situation:

The symbolism of a manau would clearly be of the greatest relevance for this study. Unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to see a genuine example; the only manau I was able to see were severely bowdlerised versions put on as a spectacle for the benefit of visiting government officers. Existing accounts of manau…are more or less meaningless.

Best wishes to all.

By: roger p

roger p — Fri, 04 May 2007 11:38:38 +0000

here is the complete reference

- Zhusheng Wang, The Jingpo. Kachin of the Yunnan Plateau, Arizona State University, 1997

(the text is quoted from pages 184-5)

By: roger p

roger p — Fri, 04 May 2007 11:34:57 +0000

here is a short comment by a Chinese specialist:

“The other communal ritual [the first is the one the author calls "numshang"] -the “manao zunggo”, the biggest ritual festival of the Jingpo- was specially dedicated to the “madai nat”, the spirit of walth and the great guardian. It was not routinely held because it was a costly ritual, requiring seven to nine cattle, tens of pigs, and hundreds of fowl as sacrifices; [...] These great rituals became infrequent after 1958, and finally disappeared during the Cultural Revolution. After the Cultural Revolution, the festival was officially declared the nationality holiday of the Jingpo and fixed on New Year´s Day on the traditional Chinese calendar. The celebration of the holiday is formally organized and held in the county towns or the prefectural capital. None of the original nat-offering meaning remains”

The quote is from the book “The Jingpo. Kachin of the Yunnan Plateau” (1997, pp. 1), by Zhusheng Wang -a comprehensive study of one Jingpo village in Dehong based on his PhD dissertation. Leach has obviously written about these festivals, but I did not have time to check yet -just hope someone finds the reference useful