- The first morning of the Manau festival. Excitement is in the air.
This post is designed to showcase some of the colour and diversity of the Myitkyina Manau festival held to mark the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the Kachin State. The images should provide illustrations of life in the middle of the Manau ground. This is where a great deal of the official action takes place. Completing the prescribed dances is integral to the success of the Manau. Over the course of this Manau festival different groups took responsibility (and were honoured) by leading different dances. These groups included the Central Kachin Traditional Committee, the Kachin Independence Organisation and the New Democratic Army – Kachin. Each dance had a different composition of people. Some included large numbers of Shan. While others included many Rawang or Lisu.
I hope these images provide a solid overview of the formal action on the Manau ground. As always, please don’t hesitate to offer comments or ask any questions that spring to mind.
- The flag of the Union of Myanmar sits on top of the two central Manau poles.
- School children stand ready to release their balloons when the Manau festival is officially opened.
- The ritual leaders of the Manau dances making their way around the Manau ground. They follow a set pattern of loops and swirls around the ground for over 2 hours per dance.
- Dancers from a Jingpo troupe that drove across to Myitkyina from Yunnan.
- Dancers, with a number of Rawang in front, make their way around the Manau ground.
- The footwear of some “Myitkyina Lisu” waiting to get in on the dancing action.
- A line of dancers snakes back in front of the Manau poles.
- Underneath the Manau poles some dancers are taking a rest while some singers belt out the standard Manau song. A Burmese soldier stands in the foreground.
- Dancers making their way in front of the Manau poles. Soldiers dance in the background.
- An art-house picture of a Manau dance in full-flight.
- More dancers making their way.
- Banging the gongs that help keep the beat for the dancers.
- Singers on the stage in the middle of the Manau ground.
- After the dancing is finished for the day a young Kachin soldier poses in front of the Manau poles.
In my next post in this series on the Myitkyina Manau I plan to have more images and comments that highlight the crucial role of photography in the festivities.
You could fund further trips by selling photos to Lonely Planet.. Unfortunately my uni library only has reprints on Burma written by Jesuit missionaries from the 19C. Searching for just Manau on Google refers me to a rubbish French group who’ve adopted the name. *steps on soap box* perhaps someone should inform google that perhaps 500,000 people attended this. *steps off* Searching for Kachin and Manau only really reveals sites which assume you know, so forgive me for asking questions that are beneath you again; but as I understand it, the post designs are inspired by animist beliefs; have the Kachin groups upheld these beliefs in relation to animism or have the Manau posts (or even the traditional dress for the dances) become to be more symbols of the various political agendas? Did you find ordinary younger people at the Manau aware of it’s animist meanings?
It would be good if Rambo finishes peacefully after chasing the tatmadaw all the way to a Manau and then pans to a wide shot of people having a good time. Probably Rambo would have to attack the tatmadaw still, but at least ‘Burmese’ people would not be mostly remembered via cinemas for decapitations.
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Grasshopper,
I would definitely like to hear Nicholas’ response, but I can tell you that you will routinely find those aminist Manau post designs on Kachin Baptist churches all across the Kachin areas of the Shan State. You’ll also see them on Kachin houses and Kachin owned businesses in Rangoon and Mandalay.
These really are good pictures Nicholas and it is great that you took them and are presenting them here. Was there a contingent of Singhpo from India? I suppose it would be much more difficult for them to get there than the group from China.
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Thanks Grasshopper and Aiontay. These are, again, really good questions and I will do my best to answer them here. Thanks for sending them through.
1) Christianity, Animism and the Manau:
As you both know, the vast majority of Kachin are now Christians. Most are Baptists or Catholics but there are also congregations with other protestant affiliations. The Assemblies of God, Presbyterians and many others all have a presence in the Kachin State. The Baptists are, however, still the dominant denomination.
On this most recent visit to Myitkyina I only talked to one person who claimed to maintain animist beliefs, and who had not converted to Christianity. Of all the other people I talked to about religion he was the only one who stated his ongoing commitment to the animism of his forefathers. His children were, however, Christians. In his case I expect that the maintenance of the old beliefs has more to do with traditional land claims and rights (as an hereditary chief) than with any other cultural or political agenda.
The young Kachin of my acquaintance are all aware of the animist origins of Manau festivals. When discussing those origins they are far more likely to talk about “tradition” and “culture” than “religion”. Some even described the festivities as part of “our pagan history”. Any inconsistency between those traditions and today’s Christianity is apparently unproblematic. Senior Christian figures from across the Kachin State all patronised this most recent Manau. As Aiontay notes, Christianity now co-exists side-by-side with the Manau and its symbols.
The Manau (whatever its roots) has now become the primary way of packaging Kachin unity, culture and history for both internal and external consumption. Perhaps there are some who feel that it is a (non-Christian) relic that should be discarded. But I have not heard that view put, and certainly at the Manau itself even the most ardent Christians were seemingly supportive of the “tradition”.
The way that Christianity has been welded to the Manau is a topic that deserves much greater analysis. The Manau has strategic value. Of course, so does Christianity. These are huge issues for any study of the spiritual and material politics of northern Burma.
2) Singpho from India:
I did not hear of any contingents making the trip from India. The road between Myitkyina and the Indian border is still pretty basic – and so it is a much more difficult trip. Nonetheless, it would not surprise me if small groups from India had come across to Burma.
Of course, from Laiza (on the Sino-Burmese frontier) it is less than 3 hours to Myitkyina these days because the road has been so greatly improved. There were a large number of not only Chinese Jingpo at the Manau but also great numbers of Han Chinese. Many of these Han were at the Manau for, as much as anything, the opportunity to cultivate relationships. With many of the Kachin jade tycoons, important Burmese Army contacts, and leaders of various ceasefire groups hanging around, the Manau presented a great opportunity for Chinese businesspeople to make deals. Many came down from Laiza or up from Bhamo in convoys of four-wheel drive vehicles. From the Indian side there was no equivalent migration.
There will, however, be a Singpho Manau in mid-February 2008 in a border district of India’s Arunachal Pradesh. It will, I expect, draw a good crowd from the Kachin State. I’m not sure if anybody from Myitkyina will make the trip but it would seem likely that those from areas adjacent (like the Hukawng valley) would attend.
Thanks, again, for the great questions.
Best wishes to all.
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Back in 1992 I was with some Kachins, one of whom was an ex-KIA soldier, looking at some tombs around Pai, Thailand that the Kachins might be of duwas that had died while fighting as mercenaries for the Burmese during the wars between the Thais and Burmese. On this trip we met a Han Chinese man living in a Lisu village in the area who had also served in the KIA. I’ve heard of Shan, Chinese, and Gurhkas (descendents of British era soldiers) all serving in the KIA. While the majority of Han at the Manau were from China, I suspect there might have been some locals with ties to the Kachins.
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Thanks Aiontay,
I should have mentioned that too. There were Han from Myitkyina and Bhamo, aswell as those who had come from Longchuan, Ruili, Kunming, and many points further away.
I would love to know more about these tombs near Pai. Any more information would be much appreciated.
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There’s not much to tell. An ex-KIA soldier, who had settled in Thailand and worked as trekking guide, ran across them on one of his treks. They reminded him of the traditional burial mounds of the duwa in the Kachin State. He asked around, and found that only the Lawa had a tradition of burying in mounds but they built their mounds on the side of the mountain, or that was what he was told. There was a Kachin pastor living in Chiang Mai, a Rawang seminary student, and friend of mine and I that went with the guide to look at them. There were 3(?) low mounds on the top of a mountain. They had been looted for artifacts by the locals. One item that we did see that one of the locals hadn’t sold yet was a small polished stone axhead. My Kachin friend said that traditionally these were believed by the Kachins to be the tip of a thunder bolt, and were kept by the duwa, I suppose as a symbol of their descent from the sky nat. The Kachins thought they looked like traditional Kachin tombs, but I think it would be difficult to establish that with any certainty.
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