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COVER
STORY
JudythGregory-Smith
gets away to the village of PakhanNgae and
immerses herself in the
KoGyi KyawNat Festival.
A Sojourn To Myanmar
K
o Gyi KyawNat Festival
, or
Nat Pwe
, is held all over Myanmar,
but the most important is at a village in Pakhan Ngae about an hour’s
drive fromPakokku inMagwe Division.
Nat
festivals are spirit festivals
and in Pakhan Ngae the primary
nat
hall is situated across the river.
This year’s
Nat Pwe
started on Feb 20 and lasted 13 days until March.
Enlightened
In the 11
th
Century, King Anawrahta of Pagan converted to Buddhism, but in a most
enlightened way, did not forbid his subjects fromworshipping their animistic spirits or
nats
. There is a
nat
for each job or profession, a
nat
for each village and even a house
nat
. And
nats
must be appeased to stop them doing harm. There are
nat
altars around
every Buddhist pagoda, outside people’s houses and beneath many banyan trees.
Ko Gyi Kyaw is very particular about what he likes to eat, drink and do at his an-
nual
pwe
and the people know this. They must present him with coconuts, bananas,
Ko Gyi Kyaw
If your business has done
well, then you are going
to pay respects and give
thanks. If you have done
badly, then you go to pay
respects and ask for Ko
Gyi Kyaw’s help