Taungbyone Festival

[2] The festival takes place every year honouring the spirits of two brothers of Taungbyone belonging to the Burmese pantheon of '37' nats.

Taungbyone village is located about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Mandalay, the last royal capital of the Burmese monarchy.

[5] During the festival, all free space of the village are occupied with the temporary infrastructure,[6] or massive temporary bazaar comprising stalls of every kind that sell food, fruit, flowers, toys, clothing, tools, craft, trinkets as well as restaurants, sideshow, theatres for Burmese traditional drama and/or anyeint.

As it draws many thousands, security and emergency services like the police, the Red Cross, and the firefighters are put on standby because fights occasionally occur.

[a][8] A brief account of the two Taungbyone brothers, who served in the army of King Anawrahta and their death, is given in Glass Palace Chronicle, which is the translated work covering only several portions of Hmannan Yazawin.

The younger brother, nevertheless, escaped and could flee to Bagan, where he served King Anawrahta, who later appointed him as his 'flower officer' for his superhuman strength.

He rode his steed daily to get to Mount Popa over 30 miles south of Bagan,[12] gather and offer flowers to the king when returned.

When they grew up, they served the king in his mission to make an effort to bring the eyetooth of the Buddha, residing in Gandhala (Gandhalarit), China.

The king ordered all his men to contribute their personal service towards the construction, at the very least, each for a work of bringing and laying a brick in the pagoda.

[9][13] Three commemorative events are held in honour of the spirits of the Taungbyon brothers annually : their departure for the war in December, their return in March and their disappearance in August, of which the last is of importance and draws tens of thousands of people, including a number of spirit mediums or natkadaws (နတ်ကတော်), to participate in it as hereditary obligations or propitiation or for jolly sake.

[17] Then came the fourth day of the festival to celebrate 'the ritual shower', a ceremony of washing the idols of Taungbyon brothers.

This procession is led by the nat chieftain, the dignitaries, gong players to play music, and lines of guards dressed up as the army of the king Anawrahta.

On reaching the pavilion where the ritual will take place, the palanquin is left at the entrance and the palace guardians shower the two statues on the altar, then changes the clothes.

Afterwards, on their return to the palace, the paying-respect of the two brothers' idols to the Buddha is carried out by rocking the palanquin back and forth in the direction of the pagoda, called U Taik (ဦးတိုက်), for a certain time.

Then the old fellow[g] offered them roasted hares and toddy palm juice so the brothers, in return, invited him to pay a visit to their place, so goes the folklore.

Following this stage, the group stop in a shed, where the young man mentioned above swings the hares back and forth seven times in the direction of the brothers' idols, then the hares are given to the pavilion dignitaries, who come down the steps of the palace, go into the shed, where they do the same ritual as the young man has done, and up the steps and finally enter the palace.

According to Skidmore, the roasted hares are prepared as a salad and eaten by the dignitaries to represent an acquisition of subversive aspects and similar supernatural powers of the two brothers.

[20][21] 'Felling trees' represents that the two brothers of Taungbyone and the local people disapprove of the other tree-guardian nat who caused the death of king Anawrahta according to legend.

[24][22] It is the full moon day when two hundred Buddhist monks are invited to offer a meal, on which the income got from the paddy fields owned by the two brothers is spent.

The next morning, the first waning day of Wagaung, the last ritual of gilding gold foils to the two statues of the brothers is held.

More importantly, as it is held beyond the regional level due to the large crowd of people coming from different parts of the country for their reasons,[4] it needs great organization, which falls within two domains: the two pagodas and the nat palace.