Pagoda festivals ( my, ဘုရားပွဲ; ''paya pwe'') are regular festivals found throughout
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
(Myanmar) that commemorate major religious events in
pagoda
A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...
's history, including the founding of a
pagoda
A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...
and the crowning of the pagoda's
hti (umbrella).
Pagoda festivals are dictated by the
Burmese religious calendar and often are held several days at a time. Major events in a pagoda festival typically do not coincide with
Uposatha
The Uposatha ( sa, Upavasatha) is a Buddhist day of observance, in existence from the Buddha's time (600 BCE), and still being kept today by Buddhist practitioners. The Buddha taught that the Uposatha day is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind ...
(Buddhist Sabbath) days, during which pious Buddhists observe the
Eight Precepts.
[ The majority of pagoda festivals are held during the dry season, from the months of ]Tazaungmon
Tazaungmon ( my, တန်ဆောင်မုန်း; also spelt Tazaungmone) is the eighth month of the traditional Burmese calendar.
Festivals and observances
* Kahtein (Thadingyut - Tazaungmon)
*Full moon of Tazaungmon
** Tazaungdaing Fest ...
(November) to Tabaung (March). During the full moon day of Tabaung (Magha Puja Magha (māgha, माघ or maghā, मघा) may refer to:
* Magha (month) (māgha, माघ), a month in the Hindu calendar
* Magh (Bengali calendar), the same month in the Bengali calendar
* Magha (poet) (māgha, माघ), an 8th-century San ...
), Buddhist devotees in various parts of Myanmar also celebrate sand pagoda festivals.
More well-known pagoda festivals often attract numerous pilgrims from throughout the country.
Pagoda festivals are similar in nature to agricultural show
An agricultural show is a public event exhibiting the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show (a judged event or display in which breeding stock is exhibit ...
s (country fairs) or carnivals, and form a significant important part of cultural life, particularly in the countryside. During pagoda festivals, temporary bazaars (including food stalls and merchandise stands), entertainment venues (including anyeint
Anyeint (; ; my, အငြိမ့်; also spelt a-nyeint) is a traditional Burmese entertainment form that combines dance with instrumental music, song, and comedy routines, in theatrical performances.Seekins, Donald M. (2006) "Anyeint (Any ...
dramas, yoke the performances, lethwei matches, and arcades) are set up in the vicinity of the pagoda.[
]
Major pagoda festivals
*Shwe Settaw Pagoda Festival (Minbu Township, Magwe Region) - Tabodwe
Tabodwe ( my, တပို့တွဲ) is the eleventh month of the traditional Burmese calendar.
Festivals and observances
*Full moon of Tabodwe
**Harvest Festival ()
**Mon National Day
Rakhine tug of war festival, Yatha Hswe Pwe.
*Pagoda fes ...
to Tabaung
*Ananda Temple
The Ananda Temple ( my, အာနန္ဒာ ဘုရား, ), located in Bagan, Myanmar is a Buddhist temple built in 1105 AD during the reign (1084–1112/13) of King Kyansittha of the Pagan Dynasty. The temple layout is in a cruciform with ...
Festival ( Bagan, Mandalay Region
Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region t ...
) - Pyatho
Pyatho ( my, ပြာသို) is the tenth month of the traditional Burmese calendar.
Festivals and observances
* Karen New Year (first day of Pyatho)
*Royal equestrian festivals ()
*Pagoda festivals
** Ananda Pagoda Festival, Bagan
Pyatho sy ...
*Shwezigon Pagoda
The Shwezigon Pagoda or Shwezigon Paya ( my-Mymr, ရွှေစည်းခုံဘုရား ) is a Buddhist stupa located in Nyaung-U, Myanmar. A prototype of Burmese stupas, it consists of a circular gold leaf-gilded stupa surrounded b ...
Festival ( Bagan, Mandalay Region
Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region t ...
) -
*Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda
Kyaiktiyo Pagoda ( my, ကျိုက်ထီးရိုးဘုရား or ; mnw, ကျာ်သိယဵု ; also known as Golden Rock) is a well-known Buddhist pilgrimage site in Mon State, Myanmar. It is a small pagoda () built on th ...
Festival (Kyaikhto, Mon State) - Nadaw
*Shwedagon Pagoda
The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...
Festival (Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
, Yangon Region
Yangon Region(, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in the heart of Lower Myanmar, the division is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, ...
) - Tabaung
*Alaungdaw Kathapa Pagoda Festival (Sagaing Region
Sagaing Region ( my, စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and lon ...
) - Tabodwe
Tabodwe ( my, တပို့တွဲ) is the eleventh month of the traditional Burmese calendar.
Festivals and observances
*Full moon of Tabodwe
**Harvest Festival ()
**Mon National Day
Rakhine tug of war festival, Yatha Hswe Pwe.
*Pagoda fes ...
*Shwe Sayan Pagoda Festival (Thaton
Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 km ...
, Mon State) -
*Shwesayan Pagoda Festival ( Patheingyi Township, Mandalay Region
Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region t ...
) - Tabaung
*Myathalun Pagoda Festival ( Magwe Region) - Thadingyut
Thadingyut ( my, သီတင်းကျွတ်) is the seventh month of the traditional Burmese calendar.
Myanmar term "thadin" (သီတင်း) means the Buddhist Lent (Vassa), which spans the three preceding lunar months and is the tradi ...
* Shite-thaung Temple Festival (Mrauk U
Mrauk U ( ) is a town in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. It is the capital of Mrauk-U Township, a subregion of the Mrauk-U District.
Mrauk U is of great cultural importance to the local Rakhine (Arakanese) people, and is the location of many ...
, Rakhine State
Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region to the east, the Bay of Ben ...
) -
*Hpaung Daw U Pagoda
Phaung Daw U Pagoda ( my, ဖောင်တော်ဦးဘုရား, IPA: ; ), also spelt Phaung Daw Oo or Hpaung Daw Oo, is a notable Buddhist Burmese pagoda, pagoda in Myanmar (formerly Burma), located in the village of Ywama on Inle ...
Festival (Shan State
Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos ( ...
) - Thadingyut
Thadingyut ( my, သီတင်းကျွတ်) is the seventh month of the traditional Burmese calendar.
Myanmar term "thadin" (သီတင်း) means the Buddhist Lent (Vassa), which spans the three preceding lunar months and is the tradi ...
*Kyaikkhauk Pagoda
Kyaukkhauk Pagoda ( my, ကျိုက်ခေါက်စေတီတော်) is a Buddhist pagoda located in Thanlyin Township, in southern Yangon Region, Myanmar. It is a popular tourist destination and also pilgrimage site for Buddhists. It ...
Festival (Thanlyin Township
Thanlyin (; or ; mnw, သေၚ်, ; formerly Syriam) is a major port city of Myanmar, located across Bago River from the city of Yangon. Thanlyin Township comprises 17 quarters and 28 village tracts. It is home to the largest port in the co ...
, Yangon Region
Yangon Region(, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in the heart of Lower Myanmar, the division is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, ...
) - Tabodwe
Tabodwe ( my, တပို့တွဲ) is the eleventh month of the traditional Burmese calendar.
Festivals and observances
*Full moon of Tabodwe
**Harvest Festival ()
**Mon National Day
Rakhine tug of war festival, Yatha Hswe Pwe.
*Pagoda fes ...
* Shwesandaw Pagoda Festival ( Twante Township, Yangon Region
Yangon Region(, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in the heart of Lower Myanmar, the division is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, ...
) - Tagu
*Botahtaung Pagoda
The Botataung Kyaik De Att Pagoda ( my, ဗိုလ်တထောင်ကျိုက်ဒေးအပ်ဆံတော်ရှင်စေတီတော် ; also spelled Botahtaung; literally "1000 military officers") is a famous pagoda ...
Festival (Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
) - Nadaw
* Mawtinzun Pagoda Festival ( Ngapudaw Township, Ayeyarwady Region) - Tabaung
*Shwemawdaw Pagoda
The Shwemawdaw Pagoda ( my, ရွှေမောဓော ဘုရား ; mnw, ကျာ်မုဟ်တ ) is a stupa located in Bago, Myanmar. It is often referred to as the Golden God Temple. At in height, the Shwemadaw holds the record ...
Festival (Bago
Bago may refer to:
Places Myanmar
* Bago, Myanmar, a city and the capital of the Bago Region
* Bago District, a district of the Bago Region
* Bago Region an administrative region
* Bago River, a river
* Bago Yoma or Pegu Range, a mountain rang ...
) - Tagu
See also
*Buddhism in Burma
Buddhism ( my, ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), specifically Theravāda Buddhism ( my, ထေရဝါဒဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), is the State religion of Myanmar since 1961, and practiced by nearly 90% of the population. It is the most rel ...
*Burmese calendar
The Burmese calendar ( my, မြန်မာသက္ကရာဇ်, , or , ; Burmese Era (BE) or Myanmar Era (ME)) is a lunisolar calendar in which the months are based on lunar months and years are based on sidereal years. The calendar is ...
*Burmese pagoda
Burmese pagodas are stupas that typically house Buddhist relics, including relics associated with Buddha. Pagodas feature prominently in Myanmar's landscape, earning the country the moniker "land of pagodas." According to 2016 statistics compil ...
* Sand pagoda
*Thadingyut Festival
The Thadingyut Festival ( my, သီတင်းကျွတ်ပွဲတော်), also known as the Lighting Festival of Myanmar, is held on the full moon day of the Burmese lunar month of Thadingyut. As a custom, it is held at the end of t ...
* Vessantara Festival
References
Buddhist festivals
Festivals in Myanmar
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