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Irrawaddy River
MAY 2006
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It's a mystical world that—for many along the Irrawaddy River—is as real as the waterway itself. Burmese believers honor their numerous spirits through the music, dancing, eating, drinking, offerings, and possessions of a nat-pwe, or spirit festival.
At such celebratory gatherings, followers of the cult of the nats—Myanmar's ancient animist religion—join troupes of dancers, singers, and musicians who reenact the human stories of the spirits' turbulent lives and violent deaths. Dressed in an elaborate costume depicting a male or female spirit, a nat-kadaw, or a spirit's wife, is a key player in the festival. These part-psychic, part-shaman performers are sometimes male transvestites, who give themselves over to possession by spirits such as the notorious gambling, drinking, fornicating Ko Gyi Kyaw. By playing this role, they secure a position of prestige in a culture that would otherwise shun them.
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