5 Days - “Buddha Festival” visit the Intha at Lake Inle   

5 Golden Buddhas and 1000 Intha – The Pagoda Festival Phaung Daw Oo at Lake Inle  

Once every year, usually in October according to the moon calendar, the Intha´s normally easy-going everyday life in the villages on Lake Inle takes a turbulent turn. In a common effort the villagers clean the waterways from the plague, the exuberantly growing water hyacinths, repair the floating gardens, decorate the floating Buddha temples and pagodas, weave sacramental clothes and make many, many cheroots (cigars). It is the advent of the Phaung Daw Oo festivities, the festival of the “5 golden Buddha”. They cruise the lake for blessing the villages and the people on ceremonial barges.
 

1st Day: YANGON – HEHO – LAKE INLE

Flight to Heho (about 1 hour). Another 1 hour´s drive through the Shan people's fertile land to the once duchy of Nyaung Shwe at Lake Inle. Pass white Shan pagodas and Buddha monasteries made of teakwood. Accommodation: 4 nights 

2nd Day: PHAUNG DAW OO FESTIVAL

An entire day spent on the boat to witness the festivities. A gilded and lusciously decorated state barge adorned with the mythical Karaweik bird carries 4 of the 5 golden Buddha's of the Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda under white panoplies to the surrounding villages in and around Lake Inle to bless the Intha and grant them protection for another year. The rowers, adorned in the white costumes of the former slaves, accompany the barge. Paddling competitions, dances and singing coin the day.   

3rd Day: LAKE INLE

Old rites might continue into this day … We continue by boat to In Dein, an enchanting wide expanse featuring small white Shan pagodas.

4th Day: TAUNGGYI – KATKU

Full day excursion to the market of Taungyyi where you meet the Pao dressed in black and sporting turquoise turbans – a reference to their mythological dragon of origin. On to the 2000 (!) small Shan pagodas of Katku – Buddhism's fairy land.

5th Day: LAKE INLE – HEHO – YANGON / MANDALAY

Transfer to small Heho airport and flight to Yangon (approx. 1 hour) or on to Mandalay (1/2 hour).

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In Myanmar monsoon rain can last till October.
Please ask us for exact dates of the festival.
Our program will be designed according to the ongoing events of the festival.

For more information such as availability and price, please send to Sunbird for further assistances.