Myanmar: Palaung Hill Tribe of Shan state
Into the Palaung and Lisu Hill Tribes of Shan state in Myanmar through winding broken roads, villages perched on the top of hills, each village with a Pagoda and a monastery, a collection of Monks, novices, smiles that are impossibly wide, bamboo huts clinging to the side of a hill and the freshest food directly from the field.
Again luck brought me to a festival, each full moon the Buddhist villagers of Palaung tribe congregate in one village. The morning is spent in meditation and prayer, listening to the Monks preach followed by endless amounts of food, rice, vegetables in curries and pork avoided. The women in fantastic tribal colours, belts of wire, shaven heads with a towel wrapped around their heads, their dress comes undone with one tug on a cord at the back, so I'm told. The men in baggy pants, think old China, massively oversized held up by a belt. After lunch the dance starts, six oversized drums, likes congas that weigh a tonne, carried, cymbals, a gong are paraded in a wide, slow moving circle round a flagless flagpole. They lead the men who make up the outer circle, the older, the leaders make smooth movements, think Jet Li doing Tai Chi to music, it is the opening scene of "Once Upon a time in China" Following them the men get progressively more drunk and younger, til the boys at the end who shout out of time, their movement inebriated making a perfect juxtaposition to the women who make up the inner circle, a block, full of grace, harmony by comparison, delicate movements of the hands, in time, rising and falling, small movements of the feet. There are many things the same around the world, women been beautiful and men making dicks out of themselves is universal. It is the women who are the repositories and transmitters of culture, dress, food and language. The circles move slowly and make only a few rotations, it finishes, the men and women form into smaller groups, each group sings a song at the same time. The Monks, the married, the elderly and two tourists look on from the shade.
The Palaung make their money from tea, five hundred years ago the then King of Shan state demanded tribute, animist, tribal and living a subsistence life there was nothing they could offer. He gave them tea and taught them how to cultivate it, today it is their cash crop.
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