Prompted by discussion here on New Mandala, Oxford University’s Dr Mandy Sadan has very generously provided an extract from her 2005 School of Oriental and African Studies doctoral thesis that will be of interest to many readers.
The background to this extract is:
The manau festival as it is commonly presented today in the Burmese state is a one-day, secular, community dance performed around a set of painted wooden posts in a dancing circle. This kind of one-day festival, most commonly represented by the government-sponsored festival held each year on Kachin State Day in January, has become the pre-eminent symbol of the Kachin peoples of Burma and the manau posts, or manau shadung, have become their emblem. However, in December 2001 a large, eight-day long, locally initiated, non-state sponsored event, challenged this conventional contemporary representation, but the underlying notion that it is a secular community festival principally performed around a set of decorated posts still holds true.
The full extract (which runs to 37 pages) is available here. Readers are, as always, very welcome to post their comments and questions. Previous New Mandala discussion of Manau festivals is also available online.
4 responses so far ↓
1 aiontay // Sep 14, 2007 at 9:13 am
Thanks for posting this. It was very interesting and informative.
While I know it is not the author’s intention, I do think confusion might arise from her description of the Lisu and the manau. Some might interpret her chapter to imply that the Lisu were not incorperated into the Kachins until the 1960s. Wbile the Lisu relations with the Kachins are quite complex, particularly with the Rawang (Rawang/Lisu interactions and the split between the Rawang and KIO back in the 1960s would be very interesting dissertation), it does go back before the manau of 1960. I understand that one of the first Kachins killed in the 1915 rebellion was a Lisu from Myitkyina.
2 jonfernquest // Sep 14, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Fantastic. Thanks.
3 Mandy Sadan // Sep 15, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Aiontay - many thanks for your comment and I agree that the chapter in isolation does read in the way that you have interpreted it. Elsewhere in the thesis I hopefully deal with the issue you’ve raised in a clearer way. Thanks very much for your comment ; it’s so helpful to get feedback. I’m really interested to hear more about your work on the Lisu - if you (or anyone else) want to get in touch, my email (easy to track down on the web anyway) is mandy.sadan@prm.ox.ac.uk . All the best.
4 Kyi May Kaung // Oct 21, 2007 at 7:03 am
Every interesting.
Would like to see an abstract — i.e. a bit more detailed than this one — of symbolism of the manau posts and
designs.
And the differences, other than the obvious, between state sponsored and community generated and traditional.
Thanks,
Kyi May Kaung
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