Dance at Burmese New Year (Thingyan) Los Angeles, 2009

Burmese New Year, or Thingyan in the Burmese language. This was celebrated in Whittier, CA, near Los Angeles. Burmese New Year is April 13, and there is much water throwing and general fun for a week around that date. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka have the same new year, with similiar celebrations. One uniqueily Burmese belief about the day is that the king of spirits (or "Nats), Thangya Min, comes to earth to take stock of people's good and bad deeds. The Burmese have a very beautiful and deeply enigmatic culture, but, sadly, they have a horrendously brutal government. I had the pleasure of visiting the country for a week in 2003. I wish I could have spent longer. I lived in Lampang, Thailand (near Chaing Mai), for 3 years. That part of the country is also known as "Lanna," it's name when it was an independent kingdom. It was occupied by Burma for 225 years and absorbed a lot of Burmese culture. The region has a noticable Burmese influence though few Burmese people live there.

You can see some photos from Burmese New Year at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10186213@N07/sets/72157617022686185/

And some photos from Burma at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10186213@N07/collections/

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Burma
• Burmese
• Myanmar
• culture
• Asia
• Asian
• Asian culture
• New Year
• Burmese new year
• dance
• music
• Song
• LA Thingyan