In Pictures: Myanmar lake festival resumes after three years

The festival is being celebrated despite armed conflict across much of the Southeast Asian nation.

One of the most colourful festivals in the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, involving scores of rowed boats and a spectacular gold-gilded barge, is being celebrated this month after a three-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic and violent political instability.

Myanmar Pagoda Festival — Inle is famous for its fishermen, who practice a unique style of rowing while standing with one leg wrapped around a single oar(Thein Zaw/AP)

APTOPIX Myanmar Pagoda Festival — Inntha ethnic people row on a long boat in a procession carrying Buddha images to a monastery during the pagoda festival in Inlay Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, on Thursday (Thein Zaw/AP)

The fishermen row their boats to pull the Karaweik barge, an ornate vessel with a golden image of a mythical bird at its bow that carries four statues of Buddha to tour 21 villages around the lake so that people can pay homage to them.

Local people sit in their boat to watch proceedings (Thein Zaw/AP)

Hundreds of local residents on Thursday observed the activities from small craft on the lake, and more from onshore.

The festival is being celebrated despite armed conflict across much of Myanmar, as the army seeks to quash resistance to its takeover in February 2021 that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.