Myanmar's Elephant Dancing Festival

Myanmar's Elephant Dancing Festival

- Judyth Gregory-Smith

Myanmar folk travel to hundreds of festivals every year – but the only elephant festival is at Kyaukse, one hour’s drive from Mandalay. The festival has been held on the day before the full moon of Thadingyut (October) every year since the time of King Anawrahta in the 11th century. We park the car and follow a mobile band dressed all in white with green headscarves. We try to keep behind them as they make a thin channel in the otherwise stream of jostling people who are making their way to the elephant dancing ground. Everyone looks their best. The women are wearing brilliantly coloured longyis, some are striped, others spotted and some are twinkling with sequins. Food stalls line both sides of the lane selling sweetcorn, peanuts, fruit, cakes, biscuits and all kinds of fizzy and energizing drinks.

We enter the elephant dance floor through a gate guarded by elephants (stone ones). We manage to find places in the tiers of seats under a plastic roof, which will help to shade us or keep us dry if it rains. October is the end of the rainy season – but you never know.

The elephant festival is a dance competition between groups in town and the surrounding villages. But these elephants are not the ivory-tusked variety. They have been made in workshops in Kyaukse for over 100 years. They are constructed of huge bamboo frames covered with