Ponnagyun , Myanmar - In predawn darkness in western Myanmar thousands of devotees scramble to the top of a mountain said to be home to a spirit guarding 500 mythical ducks to mark the Tazaungdaing festival of light.
The full-moon that marks the end of the rainy season is celebrated across Buddhist-majority Myanmar in explosions of colour, with fireworks, lanterns and hot air balloons. Celebrations have been muted this year, with much of the country in uprising against the February coup and escalating violence between junta troops and dissidents.
But western Rakhine state has remained largely calm as a ceasefire between local insurgents and the military holds, allowing thousands of intrepid souls to climb “500-duck mountain” for the first time in years. Devotees start under the stars, lighting their way with their phones, gripping the trunks or roots of trees as they scramble up the hillside, friends pulling each other up at difficult stretches.
“Although it is tiring, I am happy because there are a lot of people here,” Tun Shwe Tha, who started his ascent at midnight, tells AFP.
“And it helps me eat well,” he says, laughing. The 66-year-old says it took him more than three hours to reach the top of the mountain -- guarded, locals claim, by a female “nat” or local spirit which watches over the area’s ducks.
The spirits have rules for those who visit their realm -- climbers should not eat duck the day before or after they visit the mountain, and are forbidden from swearing while making the arduous ascent. “I was told at home that this mountain is very sensitive in terms of spirituality because the guardian Nat is very sensitive,” says Wai Yan Aung. “I was told to be very careful of speaking and to not insult.”