Lessons to learn from the Festival of Water Forces and Boat races
2 Oct 2020 - Source: Global New Light of Myanmar - Blessed by natural favours, Myanmar is a country with rich water, land and forests. To crown them are mineral sources of jewels, minerals and fossils and island aquatic bodies and a long coastline with mangrove fossils on it and archipelagoes. Many old saying epitomize the month of Tawthalin (September) the six month of Myanmar Lunar Calendar of 12 months.
တော်သလင်း၊ မြစ်တွင်း သင်ဖြူခင်း. In the month of Tawthalin the entire water surface in aquatic bodies is like a mat spread out.
Another popular saying is တော်သလင်းနေ၊ ပုဇွန်သေ {Prawns die in the heat of Sun}. Since rain has stopped smalls aquatic creature's prawns die in sunshine. Traditional festival annually held by Myanmar kings is Yey Khin Taw Display of water forces. Myanmar Army had two main branches — water and land. ရေအား၊ ကျည်းအားချီတော်မူသည် whether for fighting war or displaying or ceremonies Myanmar kings marched with water and land forces. There is one other type of water display. That is ရေကင်းတော်. Here Myanmar word ခင်း Khin and Kin ကင်း should be correctly understood. Khin means to display, Kin ကင်း means to patrol.
Everyday all time day and night water Patrol boats are on duty in the moat around the walled Palace City in which royal golden palace was seated. The moats are constantly pated to keep off enemy or any danger, using the moat to get into the palace city. These patrol boats have their own music band and song to break the monotony of long duty. So, new generation of Myanmar should take care of the meanings of Khin and Kin.
In this article dealing with Yey Khin Taw Display of Myanmar Water Forces and boat races for recruiting. Myanmar Hluttaw issued order with big budget to hold the annual event months ahead of Tawthalin. Minister of Water Forces with his offices did the job with honesty and faith. He carried out many test runs. He listened to the weather forecast and Vedic predicting royal Brahmin Priests of the court. Pyi Gyi Mon Royal Barge was rebuilt. On it was a replica of Weizayanta Palace Hall with the throne on which Their Majesties {The King and Chief Queen} sat and on either side of Ministers in state gowns.
Sitting on rich carpet chief Brahmin Priests had stand nearby. At the auspicious time announced by the beat of royal drum. The ceremony began. Forefront of the barge with Buddha Image leading the royal Palace Barge on which rowers row their oars togather in harmony. They were uniform dress. Red rather garments silvery white shirt and golden helmet sharing brightly in sunshine. There were 37 styles of rowing with 37 accompanying music and songs. The royal place Burge was pulled by tow long boats on either side.
Royal song composers song their nearly composed Yey Khin Taw songs such as Eh "An" or "Luthar" . Different burges, boats, etc. followed in accordance with their status and rank with Yen Khin Songs and music. After two to three rounds of up and down the river, the ceremony was ended. Their Majesties returned to their main palace. The public on the banks cheered. Long live their Majesties, Peace, Prosperity and Happiness for the entire kingdom.
The following days were boat races days. Different types of boats, even ships, war canons were held. Anyone could participate in boat races. Winners were rounded. The best selects were recruited into royal water forces/
တက်ညီလက်ညီ၊ ရှေ့သို့ချီ၊ ရောက်မည် ပန်းတိုင်ဆီ၊
With oars and rowers in harmony surely we reach our destination. Apart from the Ayeyarwaddy River on which most Myanmar Capital Citie was situated there are large aquatic bodies within the country such as Indaw Gyi, In-lay, Taungthaman In, Meithti La Lake, Indaw Lake etc., many aquatic bodies in other states and regions.
Myanmar ethnic nationalities are waterbrone, Regardless of their habitat on mountains, hills and lands. They all are prepared high for military session on land or water. ရေအားကျည်းအား ချီတော်မူသည်။
Royal march or entourage by water and by sea. It is the unity, harmony and courage that we always reach our destiny.
We'll sure reach our destining.
