EPISODE 11:

DANCING SPIRIT, HAPPY SPIRIT

SAGAING, MYANMAR

All throughout Myanmar are practitioners of an ancient animistic religion that predates the arrival of Buddhism in the 11th century. They worship the souls of people whose deaths were so violent that they were unable to pass on into the next life. These spirits are called “Nat” and they are forever trapped amongst living. The Nat are bound to objects in nature like trees and rocks, and wherever they reside they are honored with special palaces that hold festivals called “Nat Pwe.” 

Villagers who live in the territories of Nat know all too well that it is the duty of the living to appease them because if they don’t, these lonely spirits grow spiteful and curse the locals with injury, illness, and even death. In Mingun village, two Nat known as the Shui Kun Pin siblings occupy a large teak tree off the shore of the Irrawaddy river. Every year, villagers hold a Nat Pwe where spirit mediums channel the siblings’ spirits through traditional song and dance. When embodied, the Nat indulge themselves through the bodies of their hosts with alcohol, cigarettes, and betel nuts. People adore these mediums, because they keep a balance between the realm of spirits and the realm of the living. 

The Nat Pwe is a space of catharsis, and there is poetry in the medium’s relationship to spirits of struggle. In recent years, the position of mediumship has become more commonly held by gay men and trans women - people who are deeply marginalized in Burmese society. Being mediums, they are given spiritual purpose and a sense of power, turning the Nat Pwe into a communal safe haven removed of their typical prejudices. The Nat Pwe shows a type of transformation in ancient tradition, that pragmatism can be discovered within ritual.