Description
This festival is a preparation for the ordination of young Shan men into Buddhist monkhood. For three days before their ordination, they are dressed up in lavish clothes, jewelry and makeup, and paraded around the streets of the city on the shoulders of friends and relatives. An important procession takes place on the second day of the festival, when the boys are again carried on shoulders and shielded from the sun by golden parasols. On the third day, the boys symbolically strip off their luxurious clothes and put on the saffron robe of monkhood.