The story
Mount Popa Nat Festival in Mount Popa
The Mount Popa Nat Festival is a pilgrimage observance at Mount Popa, an extinct volcanic peak in central Myanmar's dry lowlands regarded as the country's most important nat pilgrimage site. Major observances occur around the Burmese months of March, May and November, honoring two brothers who, according to tradition, were reincarnated as nats. Pilgrims gather for processions, traditional music, dance and offerings of liquor, invoking the thirty-seven officially recognized guardian spirits.
Rising abruptly from the flat, dry farmland of central Myanmar, Mount Popa is an extinct volcano whose dramatic silhouette has made it a landmark visible for miles around.