Kachin Manaw Festival, Myanmar

Myanmar’s Kachin community celebrates its traditional new year around January. The Manaw festival takes place in Myitkyina and Putao in Kachin State, and features the Kharku, Thaisan, Lacheik, Rawang, Thaikhamt and Lisu tribes of Kachin. The week-long feast takes place around the towering, multicoloured Manaw poles, painted red, white and black using traditional patterns. Feasts of buffalo meat and rice wine alternate with music and line dances performed by young Kachin in traditional finery. (Myanmar Tourism Ministry)