14/04/2025
The world's first water festival - Myanmar 🇲🇲
- Burmese water festival in the past -
Water festival spreaded from Myanmar to ancient Burmese controlled areas such as part of Bangladesh - Northeast India - Yunnan (China) - Langchan (Laos) and Lanna (Thailand) 🇧🇩🇮🇳🇨🇳🇱🇦🇹🇭
But the difference is that they don't celebrate Water festival in a big way like Burmese people.
Maybe it's because their place is cold.
Since almost the 21st century, Thingyan festival has become popular in Siam (Central Thailand) and Cambodia 🇹🇭🇰🇭
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Thingyan has been celebrated since the Tagaung period(1-10 AD) of Myanmar and became famous during the Bagan period (12 AD).
This is not a Buddhist festival.
The reason is that it cannot be found in Buddhist countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.
The Thingyan Festival is a water festival based on the Burmese calendar. (Kaw Zar Thakarit : ကောဇာသက္ကရာဇ်)
Not the Hindu, Buddhist, etc calendar.
Myanmar - Thailand - Cambodia - Laos
is using same “The Burmese Calendar” to
caculate the time of New Year.
Arakan, Lan Na, Xishuangbanna, Lan Xang, Siam, and Cambodia used the Burmese calendar until the late 19th century.
The calendar fell out of use throughout the region in the second half of the 19th century with the advent of European colonialism.
The only remaining independent state Siam too dropped the calendar on 1 April 1889 per King Chulalongkorn (Rama V)'s decree 🇹🇭
It was replaced by Rattanakosin Era.
Today, the calendar is used purely for cultural and religious festivals in Myanmar.
Thailand has moved on to its own version of Buddhist calendar since 1941 although the Chula Sakarat era dates remain the most commonly used and preferred form of entry by the academia for Thai history studies.
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The name Thingyan is from the Sanskrit language. (Just name) ❗
But Burmese people changed from S to Th.
This is because Burmese protect the influence of other languages on their own language and value their mother language.
Today, Burmese do not call the driver as “Yin Maung Thu” in Burmese, we call him Driver.
The name Thingyan is like that.
Only the name Thingyan is of Sanskrit origin.
The reason is because of language influence.
Eg - Instead of the Burmese word Adaw, the English word Auntie.
Instead of the Burmese word Dat Pone Yite Sak, the English word camera.
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Myanmar is the oldest country which celebrate
new year celebration as water festival and
it become the world largest water shower
nowadays.
India Hindus have no water festival 🇮🇳
The water festival is an authentic Burmese culture.
due to the current situation in Myanmar, tourism is declining and Songkran is popular with foreigners instead of Thingyan.
Dear UNESCO , please respect the origin.
The Burmese New Year Water Festival “Water Festival” is Originally from Myanmar/ Burma.
As the Origin, we let you know we won’t accept any upcoming decision of the proposal about Water Festival.
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