File:Shans at home. With two chapters on Shan history and literature (1910) (14577587280).jpg

Identifier: shansathomewitht00miln (find matches)
Title: Shans at home. With two chapters on Shan history and literature
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Milne, Leslie, Mrs., 1860-1952 Cochrane, Wilbur Willis
Subjects: Shan (Asian people)
Publisher: London : John Murray
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library

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rbans have been placed on theground, so they must be readjusted when the cere-mony is over. When the girls place their turbans ontheir heads they say to each other in Shan language: Tell me if my turban is straight; it is quite new, andI wove so much gold thread into it that it is noteasily folded. Then there is a great arranging ofhead-dresses, and the girls look at each other criti-cally, and apparently pay no attention to the youngmen—also smartly dressed for the occasion in newclothes—who are looking at them. Before evening forty or more bamboos may beraised on the village green, each with its long strip ofcloth streaming in the wind. When the festival isover, any one who requires bamboos may take them,and children play with the long streamers. Theyhave served their purpose; the dead have beenremembered. It is considered no irreverence to takethe memorial posts down, make use of them, and letthe children play with the strips of cloth. * Nirvana, the final abode of the blessed.
Text Appearing After Image:
MEMORIAL BANNERS. 124) i DANCING AT FESTIVALS 125 In the Shan States women never dance, and menonly do so in connection with some religious ceremony.Each small village has at least one band, and men andwomen march with it from the surrounding districtsto attend any great festival in one of the larger villages.Hill people, such as the Palaungs, who may beBuddhists, also come to Shan religious gatherings,but the Kachins do not come down at these times fromtheir homes on the hill-tops. When women arrive at the village where a festival is being held, they go at once to the temple to pray; the men form a large circle in front of the monastery and all day long and far into the night they dance. They circle slowly round the musicians, each man following his neighbour. They always move from right to left, against the course of the sun ; they bend Itheir bodies backwards and forwards and from side to !side. They wave their arms and give curious steps, !hops, and kicks, in a slow^, and sometime

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