Hindus gather for chariot festival in Maungdaw

By Admin 24 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
24 June 2023, Maungdaw

A traditional Hindu chariot festival known as Ratha Yatra is taking place over nine days in Arakan State’s Maungdaw, starting June 20 and ending on Wednesday.

Ratha Yatra is considered the oldest and largest Hindu chariot festival, and is celebrated annually in June or July according to the lunar calendar.  

During the festival in Maungdaw, a statue of the deity Jagannath is drawn by a multitude of devotees in a massive, wooden chariot from a Hindu temple in Maungdaw’s No. 3 Ward to another temple in Shwe Sar Village.

“The chariot festival and Kyaukpanu pagoda festival are the most popular festivals in Maungdaw,” said the Hindu priest Buja. “This is the festival of Jagannath, who is the avatar of Krishna.”

The festival attracted fewer visitors this year compared with past celebrations, with organisers attributing the dip in attendance to Cyclone Mocha and its difficult aftermath. Still, more than 3,000 Hindu followers are reportedly attending the festival this year.

“This is a holy festival for Hindu followers, so I have come with my family to this annual event,” said U Kawbila of Kyeinchaung Village in Maungdaw Township.

This year’s is the 21st edition of the festival in Maungdaw. It is also celebrated in Yangon, Mandalay and other towns in Myanmar where sizable Hindu communities reside.

The festival is most famously celebrated in Puri, a city in the Indian state of Odisha.