By Nava Thakuria
Thousands of Hindu families in Buddhist-majority Myanmar have organised the Sharadotsav – the traditional name of Durga Puja – to worship Mother Goddess Durga with limited resources. Unlike huge Durga Puja mandaps showcasing splendid clay idols of Goddess Durga in places such as Kolkata, Guwahati, Agartala or Dhaka, the Myanmarese people mostly celebrate the festival in permanent temples. So, they can avoid the Dasami Puja rituals including the immersion of idols symbolising the return of Durga with her four children (Lakshmi, Saraswati, Karthik and Ganesh) from the maternal home to Kailash (on Vijayadashami).
It is helping the organisers to avoid unnecessary troubles from the current batch of military dictators, who have been ruling the poverty-stricken country since 1 February 2021.
The Sanatani Hindu people in Rakhine/Arakan State in western Myanmar bordering Bangladesh celebrate the sacred festival for three days. Durga Puja festivity today begins in various Rakhine localities like Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Kyauk Taw, Ponna Kyunt, and Kyauk Phyu besides its capital city Sittwe, which will culminate on Maha Navami.
Worshipping Devi Durga, a goddess of Shakti (Power), remains a major religious event for the Hindu people in southeast Asian nation, but like eastern India, the organisers in Myanmar invite everyone irrespective of their ethnicities, class and religious beliefs to participate in the festival, as it symbolizes the victory over the demon king Mahishasura (so Durga Devi is also known as Mahishasura Mardini). The devotees there offer food and other items to the deity and serve the visiting guests with prasad and meals. They dress up in traditional attires in the evening hours and join in various rituals.
One can mention that the ongoing Bharat Mata Pujan 2023 in Guwahati, where the motherland is worshipped as a deity, also coincides with the Sharadiya Durgotsav. Organised to celebrate the legacy, culture and traditions of eastern India, the unique festival is graced by thousands of cultural personalities, art connoisseurs and patriotic nationals. The inaugural day witnessed the Akhand Bharat Parikrama, where thousands with earthen lamps in their hands walked around the Bharat Mata idol amidst a model of culturally undivided India comprising Myanmar too.
Photographs courtesy: Narinjara News based in the Rakhine province of western Myanmar
