Festivals

February
Tea Tasting Ceremony, Mae Aw

The village of Mae Aw, also known as Ban Rak Thai, is 40km / 1hr drive from Mae Hong Son. Tea cultivation (Oolong) is the main industry in this quiet valley on the border with Burma and visitors can sample the freshest teas along with traditional Yunnanese cuisine. The Mae Aw tea tasting ceremony takes place in February – houses are decorated and traditional dancing entertains the visitors.

March
Poi Sang Long Procession 

An especially colourful ceremony marking young novice ordination into the monkhood. The festival marks the day the Buddha’s son, Prince Rahula, followed in his father’s footsteps by renouncing all material possessions and joined the monkhood. The Shan people hold this to be a highly meritorious occasion. Heads cleanly shaven and wrapped in a Burmese style head-cloth the boys who are selected to take part wear immaculately colourful costumes resembling heavenly princes, complete with valuable jewels and gems. They take part in a parade to the local monastery (wat), carried on the shoulders of male family members. On the ordination eve, a procession of offerings is carried through the town streets before being placed at the wat where the ordination will take place the following day. The festival usually takes place across the province between March and May and takes place over 3-4 days.

April 13th – 15th
Songkran

October
Chong Phara Festival – Wat Doi Kong Mu

Chong Phara in the Shan dialect means ‘citadel, tower or castle’, and in this celebration these colourful multi-tiered paper structures resembling Buddhist stupas, are beautifully decorated with fruit, flags and lights and taken on a procession through the streets in a dazzling merit-making ceremony. The chong is then placed in the courtyard of a house or a monastery as a welcome the Buddha, who, according to traditional belief, returned from heaven where he had been teaching his mother. Other activities to celebrate the occasion include dances where performers are dressed in mythical animal costumes. The festival is held at the end of the rainy season on the first waning day of the 11th lunar month, and for a few days thereafter.

November
– Bua Tong Blossom Festival

Each year in November, the hillsides of Khun Yuam and Mae Sariang districts are filled with a host of golden Bua Tong Blooms. As gay as a daisy and almost as large as a sunflower, the Bua Tong only blossoms for a month.

– Loi Krathong