A large boat carry Buddha images during the pagoda festival tours across the Inle Lake on Oct 19, 2023. - AP
NYAUNGSHWE, Myanmar (AFP): Thousands of Buddhists took to boats on Myanmar's famed Inle Lake on Thursday (Oct 19) to celebrate the return of one of the nation's biggest festivals, but the devotees' joy was laced with the sorrow of war.
The seventeen-day Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival sees four sacred Buddha images placed on a golden barge and rowed through villages that dot the shores of the tourist hotspot in eastern Shan state.
