The_Karen_People_of_Burma92.jpg
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Summary
Description The Karen People of Burma92.jpg |
Shy Karens of Lower Burma
At harvest-time both men and women among the Karens of Lower Burma spend their days in the hilly fields, starting out from the village early in the morning and returning at night with loads of paddy or cotton in long baskets on their backs. To the Karens the great banian-trees, the caves and waterfalls, deep pools in the rivers and even the skies are filled with mysterious demons. Two great battles are waged annually in the upper air between the spirits of the dry and rainy seasons, one party driving the other into the crevices of the great mountain rocks every six months. Many are the attentions which the Karens shower upon the evil spirits to win their good-will. Bamboo "ladders" are set up for the demon inhabitants of trees, and the paths about a hill village are strewn with rolls of cotton, trays of colored rice-balls, live chicks, bits of egg-shell and other tempting offerings to induce the demons to forget their evil designs upon the villagers. When they gather to feast in honor of the "bgha" or family spirits, the young women of the hill-tribes wear the effective seed-trimmed smock in which they work in the fields. But on the plains, where Christianity is winning many converts, the Karen girls are adopting black velvet jackets in place of the seed-trimmed smock, the minor native airs are being forsaken for the music of the West and houses are built on the solid ground, as are those of the neighboring Burmese. Only in the solitudes of the hills, far away from external influences, do the ancient Karen customs still prevail. |
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Date |
before 1923
date QS:P,+1923-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1326,+1923-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
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Source | The Karen People of Burma, as digitised by the Internet Archive 's text collection . | |||
Author | Harry Ignatius Marshall | |||
Permission
( Reusing this file ) |
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