Taunggyi Balloon Festival
One of Myanmar’s most intriguing, and colourful, festivals takes place each autumn in Taunggyi, the capital of mountainous Shan State. Often overlooked by visitors making their way to Inle Lake, Taungyyi is a modest market town but it comes alive in the eighth month of the Burmese calendar when thousands of people gather to celebrate Tazaungdaing Festival, a national holiday that marks the end of the rainy season, by launching elaborately decorated, and sometimes enormous, paper balloons into the sky.
At night-time these huge balloons brim with fireworks and carve a slow but steady path towards the heavens before releasing their payload in a dazzling, and noisy, display. Sometimes the balloons explode prematurely, in spectacular fashion, causing onlookers below to run for cover from the ensuing fallout! Prizes are awarded for the most imaginative design or a launch that reaches the greatest height.
A visit to the Taunggyi Balloon Festival can easily be combined with time at Inle Lake and 2018’s festival takes place between 16-22 November so if you would like to attend the festivities this year, or next, please let us know.
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