Shan New Year Songs Part III: Khat Jai Hai Mai Soong
by Naw Liang (with help from PiJo)

Mai soong kha everyone.
Here we are again - another Shan New Year is looming, and I thought it time to bulk up the All about Shan Studies song library with Khat Jai Nai Mai Soong. I must thank the SCA_UK and its members for passing the song lyrics on to me recently; they truly are an amazingly active and devouted group.

But, before we warm up our vocal chords and start practicing, a short seguay of a different kind.

While doing my usual evening research into all things Shan, I came across an interesting, albeit one year old, article published on the Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting (see About the Centre here) about Shan rebels celebrating Shan New Year inside Burma/Myanmar. Although it delves into politics a bit too much for my liking (and for the purpose of this website), Jacob Baynham's (see the Asia-based author's web blog here) description of Shan New Year celebrations in Shan State are poignant.

Here is an excerpt from the article 'Burmese rebels celebrate Shan New Year', which was published on 27 December 2007:

"...The Shan army headquarters at Loi Tai Leng is the last place in Burma where the Shan New Year can be fully and openly celebrated, with the traditional songs, dances and displays of Shan martial arts. And so it is the biggest event of the year — a two-day affair steeped in rice whiskey, loud music and defiant displays of military strength.

Soldiers — recently paid their monthly salary of 200 baht ($6) for the first time in five months — splurge on alcohol and noodles in food stalls, and the air fills with the sour smoke of their cheroots. Outside, vendors sell khao tum nga, purple sticky rice pounded in a hollowed-out tree stump with roasted sesame seeds, a Shan New Year specialty.

Before a crowd of thousands, men and women perform dances in costumes of mythical Shan animals — a giant ram, a deer and two different birds — which first danced for the newly enlightened Buddha, according to legend. Young men with long knives perform the twirling Shan martial art, called Lai Tai. Boys and girls shuffle their feet in a choreographed blossoming of a cherry tree, set to the clash of cymbals and the beat of a 7-foot-long Shan drum..."

To read more, please visit the link in the title above. Additionally, a video taken during Shan New Year celebrations at Loi Tai Leng in 2102 can be seen here.

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For now, let's return to our new year songs, this time the modern classic Khat Jai Nai Mai Soong. Enjoy...

Once again, yin lii nam nam for visiting.

Naw Liang