Royal Barge Museum, Inle Lake

Annually, during the Burmese month of Thadingyut (from September to October), an 18-day pagoda festival is held, during which four of the Buddha images are placed on a replica of a royal barge designed as a hintha bird and taken throughout Inlay Lake. One image always remains at the temple. The elaborately decorated barge is towed by several boats of leg-rowers rowing in unison, and other accompanying boats, making an impressive procession on the water. The barge is towed from village to village along the shores of the lake in clockwise fashion, and the four images reside at the main monastery in each village for the night.

The high point of the festival is on the day when the images arrive at the main town of Nyaung Shwe, where most pilgrims from the surrounding region come to pay their respects and veneration. In the past, the Saopha of Yawnghwe would personally welcome the images. The images would be taken from the barge and a grand procession would take them to the palace or haw of the Saopha, entering the prayer hall from the eastern entrance, and where it would reside for a few hours. The public was allowed inside the prayer hall of the haw to pay their respects. Then the images would be taken to the main temple in Nyaung Shwe. Since the mid-1960s, the images have bypassed the visit to the haw and taken directly to the temple. It is now usually welcomed to Nyaung Shwe by some high-ranking official in the government.

Sometime in the 1960s during a particularly windy day, when the waves were high on the lake, the barge carrying the images capsized, and the images tumbled into the lake. It was said that they could not recover one image, but that when they went back to the monastery, the missing image was miraculously sitting in its place.

Royal Barge Museum seen from Hpaung Daw U Pagoda.
On the left side of the photo we can see the bridge that passes over the canal that separates the museum from the pagoda.

Hpaung Daw U Pagoda, which is situated on Inle Lake, is known for a major pagoda festival during which four of the Buddha images from the pagoda are placed on a royal barge designed as a hintha bird and taken throughout Inle Lake.

Front view of the Karaweik barge.
The word karaweik comes from Pali karavika, which is a mythical bird with a melodious cry.

The royal barge was an important ceremonial possession of the Burmese monarchy, and was used for ceremonial and state affairs, such as a procession around the royal palace moat following a monarch's coronation.

Rear view of the Karaweik barge.

Figurehead of the barge.
The karaweik is commonly used as a motif in traditional Burmese royal barges.

By the Konbaung dynasty, several types of royal state barges existed, each distinguished by a specific mythical figurehead at the front of the barge, and each allocated to different members of the royal court.

Two mythical lions protect the entrance to the boat's central pavilion.
Chinthe is the Burmese word for 'lion'. The leograph of Chinthe is a highly stylized lion commonly depicted in Burmese iconography and architecture, especially as a pair of guardians flanking the entrances of Buddhist pagodas and kyaung (or Buddhist monasteries).

The leograph of Chinthe appears as an element of Burmese iconography on many revered objects, including the palin (Burmese royal throne) and Burmese bells.
See more at Chinthe - Wikipedia.