My husband and I arrived in Taunggyi on November 5, 1995, settled in at our hotel, and in the evening walked to a vast athletic field, to join thousands of cheering Burmese who were watching the festivities. Very soon we spied a balloon coming into view, brought in on a truck. Immediately dozens of people unfolded it, getting it ready for its ascent into the sky. When the balloon was inflated by hot air, it was 22 feet in height, more than 7 meters, nearly as tall as a three-story building. In the background we heard the voice of the director of the balloon festival. He acted as the master of ceremonies, continuously informing the spectators as to what was going on. The festival is actually a competition for the balloon makers. Volunteers, ordinary people from various sections of the city, work together to produce the balloons which are judged on creativity, performance, workmanship, and a whole list of other criteria. At the end of the festival, prizes are awarded to the winners. We watched the balloon starting to take shape. Flaming torches at the base provided the hot air for inflation. Dozens of hands guided the balloon for takeoff. With remarkable teamwork they handled the burning torches, maintaining ___________ Editor's Note: The author refers to the country described in this article as Myanmar, the English name preferred by the country's military rulers since 1989. The United Nations recognizes the name Myanmar, although the U.S. government continues to refer to this country as Burma. Festival of the Fire Balloons elaine koretsky An ornate gate marks the entrance to a Buddhist pagoda overlooking the area where fire balloons are launched. Daytime hot-air balloons made of handmade paper are formed in the shape of animals, varying in size from 10 to 30 feet. All photos courtesy of the author. 12 - hand papermaking enough fire to produce sufficient hot air and yet not allowing the paper balloon to catch on fire. Next, they inserted an iron crosspiece, the fire element, into the circle of bamboo at the base of the balloon. On the ground, close to the balloon, a huge construction of fireworks and rockets sat ready. Just before launch, the group attached the fireworks to the base of the balloon, fired up the iron piece, and released their balloon. It immediately soared straight up into the sky while the rockets exploded, lighting up the night sky with a dazzling display of pyrotechnics. Meanwhile another group had started up. Now we understood the ritualistic procedure for the balloon launching. As the group brought their balloon to the field, some of their members played musical instruments, while others carried a shrine and colorful banners. The group offered prayers to Buddha first, and then unpacked their balloon. We saw the workers lighting hundreds of candles that will be used to decorate the balloon. As the balloon began to inflate, the volunteers started attaching the flickering candles on the outside of the balloon. It looked like an impossible task. The monstrous balloon was swaying in the wind, gradually inflating and rising. The workers scrambled to attach the candles that were placed in little cups with hooks that fit into small flaps on the balloon. Meanwhile the booming voice of the festival director exhorted the crew to work faster to launch their balloon because other groups were waiting. The people hurried to attach all the candles, some climbing on the shoulders of others to reach the proper spaces. Suddenly the balloon was finished and took off, amid the cheers of the crowd. These balloons were incredible. Our next mission was to find out how they were made. Our guide Daw Moe Moe promised to take us to a balloon workshop the next morning. At the appointed time we walked from our hotel to a small monastery nearby. The monastery serves also as a community center, one of several throughout the city. The local group there, about fifty or sixty people, was engaged in making the balloons. The group's leader, Ko Kyin Thein, led us through the workshop. We recognized, from the previous night's festivities, the iron crosspiece used to provide the fire for the balloon. It was covered with fabric that had been specially prepared. Strips of old monks' robes were boiled for hours in a mixture of paraffin and kerosene; then they were wrapped around the iron piece. In another part of the room we saw a huge balloon in the shape of a giant tortoise that was scheduled to go up that afternoon. Ko Kyin Thein explained that the daytime balloons are created in the shapes of animals, fish, or birds. There was no supporting structure inside the tortoise balloon. It was simply made from sheets of paper glued together with rice paste. The rules of the balloon competition state that the balloons sent up at night must be made of handmade paper. But the daytime balloons can be either handmade paper or commercial paper. The immense tortoise was made entirely of handmade paper, over 500 large sheets that Ko Kyin Thein bought from a local papermaker in Shan State. Volunteers spend four to eight weeks before the competition to make the balloons. One worker showed us how he carefully glued the sheets together. The seams were made very precisely, the paper edges overlapping in a certain way. All around the room we saw scraps of paper and animal-shaped balloons in progress. High on a counter we noticed a row of gleaming golden Buddhas reminding us that we were indeed inside a monastery. Even the fireworks and rockets for the balloons were made by hand, also using handmade paper. We saw dishes containing The launch of a daytime hot-air balloon, made entirely from handmade paper. Volunteers at the monastery workshop are making a daytime hot-air balloon in the shape of a tortoise. above and below: The fireworks/rocket assembly in-progress. The wicks are gunpowder wrapped in handmade paper. carbon, sulphur, and aluminum, the ingredients for gunpowder. In the courtyard outside the monastery, we witnessed how they put together the rocket assembly. They fabricated the wicks for the rockets by twisting strips of handmade paper filled with the gunpowder. The wicks will burn at the rate of one foot (or 30 centimeters) per minute, setting off the rockets at various intervals. To see how balloon paper is made, Daw Moe Moe took us to the papermaking house of Ma Htoo in Pindaya, a two-hour drive from Taunggyi. Ma Htoo explained her papermaking processes. The paper in Shan State is made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree, Broussonetia papyrifera. In the Shan language it is called saa. (In China, paper mulberry is called gou; in Japan, it is kozo.) Ma Htoo told us that she buys the stripped saa fiber from woodcutters in the forest. She soaks the fiber overnight, and cooks it for several hours in water with wood ash obtained from a local restaurant. Ma Htoo demonstrated how she rinses the fiber, and then pounds a handful at a time, using two wooden mallets. Each handful makes one sheet of paper. The papermaking mould consists of a wood frame on which cloth is stretched tightly. Ma Htoo rubbed the cloth of each mould with a little oil. This step facilitates removal of the paper from the mould after the paper dries. Ma Htoo filled with water the long concrete trough outside her house. Her husband, Soe Myint, had brought up the water in pails from the lake across from the house, and poured it into a deep concrete pit at one end of the trough. He fills the pit with fresh water every week. To demonstrate the sheet formation process, Ma Htoo placed six moulds in the trough, submerging them so that the moulds had a reservoir of water in each of them. Next, she threw a ball of beaten pulp onto each mould. She bent down, and quickly dispersed the ball of pulp in the water of the submerged mould, using deft motions of her hands. After each of the six moulds had been filled and the paper pulp evenly dispersed, she pulled a plug out of the end of the trough, draining out all the water back into the pit. Over the years, we had observed and documented many papermakers in Shan State, but this was the first place where we saw this type of production papermaking. Everywhere else, sheets were formed one at a time in a single, raised vat. After the water drained out, Ma Htoo picked up the moulds and moved them to a sunny spot to dry. When the sheets were completely dry, she simply peeled each sheet from its mould. The paper is finished, ready to be sold in the market for paper umbrellas, books, lanterns, and paper fire balloons. Back in Taunggyi, we watched the animal balloons go off into the sky, high above the athletic field, and enjoyed the excitement of the people. Two pigs floated above us. We saw an elephant being fired up, which successfully soared upward, amid the roars of the crowd. Suddenly we spied a giant bird, with another right behind. The spectators went wild. A duck came next, and another bird. Then we saw a huge animal in trouble. The people were valiantly trying to launch it, but it was no use. They started beating out the flames, but the fire flared up again. The crowd began moving away from the flames, and finally a fire engine pulled up to finish it off. The parade of these remarkable balloons continued. A striped fish was launched next, then a dinosaur. At last, our friend's tortoise came into view. We had been wondering when we would see it. Now we prayed it would fly. It was a fantastic sight as it slowly rose into the sky, while the crowd cheered madly. The next day we witnessed another part of this religious summer 2006 - 13 The elephant is approximately 20 feet in length. A float in the shape of a bird made entirely of paper currency, folded and arranged to look like feathers. The money is temporarily attached to a bamboo framework and disassembled after the procession. The tortoise is being inflated by hot air and just beginning to rise above the crowds. 14 - hand papermaking festival of Ta Zaung Daing. Once a year, the Burmese, most of whom are devout Buddhists, make a special donation to the monasteries. Groups of people from all over the area make elaborate floats, which are paraded through the main streets of Taunggyi. All the people in the city contribute and all come out to watch. Everyone is either part of the parade or part of the audience. The donations are goods for the monks and money for the upkeep of the monasteries. The incredible floats were made of pots and pans, calendars, clocks, prayer books, umbrellas, robes, towels, soap, bowls, all artfully arranged in elaborate displays. We marveled at an owl, made mostly from brooms; a shrine, made entirely from folded paper currency; a peacock constructed from money folded into feather forms; and an entire tree and a big bird made of currency. The procession of floats ended at the largest monastery in the city. Inside, dozens of volunteers dismantled the arrangements, sorting out all the piles of goods to be donated. After everything was tallied, they apportioned the goods and money to each of the many monasteries in the city. In the evening we returned to the field for another night of fireballoon watching. It was hard to stay away. We saw an extraordinary balloon promoting the theme of unity in Burma. Four ethnic groups were pictured in candles on the outside of the balloon. This balloon required a tremendous number of candles to form the designs. Another rocket balloon traveled up into the heavens. Maybe these were the fireworks we had seen at the workshop. We enquired of the festival director how high the balloons fly, but neither he nor others knew the answer. This festival was a spectacular experience. As papermakers, we were enthralled to see handmade paper used to make hot-air fire balloons. And we were overwhelmed by the music, the dancing, the fervor, and the energy of all the people here, young and old, who were exuberantly celebrating this important Buddhist holy day. In many parts of Asia, people no longer adhere to the old ways of practicing their religion, and so the ancient customs have disappeared, occasionally revived for the benefit of tourists. Here in Taunggyi we enjoyed a truly Burmese celebration, for the people and by the people, honoring Buddha in these extraordinary ways that we were privileged to witness on the Full Moon Day of November. A documentary video vividly describing the fire balloons of Myanmar is available in DVD form. For more information, contact the Research Institute of Paper at http://www.papermakinghistory.org. Ed. handmade saa paper used to make fire balloons produced by Ma Htoo in Pindaya, Shan State, Myanmar. Original sheet size: 35 x 35 inches. above and opposite: A nighttime fire balloon, promoting unity among Burmese people, is being inflated and decorated with candles. It is made of handmade saa paper, approximately 40 feet high, with fireworks attached underneath.