Myanmar bids to put traditional thanakha face powder on UN heritage list to boost cultural profile

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Supporters and opponents of Myanmar’s military government are engaged in a bloody civil war, but a celebration Wednesday feted something almost all find worthy: the use of thanakha, a yellowish-white paste made from ground tree bark as a traditional natural cosmetic.

Thanakha-painted cheeks are ubiquitous in Myanmar, where women and children apply the paste on their cheeks, nose, forehead, neck, forearms and shins after their morning showers, during the day and before bed. It’s not unusual for men to apply it on their faces. Now the tradition will be considered by the U.N.’s cultural agency.

Myanmar is applying to add thanakha to UNESCO's world Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The use of thanakha is believed to date back over 1,000 years. Murals showing is use can be seen in 11th century temples in the old capital Bagan, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Thanakha comes from the bark of several tropical sandalwood tree species that grow in central Myanmar’s dry zones, which are currently the stronghold of armed resistance to the army.

Foes of military rule are also devoted users of the paste, and in early demonstrations against the military’s 2021 seizure of power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, used it to paint protest symbols on their faces.

Members of 36 social organizations, ranging in age from 5 to 80, came together on Wednesday in a park in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, to showcase thanakha as a symbol of Myanmar society by competing in traditional songs and dances. Outside the performance area, about a dozen stalls sold bunches of chopped thanakha wood and cosmetics made from thanakha.

Sandar Khin, chairperson of the Myanmar Cultural Heritage Trust, which organized the competition, said it was being held to highlight the culture of thanakha and help bring it to world attention.

Thanakha was initially proposed for inclusion on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in March 2020, but the application was rejected for being incomplete. The military government’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture is working to submit a new nomination by the end of March.

If recognition is achieved, thanakha will become Myanmar's second intangible cultural heritage to be recognized by UNESCO, after its traditional water festival of Thingyan was added last December.

Myanmar has already specified the full-moon day of Tabodwe, the 11th month in Myanmar’s traditional calendar, as “Myanma Thanakha Day."

Artist with traditional attire put Thanakha, traditional make-up, on her face as they take part in performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Artist with traditional attire put Thanakha, traditional make-up, on her face as she takes part in performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Artists with traditional attire put Thanakha, traditional make-up, on their faces as they take part in performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Artist with traditional attire put Thanakha, traditional make-up, on her face as she takes part in performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

A woman puts Thanakha, traditional make-up, on her face weighs fishes to customers at a local bazaar Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

A girl puts Thanakha, traditional make-up, on her faces watches performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Artists with traditional attire put Thanakha, traditional make-up, on their faces as they take part in performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Artists with traditional attire put Thanakha, traditional make-up, on their faces as they take part in performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

People watch performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

A girl helps to put Thanakha, traditional make-up, on face as during performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Artist with traditional attire put Thanakha, traditional make-up, on her face as she takes part in performance competition show aiming to submit the traditional culture of Thanakha to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Wednesday, Feb.12, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal officers dropped tear gas and sprayed eye irritant at activists Tuesday during another day of confrontations in Minneapolis, while students miles away walked out of a suburban school to protest the Trump administration's bold immigration sweeps.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an immigration agent reached the local U.S. Attorney's Office: At least five prosecutors have resigned amid controversy over how the U.S. Justice Department is handling the investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

Separately, a Justice Department official said Wednesday there's no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation. An FBI probe of Renee Good's death is ongoing.

Strife between federal agents and the public continues to boil, six days since Good was shot in the head while driving off in her Honda Pilot. At one scene, gas clouds filled a Minneapolis street near where she died. A man scrubbed his eyes with snow and screamed for help after agents in a Jeep sprayed an orange irritant and drove off.

It’s common for people to boo, taunt and blow orange whistles when they spot heavily armed immigration agents passing through in unmarked vehicles or walking the streets, all part of a grassroots effort to warn the neighborhood and remind the government that they’re watching.

“Who doesn't have a whistle?” a man with a bag of them yelled.

Brita Anderson, who lives nearby and came to support neighborhood friends, said she was “incensed” to see agents in tactical gear and gas masks, and wondered about their purpose.

“It felt like the only reason they’d come here is to harass people,” Anderson said.

In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, students protesting the immigration enforcement operation walked out of school, as students in other communities have done this week.

The departures in the U.S. Attorney's Office include First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who had been leading the sprawling prosecution of public fraud schemes in the state, according to people who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge.

The lawsuit says Homeland Security is violating the First Amendment and other constitutional protections by focusing on a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.

“What we are seeing is thousands — plural — thousands of federal agents coming into our city. And, yeah, they’re having a tremendous impact on day-to-day life,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.

A judge set a status conference for Wednesday.

Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, responding to the lawsuit, accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.

In a different lawsuit, a judge said she would rule by Thursday or Friday on a request to restrict the use of force, such as chemical irritants, on people who are observing and recording agents' activities. Government attorneys argued that officers must protect themselves.

The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, saying he acted in self-defense. But that explanation has been widely panned by Frey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.

State and local authorities are urging the public to share video and any other evidence as they seek to separately investigate Good's death after federal authorities insisted they would approach it alone and not share information.

In Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez is proposing that the state ban civil immigration enforcement around courthouses, hospitals, health clinics, schools, churches and other places. She is hoping to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow Democrat, who is not running for a third term.

“We can take a look at that, but I think banning things absolutely will ramp up the actions of our folks in Washington, D.C.,” Evers said, referring to the Trump administration. “They don’t tend to approach those things appropriately.”

Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.

Monica Travis shares an embrace while visiting a makeshift memorial for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A protester is detained by Federal agents near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A protester grabs a tear gas grenade deployed by federal immigration officers near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A protester is sprayed with pepper spray by a Federal agent Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Tear gas is deployed amid protesters near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)

EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - Tear gas is deployed amid protesters near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A protester is detained by Federal agents near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)(AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A protester grabs a tear gas grenade deployed by federal immigration officers near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Fireworks are set off by protesters outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Federal immigration officers detain a demonstrator outside Bishop Whipple Federal Building after tear gas was deployed Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Federal immigration officers are seen outside Bishop Whipple Federal Building after tear gas was deployed Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Federal agents drive through smoke from tear gas dispersed during a protest, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Minneapolis (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A protester's face is doused in water after he was pepper sprayed outside of the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - A man gestures as he walks toward a cloud of tear gas that was deployed by federal immigration officers Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Protesters try to avoid tear gas dispersed by federal agents, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Minneapolis (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal agents get ready to disperse tear gas into a crowd at a protest, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Minneapolis (AP Photo/Adam Gray)