INLE LAKE, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar’s Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda Festival, a major Buddhist celebration and world-class tourist attraction, has seen some of its celebratory spirit diminished, with locals and visitors citing a confluence of challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, political upheaval and natural disasters — including a recent devastating earthquake.
Crowds nonetheless flocked this week to enjoy the festivity, with a spectacular gold-gilded barge at its center and scores of smaller wooden boats manned by fishermen from the Intha ethnic minority who practice a unique style of rowing while standing with one leg wrapped around a single oar. The ornate barge, with a golden image of the mythical Karaweik bird on its bow, hauls four statues of Buddha to 21 villages around the lake for people to pay homage to them.
Click to Gallery
Barges carrying Buddha statues float during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Ethnic Intha people perform during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
An Ethnic Intha troupe performs during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
A huge barge carrying Buddha statues floats during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Ethnic Intha people perform during Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
The picturesque festival takes place over more than two weeks on mountain-fringed Inle Lake in southern Shan state, a popular tourist hub about 420 kilometers (260 miles) northeast of Yangon.
The coronavirus pandemic curbed the celebration in 2020 and the army’s ouster of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 — resulting in civil war over much of the country — led to the event being suspended again, to resume only in 2023. Widespread flooding last year again caused its cancellation.
The celebration resumed this year, but it was overshadowed by a 7.7 magnitude quake on March 28 that killed more than 3,800 people and caused widespread destruction.
While central Myanmar bore the brunt of the quake, Inle Lake was also significantly affected. Many houses built on wooden stilts in the water collapsed, leaving up to 90 percent damaged or destroyed in some villages around the lake. Local estimates, none official, put the death toll at between 50 and 90. According to a report by the consultancy E Guard Environmental Services, more than 13,000 people in the area were impacted.
Many or most of the houses have been rebuilt or repaired in the traditional style, but not to the highest standards, Nyi Nyi Zaw, a 42-year-old ethnic Intha from Heyarywarma village, told The Associated Press.
He said the scarcity of local craftsmen skilled in traditional construction techniques, coupled with the urgency of repairs, was the problem.
“Not all the houses are standing straight, if you look carefully. To get them back to their original state, they will have to be repaired when the lake dries up in the summer,” said Nyi Nyi Zaw, whose own house was among those damaged.
“The tourism industry in Inle collapsed after the pandemic, then came the political change in 2021, and there was the flood last year," noted Nyi Nyi Zaw, a former tour guide who turned to general labor after the pandemic. “It was like miseries overlapping one upon another.”
Ma Win, a traditional textile seller from Inle Lake, said locals continue to hold the festival despite poor business because it is a long-standing tradition passed down through generations.
“It’s been years since the Buddha statues came to our village. So we are participating as much as we can,” said Ma Win as she welcomed the golden barge.
Barges carrying Buddha statues float during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Ethnic Intha people perform during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
An Ethnic Intha troupe performs during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
A huge barge carrying Buddha statues floats during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Ethnic Intha people perform during Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran closed its airspace to commercial flights for hours without explanation early Thursday as tensions remained high with the United States over Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.
The closure ran for over four hours, according to pilot guidance issued by Iran, which lies on a key East-West flight route. International carriers diverted north and south around Iran, but after one extension, the closure appeared to have expired and several domestic flights were in the air just after 7 a.m.
Around midday, Iranian state television carried a statement from the country's Civil Aviation Authority saying that the nation's “skies are hosting incoming and outgoing flights, and airports are providing services to passengers.” It did not acknowledge the closure.
Iran previously shut its airspace during the 12-day war against Israel in June and when it exchanged fire with Israel during the Israel-Hamas war. However, there were no signs of current hostilities though the closure immediately rippled through global aviation.
“Several airlines have already reduced or suspended services, and most carriers are avoiding Iranian airspace,” said the website SafeAirspace, which provides information on conflict areas and air travel. “The situation may signal further security or military activity, including the risk of missile launches or heightened air defense, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic.”
Iran in the past has misidentified a commercial aircraft as a hostile target. In 2020, Iranian air defense shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 with two surface-to-air missiles, killing all 176 people on board. Iran for days adamantly dismissed allegations of downing the plane as Western propaganda before finally acknowledging it.
The airspace closure came as some personnel at a key U.S. military base in Qatar were advised to evacuate. The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait also ordered its personnel to “temporary halt” going to the multiple military bases in the small Gulf Arab country.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Iran at the request of the United States on Thursday afternoon.
U.S. President Donald Trump made a series of vague statements Wednesday that left unclear what American action, if any, would take place against Iran.
In comments to reporters, Trump said he had been told that plans for executions in Iran have stopped, without providing many details. The shift comes a day after Trump told protesters in Iran that “help is on the way” and that his administration would “act accordingly” to respond to the Islamic Republic’s deadly crackdown.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also sought to tone down the rhetoric, urging the U.S. to find a solution through negotiation.
Asked by Fox News what he would say to Trump, Araghchi said: “My message is: Between war and diplomacy, diplomacy is a better way, although we don’t have any positive experience from the United States. But still diplomacy is much better than war.”
The change in tone by the U.S. and Iran came hours after the chief of the Iranian judiciary said the government must act quickly to punish the thousands who have been detained.
Activists warned that hangings of detainees could come soon. The security forces’ crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,615, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A man looks at books which are placed for sale on a sidewalk in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People walk on a sidewalk in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A man walks on a sidewalk in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Women cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Demonstrators burn a poster depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of anti-government protests in Iran, in Holon, Israel Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A woman mourns next to the flag-draped coffins of a group of security forces, who were killed during anti-government protests, during their funeral ceremony, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A man hands out posters of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a funeral ceremony for a group of security forces, who were killed during anti-government protests, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People take part in a rally in support of anti-government protests in Iran, Berlin Germany, Wednesday, June 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Policemen protect the British Embassy during a protest by hardline supporters of the Iranian government, as people ride on their motorbike in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
