Photos show festival on Myanmar's Inle Lake after the end of monsoon

INLE LAKE, Myanmar (AP) — A few days after the monsoon rains subside, Inle Lake, nestled among picturesque mountains, becomes the setting for one of Myanmar’s most important Buddhist festivals as sacred golden images glide across the water.

The 18-day Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda Festival is an annual celebration on the country’s second-largest freshwater lake in the southern part of Shan state, about 420 kilometers (260 miles) northeast of Yangon. During the festival, four revered Buddha images are carried aboard an ornate golden barge to 21 villages around the lake for people to pay homage to them.

Adorned with a golden figure of the mythical Karaweik bird at its bow, the barge is pulled by scores of wooden boats crewed by members of the Intha ethnic minority, who practice a unique style of rowing while standing with one leg wrapped around a single oar.

Since the festival began on Oct. 12, hundreds of worshippers have gathered along the procession route to venerate the sacred images and enjoy traditional dance performances as well as boat races.

The festival has faced repeated disruptions in recent years. The coronavirus pandemic curtailed the celebration in 2020, and political instability following the 2021 military takeover led to another interruption. The festival resumed in 2023, while flooding and the effects of a devastating earthquake complicated life around the lake last year.

Myanmar's religious festival season typically begins after the monsoon ends, around October and November.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Ethnic Inthas celebrate during a traditional boat race to mark the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Boys watch performances of ethnic Intha troupe during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Barges carrying Buddha statues move on Inle Lake during Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Soldiers provide security during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

An ethnic Intha troupe performs during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Barges carry Buddha statues float on Inle Lake during Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in southern Shan State, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

A vendor sells flowers during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

People pray during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

People watch a traditional boat race to mark Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Ethnic Inthas celebrate during a traditional boat racing competition to mark Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

A girl poses for photos during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

People participate in the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

An ethnic Intha troupe performs during Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Buddhist monks pray in front of Buddha statues during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

A barge carry Buddha statues float on Inle Lake during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in southern Shan State, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

People participate in the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Barges carrying Buddha statues float on the Inle Lake during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival in southern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Ethnic Inthas row a boat during the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda festival on Inle Lake, southern Shan State, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After Ashley Hinson dropped off her boys at school earlier this month, she saw the initials “DJT” flash on her phone.

“'Ashley, it's your favorite president,'” Iowa's Republican nominee for U.S. Senate recently recounted to an audience of her supporters. “That's how he introduced himself.”

She had expressed a more forceful message about communicating with President Donald Trump on the debate stage with her Democratic opponent, Josh Turek, as she tried to win over undecided voters.

“I’ll be President Trump’s ally when it is important for Iowa, but I will push back on him,” promised Hinson, who currently serves in the U.S. House. “He knows this.”

Although many Republicans are walking a political tightrope in this year's midterm elections, Hinson's balancing act is more challenging than most. Iowans have been hamstrung by manufacturing job losses, healthcare clinic closures and shrunken farm profits since Trump returned to the White House, but Hinson also is relying on the president's loyalists to show up for her.

On Thursday, Hinson took the stage before Trump came on at a rally in Sioux City, which is in Iowa's conservative northwest corner. The visit to safe territory is geared toward boosting turnout even as it ties her more tightly to an unpopular president.

To hundreds of Trump's supporters, Hinson played up her relationship with the president.

“I’m not sure, frankly, that he’s always happy when we’re talking because I ask him for a lot of things for Iowa when we’re on the phone,” she said. “And that’s exactly what you would expect me to do, right? As your next United States senator.”

Trump later joked that Hinson is “such a pain” for those asks. Trump also spent time casting Turek as a “woke, far-left radical” and called on Iowans to reject him. He said if Democrats win in the midterms, that would be the “start of something very bad, very dark, very horrible for our country.”

“I'm asking you to do me a very big favor," Trump said. “I'm asking you to pretend that I'm running.”

Trump is expected to visit the other side of the state on Nov. 1.

Turek, a state lawmaker, was in Sioux City for a campaign event Tuesday and told reporters he was happy for Trump to visit to see how his tariffs and the Iran war have “hurt Iowa more than any other state.” Although Turek says he's willing to work with Trump on issues like immigration, he calls Hinson a rubber stamp for the president's bad policies.

When Hinson kicked off her campaign last year, she touted Trump’s endorsement and said she was running to be Trump’s “top ally” in the Senate. Almost a year later, Hinson instead says she wants to be “Iowa’s best bipartisan fighter."

The message has crystallized since the summer, with more examples of Hinson vocalizing positions at odds with the president. Recent polling from late September and early October suggests it could work as she carves out about 1 in 10 voters who disapprove of the president even as she continues to secure overwhelming support from those who approve of Trump.

In August, she said Trump’s plan to increase beef imports from foreign countries in an attempt to lower prices was "a bad idea” that would hurt Iowa farmers.

Last month, two of Hinson's Iowa colleagues in the House broke with the White House and voted against Trump's ability to continue the war with Iran without congressional approval.

Hinson didn’t, but she said later the war has gotten too costly for Americans and called for Trump to bring the conflict to a “successful and immediate end.”

More recently, Hinson criticized Trump’s decision to ease sanctions on Russia in exchange for diesel fuel. She said Tuesday that the U.S. needs to make sure “dictators aren’t allowed to win wars.”

“I think the president and I share the goal of lowering costs for working families and for people who are using diesel,” she told reporters after a campaign event. “I, again, just don’t think we need to be making any deals with Russia.”

Hinson said she hadn’t talked with the president about the issue.

“Maybe I’ll have a chance to come have a conversation with him at the rally," she added.

Hinson isn't the only one pitching bipartisanship. So is Turek. In fact, he's the only Iowa candidate seeking federal office who explicitly mentions Trump in general election television advertisements, according to an Associated Press analysis of AdImpact data.

In one, Turek is behind the wheel speaking directly to a camera about Interstate 35, which “connects Iowa to the southern border and the broken immigration system that both parties have failed to fix." He says: “In the U.S. Senate, I’ll work with anyone to fix it, including President Trump, to secure the border, stop the flow of drugs into Iowa.”

Turek has pushed back on the president’s policies, including tariffs and the war in Iran, as the catalysts of high costs that are hurting Iowans, but his message on working with the president on immigration and other select issues stands out from other Democrats. Republicans say he's just pretending to be a moderate to get elected.

Mazie Stilwell, executive director of the progressive organization Progress Iowa, said Turek's message on immigration targets a bloc of voters on an issue that's particularly important to them but doesn't overshadow his otherwise disciplined focus on the high costs facing Iowans.

Trump’s visit to the state Thursday, she added, is “a terrific reminder of the disaster that he has been and his administration has been for our bottom line, for everyday Iowans who are trying to make ends meet.”

Iowa is no stranger to competitive Senate races even though Trump won the state by double digits in the last presidential election.

Ad spending on broadcast and cable television has already surpassed $200 million this cycle, AdImpact shows. But in today’s dollars, the total ad spending in the 2020 Senate race was even higher.

Republicans have spent slightly more for Hinson than Democrats for Turek. That was the opposite in 2020, when Democrats spent nearly $30 million more than the GOP did in their unsuccessful effort to unseat Sen. Joni Ernst.

Iowa Republican activist Kelley Koch has been concerned that complacency will dampen turnout from conservatives, even those who are loyal to the president.

"They say, ‘Why are you all hyped up about the midterms, Kelley, Trump will take care of everything,'” Koch said.

It’s an assumption she’s working to counteract, and she expects “the Trump effect” from his visits will help protect Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

And while Koch supports Hinson, she doesn’t like it when she talks about pushing back on Trump.

“Right now,” Koch said, “we had better unite around our president.”

Associated Press reporter Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed.

President Donald Trump greets Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, at a campaign rally at Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn gestures as President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

People listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., left, Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn, right, and Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, second from right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, speaks to supporters, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Ankeny, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)