Burmese Folk Religion

Burmese folk religion consists of the animistic and polytheistic religious worship of nats, local and Hindu dieties, and of ancestors. Although belief in nats differs among Burmese regions and villages, there exists a core of beliefs that are universally recognized.  A nat is a god-like spirit. There are two main types of nats: nat sein, humans who were deified after their deaths, and the balance of nats which are nature spirits (spirits of water, trees, etc). Nats are typically venerated in shrines called nat kun or nat sin. These can be appropriatly located to honor nature spirits as spirit houses or they can be specialized shrines dedicted to the veneration of particular nats. Most Burmese villages traditionally also honor their patron spirit which is their local patron, a practice termed Bo Bo Gyi. During the reign of King Anawrahta (1044-1077) nat worship was ubiqitous. The king waa frustrated by this and tried to eliminate nat worship. He ordered the destruction of all statues and images of nats. Despite King Anawrahta's persecutions, his subjects continued to worship nats by using coconuts as surrogate nats. The coconut served as an offering to the nat and as a symbol for the nat itself. The king ultimately realized that he could not suspend the worship of nats so he created a formal list of thirty-seven of them and strategically renamed the top nat Thagyamin, a name of Buddhist origin. He also placed statues of devas (celestial beings who possess the god-like qualitie of being more powerful, longer-lived, and generally happier than are humans, but the same level of veneration is not paid to them as to Buddhas) in front of the nats. This symbolised the monarch's preference for the practice of  Buddhism over folk religion. Nat worship has survived to this day despite continual opposition by more mainstrean Burmese Buddhists. Humans are believed to have originally possessed many of the powers of the devas such as not needing to eat, the ability to fly through the air, and serving as their own light source. Eventually humans began to eat solid foods so their bodies became coarser and their powers became diminished.