The Kachin music I have heard all falls into the category of festival music. Represented in Thailand by the Jingpo group, the Kachin are known for being good dancers and good singers as well as good musicians. Festivals involving music to celebrate harvests, new buildings, welcoming guests, marriages and funerals are an important part of their society. Group dancing, which is their major dancing form, depicts their travels, life, work, wars and sacrificial rites. It sometimes involves more than 1,000 people, with boisterous singing and loud percussion based music. Perhaps the most important festival is the manau, an occasion for thanksgiving and paying respects to the ancestors. Nearly everyone joins in the dance, swaying in circles around a structure of totem poles and traditional costumes are worn. The dance leaders wear yellow costumes with their plumed headgear. The music is provided by a percussion ensemble consisting of a huge drum, deep gongs and lighter ones sounding more like cymbals, accompanying a flute, shawm or singer who performs in a tall tower erected with bamboo poles. The rhythm is regular but the melody is more elaborate and reminiscent of Middle Eastern music.

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