IN THE LAP OF THE GODS

NYEIN Nyein Maw is a rich young woman from the Burmese capital of Rangoon. She is 34, owns a number of successful export companies (one specialising in the lucrative gem trade), and should be happy.

But she is not. Far from it. Many years ago, when she was single and looking for a partner, Ms Maw consulted a nat, one of 37 spirits that play an unseen but integral part in the spiritual culture of this backward and politically isolated nation.

The nat told her not to marry. He said he was fond of her, that she could enjoy platonic relationships but could never marry. What Ms Maw did next took a certain amount of bravery in a nation where the nats are seen as beyond reproach. She ignored the advice, fell in love and married.

Then, 10 years ago, her husband died. Ms Maw was left with two children to care for and the family's businesses to run. Her life was shattered. The nat, in her eyes, had taken his revenge.

Since then, every year before the full moon in August, Ms Maw has made the 730-kilometre trip from Rangoon to Taungbyon, a small village not far north of Mandalay. She is one among tens of thousands of pilgrims who travel from all corners of the country for this annual one-week festival of gods and spirits. Her aim is to appease the nat she offended.

In Burma the nats are as significant as Jesus Christ is to the religions of the West. For more than 1,500 years they have had a pre-eminent place in the Burmese peoples' spiritual and supernatural beliefs. Every house, every village has its nats. The mostfamous, Min Mahagiri, is the house nat. If properly appeased, he protects homes from thieves, dacoits and other enemies, both spiritual and temporal.