The Thirty Seven Nats of Burmese devotion, headed by Thagyamin, the nat king identified with the Buddhist deity Sakka, with Min Mahagiri, lord of the great mountain, among the best known of the rest. Tradition holds that King Anawrahta of Pagan, who established Theravada Buddhism as the kingdom's religion in the eleventh century, could not suppress nat worship outright and instead fixed an official list of thirty seven, subordinating them to Buddhism rather than replacing them. Nat worship remains a living practice in Myanmar alongside Buddhist observance today.
Facts
Structure
Structure of the PantheonA celestial bureaucracy of ranked offices, modelled on a human state 1 Divine HeadshipA single sovereign god rules the others 1 Succession Between Divine GenerationsOne divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1 The Creator and the Ruling GodsThe world was formed from pre-existing matter or from a slain being, with no creator god 1 Attestation
Era of AttestationThe nat cult is held to predate the Buddhist establishment; the roster of thirty seven is attributed to the codification of King Anawrahta in the 11th century, and the cult is observed today 1 Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 1 Cult
Principal Cult CentreMount Popa in central Burma, with the Taungbyon festival north of Mandalay, and nat shrines kept at household and village level 1 Organisation
Membership of the PantheonA fixed roster, named and counted 1 How Mortals Enter the PantheonOutstanding mortals are raised to divine status 1 Sources
Primary SourceThe nat histories recited by nat kadaw spirit mediums, with the royal codification attributed to Anawrahta and published ethnography 1 Connections
Associated With
This source names Min Mahagiri directly: "with the Buddhist deity Sakka, with Min Mahagiri, lord of the great mountain, among the best known of the rest."
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
This source names Theravada directly: "Tradition holds that King Anawrahta of Pagan, who established Theravada Buddhism as the kingdom's religion in the eleventh century, could not suppress nat worship outright and instead fixed an..."
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source Burmese mythology (Wikipedia)
In Group: Pantheons of Southeast Asia and Indonesia, Introduction, sentence 1Quote, In Group: Pantheons of Southeast Asia and Indonesia, Introduction, sentence 1
Burmese mythology (Burmese: ရှေးမြန်မာ့ဒဏ္ဍာရီ) is a collection of myths, folklore, legends, and beliefs traditionally told by the Burmese people of Myanmar.
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