Fog Fest Invitational, May 31 – June 30, 2019
I have 3 prints showing throughout June at the Sanchez Art Center, 1220-B Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica, CA 94044. Many excellent local photographers live on the rugged Pacific Coast south of San Francisco. Winners of the Fog Fest Photography Contest, held in August, are invited to show their work in the spring of the next year.
Who are the Nats?
A key layer of Burmese religious life is the role of indigenous ‘spirits’, or nats, whose worship occurs at virtually all of the major Buddhist shrines and within homes. Many nats, both male and female met violent ends or have tragic stories attached to them; the various kinds of ginned-up torments of folkloric schadenfreude. Tragedy in death bestows them with supernatural powers. Help from the nats is sought for the day-to-day problems that are outside the teachings of the Buddha.
The smiling nat with a drooping eye lash is The Little Lady, the daughter of Lady Three Times Beautiful. She is usually portrayed as a chubby little girl with an attitude of joy, She is the guardian goddess of little children and schoolboys and girls. When a Burmese child smiles in his sleep it is believed that the Little Lady is playing with him. Boys and girls on the eve of their annual school examinations make offerings of toys, tiny jackets and skirts to the little goddess.
For more pictures and text about the Nats see my gallery at http://www.davidclayphotography.com/#/nats/