Traditional barges, golden statues and gorgeously-attired celebrants brought color and spectacle to one of Myanmar’s biggest Buddhist festivals Tuesday, months after a huge earthquake devastated a country already torn by civil war.

The annual “Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda Festival” at Inle Lake, in Shan State, about 420 kilometers (260 miles) northeast of the largest city Yangon, features crews rowing long wooden boats around 21 waterside villages.

The main vessel, called the Karaweik barge, has a golden image of a mythical bird at its bow.

It carries four statues of Buddha so that people in the villages can pay homage to them.

A confluence of problems – the coronavirus pandemic, the ongoing civil war and flooding - has meant that in recent years the festival has been repeatedly cancelled.

This is only the second time since 2020 that it’s been held.

The 7.7 magnitude quake that hit on 28 March killed more than 3,800 people nationwide and caused widespread destruction.

The country’s central regions bore the brunt of the earthquake, but Inle Lake was also hit.

Many of the wooden houses, built on stilts above the water, collapsed or were uninhabitable, though an AP journalist on Tuesday saw that most have now been rebuilt or repaired.

Local communities put the total death toll in Inle lake at between 50 to 90, though there is no official figure.

Inle Lake, with its waterside communities, is one of Myanmar’s most iconic sites, and is a popular tourist draw.

It is famous for its fishermen from the Inntha ethnic minority who practice a unique style of rowing while standing with one leg wrapped around a single oar.

Tourism has collapsed in the country since the military seized power from the popular, elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.

Pro-democracy forces, supported by a number of ethnic armies, have fought back hard, turning many parts of the country into fiercely contested battle zones.