This monochrome photographic print is showing crowds at the Namhkyek Manau. Manau is a kind of communal festival celebrated by the Kachin community in Burma (Myanmar). Sometimes thousands of people attend a large Manau festival, all of whom would expect to be fed and given rice beer for the whole four days that a festival would usually last. This photograph was taken by James Henry Green in the 1920s, a recruiting officer for the Burma Rifles who spent more than twenty years in Burma, much of it based in the northern hill states.
Courtesy of the James Henry Green Charitable Trust | The Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust, Brighton & Hove
More of his works can be found on their digital media bank.