The Story of Karenni Deeku Festival

Karenni people fled Burmese civil war. After several years of staying in Thai refugee camp, many chose to resettle in the United States, including Australia, Finland, New Zealand and so on. However, arrival in the United States, “the land of opportunity,” does not always translate into peace, stability, and security, at least for the moment. As a saying goes “out of desperation comes an opportunity,” a few Karenni volunteers found an opportunity to build solidarity while searching for ways to help each other in times of great needs. On January 1st, 2011, at least 30 representatives from Dallas, Austin, Amarillo, Houston, San Antonio, and Fort Worth met for the first time in Houston for a two-day statewide conference, resulting in the formation of DEEKU, also known as Karenni Community of Texas, with some solid goals mentioned below. Karenni people firmly believe that DEEKU plays a major role in bringing people together, preserving Karenni identities, and helping each oth...

The story of Karenni Deeku Festival ---- The origins Karenni people descended from the Mongolian plateau (also called Htay-Ra-Ta-Ma-La-Ruu in Karenni) a long time ago. Some say that their long and treacherous journey began in 739 BC while others believe it was as early as 3000 BC. They came down from Mongolia to China in search of a better and new place to build new villages. However, they encountered constant threat from the local Chinese people and they decided to move to the south of China to settle and build new communities. Still, they still met with the same threats from the local Chinese villagers and they were forced to move further down south of China. There were actually two leaders in the group. The two leaders were brothers; the elder leader was called Hay Phe and the younger Ka-Yah-Li- Phu. As they were moving slowly down south of China, they came across a place called Moe-Ta-Ma-Klu-Khu and they continued until they reached the Salween River. They slowly mo...