U Ko Ko Latt describes the upcoming Year of Rumi festival to be held next month. Pic: Hein Latt Aung

EVERYTHING you have ever wanted to know about Turkish culture will be featured at a fair held at the Sedona Hotel on August 25 and 26.

“Year of Rumi”, sponsored by Gulf Travel and Tours and Spring International Services, will showcase all that Turkey has to offer, as well as celebrate the life of Jalaa al-Din Muhammad Rumi, also known as Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi — a Turkish/Persian poet, philosopher and Sufi mystic.

“This show is about the works and messages of one of the greatest scholars and mystics of Turkey,” said managing director of Gulf Travel and Tours, U Ko Ko Latt. “We are holding this to celebrate his life and to show the people of Myanmar what Turkey has to offer.”

Rumi lived eight centuries ago. His passionate and inspiring poetry has attracted a large number of fans from various nationalities and backgrounds over the centuries.

His major work is Spiritual Couplets (Masnavi-ye Manavi), a six-volume poem regarded by many Sufis as second in importance only to the Koran.
He was born in Balkh, Afghanistan, but spent most of his life in Turkey and is buried in Konya.

“The cultural dances in the show will be mainly from Konya,” said U Ko Ko Latt. “Sixteen Turkish dancers will perform dance routines that Rumi himself cho-reographed.”

The dance group has performed in four other countries — Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.

“I feel that this is a rare and unique opportunity to introduce Rumi’s ideas and Turkish culture to Myanmar.”

This is the first time the show will be held in Myanmar and U Ko Ko Latt said they plan to hold more in the future.

“Turkey is definitely an excellent destination for tourists and I hope this cultural show will help Myanmar people to realise its potential,” he said.

UNESCO also recognises 2007 as Rumi’s 800th birthday anniversary.

Nuanstur Tour Company is also sponsoring and organising the two-day event.
The first day will be aimed at Ministries, NGOs, diplomats, hotels and airlines and the second day will be free and open to the public from 7pm to 9pm.