Buddhism in Burma - general

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Title: Buddhism in Burma
Description: "Buddhism in Burma (also known as Myanmar) is predominantly of the Theravada tradition, practised by 89% of the country?s population. It is the most religious Buddhist country in terms of the proportion of monks in the population and proportion of income spent on religion. Adherents are most likely found among the dominant ethnic Bamar (or Burmans), Shan, Rakhine (Arakanese), Mon, Karen, and Chinese who are well integrated into Burmese society. Monks, collectively known as the Sangha, are venerated members of Burmese society. Among many ethnic groups in Myanmar, including the Bamar and Shan, Theravada Buddhism is practiced in conjunction with nat worship, which involves the placation of spirits who can intercede in worldly affairs....Contents: 1 History... 2 Traditions: 2.1 Veneration; 2.2 Shinbyu; 2.3 Buddhist holidays; 2.4 Buddhist lent; 2.5 Buddhist education... 3 Monasticism... 4 Politics: 4.1 Saffron Revolution... 5 See also... 6 Further reading... 7 References... 8 External links.
Source/publisher: Wikipedia
Date of entry/update: 2012-08-14
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Friedgard Lottermoser: A Life Bridging Myanmar and the West, Through Buddhist Meditation and the Quest for Freedom
Description: "Friedgard Lottermoser passed away at the age of 82 on Aug. 8th, 2024 in Germany, from an aggressive cancer of unknown origin. Dedicating herself to a life that fused Western and Eastern spiritual traditions, Friedgard’s journey was marked by profound personal transformation and significant contributions to the global dissemination of Vipassana meditation. Under the guidance of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, one of Burma’s most revered meditation masters, she became a testament to the power of mindfulness. Friedgard was born in Germany on April 13, 1942, and grew up during a time of immense upheaval and reconstruction. Her early life was shaped by the challenges of living in a society just emerging from years of brutal dictatorship and the ravages of World War II. Despite the hardships, those formative years instilled in Friedgard a resilience and adaptability that characterized her life. At some point after the war, her mother remarried. Her stepfather secured a position with Fritz Werner, a German company involved in establishing armament factories in Burma, and in 1959, when Friedgard was just 17, her family relocated there. It was a move that would forever alter the trajectory of her life. It was the beginning of Friedgard’s deep connection with the culture and its people, and a country that became her spiritual home. The family’s initial years in Burma were spent in Rangoon (now Yangon), where they lived in an exotic but somewhat isolated Chinese-style palace situated on a peninsula in Inya Lake. Surrounded by the lush, colorful, overgrown wilderness, her new home sparked in Friedgard a deep sense of curiosity and wonder about the country, and pointed her in the direction of its rich cultural and spiritual traditions. Fascinated by the Burmese way of life, Friedgard began learning the language and gradually immersed herself in Burmese society, quite a rare thing for a foreigner in those days, and eventually taking the Burmese name Daw Onmar Khin. Her budding interest in Buddhism led her to the International Meditation Center (IMC) in Rangoon, where she met Sayagyi U Ba Khin, a pioneering teacher of Vipassana meditation and a good friend of her stepfather, who had organized his previous visit to Germany. This turned out to be a pivotal moment in Friedgard’s life. Under the guidance of this great meditation master, Friedgard immersed herself in the practice, becoming a committed disciple at U Ba Khin’s IMC for over a decade. She was strongly attracted to the simple yet profound way that Sayagyi presented the teachings. Friedgard also spent considerable time with both Webu Sayadaw and Maha Gandayone Sayadaw during her time in Burma. Webu Sayadaw, a reputed Arahat, was known for his emphasis on the continuous practice of mindfulness, a teaching that profoundly influenced Friedgard’s own meditation journey. And she was granted rare permission to attend the Maha Gandayone Monastery in Amarapura to study Buddhist philosophy under the guidance of Maha Gandayone Sayadaw, who was renowned for his strict adherence to monastic discipline and deep commitment to monastic education. While continuing her committed engagement with her spiritual practice, Friedgard also pursued academic studies as one of the few foreign students at the University of Rangoon, and then the University of Mandalay, where she got a Master’s degree in Pali; her 1969 thesis was titled, The Doctrine of Relationship. Yet her academic pursuits were not just about getting a degree; they also provided her with a deeper understanding of the cultural and historical context in which she was living. This knowledge enriched her spiritual practice, allowing her to connect more deeply with the teachings of the Buddha and the Vipassana tradition. Her ability to integrate into Burmese culture, combined with her commitment to Vipassana meditation, set her apart, and the intersection of her academic and spiritual pursuits laid the groundwork for her future contributions to the global mindfulness movement. But her time at the university coincided with significant upheaval in Burma. The military coup of 1962 led by General Ne Win marked the beginning of decades of military rule in Burma. In this period of great political instability, many foreigners were forced to leave the country … but even as her family packed up to return to Germany, she adamantly insisted that she would stay behind to continue her meditation practice and studies. Fortunately, she had a rare kind of scholarship that allowed her to do so. Nearly a decade later, in 1971, Friedgard left Burma on her own terms to return to Germany to complete a PhD, also in Pali. During the early 1970s, Friedgard supported the emerging globalization of the meditation lineage of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, helping it gain a foothold in Europe. She facilitated meditation courses for Robert Hover, Ruth Denison, and John Coleman, while also corresponding with S.N. Goenka and others. In her later years, Friedgard’s commitment to Buddhism deepened, leading her to ordain as a Sāmaṇerī, taking the Pāḷi name of Akiñcanā. This ordination marked a significant step in her spiritual journey, reflecting her lifelong dedication to the Dhamma. In her view, the disappearance of the bhikkhuni order in Burma and elsewhere was not only a loss for women, but a significant historical oversight as well. She believed that there is a strong potential for the revival of the bhikkhuni order, and she actively advocated for this, understanding it as a necessary step for gender equality within the Buddhist community. Friedgard’s perspective on this was based not in contemporary thinking or recent social movements, but rather, was grounded in her historical understanding of the practical and egalitarian spirit of early Buddhism. She contrasted this with later developments that became increasingly patriarchal and restrictive. Friedgard argued that early Buddhism, as practiced by the Buddha, did not impose gender-based limitations on spiritual practice and leadership, suggesting that a return to those principles could lead to greater gender equality within contemporary Buddhist communities. Friedgard expressed deep sorrow and frustration over the 2021 coup in Myanmar. She felt a profound sense of loss and disillusionment about the violence and suffering caused by the military’s actions, and lamented the senseless brutality inflicted on civilians and the deep scars they have left. Yet her reflections on the coup were grounded in her Buddhist outlook. She saw the military’s acts as not just political tragedies, but as deep spiritual failings, which, in her view, would lead to severe karmic consequences for those responsible. Despite her deep resonance with the sufferings of the Burmese people, she was at the same time hopeful that the fall of the military would pave the way for the restoration of peace, justice, and dignity. She hoped for a future where the Burmese people are able to overcome the divisions and traumas inflicted by the military regime, working together to create a compassionate and harmonious society. She was also a fervent advocate of the current revolution, insisting that now was the time for Burmese to do everything in their power to finally achieve their freedom from decades of oppression and tyranny. An accomplished scholar and author, Friedgard contributed to the books “Code of Conduct for Buddhist Nuns” and “A Critical Pali Dictionary”, and her unpublished thesis was titled “Quoted Verse Passages in the Works of Buddhaghosa”. If a Hollywood screenwriter were to fashion a script based on the real life biography of Friedgard Lottermoser, it would likely be rejected as too fanciful. Her life was truly unique, intersecting so many diverse elements: the modern origins and early global spread of Vipassana meditation; the ongoing battle for freedom to win over tyranny and oppression; and the recognition of women’s rights in all sectors. Her story is a testament to the extraordinary impact one determined individual can have on the world, defying the boundaries of history, culture, gender and spirituality..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2024-08-19
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Title: Senior Myanmar monk shot dead by junta soldiers, colleague says
Sub-title: Junta-controlled media blames death on rebel fighters.
Description: "A senior Buddhist monk in Myanmar was shot dead Wednesday in his car as it left an airport in the central Mandalay region — an attack perpetrated by junta soldiers, according to another monk who was in the car with him. Junta-controlled media, however, blamed the death of Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa, the abbot of Win Neinmitayon Monastery in the Bago region and retired member of the State Sangha Nayaka Committee, which oversees the nation’s Buddhist clergy, on rebel fighters. Television broadcaster MRTV announced that the abbot’s car was caught in a firefight between junta troops and guerillas from the rebel People’s Defense Forces, resulting in the vehicle overturning and the abbot’s death. But in a video that spread on social media Thursday, the abbot’s colleague, Sayadaw Bhaddanta Gunikabhivamsa, who was a passenger in the car at the time of the attack, said junta soldiers in a truck fired around seven or eight shots at the car, killing the abbot and injuring himself and the driver. “[I said] how can you soldiers be so cruel?” the monk recounted. “They replied that they did not know monks were inside the car.” The soldiers said they believed the car was an enemy vehicle because the windows were closed, so they shot at it, he said. Gunikabhivamsa’s account appeared to match a report on the incident submitted by the chief of the Mandalay Region Religious Affairs Department, the online journal The Irrawaddy reported. The report cited local authorities who said soldiers conducting a security patrol killed the abbot when they shot at his vehicle after he did not pull over as instructed. RFA contacted junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, for comment, but did not receive a response. RFA could not reach the Mandalay PDF for comment, either. Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa will be cremated on June 27..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2024-06-20
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Title: ကဆုန်လပြည့်(ဗုဒ္ဓနေ့) အထိမ်းအမှတ် နှုတ်ခွန်းဆက်သဝဏ်လွှာ သာသနာတော်နှစ် ၂၅၆၆ ခုနှစ်
Description: "ယနေ့သည် ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာဝင်များ၏ အလေးအမြတ်ထားရာ နေ့ထူးနေ့မြတ်တရက် ဖြစ်သော ကဆုန်လပြည့်(ဗုဒ္ဓနေ့)ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ဤမွန်မြတ်သော နေ့ထူးနေ့မြတ် အချိန်အခါ သမယတွင် ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် နိုင်ငံသူ နိုင်ငံသားများအားလုံး ကိုယ်စိတ်နှစ်ဖြာ ကျန်းမာ ချမ်းသာကြပါစေကြောင်း မေတ္တာပို့သလျက် နှုတ်ခွန်းဆက်သအပ်ပါသည်။ ဘုရားအလောင်းတော်သုမေဓာရှင်ရသေ့ဘဝ ဗျာဒိတ်ခံယူခြင်း၊ အလောင်းတော်ဖွားမြင်ခြင်း၊ သဗ္ဗေညုတဉာဏ်တော်ကိုရရှိခြင်း၊ ပရိနိဗ္ဗာန်စံဝင်တော်မူခြင်းဟူသော အဖြစ်လေးခုသည် ကဆုန်လပြည့်တွင်သာ တိုက်ဆိုင်စွာဖြစ်ပေါ်ခဲ့ခြင်းကြောင့် အလွန်ထူးခြားသော နေ့ထူးနေ့မြတ် တရက်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ သာသနာတော်သက္ကရာဇ် ၂၅၆၅ခုနှစ်မှ ၂၅၆၆ ခုနှစ်သို့ ကူးပြောင်း ရောက်ရှိချိန်လည်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။ မြတ်စွာဘုရားရှင်သည် ကဆုန်လပြည့်နေ့ ဗုဒ္ဓဟူးနေ့တွင် သဗ္ဗေညုတ ဉာဏ်တော်ကို ရရှိချိန်မှစ၍ ၄၅ ဝါကာလပတ်လုံး အယုတ်၊ အလတ်၊ အမြတ် ဟူ၍ မခွဲခြားဘဲ လောကကို ကောင်းစွာအလှဆင်နိုင်သူများဖြစ်ကြစေရန် ရည်သန်လျက် ဟောဖော် ညွှန်ကြားအပ်သော မြတ်တရားများကြောင့် ဓမ္မနှင့် အဓမ္မ၊ ကုသိုလ်နှင့် အကုသိုလ် ဝေဖန်ပိုင်းခြား သိရှိကြရသည့်အပြင် လိုက်နာကျင့်ကြံအပ်သော တရားဓမ္မများ၊ နိဗ္ဗာန်ရောက်ကြောင်း သစ္စာလေးပါး မြတ်တရားများကို ဟောဖော်ညွှန်ပြ ဆုံးမတော်မူခဲ့ပါသည်။ ယခုအခါမြန်မာနိုင်ငံသူနိုင်ငံသားများအနေဖြင့် ဓမ္မနှင့်အဓမ္မကိုဝေဖန်မပိုင်းခြား တတ်သော လူတစုကြောင့် ဆင်းရဲဒုက္ခများခံစားခဲ့ကြရသည်မှာ တနှစ်ကျော်ကာလ ကြာခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်၊ သို့ရာတွင်အဓမ္မတရားများကိုရှောင်ရှားပြီး ဓမ္မတရားကိုသာလိုက်နာကျင့် သုံးသင့်ကြောင်း မြတ်ဗုဒ္ဓ၏ မိန့်ကြားချက်အတိုင်း ဓမ္မနှင့် အဓမ္မကို ကောင်းမွန်စွာ ဝေဖန်ပိုင်းခြားနိုင်သော နိုင်ငံသူနိုင်ငံသားများ၏ စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်မှုကြောင့် ယခုဆင်နွှဲနေသော နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးသည် မုချဧကန် အောင်မြင်မည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးတွင်ပါဝင်ရင်း အသက်ပေးလှူသွားကြသော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသူ နိုင်ငံသား အပေါင်း မြင့်မြတ်ရာ ဘုံဘဝတွင်ရောက်ရှိခံစားနိုင်ပါစေကြောင်း မျှော်ရည်လျက် အနာဂတ် ဖက်ဒရယ်ပြည်ထောင်စု တည်ဆောက်ရေးတွင်လည်း တိုင်းရင်းသားညီအကို မောင်နှမများ အားလုံး အားသွန်ခွန်စိုက် အတူအကွ ထုဆစ်ပုံဖော်နိုင်ကြပါစေကြောင်း ဆုမွန်ကောင်းတောင်းရင်း ဤနှုတ်ခွန်းဆက်သဝဏ်လွှာကို ပေးပို့အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of entry/update: 2022-05-14
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Title: Myanmar Ministry Orders Monastery to Remove Buddha Statues Designed Using Occult Practices
Description: "Myanmar’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture has ordered the removal of sitting Buddha statues donated by members of the country’s former military regime, as the stone idols were sculpted according to occult practices that go against Theravada Buddhism, the country’s dominant religion. The 66 statues with “unusual hand gestures” are located in the compound of the Seindamuni Monastery on Mt. Min Wun in Naypyitaw’s Pyinmana Township. The compound also hosts a number of small stupas with strange titles like “May power be long established” and “Let the throne be long established.” The donors of the stupas include the family of Myanmar’s former dictator Senior General Than Shwe, and U Thein Swe, a former major general who served as transport minister under the military regime and is the current minister of labor, immigration and population. Among the donors of the statues are general-turned-politician Thura Shwe Mann; senior members of the country’s former ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP); military commanders; and high-ranking government officials. The statues are described as having “one hand behind the back and the other in front with the palms facing outward.” According to Tampawaddy U Win Maung, a prominent scholar on traditional Myanmar design and architecture, the positions and gestures of these Buddha images are intended to signify that the Buddha is protecting worshipers from misfortune from both behind and in front, and that donating to it or worshiping it will afford such protection to the devotee..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-09
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Title: Material Religion and Ethnic Identity: Buddhist Visual Culture and the Burmanization of the Eastern Shan State
Description: "...The present paper has as its primary concern the exemplification of the way religious visual culture may serve as a marker of ethnicity and nationalism. Examples are taken from Buddhist visual culture in the Eastern Shan State of Myanmar. The visual objects considered in this discussion are two very special Buddha statues that can, in different ways, convey Burmese ethnic and religious identity and be seen as elements in the Burmanization of the Shan State. In order to understand the role of these objects, this paper will also discuss, from a perspective of Southeast Asian history, the genuineness of Buddha statues and the reason why some Buddhist images and religious buildings are more sacred than others..."
Date of entry/update: 2020-04-04
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Title: Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis: Rohingya, Arakanese, and Burmese Narratives of Siege and Fear. Honolulu, Hawaii. University of Hawaii Press, 2019. xviii + 301pp.
Description: "John Clifford Holt’s Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis: Rohingya, Arakanese, and Burmese Narratives of Siege and Fear makes a timely contribution to the growing literature on the Rohingya affairs in Myanmar. A scholar of Buddhist studies whose primary work is on Sri Lanka and Laos, Holt lends his expertise in the comparative analysis of Myanmar’s ongoing ethno-religious turmoil among Bamar Buddhists, Arakanese (or Rakhine), and Rohingya with its neighboring, predominantly Buddhist countries, Thailand and Sri Lanka. In addition to a thorough historical context that introduces Buddhism on a global scale, the narratives in the book are organized based on three geographical locations in Myanmar: Yangon (Part One), Arakan (Part Two), and Mandalay (Part Three) because “many of the referents within the discussions are locale, and [his] conversational partners were steeped in those specific concerns” (p. xvi). Holt provides a disclaimer in the Preface that his limited linguistic skills in Burmese led him to conduct the interviews primarily in English. The author notes that interviewees’ command in English indicates their well-educated backgrounds, and therefore, the narratives in the book are by no means “representative of most Rohingya, Arakanese, and Burmese” (p. xii). While I appreciate the disclaimer about the possible limitations of the author’s interviewees, it is also important to keep those of the author’s own (lack of linguistic command in local languages) and his researcher positionality (Sri Lanka as his primary field of study) in mind when reading this book. The book is accessible with little to no academic jargon. The interlocutors’ narratives are coherently interlaced with the author’s own reflexive thoughts. The kaleidoscopic nature of narratives situated in three different cities offers much needed context that is nuanced, and provides first-hand perspectives for any layperson who is concerned with Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim conflict, but exasperated by the over-generalized and sensationalized nature of news media stories about the topic..."
Source/publisher: " Teacircleoxford" (Yangon)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-13
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Title: History of Buddhism in Burma A.D. 1000-1300
Description: "The book contents are history of Burma 1044-1174, history of Burma 1174-1287, the Burmese administration 1044-1287, Sasana, Purha Trya, Sangha , religious buildings, the slaves of medieval Burma, the land measure, votive tablets and MAPs..."
Source/publisher: Kham Koo Website
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-21
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Title: 30,000 monks attend mass alms-giving in Myanmar
Description: "Thirty-thousand monks assembled in the early morning chill in Myanmar on Sunday (Dec 8) for a spectacular alms-giving event, partly organised by a controversial mega-temple under scrutiny across the border in Thailand. With many barefoot, Buddhist monks from Myanmar and Thailand and senior religious officials from a dozen countries collected alms next to an airport in the central city of Mandalay, that is also a heartland of the faith. As the sun rose over the ancient town, a sea of saffron and maroon-robed monks assembled in an area the size of a football field. They meditated, prayed and collected alms in an event meant to tighten the relationship of "monks and Buddhists between (the) two countries" and to "strengthen the monkhood" in the region, according to a statement. "I hope we can continue to hold bigger events in the coming years," said U Thu Nanda, a 24-year-old Burmese monk..."
Source/publisher: "The Straits Times" (Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-08
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Title: What to do in Bagan – Myanmar’s ancient temple city is one of Asia’s architectural marvels
Description: "Doubtless there was a fair bit of politicking going on when the Unesco World Heritage Site bods sat down in Azerbaijan last month to decide which spots were going to make it onto the list. The good news is that – after applications spanning more than 20 years – Bagan, the 1,000-year-old archaeological theme park that’s home to 2,000 or more temples and pagodas, finally got the thumbs-up. Despite an earthquake or two in recent years and some spam-fisted development that has impinged on the ancient capital’s authenticity, it’s still well within the bounds of possibility to wander off and totally immerse yourself in what is undoubtedly one of the architectural marvels of Asia. Where to stay: Sink a pick just about anywhere in Bagan and you’ll unearth some archaeological treasure or other. So while the hotel count has risen over the years, it hasn’t proliferated unchecked, hence the absence of the bigger brands that might otherwise be attracted to such a prominent destination. The watchword is small and (almost) perfectly formed..."
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-01
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Title: Beautiful Buddhist Bagan
Description: "Sprawled across an arid flood plain of the Irrawaddy River in central Myanmar stands Bagan, one of the most remarkable archeological sites in Southeast Asia. The architectural masterpieces built here between the 11th and 13th centuries rank on par with other awe-inspiring religious monuments such as Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and Indonesia’s Borobodur. Amazingly, in the 40sqkm of country that stretches back from the river, over 2,000 Buddhist pagodas are still standing and a further 2,000 are in ruins! As the capital of the country at the time, Bagan must have once also been home to thousands of secular buildings such as palaces and houses. However, because they were constructed of wood, they have all long since rotted away, just leaving a landscape covered in brick pagodas and temples. The mighty Bagan Empire weakened over time and it is thought that Mongol invaders plundered and overran the city at the end of the 13th century. This once-great capital was then abandoned, but still remains as a magnificent memorial to a spectacular Buddhist renaissance. Most tourists arrive at Bagan by air from Yangon, but a far more tranquil mode of transport is by river from Mandalay. We journeyed on the lovely old M.V. Pandaw, a vessel that once belonged to the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company (IFC). Before WWII, this company operated over 650 such boats on the rivers of Myanmar, which was then the British colony of Burma. The whole IFC fleet was deliberately scuttled when the Japanese invaded Burma in the 1940s, but some boats, the Pandaw amongst them, have since been re-furbished..."
Source/publisher: "Portugal Resident"
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-27
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Title: Myanmar: Military Seeks To Jail Buddhist Monk For Defamation
Summary: "A Myanmar court has granted bail to a senior Buddhist monk facing defamation charges for allegedly calling the country’s military thieves and robbers in an interview with a local news and...
Description: "A Myanmar court has granted bail to a senior Buddhist monk facing defamation charges for allegedly calling the country’s military thieves and robbers in an interview with a local news and entertainment website. Bail was approved by the Pyigyiatagon Township Court for Sayadaw U Arriyawuntha, the abbot of Myawaddy Mingyi monastery in Myanmar’s second biggest city Mandalay on Nov. 7. The monk, who is known for working with interfaith groups, is accused of defaming the military in comments he made to the Yangon-based Khit Thit website in an interview in June In the interview, he questioned a more than 30 million-kyat (about US$20,000) donation by an army commander to the Dhamma Parahita Foundation. The foundation was formally known as Ma Ba Tha, an ultranationalist Buddhist group. The abbot, a strong critic of the military and nationalist monks, told the website that the foundation broke religious rules by taking money from the military, which he said was looking to block democratic reforms. “That nationalist group is partnering with an organization that is going against the rules of Buddhist monks,” the Irrawaddy news website quoted the monk telling Khit Thit in June. Calling them thieves and robbers, he also accused the military of making a mockery of democracy by defying laws, intimidating the populace and occupying seats in parliament without having contested an election..."
Source/publisher: "Eurasia Review"
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-10
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Title: Forging Buddhist Credentials as a Tool of Legitimacy and Ethnic Identity: A study of Arakan’s Subjection in Nineteenth Century Burma
Summary: "Th ere is an abundance of scholarly material on the relation between the temporal and the spiritual power in Southeast Asian Buddhist kingdoms some of which I discuss in the notes or refer to in...
Description: "Th ere is an abundance of scholarly material on the relation between the temporal and the spiritual power in Southeast Asian Buddhist kingdoms some of which I discuss in the notes or refer to in the bibliography. Th e latest contribution to the field is Ian Harris, ed. Buddhism, Power and Political Order (London: Routledge, 2007). 2) Steven Collins’s discussion of “kingship and its discontents” in his land-mark Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities: Utopias of the Pali Imaginaire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) contributed to a “new vision of Buddhist history” because his analysis leads beyond earlier approaches such as Melford Spiro, Burmese Supernaturalism (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1967), Melford Spiro, Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), and Stanley J. Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity in Th ailand against a Historical Background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976). Collins argues that “most ethnographies and histories do not make [. . .] a separation” between “Buddhism as constructed by scholars” and the “socio-cultural life . . . lived historically, first in the conditions of pre-modern agrarian states, and then in the context of modernization, nation-building, colonialism and capitalism”: Collins, Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities: 568..."
Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-30
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Title: Buddhist authorities of Mandalay: No bazaars in temples
Description: "The places of worship are located in the municipality of Chan Aye Tharzan. The eviction order comes from the local chapter of the Sangha Maha Nayaka State Committee, an institution that oversees and regulates the clergy. Commercial activities discovered in the monasteries include gambling houses. Naypyidaw (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The highest Buddhist authorities in the Mandalay region have established that 65 monasteries in the municipality of Chan Aye Tharzan have to evict commercial activities from religious buildings by tomorrow. The order comes directly from the local chapter of the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee - a body composed of high-ranking monks, chosen by the government to oversee and regulate the Sangha (the clergy). On 1 October last, the body launched a five-day survey on local monasteries. It revealed that 65 religious communities host shops and stalls. Sayadaw U Dhamma Dipadi, head of the Committee, declares: “We want to clean up places of worship. We are worried that the monasteries will disappear, if we allow the laity to live and work within them”. Among the commercial activities mentioned in the investigation there are car repair shops, gambling houses, masonary workshops, sawmills and classrooms for private lessons. The religion authorities also discovered several people who lived in monasteries illegally. The Committee has warned traders who face a lawsuit in court if they do not leave the premises by tomorrow; the names of monasteries and monks who have allowed these activities will be made public. Mandalay's chief minister, U Zaw Myint Maung, said that unscrupulous people exploit the religious land to do business, even though they know this is illegal. The politician has promised that the regional government will provide for their eviction..."
Source/publisher: "AsiaNews.it" (Italy)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-13
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Title: Burma’s Open Road (Myanmar History Documentary)
Description: "Guided by the insights of a Buddhist monk, we explore the lives of the Burmese intertwined with the reconstruction of the road and the environmental effects it will have on one of Southeast Asia's last remaining wildernesses..."
Source/publisher: Timeline - World History Documentaries
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-29
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Title: Shin Mote Hti Pagoda History - ထားဝယ်မြို့ရှိရှင်မုတ္ထီးဘုရားသမိုင်းကြောင်း
Description: "ရှင်မုတ္ထီး-ရှင်မုတ္ထီးဘုရား-ရှင်မုတ္ထီးဘုရားသမိုင်း-ရှင်ကိုးရှင်ဘုရား-ရှင်ကိုးရှင်..."
Source/publisher: Win Win News
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-18
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Title: History of Dawei - တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ ထားဝယ်ခရိုင်၊ လောင်းလုံးမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ ဘုရားများနှင့် သမိုင်းဝင်ပစ္စည်းများကို ရိုက်ကူးဖေါ်ပြသထားသည်
Description: "တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ ထားဝယ်ခရိုင်၊ လောင်းလုံးမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ ဘုရားများနှင့် သမိုင်းဝင်ပစ္စည်းများကို ရိုက်ကူးဖေါ်ပြသထားသည်။..."
Source/publisher: MRTV4 via TavoyanVoice
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-13
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Title: Pagodas in Dawei - ထားဝယ်နှစ်ကျိပ်ရှစ်ဆူဘုရားပွဲနှင့် တနင်္သာရီ နဂါးလှေလှော်ပွဲကို ယူနက်စကိုထံ တင်ပြထား
Description: "ထားဝယ်နှစ်ကျိပ်ရှစ်ဆူဘုရားပွဲနှင့် တနင်္သာရီနဂါးလှေလှော်ပွဲကို ယူနက် စကိုအဖွဲ့ထံသို့ မေလဝန်းကျင်က တင်ပြထားကြောင်း ရှေးဟောင်းသုတေသနနှင့် အမျိုးသားပြတိုက်ဦးစီးဌာန(ထားဝယ်ဌာနခွဲ) ထံမှ သိရသည်။ တိုင်းနှင့်ပြည်နယ်အားလုံးသို့ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ ပညာရေး၊ သိပ္ပံနှင့် ယဉ်ကျေးမှုအဖွဲ့(ယူနက်စကို) ကိုတင်ပြမည့် ဒြပ်မဲ့ယဉ်ကျေးမှုများ တင်ပြရန် ရှေးဟောင်း သုတေသနနှင့် အမျိုးသားပြတိုင်ဦးစီးဌာနရုံးချုပ်မှ ညွှန်ကြားလာသဖြင့် တိုင်း အတွင်း အကြမ်းဖျင်း ကောက်ယူထားသည့် ဒြပ်မဲ့ယဉ်ကျေးမှု ၉၆ ခုမှ ယင်း နှစ်ခုကို တင်ပြထားခြင်းဖြစ်ကြောင်း အထက်ပါဌာနခွဲမှ တာဝန်ရှိသူတစ်ဦးက ပြောသည်။ ယင်းပွဲတော်နှစ်ခုကျင်းပသည့် ပုံစံကို စာ၊ ရုပ်သံမှတ်တမ်းတိုရိုက်ကူးကာ တင်ပြထားခြင်းဖြစ်ကြောင်း ယင်း တာဝန်ရှိသူက ပြောသည်။ တင်ပြထားသည့် နှစ်ခုအနက် တစ်ခု ကို ယူနက်စကိုအဖွဲ့က ရွေးချယ်ကာ စာ၊ ရုပ်သံမှတ်တမ်းများဖြင့် တင်ပြထား သည့်အတိုင်း တကယ်ကျင်းပနေခြင်း ရှိမရှိကို ယူနက်စကိုအဖွဲ့က လာရောက် စစ်တမ်းကောက်ယူမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ယင်းတာဝန်ရှိသူက ပြောသည်။ “ဘယ်ဟာကို ရွေးထားပြီးပြီလဲဆို တာ မသိရသေးဘူး။ ဘယ်အချိန်လာမလဲ ဆိုတာလည်း အကြောင်းမကြားသေးဘူး။ အခုက မိုးတွင်းဆိုတော့လာမှာ မဟုတ်သေးဘူး”ဟု ၎င်းက ဆိုသည်။ ယင်းကဲ့သို့ စစ်တမ်းကောက်ယူ ပြီးပါက ယူနက်စကိုအဖွဲ့က သတ်မှတ် ထားသည့် စံချိန်၊ စံညွှန်းများနှင့် ကိုက်ညီပါက ယူနက်စကို အမွေအနှစ် အဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်နိုင်ကြောင်း ရှေးဟောင်း သုတေသနနှင့် အမျိုးသား ပြတိုက်ဦးစီး ဌာန(ထားဝယ်ဌာနခွဲ) တာဝန်ရှိသူက ဆိုသည်။ “ယူနက်စကို အမွေအနှစ်အဖြစ် မသတ်မှတ်ရင်တောင်မှ ဒီပွဲတွေ ကျင်းပဖို့ ငွေကြေးအခက်အခဲရှိတယ်ဆိုရင် ငွေကြေး ထောက်ပံ့တာမျိုးလည်း လုပ်ချင် လုပ်နိုင်တယ်။ ဒါကတော့ ကျွန်တော်တို့အပိုင်း မဟုတ်တော့ဘူးပေါ့နော်။ သူတို့(ယူနက်စကိုအဖွဲ့)ကပဲ ဆုံးဖြတ်မှာ ဆိုတော့” ဟု ၎င်းက ဆိုသည်။ ယူနက်စကိုအဖွဲ့သို့ တင်ပြထားသည့် ထားဝယ်နှစ်ကျိပ်ရှစ်ဆူဘုရားပွဲ နှင့် တနင်္သာရီ နဂါးလှေလှော်ပွဲကို တနင်္သာရီတိုင်း အစိုးရအဖွဲ့ လူမှုရေးနှင့် စည်ပင်သာယာရေးဝန်ကြီး ဦးဆောင်သည့် တနင်္သာရီတိုင်း ဒြပ်မဲ့ယဉ်ကျေးမှု အမွေအနှစ် ထိန်းသိမ်း မြှင့်တင်ရေး ကော်မတီက ရွေးချယ်တင်ပြထားခြင်းဖြစ်ကြောင်း အထက်ပါဌာနထံမှ သိရ သည်။..."
Source/publisher: Dawei Watch
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-11
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Title: U Wirathu Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for Unauthorized School
Description: ''Firebrand nationalist monk U Wirathu held a groundbreaking ceremony for a school building on Saturday morning in Patheingyi Township, Mandalay Region, despite the regional government’s refusal to give permission for the project. The monk who is infamous for his racial and religious hate speeches said he applied to the regional government for permission to build a permanent school in June 2017, but the regional government has yet to reply. There are over 150 students attending tenth and eleventh grades at the school, and the monk wishes to build a four-story school building to replace the current makeshift classrooms.Mandalay Region Chief Minister] U Zaw Myint Maung makes a black-and-white decision. If [the planned school] is against the law, he should make an official announcement by stating clearly which law it violates,” said U Wirathu, who is a staunch opponent of the ruling National League for Democracy. “If it is in line with the law, he should announce officially when exactly it would be allowed, and how long we have to wait,” said the monk, calling the ban an “authoritarian act and abuse of power.” U Wirathu, Buddhist monks, and members of the committee to establish the school named “Mahawthada National Private High School” attended the groundbreaking ceremony. The school will be built on an 8-acre plot of land in the village of Kyauk Chaw in Patheingyi Township...''
De Hlaing Winn
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
Date of publication: 2019-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-28
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Title: A Religious Study on the Construction of Oo-­Pwar Pagoda and Its Sculptures
Description: Abstract: "This paper is written with the purpose of knowing why Buddhist people worship pagoda and Buddhism is not symbolism. Myanmar culture is an integral part of Buddhism. While there is an abundance of artistic material throughout Myanmar, many people do not know that these artistic pagodas and their sculptures are related with the meaningful background. Therefore, this paper is presented based on Oo-­‐Pwar pagoda in Mandalay. Initially, it is presented which one is worthy to be a pagoda and how many kinds of pagoda are there. And then, the history of Oo-­‐Pwar pagoda and the standard of Myanmar art and architecture of that period are presented. And the construction of pagoda and its sculptures are also expressed. In which, each part of pagoda related with the teaching of Buddha is discussed. This topic is divided into three main parts, namely: meaning of pagoda, the construction of Oo-­‐Pwar pagoda and sculptures in the surrounding of the pagoda. This paper shows the background history, religious and traditional customs of the sculptures. And the fact can be seen that although Myanmar people are Theravāda Buddhists, they also do some of the practice of Mahāyana Buddhism and Hinduism as their own tradition. By doing this research, in the compound of pagoda, the tradition of ancient Myanmar are found evidently. The pagodas can be assumed as the religious things and the invaluable cultural heritages. Therefore, conservation of pagoda is beneficial to develop Buddhist religion and to conserve Myanmar cultural heritage.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.
Hnin Moe Hlaing
Source/publisher: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015
Date of publication: 2015-07-26
Date of entry/update: 2015-08-26
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Title: A Study of the Buddha Image Made of Bamboo-strips at the Myathabeik Foothill in Thaton, Mon State
Description: Abstract: "After the lord Buddha Parinibbāna (pass away), the Buddhists have worshipped with devotion (1) Sarīrika Cetiya (Relics) (2) Dhamma Cetiya (Teachings) (3) Uddissa Cetiya (Images) (4) Paribhoga Cetiya (Bodhi tree and utensils) (5) Pāda Cetiya (foot-­‐prints of the Buddha) in memory of the Lord Buddha. Among these five different kinds of Cetiyas where there are images of the Lord Buddha on it, are called as Uddissa Cetiya. In traditions, the Lord Buddha Images are made of gold, silver, copper, iron, stone, wood and bamboo-­strips. Just as there are many differences with the materials used in carving sacred images there are also differences in shape, size and style. One image different from another in gesture (mudrā), sitting posture (āsana) and sacred throne (pallaṅka). A wonderful Hneephayargyi made of bamboo-­strips exists at the Myathabeit foothill in Thaton, Mon state. A group of six young craftsmen who made the image was led by Sayar Myint Naing Oo. Unlike other images, there are interesting and wonderful features in the creating of this particular Hneephayargyi. Therefore, this monograph on the brief history of statues and images and the creating of Hneephayargyi are compiled and presented so that Buddhists may not only revere and strengthen their faith, but it may also, be of partial help to those who want to find out and study Buddhists arts. Key words: the impressive capability of the Myanmar?s handicraft."......Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.
Myint Myint Than
Source/publisher: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015
Date of publication: 2015-07-26
Date of entry/update: 2015-08-26
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Title: The Value of Life in Myanmar Theravada Buddhist Thought
Description: Introduction: "...The first question mainly concerns with the characteristic of human life. The answer for this question is that which characteristic and quality are involved in human life. The second question chiefly regards with the cause or the origin of human life. Regarding this, there are some alternative questions such as ?How did life get here??? Why are we here??? How did life start?? etc. The third quest ion is very clear that it investigates the meaning of human life. The last question is also clear that it is searching for the value and purpose of human life. It is making assessment of the value and purpose of life in various philosophical systems. This paper mainly concerns with the last question. Many ordinary men may think that the value and purpose of life lies in the concept of fame, status, power, wealth etc. However, most philosophers never regard fame, status, power, wealth as the true value and purpose of life. Instead, they advocates happiness, harmony, knowledge etc are the true value of life.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.
Tun Shwe
Source/publisher: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015
Date of publication: 2015-07-26
Date of entry/update: 2015-08-26
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Title: Religion in Burma, AD 1000 -1300
Description: This paper was read at the Kanthaseinlai Group meeting on 13th July 1958. It argues that the Myanmar (Burmans) were Buddhist long before King Anawrahta?s (Aniruddha) conquest of lower Burma. They did not practise Theravada Buddhism, rather they observed a form of Mahayana Buddhism much influenced by Vaishnavism and native Naga (serpent) worship. With the conquest of Thaton in 1057 AD by King Anawrahta Theravada Buddhism was introduced to Central Burma. According to the excavation of Srikshetra and Hanlin the Pyu already believed in Buddhism. This paper is based on Bagan inscriptions which reveal the spread of Buddhism between AD 1000-1300.....Subject Terms: 1. Religion-Myanmar... 2. Buddhism-Myanmar-Bagan period... 3. Buddha and Buddhism... 4. Arahan, Shin... 5. Tipitaka (Buddhist Scriptures)..... Key Words: 1. Theravada Buddhism... 2. Vishnavism... 3. Brahmanism... 4. Jatakas... 5. Sasana (Buddist Religion)... 6. Paiyatti (Buddhist Religion)... 7. Pitaka (Buddhist scripture) 8. Vinaya... 9. Anawrahta, King (AD 1044-1077)... 10. Kyansittha, King (AD 1084-1112)
Than Tun, Dr.
Source/publisher: "Journal of Burma Research Society", Vol. 42, Part 2, pp47-69, 1959 via University of Washington
Date of publication: 1958-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2014-11-28
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Language: English
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Title: The Soul of a People
Description: First published in 1899..."This book is about Burma, seen through the eyes of an English gentleman during and after the conquering of Upper Burma by the British towards the end of the 19th century. It describes his impressions of the Burmese people and particularly their religion, Buddhism, which explains so much their strange customs and ways. Written in the excellent English, in choice of words and prose, lost in modern times, that typified the Victorian period".....CONTENTS: LIVING BELIEFS; HE WHO FOUND THE LIGHT—I; HE WHO FOUND THE LIGHT—II; THE WAY TO THE GREAT PEACE; WAR—I; WAR—II; GOVERNMENT; CRIME AND PUNISHMENT; HAPPINESS; THE MONKHOOD I; THE MONKHOOD II; PRAYER; FESTIVALS; WOMEN—I; WOMEN—II; WOMEN III; DIVORCE; MANNERS; ?NOBLESSE OBLIGE?; ALL LIFE IS ONE; DEATH, THE DELIVERER; THE POTTER?S WHEEL; THE FOREST OF TIME..... The Alternate URL has a link to the openlibrary page which offers several editions, in various formats. The OBL link is to the 1902 edition, with the insertion of the first page of the Contents, omitted from the openlibrary 1902 version.
Harold Fielding Hall
Source/publisher: Macmillan & Co. via openlibrary.org
Date of publication: 1901-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2010-09-23
[field_licence]
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.9 MB
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Title: The Burmese Empire a Hundred Years Ago
Description: First published: 1833....CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION; LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO; PREFACE BY MR. JARDINE; PREFACE BY CARDINAL WISEMAN; DESCRIPTION OF THE BURMESE EMPIRE... BURMESE COSMOGRAPHY: I. Of the Measures and Divisions of Time commonly used in the Sacred Burmese Books; II. Of the World and its Parts; III. Of the Beings that live in this World, of their Felicity or Misery, and of the Duration of their Life; IV. Of the States of Punishment; V. Of the Destruction and Reproduction of the World; VI. Of the Inhabitants of the Burmese Empire.... BURMESE HISTORY: VII. Origin of the Burmese Nation and Monarchy; VIII. Abridgment of the Burmese Annals, called Maharazven; IX. Of the present Royal Family, and of the Principal Events that have taken place under the Reigning Dynasty.... CONSTITUTION OF THE BURMESE EMPIRE: X. Of the Emperor, and of his White Elephants; XI. Officers of State and of the Household, Tribunals, and Administration of Justice; XII. Revenue and Taxes; XIII. Army and Military Discipline.... RELIGION OF THE BURMESE: XIV. The Laws of Godama; XV. Of the Talapoins; XVI. The Sermons of Godama; XVII. Superstitions of the Burmese.... MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE BURMESE EMPIRE: XVIII. Character of the Burmese; XIX. Manners and Customs of the Burmese; XX. Literature and Sciences of the Burmese; XXI. Natural Productions of the Burmese Empire; XXII. Calendar of the Burmese. Climate and Seasons of the Burmese Empire; XXIII. Of the Currency and Commerce of the Burmese Empire.... BURMESE CODE: XXIV. Abstract of the Burmese Code entitled Damasat; or the Golden Rule
Father Vincenzo Sangermano
Source/publisher: Archibald Constable & Co.
Date of publication: 1892-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2010-09-21
[field_licence]
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 5.97 MB
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Title: Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics
Description: "This book deals with the Buddhist dimensions underlying the politics of Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement in general. Today, Aung San Suu Kyi is identified in the international arena as an icon of democracy hemmed in by conservative military forces. Within the country, however, the military manipulates this �foreign� sentiment as a welcome addition to its propaganda armoury. It portrays Aung San Suu Kyi as a puppet, an honorary ambassador of the foreigner who is driven by foreign interests in disregard of her own native traditions. This book argues that neither the international image of her, nor the military misuse of her international image within the country come to terms with Burmese political values as expressed in the Burmese language. Gustaaf Houtman analyses military politics as a politics of authority (ana) and confinement that emphasises the local delineation of boundaries under the guise of benevolence, using the discourse of culture, archaeology and race, and the threat of imprisonment. By contrast, he analyses the democracy movement as a politics of influence (awza) that aims to transcend these boundaries. This elaborates on political terminology in terms of Buddhist mental culture leading to �non-self� (anatta), promising freedom from imprisonment and confinement. The ideals of the four byama-so tay� � in particular loving-kindness (metta) and compassion (karuna) � stand for democracy, just as they have stood for ideal true socialist government. The senior NLD leaders all closely identify with this and with the practice of Buddhist mental culture in general. Furthermore, though the lower forms of magic are more common amongst the military, many retired military responsible for imprisoning and disqualifying the NLD from office also proclaim to be engaged in the practice of mental culture and patronise the same Buddhist meditation centres. Mental culture, while strongly represented as democracy politics, thus plays a role as a conciliatory third force in Burmese politics. The author decodes the present political situation in terms of continuities with past colonial politics and assesses commonalties between the two sides. The book argues that, through association with Buddhist ideas emphasising substantive commonalties in all forms of life, Burmese political vocabulary itself has the promise within it to promote reconciliation in this divided polity..." (from the Press Release)
Gustaaf Houtman
Source/publisher: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Date of publication: 1999-03-29
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
[field_licence]
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.9 MB
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