The most Reverend and powerful Sangh society

The most Reverend and powerful Sangh society

By Alinsek

19.12.2009

Monks were involved in early outbreaks of resistance against British colonization, joining lay people in taking up arms against the British after seeing King Thibaw sent into exile.

Monks have their resistance martyrs—U Ottama, for instance, who led 3,000 rebels in the Salin area a year after the invasion of Mandalay. The rebel monk, also known as Bo Ottama, was captured and hanged by the British in 1889.

Not all monks advocated armed struggle.

Two who preached nonviolent resistance, U Wisara and another monk named U Ottama, spent many years in prison for their opposition to colonialism and their names have joined the list of independence heroes.

U Ottama, a globe-trotting, well-respected monk from Arakan State, was a powerful speaker whose calls for independence were featured in the national newspaper Thuriya. He once famously told the British Governor Sir Reginald Craddock to go home to Britain, in a speech that landed him in prison.

Like U Ottama, U Wisara was imprisoned several times for his public speeches and died in jail in 1929 after 166 days of a hunger strike. His prison sentences included terms of hard labor, and he was also defrocked.

Both monks became an inspiration to activists and students involved in the independence movement.

Scholar Michael Mendelson wrote in his “Sangha and State in Burma,” that all politically active monks tended to be labeled by the colonial authorities as “political agitators in the yellow robes.” Interestingly, a similar term is used by Burma’s current leaders to describe protesting monks.

Historians wrote that the British authorities were surprised to learn the influential role of the Sangha community, and soon after the invasion of 1885 they abolished the position of “Supreme Patriarch,” or Thathana-baing.

In former times, Burmese kings appointed Thathana-baing to govern the Sangha community and made them responsible for doctrinal instruction and discipline of all monks. But the position wasn’t accepted by the entire Sangha. The progressive Shwegin sect was one group that rejected it. Sectarianism created controversy and bitter rivalry among monks.

One experienced colonial political officer, Col Edward Sladen, conversant with the power of the Sangha, advised British authorities to maintain the Thathana-baing system in order to head off conflicts in governing the predominately Buddhist country.

The role of Thathana-baing was undoubtedly a complicated one, involving a direct link between the monarchy and the Sangha. The Thathana-baing wielded influence and could even intervene in state affairs. One respected abbot even persuaded King Mindon to abandon corvée labor for his irrigation projects.

After independence, however, the influence of Buddhism and the Sangha went into decline, except for a period under the late prime minister U Nu, a devout Buddhist.

U Nu himself was ordained as a monk several times and rarely exploited Buddhism for his own political ends. Under his government, the Sixth Great Buddhist World Council was held in 1954, and he also created the Buddha Sasana Council.

Tin Maung Maung Than noted in his book, “Sangha Reforms and Renewal of Sasana in Myanmar: Historical trends and Contemporary Practice”: “Because of various Gaing and sectarianism U Nu failed to take effective reforms in spite of institutionalization of Buddhism within the state superstructure and notwithstanding the holding of the Sixth Buddhist Synod in 1954.”   

U Nu also attempted to legalize Buddhism as the state religion in 1961. The attempt was considered to be a misguided policy, and it anyway failed to materialize as U Nu was ousted by Gen Ne Win one year later.  

Ne Win regarded monks as a potential opposition and he developed a different strategy to control them. In the mid-1960s, his regime called a Sangha conference to issue monks with identification cards. Young monks and abbots stayed away from the gathering.

It wasn’t until 1980 that Ne Win succeeded in containing the monks by establishing a “State Sangha Nayaka Committee,” after a carefully orchestrated campaign to discredit the Sangha.

Before the campaign, intelligence officers and informants of the government infiltrated the temples as monks and gathered information about monks and abbots.

Some well-known abbots, including Mahasi Sayadaw, an internationally respected monk who was invited by U Nu in 1947 to teach Vipassana meditation, were also targeted in the campaign.

Anthropologist Gustaaf Houtmann wrote in his paper “Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics” that the regime had “distributed leaflets accusing Mahasi of talking with the nat spirits, and it was claimed that the Tipitaka Mingun Sayadaw, Burma’s top Buddhist scholar, had been involved in some unsavory incident two years after entering the monkhood.” Both monks were victims of their refusal to cooperate with the regime.

At that time, monks refused to attend religious ceremonies held by military officials and family members.

In one incident, the Mandalay Division commander at the time, Maj-Gen Tun Kyi, who later became trade minister, invited senior monks and abbots to attend a religious ceremony but no one showed up. Military leaders realized the seriousness of the boycott and decided to launch a crackdown.

In Mandalay alone, more than 130 monasteries were raided and monks were defrocked and imprisoned. As many as 300 monks nationwide were defrocked and arrested.

Former political prisoners recalled that monks who shared prison quarters with them continued to practice their faith despite being forced to wear prison uniforms and being officially stripped of their membership of the Sangha.

Apart from being stripped of their robes, imprisoned monks in Mandalay were forced to wear white prison uniforms and were taunted with nicknames instead of being addressed with their true titles, according to former political prisoners.

One year later, in 1991, the then head of the military junta, Snr-Gen Saw Maung, suffered a nervous breakdown and retired for health reasons. Buddhist Burmese still say this was punishment for his maltreatment of the monks.

An aged 59 Burma Prime minister Gen Soe Win  also died with Leukemia on October 2007 after Saffron movement.

The 1990 crackdown divided the Sangha community.  

Today, while rebellious monks are prepared to go to prison, many senior monks and abbots are allowing themselves to become government tools by accepting gifts and large donations from the generals. 

The generals have also applied “divide and rule” strategies in dealing with the Sangha community and the opposition.

In 1996, the regime accused the National League for Democracy of infiltrating the Sangha with the aim of committing subversive acts against the authorities. The generals obviously did not want to see opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi developing too close a relationship with the monks.

Traditionally, temples have provided hiding places for activists, and in 1988 monks offered shelter to fugitives from the intelligence authorities. 

At one time, the regime even placed restrictions on opposition members, preventing them from ordaining as monks. Like universities and schools, politically active monasteries are under heavy surveillance.

Many Burmese may find it hard to believe that their military leaders are actually preserving Buddhism. Even when they are building pagodas and erecting Buddha images, the projects are based on astrological predictions and readings.

It certainly wasn’t a belief in Buddhist tenets. Nor does Buddhism permit the military to beat, defrock, imprison and kill monks.

Monks who receive donations from laymen and who visit households every morning to receive hsoon in Burmese learn and witness at firsthand the suffering and poverty of ordinary Burmese people. They continue to witness the deteriorating situation in the predominately Buddhist country, ruled by a military government.

The Buddha once said: “When the ruler of a country is just and good, the ministers become just and good; when the ministers are just and good, the higher officials become just and good; when the higher officials are just and good, the rank and file become just and good; when the rank and file become just and good, the people become just and good.”

Monks, considered “sons of Buddha,” are the strongest institution in Burma after the armed forces. But there is continuing debate on whether they should involve themselves in politics. History has shown that monks have long played a pivotal role in Burmese politics.

Monks were involved in early outbreaks of resistance against the

Even after independence, however, Buddhism and the influential Sangha community were in decline. Under the current military rulers, the traditionally powerful Sangha community is in discord and decay.

The generals have been trying to control the Sangha community, regarding it as a real threat to the stability of the regime. According to official data, there are more than 400,000 monks in Burma, and its community, the sangha, is considered one of the strongest and most revered institutions in the country. It has always played an important role in Burma’s social and political affairs, often in opposition to oppressive regimes.

While rebellious monks are prepared to go to prison, condemned as “agitators in yellow robes,” many senior monks and abbots are becoming government tools by accepting gifts and large donations from the generals. These elderly abbots who cuddle up to the ruling generals can no longer speak for the Sangha community at large, let alone comment on the suffering of the Burmese people.

Elderly senior monks are grouped within the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, a legal organization founded in 1980 that wields little influence, either with the Sangha community or with the generals.

Any intervention by the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee in the aftermath of the recent Pakokku confrontation could even provoke more dissent from young monks.

Known as a “pattanikkujjana” in Pali, a Buddhist monks’ boycott involves refusing morning alms from those said to have violated religious principles.

Burmese monks have declared a pattanikkujjana against the military regime and their cronies twice in recent history: the first time in 1990 following the suppression of Aung San Suu Kyi and her opposition party, the National League for Democracy, after they had won a national election by a landslide; and again in 2007, the so-called “Saffron Revolution,” when monks led demonstrations against price hikes in Rangoon that turned into a national uprising against the government.

Ashin Htawara said in his statement that , “As a monk, I see Burma is a country rich in natural resources. however, our people has been suffering from poverty from more than five decades. It has gone from bad to wrose.”

“Despite the ‘truth’ and  ‘the rule of law’ the word and the term frequently heard from the mouth of the military clique, only unfairness is been seen. By imprisoning and torturing those talking about unfairness, these jargons were clearly proved by the monks’ Saffron movement on 5th September to be the ‘untruth’ and ‘the misrule of law’.”

On September 5 2007, about 500 monks walked in row, reciting passion prayers including Metta Sutta for the people in the country, demanding the military regime to lower commodity prices. Burmese military clique tied Ashin Pyinnyar Sakka and Ashin Pyinnyar Nanda to the post and beaten brutally them in Pakkokekku township of Upper Burma. It sparked the peaceful Saffron Revolution.

Young monks might thus feel they have a noble obligation and every reason to speak out on behalf of the large number of Burmese who provide alms and maintain the country’s innumerable temples.

While regularly reciting the Lord Buddha’s teachings, the monks also understand the nature of politics. Although he shunned worldly affairs, Buddha stressed the need for good governance and good rulers.

 Ashin Htavara, General Secretary of All Burma Monks Representative Committee (ABMRC) which established 19 September 2007 at the Sule Pagoda, Ashin Nayminda, Information officer of ABMRC, Poet Aung Wai and Kyaw Ko Ko …?, ……..of ABSFU,,,,? made speeches to about 30,0000 monks and people in 23, September 2007.

Ashin Nayminda said “Please have unity among the monks, students and people.Be in harmony.Be in accord, I appeal to the students and people to join the monks in this struggle in unison without leaving each other.”

Ashin Htavara made speeches that “Because we are monks of the religious order, we do not wish bloodshed for all unsolved problems. We wish peaceful means, dialogue for solution.”

“The current military dictators should ask themselves first who were the culprits of the Burma being listed among the poorest nation in the world. A handful of people who are dictators who are dictators are mal-appropriating the revenue and natural resources for the people and getting rich.”

“There is no development in Burma when it is compared with other current developing countries in the world is due to very poor administrative mechanism of the military junta. Instead, they are trying to drag their feet by deceiving the public with their seven road maps. This is detrimental for our people.”

Moreover, Ashin Htavara urged that Burmese military junta must hold a tri-partite dialogue with all ethnic groups to be peace and democracy in Burma.

In 26 September 2009, Burmese military junta and their followers coaxed and threatened monks and people alternatively.Some military followers asked the monks  “Why are the Reverends holding protesting?. Politics is not supposed to be for monks”  

Ashin Htavara replied bravely, “The reason why we have performed the excommunication rite is this. That you have ruthlessly beaten Ashin Pyinnya Sakka and Pyinnya Nanda to death after tying them to the lamp post without any respect for the religion is a reason. The other reason is our wish to see governmental organizations solving all kinds of current difficulties and the troubles of the people in the country with fairness. It is clear to you why we are protesting.”

Burma’s monasteries, some housing as many as 1,000 practicing monks, have been largely silent since the junta ordered a crackdown on the monk-led protests in August and September 2007. But several sources say that the simmering resentment could come to a head again in the lead-up to the regime’s election planned for 2010.

The military authorities closed and sealed Maggin monastery in Rangoon's Thingankyun Township in November 2007 after its abbot, Sayadaw U Indaka, was arrested for his involvement in the demonstrations. The monks and novices were evicted along with several HIV/ AIDS patients who were receiving treatment in the monastery at the time.

In October, the ABMA expelled junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe from the Buddhist faith on the grounds that he had failed to issue an apology for his abuse of monks and the religion of Buddhism.