"The world’s largest marble Buddha, now under construction in Myanmar’s military capital of Naypyidaw, will reportedly be able to withstand 193 kilometer-per-hour winds and earthquakes measuring as high as 8.8 on the Richter scale. The gargantuan 25-meter Buddha, weighing over 5,000 tons and etched from over 20,000 tons of marble, is nearly complete after three-plus years of building, according to state media reports. And State Administration Council (SAC) junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is clearly excited judging by reports of his June 29 visit to the construction site. The project has employed over 150 laborers, including from the Myanmar Engineering Society and Military Engineering Corps, and will be built entirely “without foreign experts,” Min Aung Hlaing proudly proclaimed during his site visit. The image, carved in the Maravijaya style, is a very common Buddha pose “with 32 great characteristics and 80 small characteristics of the Lord Buddha”, according to state media reports. In a report covering the first section of the image’s installation in October 2021, just as multiple conflicts were raging in Myanmar following the February coup that year that installed the SAC, the purpose of the statue was touted as peaceful. “(T)he Buddha image is being built with the aim of showing the flourishing of the Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar to the world, ensuring the peace and tranquility of the country, contributing to development of the region through the visits of local and foreign travelers and improving the State development.” Min Aung Hlaing had taken a close interest in the gigantic statue’s construction even before his disastrous and bloody coup. He has reportedly visited frequently at important stages of the statue’s assembly. In May, for instance, he witnessed the “Unnalon Holy Hair installation.” At the auspicious time and date of 2:43 am on February 13, the fourth section of the image was conveyed and installed. The military ruler has seemingly staked his karmic fortunes on the statue’s successful completion. Gigantic Buddha statues are not new to Myanmar or Theravada Buddhist countries across Southeast Asia. Some of the biggest Buddhas in Myanmar are at the Maha Bodhi Tahtaung in Monywa, home to a 116-meter standing Buddha reportedly opened in 2008, the third tallest Buddha statue in the world, and a 90-meter-long reclining Buddha replete with 31 floors inside. (The tallest Buddha statue in the world is the Statue of Unity in India, towering at 182 meters.) There are also gigantic reclining Buddhas in the Mon State capitol of Mawlamyaing, in Bago city and the famous Chaukhtatgyi in Bahan township in Yangon – all of which underscore Myanmar’s long tradition of religious construction and support of the Buddhist clergy, or sangha. The Maravijaya Buddha will overshadow the previous largest marble Buddha, the Lawka Chantha Abhaya Labha Muni, or Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda, on the outskirts of Yangon, carved in 2013 to 11.3 meters from 700 tons of marble winnowed down to 400 tons upon completion. The statue was so heavy it required specially-built barges and railways to transport. While gigantic religious statues in Myanmar are commonplace, so too is the pursuit of celestial absolution for mass crimes by military rulers. Min Aung Hlaing is merely the latest dictator to support religious construction projects in karmic hope that building giant Buddhas will give them positive reincarnation rather than rebirth in the “hungry ghost realm” where they belong to be endlessly tormented by their many victims. There are growing reports of SAC leaders engaging in not just the building of gigantic religious structures but also flourishes of yedaya, or Myanmar black magic, also common practiced by generations of superstitious generals. In the mid-1990s, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the current junta regime’s obvious inspiration, toured a Buddha Tooth Relic borrowed from China around Myanmar. That abusive regime built lavish temples, reportedly with forced prison labor, to display the artifact in a bid to boost their spiritual fortunes and appease the Buddhist priesthood. The sangha and military haven’t always seen eye to eye. There have been sometimes supportive, almost symbiotic, relations, especially with conservative or ultranationalist monks in the official Buddhist synod, the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee. At other times, including in 1990 and 2007, the two power centers have been antagonistically opposed as activist monks staged public marches to agitate against declining living standards and the then-military regimes’ disastrous socio-economic policies. The relationship between the military-controlled central state and Buddhist clergy was also tested during General Thein Sein’s 2011-16 administration by the rise of the Buddhist monk-led Patriotic Association of Myanmar, or Ma Ba Tha, which contributed to a rise in anti-Muslim persecution and at times open violence. The most notorious pro-military monk is Sitagu Hsayadaw, who was widely revered in the country until his support for the Ma Ba Tha caused certain unease. But as Myanmar Now’s editor Swe Win wrote early in 2023, Sitagu expressed support for the coup soon after it was staged and continues to sidle up to Min Aung Hlaing, to the opprobrium of many in Myanmar. In recent weeks, the influential Ottama Thara from the Thabarwa Monastery in Thanlyin township, close to the commercial capital of Yangon, reportedly urged senior National League for Democracy (NLD) officials to compel Aung San Suu Kyi to retire from politics and seek to promote peace in the country. Many monks formerly connected to Ma Ba Tha are now reported to support SAC-raised death squads such as the Thwe Thouq (blood drinkers) and brutal militias such as the Phyu Saw Thee in the deeply religious but horrifically violent conflict areas of Sagaing and Magwe. State media routinely claims many monks have been targeted for assassination by the anti-coup resistance despite their supposed innocence but likely due to their perceived support for the SAC. At the same time, many monks are known to be involved in the clandestine support for resistance activities while also conducting their traditional roles in health, education and humanitarianism. The lavish funeral arrangements for the former chairperson of the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, Bhamo Hsayadaw, who died at age 94 on May 25, were another indication of the regime’s karmic compulsions, even if the respected monk dissolved the Ma Ba Tha in 2017 and reportedly called on the military not to stage a coup in January 2021. Min Aung Hlaing, Vice Senior General Soe Win and other senior SAC officials were pallbearers at the June 6 funeral in another apparent attempt to stockpile good deeds to outweigh their widespread war crimes. As if to deepen the macabre aspects of these religious performances, the silicon sculpture of Bhamo Hsayadaw will have state-of-the-art artificial teeth to represent his unique smile, the work of famed sculptor Aung Kyaw Tun. But as Myanmar endures a grinding multi-sided war, extreme military violence, natural disasters and a devastated economy, Min Aung Hlaing’s gigantic Buddha statue in Naypyidaw will not be smiling down kindly upon him or his junta. Indeed, in March, the Maravijaya image seemingly cried as stripes appeared around the marble statue’s eyes, stains that prompted officials to unceremoniously cover its face. It was hardly a propitious sign for a superstitious dictator seeking spiritual absolution for his many well-documented karmic crimes..."