Religion in Burma - general
Websites/Multiple Documents
Description:
Archive ends October 20`16
Source/publisher:
Various sources via "BurmaNet News"
Date of entry/update:
2015-03-08
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Category:
Religion in Burma - general, Inter-Communal violence and discrimination - Myanmar - General articles and analysis
Language:
English
more
Individual Documents
Description:
"The Myanmar military regime has destroyed more than 100 Buddhist and Christian religious buildings in resistance strongholds in the country’s northwest, heartland and southeast since the coup last year.
Since late last year, the junta has conducted artillery and airstrikes on civilian areas in Chin State and Sagaing and Magwe regions, as well as in Kayah State. It has been facing strong resistance from local people in all those areas.
The regime’s attacks on civilian targets in predominantly Buddhist and Christian areas haven’t spared religious buildings, in which people often taken shelter when clashes erupt.
In predominantly Christian Chin State, nearly 35 churches and 15 affiliated buildings were destroyed in junta attacks between February 2021 and January 2022, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization.
In mostly Christian Kayah State in southeastern Myanmar, about 12 churches were destroyed in the same period, the Karenni Human Rights Group said.
In May last year, the regime forces’ continuous shelling of the Sacred Heart Church in Kayah State’s capital Loikaw killed four people taking shelter there, not to mention causing damage to the religious building. The junta’s claim that the building harbored resistance fighters was largely denied by people there. The attack prompted Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo to request that the regime refrain from targeting religious buildings.
But the regime forces ignored the cardinal’s request, shelling one of the main churches in Kayah State’s Demoso Township, the Queen of Peace Church, on June 6.
A Karenni Christian leader said the regime had shelled churches even during times when there was no fighting between junta and resistance forces. Sometime it attacked religious buildings located away from the combat areas, he said.
“They are attacking the churches intentionally to suppress the spirit of Christian people by attacking their sacred churches. I condemn their bad intentions,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Thantlang has been the worst-affected area in Chin State in Myanmar’s northwest, suffering artillery and arson attacks by the regime 26 times since September last year, forcing residents to desert the town. During the attacks, a Chin pastor was shot dead and his wedding ring cut from his finger by Myanmar junta soldiers when he went outside to help put out fires caused by the military’s shelling. Aerial pictures of the smoldering town with smoke snaking upward to the sky shocked the world. Three churches in the town caught on fire on Oct. 29 alone.
On Nov. 1, Washington condemned the Myanmar junta’s horrific use of violence in Chin State.
The targeting of churches in Kayah and Chin states reflects the regime’s frustration at not being able to assert control in the states despite almost 10 months of intense fighting against Karenni and Chin resistance fighters, during which the regime has resorted to using airstrikes and heavy weapons including artillery.
Additionally, the regime’s forces—who have vowed to protect Buddhism—have destroyed and launched arson attacks on Buddhist monasteries, especially in Sagaing and Magwe regions, two strongholds of anti-regime armed resistance in Myanmar’s heartland.
Based on media reports, at least 30 Buddhist monasteries in Sagaing Region and 20 in Magwe Region, which are predominantly Buddhist regions, have been destroyed, raided and looted by regime soldiers since April last year.
During clearance operations in the areas where they suspect locals of harboring resistance forces, junta troops have used heavy weapons and conducted arson attacks on monasteries, as well as destroying property and stealing valuables while quartered in the buildings.
Early this month, as many as six people died when the monastery they were sheltering in was shelled in Latpandaw Village in Sagaing Region’s Yinmabin Township.
The same township suffered the regime’s brutality in late February when soldiers raided Chin Phone Village’s monastery and detained over 80 primary schoolchildren as human shields for 36 hours.
“When the abbot of the monastery tried to negotiate with the regime forces, they pointed a gun at the monk and wouldn’t let him out of the monastery,” a villager recalled.
The regime forces turned the Buddhist monastery into an interrogation center and tortured and killed nine people including a 19-year-old woman, and stole 50 million kyats donated to the monastery by villagers.
U Waryama, a striking Buddhist monk and member of the Spring Revolution Sangha Network, said that while the regime made a lot of noise about protecting and promoting Buddhism, it never failed to show its true colors whenever its power was challenged.
“They build pagodas and monasteries to show they are the guardians of Buddhism but will not hesitate to kill monks if they pose a threat to their power,” the monk said..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-03-28
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Inter-Communal violence and discrimination - Myanmar - General articles and analysis, Racial or ethnic discrimination in Burma: reports of violations against several groups, Religion in Burma - general, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Military History
Language:
more
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 publication:
2020-01-09
Date of entry/update:
2020-01-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Religion in Burma - general, Buddhism in Burma - general, Islam, Society and Culture, Burma/Myanmar - general studies, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies
Language:
more
Description:
"Buddhists handed out white roses to Muslims heading to pray Wednesday to mark the end of Ramadan – the culmination of a rare show of solidarity in a country where Islam is often vilified.
Volunteers lined up outside Dargah mosque in eastern Yangon, giving flowers to scores of devotees heading inside to mark the Eid festival, weeks after a mob of hardliners had tried to shut down Ramadan prayers.
Muslim motorbike courier U Tin Myint, 42, said the gesture had raised spirits in the Muslim community.
"Some Buddhists really helped protect us," he said.
The white rose campaign started three weeks ago, after a mob of some 200 ultra-nationalists descended on three sites hosting Ramadan prayers in Yangon, forcing them to stop.
Police responded in the following days by offering protection to the shocked worshippers and an arrest warrant was issued for one protest leader.
Respected moderate monk Seindita also came to plead for their patience, handing out white roses in solidarity and triggering the campaign.
The team of some 100 volunteers gave out around 15,000 flowers to Muslims at 23 locations across the country during Ramadan.
Ko Thet Swe Win, 33, explained the roses were a "warning to extremists that many in Myanmar don't share their unjust views".
About three to four percent of Buddhist-majority Myanmar's population is Muslim although the religion traces its roots in the country back centuries.
A brutal 2017 military crackdown forced some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.
But discrimination against the Muslim community – which includes people from many ethnic groups – goes back further.
Critics say Muslims were particularly targeted by changes to Myanmar's laws in 2015, which heavily restricted inter-faith marriages.
U Wunna Shwe, joint-secretary of the Islamic Religious Affairs Council Myanmar, said the white rose campaign had really helped after years of degradation of their rights.
"We used to live like brothers and sisters with each other [alongside Buddhists]," he said, adding the problems were created for "political purposes"..."
Ko Thet Swe Win, U Wunna Shwe
Source/publisher:
Frontier Myanmar
Date of publication:
2019-06-06
Date of entry/update:
2019-06-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Religion in Burma - general
Language:
English
more
Description:
''Freedom of thought, conscience and belief, often referred to as the right to freedom of religion of belief (FoRB) is considered by many to be one of the foundations of a democratic society.
The workshop was aimed at discussing State regulation of religion or belief in Myanmar and included some 40 human rights defenders, lawyers and members of religious groups, from across the country.
ICJ legal adviser Sean Bain introduced the right to FoRB under international law and standards – particularly Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Mr Bain also discussed the complementarity of these articles with other rights, such as the right to freedom of expression, and highlighted the limitation clauses in the international treaties which provide a framework for resolving some of the tensions that can arise in specific cases.
Michelle Yesudas, a Malaysian human rights lawyer, shared good practices and lesson learned from application of strategic litigation in FoRB related cases in Malaysian context and spoke about potential approaches and strategies that could be adapted in Myanmar context to push the legislative reform and enforcement of the law...''
Source/publisher:
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
Date of publication:
2018-11-05
Date of entry/update:
2019-01-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights Reporting (global, regional and Myanmar), Religion in Burma - general, Links to online locations of Burma/Myanmar laws, decrees, bills, regulations etc.
Language:
English
more
Description:
"In Myanmar, rumours abound about the assault and coercion of Buddhist women. What makes this trope of everyday storytelling—often factually inaccurate—so resistant to ?debunking”?
Based on more than four years of in-depth qualitative research, we argue that rumours are durable because they resonate with, and allocate blame for, the suffering and stagnation of the 1990s and 2000s.
We see these dynamics at play in support for the four ?Protection of Race and Religion” laws. Drafted with assistance of Buddhist organisation Ma Ba Tha, they were passed in the final months of the U Thein Sein government and remain a thorn in the side of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi?s National League for Democracy government..."
Gerard McCarthy & Jacqueline Menager
Source/publisher:
"New Mandala"
Date of publication:
2017-07-12
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Religion in Burma - general, Inter-Communal violence and discrimination - Myanmar - General articles and analysis, Laws and decrees related to women (commentary), Laws, decrees, bills and regulations relating to population (commentary)
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Religion in Myanmar is a sensitive issue, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
The impact of religion on Myanmar society and politics was the focus of a panel exploring anti-Muslim sentiment at the 2017 Myanmar Update at ANU. A lively discussion offered new perspectives on religious participation, before concluding with an optimistic paper on the collection of positive inter-religious memories.
First, Thawng Tha Lian?s paper approached the role of the Christian church in Myanmar?s political transition, with a focus on Chin State. He argued that for Chin people, churches are uniquely placed to play a role in the nation?s democratic project, due to their strong social, legal and financial standing. This paper cited the experiences of church leaders in negotiations with armed groups and the government, as well as in ceasefire monitoring. Barriers to religious leaders? participation in politics were also identified, however, including recent instances and memories of religious oppression by the government..."
James T Davies
Source/publisher:
"New Mandala"
Date of publication:
2017-03-24
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Religion in Burma - general, Inter-Communal violence and discrimination - Myanmar - General articles and analysis
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Commissioned by CPCS, Myanmar: Portraits of Diversity is a series of short films seeking to stimulate discussion and move audiences towards recognizing, accepting, and celebrating religious diversity in Myanmar. Directed by Kannan Arunasalam, the films present individuals from Myanmar?s different religious communities and highlight the inter-faith connections and engagement that take place naturally around the country. Featuring stories of cooperation across religious and ethnic divides, as well as the capacity for peace leadership within the country, community leaders share analysis and insights into the threat of inter-communal violence and illustrate the capacity for peace leadership...The film series seeks to stimulate alternative narratives regarding ethnic and spiritual issues in Myanmar where tolerance and cooperation are highlighted, rather than conflict and persecution. Screened together with guided reflections, the films can be used as tools to stimulate exchanges of ideas about diversity and tolerance, and to create a space to foster acceptance and share visions for the future. The issues raised by individuals featured in the films can be used to generate discussions on Myanmar?s different religious communities and highlight the kinds of inter-faith connections and engagement that take place naturally around the country. A discussion and study guide is available for each video portrait, followed by suggested activities that can also be adapted to different learning environments. For each film, background is provided on the person and their context, followed by five discussion questions and extension activities..."
Source/publisher:
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS)
Date of publication:
2015-04-00
Date of entry/update:
2015-09-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Religion in Burma - general, Christianity, Ethnic groups in Burma: general studies and articles, Videos and multimedia on Burma in Burmese, Karen and other languages of Burma, most with English subtitles., Individual videos and films on Burma in English and other non-Asian languages
Language:
English and Burmese
more
Description:
Introduction: "Myanmar
has
had
the
prosperous
religion,
traditional,
and
other
forms
of
culture
in
their
ways
of
life.
Regarding
of
the
religion,
the
long-‐standing
and
extensive
belief
in
holy
and
tutelary
spirits
(Nat)
among
Myanmese
could
be
generally
cited
as
the
Myanmar?s
tradition
prior
the
Theravada.
Then
Buddhism
has
become
to
the
official
faith
since
King
Anawrahta
of
Bagan
dynasty
instituted
Theravada?
a
school
of
Buddhism?
to
be
the
principal
religion
in
11th
century.
Like
Myanmar,
other
societies
in
Southeast-‐Asia
and
all
where
the
ancient
belief
and
religion
is
respected
and
followed
by
those
local
people.
Among
the
several
Myanmar
primitive
cults,
this
article
would
like
to
raise
the
topic
of
the
existence
of
colorful
ritual
which
fully
contains
of
high
respect;
Nat
and
Nat
Kadaw
(spirit
and
spirit
medium).
Actually,
this
traditional
belief
has
been
gradually
illustrated
by
the
scholars
in
different
aspects,
the
classic
one
was
written
by
the
American
anthropologist;
Melford
E.
Spiro
(1967).
Three
decades
later,
the
specifically
ritual
book
about
the
well-‐known
Myanmar
local
festival
was
completed
by
Yves
Rodrigue
(1995)
and
other
views
such
as
the
intensive
of
this
ritual,
spirit
and
spirit
medium
have
been
still
described
by
Bénédicte
Brac
de
la
Perrière
(2009)
and
the
other
authors.
This
attractive
cult,
however,
has
still
remained
interesting
phenomenon
because
the
existence
of
the
local
be
lief
and
rite
has
closely
been
in
Myanmese
ways
of
life
from
Buddhism
belief,
strict
Buddhists
and
non-‐Buddhist
alliances.
In
addition,
some
interesting
aspects
are
that
how
the
Myanmar?s
socio-‐economic
changing
into
the
modern
society
effects
to
their
local
belief
and
spirit
worship,
how
their
social
transition
would
affect
to
the
people
appealing,
and
how
the
Nat
Kadaws
play
their
roles
and
have
relations
under
this context.".....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.
Patchareepan Ravangban
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:
2015-08-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
The Nats, Religion in Burma - general, Anthropological literature on religion and magic, International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies (ICBMS) 23-26 July, 2015
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
184.13 KB
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Description:
Introduction: "The
Saddhamma
Sangaha
is
a
work
of
14
century
AD
on
the
history
of
Buddhist
religion
and
Pali
Literature.
The
author
of
Saddhamma
Saṅ
gaha
is
Venerable
dhammakitti.
He
was
a
Thai
native
who,
being
desirous
of
coming
to
Ceylon
traveled
to
that
country
and
after
performing
meritorious
deeds
he
received
ordination
under
the
chief
monk.
While
he
was
staying
in
Ceylon
he
composed
this
work
by
Pāḷi
and
then
returns
to
his
native
land
and
lived
in
Thailand.
This
work
is
mentioned
as
Thai
Pāḷi
Text
by
H. Saddhātissa?s
Pāḷi
Literature
of
Thailand
(1979).
His
work
is
a
History
of
Buddhism
in
Ceylon.
It
has
eleven
chapters
and
contains
the
five
Buddhist
Council,
how
Buddha
Sāsanā
arrived
in
Ceylon,
the
life
and
literary
works
of
distinguished
commentator
Mahā
Buddhaghosa,
the
accounts
of
Tīkās
and
Ganthantara
treatises
and
the
advantage
of
writing
Piṭaka
Scriptures
and
advantage
of
listing
to
the
discourses.
It
was
published
in
Roman
Characters
edited
by
N.
Saddhānanda
of
1961.
In
Myanmar
no
manuscript
of
it
is
found
and
the
text
has
not
yet
been
studied.
It
is
assumed
that
once,
the
text
was
well
acknowledged
by
the
Myanmar
Buddhist
of
Kongbound
period
for
the
stanza
beginning
with
?Akkharā
ekamekaňca.....”
was
quoted
in
the
writings
on
the
cords
of
palm
leaf
manuscripts
belonging
to
that
period.
This
stanza
of
the
Saddhamma
Saṅgaha
is
found
nowhere
in
the
treatise
of
Pāli
Literature.
This
research
paper
will
be
described
in
the
five
sub
titles
as
follows.".....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.
San San Wai
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:
2015-08-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Buddhist texts, Buddhist relics, Religion in Burma - general, Burmese Buddhism outside Burma, International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies (ICBMS) 23-26 July, 2015
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
164.17 KB
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Description:
"For those
who have observed
Burmese religious life
long enough,
one striking
evolution
of the last
decades
has
been the growing
place of
Buddhist
preaching in
the practice of many monks
and in the public space
. While until the late eighties
dhamma
predication was hardly to be seen on the public scene, from the beginning
of the nineties onward,
it started to become
more and more
visible.
Traditional
ly monks were requested to preach on private
or communal ritual
occasions
such as
funerals, noviciation
or
offerings
made at
the monastery at the
end of the rain retreat season
(kahteinbwe). The large public performance of
«dhamma talks» by monks invited by laypeople independently of any ritual
occasion
contrasts sharply with these previous practices.
They are c
alled in
Burmese
taya bwe, the ?feast of Law”,
they
are held at night and usually last
around
an hour, or more.
As stated by Mahinda Deegalle in his study
on Sri Lanka
(2006), the development of
public predication,
known as the
bana
tradition
in that
context,
particularly
from the beginning of the eighteen
th century onward,
corresponds to the will of consolidating
Buddhist communities through
popularization of Buddhist teachings.
In Burma,
resorting to mass preaching to
educate the public at large
has
its own
genealogy
starting in the early nineteenth
century with the famous addresses of Thingaza Hsayadaw and those
not less
famous
of Ledi Hsayadaw
towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Mass
preaching had its heyday in the 1920s, when it was
used as
a tool
to initiate reform
among the public and contest
the
colonial rule by
young activist monks
such as
Ottama and Wisara.
It had continued until the 1960
s when it drastically decreased,
after Ne Win?s military coup,
because
expressions of religious life
then tended to
be relegated
to the p
rivate sphere. The large public
dhamma
talks
were to re-emerge only
in the 1990s,
at the
joint initiative of local communities and the
authorities, to become the
highly
popular
events prevailing
today...".....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.
Brac de la Perrière Bénédicte
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:
2015-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Religion in Burma - general, Burmese Buddhism and Society, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies (ICBMS) 23-26 July, 2015
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
711.04 KB
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Source/publisher:
http://www.drumpublications.org/download/karenfaithsk.pdf
Date of publication:
2007-03-00
Date of entry/update:
2015-05-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Karen (ကရင်ဘာသာ)
more