Page 387 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Burmese Buddhism and traditional Beliefs CONTEXTS 385
Burmese Buddhism and traditional

beliefs

Almost ninety percent of all Burmese people classify themselves as Buddhist.
Buddhism permeates every aspect of Burmese life, with Myanmar often
claimed to be the world’s most devout Buddhist nation, both in terms of the
amount of money dedicated to religious expenses and judged by the
proportion of monks relative to the overall population – easy to believe
when you’ve seen quite how many red-robed clergy there are in virtually
every corner of the country.

There are also significant numbers of Christians, Muslims and other religious groups,
although these are found mainly among ethnic minorities and exist very much at the
margins of Burmese society – particularly given the prolonged discrimination against
non-Buddhist individuals and groups, which has been a feature of the years since
independence.

History of Burmese Buddhism
Buddhism arrived early in Myanmar, although exactly who converted to the religion
and when remains conjectural. According to one tradition, the religion was introduced
by two monks despatched by the great Indian Buddhist emperor Ashoka (ruled
268–232 BC), although its arrival was most likely a piecemeal affair, as the new
religion travelled east from India, mingling with existing beliefs and religious practices.
The Rakhine, living close to the subcontinent, claim to have been among the first to
convert, while the Mon were also early adherents. Further north, the Bamar adopted an
eclectic version of the faith known as Ari Buddhism including nat worship (see p.386)
alongside elements drawn from Hinduism and Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism, as
well as other magical astrological and alchemical beliefs.
The establishment of a relatively orthodox form of Theravada Buddhism as the
dominant religion came in the eleventh century during the reign of the great King
Anawrahta of Bagan (see p.359). Much of the credit for Anawrahta’s reforming zeal
goes to the legendary Mon monk, Shin Arahan, who persuaded the king to abandon
the heterogeneous Ari faith in favour of the more conservative Theravada form
– although Anawrahta made the concession of installing images of the traditional nats
on the stupa of his great Shwezigon Pagoda (see p.203), and nat worship remains very
much alive to this day.
Myanmar subsequently became one of the main strongholds of the Theravada faith,
surviving the resurgence of Hinduism in India (which virtually wiped out the religion
in the country of its birth), as well as the arrival of Islam and the onslaught of
colonial-era Christianity – although missionaries had considerable success among some
of the country’s ethnic minorities, and significant numbers of Kayin, Kachin, Chin and
Naga still profess Christianity to this day.
Surprisingly, Buddhism has never been the official state religion of Myanmar except
for a brief period in 1961–62. Nonetheless, the identification between state and
Buddhism has always been strong. Early Burmese kings traditionally saw themselves as
patrons and upholders of the faith, while in more recent years Myanmar’s ruling
generals traditionally made much of their temple-building projects and other religious
activities in an effort to distract attention from their murderous rule.

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