Buddhism and the Burmese establishment - article ; n°1 ; vol.17, pg 85-95

E. Michaelmendelson.

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1964 - Volume 17 - Numéro 1 - Pages 85-95
11 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1964
• Nombre de lectures: 20
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

E. Michael Mendelson
Buddhism and the Burmese establishment
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 17, 1964. pp. 85-95.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Mendelson E. Michael. Buddhism and the Burmese establishment. In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 17,
1964. pp. 85-95.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1964.1756
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0003-9659_1964_num_17_1_1756BUDDHISM
AND THE BURMESE ESTABLISHMENT
Nations for religious peoples world it of political combined has Asian modem while world operation very as records Fascist-Peoples-Freedom tatives relation were certain and own vv is it Indian-type such In since different houses hardly is masters HETHER being sufficient would melancholy we in view developments the possible Asian will authority refer problems operations can forms is the the have Buddhist presented but in teach necessary like shall also of surrounding from beginning of to the country order charismatic of in the the to the to use be Hinduism in itself also story than to us that Here document qualified is dwell latest accompanying Sangha seen of by strengthen Buddhist during few to Buddhist Briefly good though to that which characteristic of the been league remind especially hills clear want earn higher in royal and government Order of success deal the it used we series Dr Burma only Revival my to many Buddhism successes A.F.P.F.L. state revealingly and its British the find reîigion courts about show Leach paper as of principal upon ten ascendency incidentally can known the reader other of Monks in admission that justification as the first long-lasting the over Regime) sponsored be has the official in can by countries to official nature as sanctioning claimed in that pure government of contention Independent Christie made relation be Burmese one South an over in to variety said claims hint religious the and other of attempt this by of the claims for if suddenly religion the East between though Buddhism to on politics at not how concourse point asserting history is words its in emerge few Sought Nu of an how years with Asian deed that permanent the on political far and fields early in its and and the this left as tribal the which in aggravated belief the is the valley from true to the his of recent truth its more religion the to South disciplinary part the degenerate dazzle or authority very colleagues animist Revival represen the put that aspect Burmese politico- the cultures various United article or of as Anti- East their need in first this less the the far by
Hugh TINKER The Union of Burma Study of the First Years of Independence
O.U.P. 1957
85 ARCHIVES DE SOCIOLOGIE DES RELIGIONS
and it only remains to be said that today in spite of constitutional guarantees
to the contrary the attitude can still be found in arguments for Burmese hegemony
over such populations as Karen Kachin and Chin on the borders
One important point should be briefly discussed however and it is in essence
an extension of some implications in view of the shifting nature of
political control in Burmese royal history
Briefly if read him aright Leach contends that the charismatic nature of
Burmese royalty and its inability to devise lasting administrative systems in
conquered territories forces us to reject the concept of national frontiers in history for what strong king would build up in bis lifetime could be
lost in an equally short space of time by weak successor My pre-occupations
lead me to extend the question to the Sangha granted some sort of relation
between Court and Order of Monks how is our view of this relation affected by
contribution to our knowledge of the Court This plunges us into the
heart of our problem and requires preliminary digression into recent Burmese
ecclesiastical history
trust have the sympathy in asserting that compared for instance
to our knowledge of Christian monastic orders and churches data on the Sangkos
of various Buddhist countries and especially the Southern ones are abo
minably rare In short paper such as this am obliged to ask him to trust my
attempts to piece together some knowledge about the Burmese Sangha and to
accept few basic assertions which would normally need much discussion
Leaving aside complex historical reasons for this we may assert that the
Sangha in Burma has never departed much from the original simple picture of
lay-monk relations laid down very early in the Theravada scriptures donor-
recipient relation in which the monk-recipient is essentially passive partner-
scripturally field of merit in which the layman improves bis karmie status
by meritorious gifts Traditional sociological definitions of the Sangha appear
to be limited either to small local groups of monks or to the whole body of monks
everywhere Sangha of the Four Quarters The King in this system is no
more than the chief among the donors responsible for keeping the country
peaceful and prosperous so that action in the field of merit may be uninterrupted
By extension the King may be responsible for keeping the religion pure and
untainted by heresy and is thus potential arbitrator in intTSL-Sangha dissention
but conditions within Theravada systems undeviating allegiance to early texts
clear supremacy of the monastic state over the lay general absence of compe
tition from rival cults did not in general make heavy demands on the King
this respect In short provisions from the laity being sufficient the Order in
Burma never or very rarely appears to have felt the need to organize itself as
drastically as it has done in such countries as Tibet or Japan 3)
This means broadly speaking that the Order variously estimated today
at between 80000-120000 in population of some 18 million has always been
made up in the main of small discrete units ultimately responsible to themselves
alone monks living alone or small groups with perhaps small entourage of
LEACH The Frontiers of Burma Comparative Studies in Society and History
III oot 1960
The Mahayana of course departed from this simple pattern when laymen began to
demand fuller participation in every sphere of religious life this Vehicle developing as result
of lay-monastic tensions far beyond the scope of the early schools In China and Japan it also
had to contend with well-established rival religions
86 BUDDHISM AND THE BURMESE ESTABLISHMENT
novices and schoolchildren supported by the village on whose outskirts their
monastery was built Now while we have virtually no information at all on the
relations between these units and local or central political authorities we are
used to being told in 19th and early 20th century texts of Sangharaja usually
the tutor and nominated by the King ruling over the whole Order through
hierarchy of local archbishops and bishops and heads of monasteries with
central disciplinary Council of archbishops deciding points of law arising out
of the interpretation of Vinaya the disciplinary code of the Sangha Taking
Leach as my guide and using such scanty information as is available have
begun to argue that this is bound to be an ideal picture and that the real situation
must have depended to considerable extent at different times on the power
of the King himself on the authority of the Sangharaja similarly charismatic
and on that of his subordinates but that at no time is it likely that any
Sangharaja had complete over the whole monkhood if only leaving
aside the discreteness of the governed units because of the shifting frontiers of
political control To this very day for example the religious programme of the
A.F.P.F.L government has virtually had to leave out altogether the large body
of Shan monks in the Shan States and it is still possible to study fascinating
examples of colonization of the Shan States by Burmese ecclesiastics
It is safer then rather than to see the Sangharaja as head of the Sangha
protecting his people as the King protected his subjects to consider the Sangharaja
as tenuous bridge between the King and largely autonomous Order When the
system worked well the monks co-operated with local authorities in the process
of government reporting on peace or war within their jurisdictions acting as
local judges and persuading their disciples to pay their taxes and do their corvées
When it worked badly we have examples of the political authority having to
intervene and arrest local monks for inciting their people not to obey the laws
We are brought one step nearer our main theme by considering some develop
ments arising in the troubîed times of Mindon and Thibaw and the period of
British rule To begin with we know fairly well how whatever potential support
for the British regime may have been salvaged from the Sangharaja institutions
was sacrificed to the theory that the State should not interfere with religion
After an interregnum Sangharaja was appointed by the British but his powers
were limited from the start and were eventually reduced to nothing it is possible
to document the misunderstanding whereby the British though clearly told
that the Head Monk had to be backed by the political authority tried to demo
cratize his office thus weakening it out of existence
Much less well understood is the question of Sects within the Order and
here we are usually told by British and Burmese sources alike that they have
never been of any importance Now this is true if we ta