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It is said that under the monarchy of the 19th century when Buddhist studies flourished, monks were strict in discipline. The king appointed a hierarchy headed by a Sangharaja to regulate the affairs of the Order. Under the British rule, no new patriarch was appointed. Eventually, the British ruler made arrangements for the monks to elect a head for themselves. Since then, discipline in the monasteries has become lax. Many younger monks became involved in politics. There were even small groups of monks who formed gangs demanding protection money from theaters in Mandalay. The monkhood did not receive direct government support. Their influence on the political parties was the only tie they had to the state.

In August 2504/1961, Buddhism was made the state religion by a vote of 324 to 28. The event, however, did not please some minority groups in the hill country, especially the Kachins and the Karens who had been converted to Christianity. Uprising problems developed at the time when economic conditions had become worse. On March 2, 2505/1962, General Ne Win seized power, suspended the constitution and pro-claimed a new anti-Communist government under a Revolutionary Council. Its policy and social and economic ideas were outlined in the document called “The Burmese Way to Socialism,” in which Buddhist thought and Marxism could join. But the new leading role was to be played by the socialist military, not the pongyis. Ne Win returned to the policy of the leader of the Burmese independence movement, that is, to separate religion from politics.

In August 2507/1964, a number of pongyis attacked and destroyed the printing press and the office of a Mandalay newspaper which published an article “A reminder to keep the Sasana pure.” Then, the Ne Win government issued a statement, saying, “.....from now onwards the revolutionary government will have to defend itself against bogus sanghas who have merely adorned the yellow robe to oppose the government at every available opportunity.” At the end of the year, senior monks agreed to formulate a new code of conduct and form a hierarchy to enforce the strict rules of monkhood.

In 2508/1965, young pongyis in many parts of Burma condemned the revolutionary government as anti-religious and urged its overthrow. On April 27, ninety-two pongyis were arrested by the government. By showing public evidence of the corruption of the arrested monks, the government prevented popular opposition and won the approval of the monkhood. As the government action was proved to be an effort to purify the Sangha, the political role of the pongyis was crushed. This was followed by many meritorious activities on the part of the government to show that it supported Buddhism only in a nonpolitical role. To a great extent, the government has met with success.

The above story may be summed up in Mr. Schecter’s words, “In Burma the monks have failed to serve as anything more than a critical and negative force; since their contribution to independence, they have spent their efforts in holding on to past prerogatives rather than offering initiatives..... It (the Ne Win government) has tried to apply Buddhist principles to social, economic and political change, leaving the clergy behind.”1

To many people, however, the attitude of the Ne Win regime towards Buddhism has been negative or doubtful. At least, it is apparent that the rich government support to Buddhist activities formerly given by U Nu has been reduced to a deficiency. The majestic work of publishing Buddhist texts and translations, though not brought to a complete stop, has hardly continued. The advancement of Buddhist studies and propagation has been barely encouraged or even checked by some government restrictions, though there is now a sign of some improvement.

Before World War II, there were about 800,000 monks and novices in Burma. Today the number may lie between 80,000 and 120,000 or, according to some private source, 350,000. Of this number about 33,000 are novices. Among the several sects of Theravada Buddhism, the Thuddama sect is the most numerous, while the Shwegyin sect, though smaller, is an important and influential branch. Standards of monastic discipline and learning vary considerably from monastery to monastery. Since the Sixth Buddhist Council, the focus of religious life has gradually been moving from Mandalay in Upper Burma to Rangoon in Lower Burma, where Buddhist centres of higher learning have been founded.

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