Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BURMESE BUDDHISM AND
TRADITIONAL BELIEFS
AlmostninetypercentofallBurmesepeopleclassifythemselvesasBuddhist.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 reli-
giousexpensesandjudgedbytheproportionofmonksrelativetotheoverallpopulation
- easy to believe when you've seen quite how many red-robed clergy there are in virtu-
ally every corner of the country.
There are also significant numbers of
Christians
,
Muslims
and other religious groups, al-
though 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), al-
though the arrival of the religion was most likely a piecemeal affair, as the new religion trav-
elled east from India, mingling with existing beliefs and religious practices. The Rakhine,
livingclosetothesubcontinent,claimtohavebeenamongthefirsttoconvert,whiletheMon
were also early adherents. Further north, the Bamar adopted an eclectic version of the faith
known as
Ari Buddhism
including
nat
worship 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
religioncameintheeleventhcenturyduringthereignofthegreat
KingAnawrahta
ofBagan.
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
, and
nat
worship
remains very much alive to this day.
Myanmar subsequently became one of the main strongholds of the Theravada faith, surviv-
ingtheresurgenceofHinduisminIndia(whichvirtuallywipedoutthereligioninthecountry
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 minor-
