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BUDDHA IN BURMA continued: 1 | 2 | 3
By Lisa Kelly
FOR HUNDRED MOUNTAIN
BURMA MAY BE THE ONLY PLACE on earth where Christians have been forced to convert to Buddhism.
Muslims, too, in fact, have been coerced into abandoning their own faith. Those responsible for giving Buddhism a bad name? The SPDC, formerly known by its slimy-spacemonster acronym, SLORC. (The junta apparently got a case of the warm-and-fuzzies and decided to switch from “State Law and Order Restoration Council” to the “State Peace and Development Council”.)
Yes, Buddhism is alive and thriving in Burma. Unlike their Tibetan counterparts, Burmese Buddhists enjoy freedom of worship, both privately and publicly. However, according to the U.S. State Department’s Annual Report of International Religious Freedom, the SPDC keeps its tentacles wrapped tightly around the Burmese sangha and doesn’t hesitate to use Buddhism as a means to oppress non-Buddhist ethnic minorities.
Here are some excerpts from the 2000 report.
BURMA HAS BEEN RULED since 1962 by highly repressive, authoritarian military regimes, and since 1998, when the armed forces brutally suppressed massive pro-democracy demonstrations, a junta composed of senior military officers has ruled by decree, without a constitution or legislature…
Most adherents of all religions duly registered with the authorities generally enjoyed freedom to worship as they chose; however, the Government imposed some restrictions on certain religious minorities. In addition the Government systematically restricted efforts by Buddhist clergy to promote human rights and political freedom, and coercively promoted Buddhism over other religions in some ethnic minority areas.
There is no official state religion; however, the Government continued to show a preference for Theravada Buddhism in practice. Successive Governments, civilian and military, have supported and associated themselves conspicuously with Buddhism.
Virtually all organizations must be registered with the Government. Although there is a government directive exempting “genuine” religious organizations from registration, in practice only registered organizations can buy or sell property or open bank accounts, which induces most religious organizations to register.
There are minorities of Christians (mostly Baptists as well as some Catholics and Anglicans), Muslims (mostly Sunni), Hindus, and practitioners of traditional Chinese and indigenous religions. According to government statistics, almost 90 percent of the population practice Buddhism, 4 percent practice Christianity, and 4 percent practice Islam; however, these statistics may understate the non-Buddhist proportion of the population.
The Government continued both to show preference for Theravada Buddhism, the majority religion, and to control the organization and restrict the activities and expression of its clergy (“sangha”). The Government prohibits any organizations of Buddhist clergy other than nine state-recognized monastic orders, which submit to the authority of a state-sponsored State Clergy Coordination Committee (“Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee”—SMNC) elected indirectly by monks.
THROUGH THE 1990s, the Government increasingly has made special efforts to link itself with Buddhism as a means of asserting its own popular legitimacy. State-controlled news media continued frequently to depict or describe junta members paying homage to Buddhist monks, making donations at pagodas throughout the country, officiating at ceremonies to open, improve, restore or maintain pagodas, and organizing ostensibly voluntary “people’s donations” of money, food, and uncompensated labor to build or refurbish Buddhist religious shrines throughout the country.
In October 1990, the military junta promulgated Order 6/90, which bans any organization of Buddhist clergy other than the nine orders constituting the SMNC; Order 7/90, which authorizes military commanders to try Buddhist clergy before military tribunals for “activities inconsistent with and detrimental to Buddhism;” and Decree 20/90, “Law Concerning Sangha Organizations,” which imposes on Buddhist clergy a code of conduct enforced by criminal penalties. These edicts remain in effect.
SINCE 1990, GOVERNMENT authorities and security forces have promoted Buddhism over Christianity among the Chin ethnic minority of the western part of the country. Until 1990, the Chin generally practiced either Christianity or traditional indigenous religions…
Since 1990 government authorities and security forces, with assistance from monks of the Hill Regions Buddhist Missions, coercively have sought to induce Chins to convert to Theravada Buddhism…
…This campaign, reportedly accompanied by other efforts to “Burmanize” the Chin, has involved a large increase in military units stationed in Chin State and other predominately Chin areas, state-sponsored immigration of Buddhist Burman monks from other regions, and construction of Buddhist monasteries and shrines in Chin communities with few or no Buddhists, often by means of forced “donations” of money or labor.
ACCORDING TO MULTIPLE CREDIBLE reports, authorities and security forces promoted Buddhism among the Chin in diverse and often coercive ways. For example, military units repeatedly located their camps on the sites of Christian churches and graveyards, which were destroyed to build these camps; local Chin Christians were forced to assist in these acts of desecration. Local government officials ordered Christian Chins to attend sermons by newly arrived Buddhist monks who disparaged Christianity and promised monthly support payments to individuals and households that converted to Buddhism.
Government soldiers stationed in Chin State reportedly were given higher rank and pay if they induced Chin women to marry them and convert to Buddhism. The authorities reportedly supplied rice to Buddhists at lower prices than to Christians, distributed extra supplies of foodstuffs to Buddhists on Sunday mornings while Christians attended church, and exempted converts to Buddhism from forced labor…
FOR MORE ON BURMA, visit www.freeburma.org -- which is a page of links to "the best" informational and activist Burma sites on the web.
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