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by Roger Bischoff

Buddhism in MyanmarA Short History

Buddhism in MyanmarA Short History

Buddhism in Myanmar

A Short History

by

Roger Bischoff

The Wheel Publication No. 399/401

isbn 955–24–0127–5

Copyright © 1995 Roger Bischoff

Buddhist Publication Society

P.O. Box 61

54, Sangharaja Mawatha

Kandy, Sri Lanka

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Buddhism in Myanmar

Myanmar, or Burma, is.one of the major countriesfollowing Theravàda Buddhism today. In recent yearsMyanmar has attained special eminence in the Buddhistworld. Between 1954 and 1956 the country hosted theSixth Great Buddhist Council, and it has also been thesource from which several of the foremost systems ofVipassana meditation have spread to the rest of theworld.

This Wheel booklet offers a short history of Buddhism inMyanmar from its origins until the beginning of thecolonial period in the late 19th century. The material hasbeen sifted and organised from the point of view of apractising Buddhist. It is intended to show how Buddhisminfluenced the development of the Myanmar people untilthe Theravàda Buddhist teachings became their secondnature.

Roger Bischoff is an Assistant Teacher at the InternationalMeditation Centre in England and a long-time student ofthe Burmese language and culture.

Buddhist Publication Society • Kandy • Sri Lanka

The Wheel Publication No. 399/401

ISBN 955–24–0127–5

Cover: Jàtaka scene painting from Amarapura, Burma

(1911). Australian National Gallery, Canberra.

Table of Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1. Earliest Contacts with Buddhism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2. Buddhism in the Mon & Pyu Kingdoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

3. Theravàda Buddhism Comes to Pagan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

4. Pagan: Flowering and Decline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5. Shan Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

6. The Myanmar Build an Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

7. The Eighteenth & Nineteenth Centuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

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Preface

Myanmar, or Burma as the nation has been knownthroughout history, is one of the major countriesfollowing Theravàda Buddhism. In recent yearsMyanmar has attained special eminence as the host forthe Sixth Buddhist Council, held in Yangon (Rangoon)between 1954 and 1956, and as the source from whichtwo of the major systems of Vipassana meditation haveemanated out into the greater world: the traditionspringing from the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw ofThathana Yeiktha and that springing from Sayagyi UBa Khin of the International Meditation Centre.

This booklet is intended to offer a short history ofBuddhism in Myanmar from its origins through thecountry’s loss of independence to Great Britain in thelate nineteenth century. I have not dealt with morerecent history as this has already been welldocumented. To write an account of the developmentof a religion in any country is a delicate anddemanding undertaking and one will never be quite

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satisfied with the result. This booklet does not pretendto be an academic work shedding new light on thesubject. It is designed, rather, to provide the interestednon-academic reader with a brief overview of thesubject.

The booklet has been written for the BuddhistPublication Society to complete its series of Wheeltitles on the history of the Sàsana in the mainTheravàda Buddhist countries. The material has beensifted and organised from the point of view of apractising Buddhist. Inevitably it thus involves somedegree of personal interpretation. I have givenimportance to sources that would be accorded muchless weight in a strictly academic treatment of thesubject, as I feel that in this case the oral tradition maywell be more reliable than modern historians wouldnormally admit.

One of the objectives of the narrative is to show thatthe Buddha’s Teaching did not make a lastingimpression on Myanmar immediately upon firstarrival. The Sàsana had to be re-introduced or purified

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again and again from the outside until Myanmar hadmatured to the point of becoming one of the mainshrines where the Theravàda Buddhist teachings arepreserved. The religion did not develop in Myanmar.Rather, the Myanmar people developed through thereligion until the Theravàda faith became embedded intheir culture and Pàli Buddhism became second natureto them.

I dedicate this work to my teachers, Mother Sayamagyiand Sayagyi U Chit Tin.

Roger Bischoff

International Meditation Centre UKSplatts HouseHeddington, CalneWilts SN11 OPE

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Chapter 1

Earliest Contacts with Buddhism

Myanmar and its Peoples

There are four dominant ethnic groups in the recordedhistory of Myanmar: the Mon, the Pyu, the Myanmar,and the Shan.

Uncertainty surrounds the origins of the Mon; but it isclear that, at least linguistically, they are related to theKhmer.1 What is known is that they settled in thesouth of Myanmar and Thailand while the Khmermade northern Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia theirhome. These two peoples were probably the firstmigrants to the region, apart from Indian merchantswho established trading colonies along the coast. TheMon with their distinct language and culturecompeted for centuries with the Myanmar. However,

1. The Mon are also called Talaing, but this term is considered to be derogatory. It is thought to come from Telugu, a language of South Indian origin whose script the Mon adopted.

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today their influence and language is limited to remoteareas of the south.

The Pyu, like the Myanmar, are a people of Tibeto-Burman origin with a distinct culture and language.They lived in the area around Prome long before theMyanmar pushed into the plains of Myanmar from thenorth. Their language was closely related to thelanguage of the Myanmar and was later absorbed by it.Their script was in use until about the fourteenthcentury, but was then lost.

The Myanmar people began to colonise the plains ofMyanmar only towards the middle of the firstmillennium ad. They came from the mountainousnorthern regions and may well have originated in theCentral Asian plains.

After the Myanmar, the Shan flooded in from theNorth, finally conquering the entire region of Myanmarand Thailand. The Thai people are descended fromShan tribes. The northeast region of modern Myanmaris still inhabited predominantly by Shan tribes.

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The Region

In the sixth century BC, most of what we now know asMyanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia was sparselypopulated. While migrants from the east coast of Indiahad formed trading colonies along the coast of theGulf of Martaban, these coastal areas of Myanmar andThailand were also home to the Mon. By this time, theKhmer probably controlled Laos, Cambodia, andnorthern Thailand, while Upper Myanmar mayalready have been occupied to some extent byMyanmar tribes.

As these early settlers did not use lasting materials forconstruction, our knowledge of their civilisationremains scant. We do know, however, that their wayof life was very simple — as it remains today in ruralareas — probably requiring only wooden huts withpalm-leaf roofs for habitation. We can assume thatthey were not organised into units larger than villagecommunities and that they did not possess a writtenlanguage. Their religion must have been some form of

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nature worship or animism, still found today amongthe more remote tribes of the region.

There were also more highly developed communitiesof Indian origin, in the form of trading settlementslocated along the entire coast from Bengal to Borneo.In Myanmar, they were located in Thaton(Suddhammapura), Pegu (Ussa), Yangon (Ukkalà,then still on the coast), and Mrauk-U (Dha¤¤avati) inArakan; also probably along the Tenasserim andArakan coasts. These settlers had mainly migratedfrom Orissa on the northeastern coast of the Indiansubcontinent, and also from the Deccan in thesoutheast. In migrating to these areas, they had alsobrought their own culture and religion with them.Initially, the contact between the Hindu traders andthe Mon peasants must have been limited. However,the Indian settlements, their culture and traditions,were eventually absorbed into the Mon culture.

G.E. Harvey, in his History of Burma, relates a Monlegend which refers to the Mon fighting Hindustrangers who had come back to re-conquer the

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country that had formerly belonged to them.2 ThisMon tale confirms the theory that Indian people hadformed the first communities in the region but thatthese were eventually replaced by the Mon with thedevelopment of their own civilisation. As well as theIndian trading settlements, there were also some Pyusettlements, particularly in the area of Prome where aflourishing civilisation later developed.

Also, it is assumed that some degree of migration fromIndia to the region of Tagaung and Mogok in UpperMyanmar had taken place through Assam and laterthrough Manipur, but the “hinterland” was of coursemuch less attractive to traders than the coastal regionswith their easy access by sea. A tradition of Myanmarsays that Tagaung was founded by Abhiràja, a princeof the Sakyans (the tribe of the Buddha), who hadmigrated to Upper Myanmar from Nepal in the ninthcentury BC. The city was subsequently conquered bythe Chinese in approximately 600 BC, and Pagan andProme were founded by refugees fleeing southward. Infact, some historians believe that, like the Myanmar,

2. G.E. Harvey, History of Burma (London 1925; reprint 1967) pp. 5, 6.

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the Sakyans were a Mongolian rather than an Indo-Aryan race, and that the Buddha’s clansmen werederived from Mongolian stock.

First Contacts with the Buddha’s Teachings

The source of information for many of the eventsrelated forthwith is the Sàsanavaüsa.3 The Sàsana-vaüsa is a chronicle written in Pàli by a bhikkhu,4

Pa¤¤àsàmi, for the Fifth Buddhist Council held inMandalay in 1867. As the Sàsanavaüsa is a recentcompilation, many events mentioned therein may bedoubted. However, as it draws on both writtenrecords, some of which are no longer available, and onthe oral tradition of Myanmar, information can beincluded in this account with the understanding that itis open to verification.

3. Translated by B.C. Law, The History of the Buddha's Religion(London 1952), pp. 40 ff.

4. Bhikkhu is the term applied to a fully ordained member of the Buddha's Order.

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There are many instances in the history of SoutheastAsian tribes in which a conquering people incorporatesinto its own traditions not only the civilisation of theconquered, but also their clan gods, royal lineage, andthereby their history. This fact would explain the visitsof the Buddha to Thaton and Shwesettaw in the Monand Myanmar oral tradition, and the belief of theArakanese that the Buddha visited their king and leftbehind an image of himself for them to worship.Modern historiography will, of course, dismiss thesestories as fabrications made out of national pride, asthe Myanmar had not even arrived in the region at thetime of the Buddha. However, it is possible that theMyanmar and Arakanese integrated into their ownlore the oral historical tradition of their Indian prede-cessors. This does not prove that the visits really tookplace, but it seems a more palatable explanation of theexistence of these accounts than simply putting themdown to historical afterthought of a Buddhist peopleeager to connect itself with the origins of their religion.

The Sàsanavaüsa mentions several visits of theBuddha to Myanmar and one other important event:

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the arrival of the hair relics in Ukkalà (Yangon) soonafter the Buddha’s enlightenment.

The Arrival of the Hair Relics

Tapussa and Bhallika, two merchants from Ukkalà,5

were travelling through the region of Uruvela andwere directed to the Buddha by their family god. TheBuddha had just come out of seven weeks ofmeditation after his awakening and was sitting under atree feeling the need for food. Tapussa and Bhallikamade an offering of rice cake and honey to the Buddhaand took the two refuges, the refuge in the Buddhaand the refuge in the Dhamma (the Saïgha, the thirdrefuge, did not exist yet). As they were about todepart, they asked the Buddha for an object to worshipin his stead and he gave them eight hairs from hishead. After the two returned from their journey, they

5. Identified as Okkalapa near Yangon. Some believe it to be modern Orissa (Utkala) on the east coast of India.

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enshrined the three hairs in a stupa which is now thegreat Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

It is believed in Myanmar that the hill upon which theShwedagon Pagoda stands was not haphazardlychosen by Tapussa and Bhallika but was, in fact, thesite where the three Buddhas preceding the BuddhaGotama in this world cycle themselves deposited relics.Buddha Kakusandha is said to have left his staff on theTheinguttara Hill, the Buddha Koõàgamana his waterfilter, and Buddha Kassapa a part of his robe. Becauseof this, the Buddha requested Tapussa and Bhallika toenshrine his relics in this location. Tapussa andBhallika travelled far and wide in order to find the hillon which they could balance a tree without its touch-ing the ground either with the roots or with the crown.Eventually, they found the exact spot not far from theirhome in Lower Myanmar where they enshrined theholy relics in a traditional mound or stupa.6 Theoriginal stupa is said to have been 27 feet high. Todaythe Shwedagon pagoda has grown to over 370 feet.

6. Shway Yoe, The Burman (reprint: Scotland 1989), pp. 179f.

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The Buddha’s Visits to the Region

The Myanmar oral tradition speaks of four visits of theBuddha to the region. While these visits were ofutmost significance in their own right, they are alsoimportant in having established places of pilgrimageup to the present day.

The Visit to Central Myanmar

According to the Sàsanavaüsa, the city of Aparantais situated on the western shore of the Irrawaddyriver at the latitude of Magwe. The Sàsanavaüsagives only a very brief summary of the events sur-rounding the Buddha’s visit to Aparanta, presumablybecause these were well known and could be read inthe Tipiñaka and the commentaries.7

Puõõa, a merchant from Sunàparanta, went to Sàvatthion business and there heard a discourse of the

7. Puõõovàda Sutta, Majjhima Nikàya I,267ff.; Theragàtha, v. 70, Theragàtha Aññhakathà I,156ff.

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Buddha.8 Having won faith in the Buddha and theTeachings, he took ordination as a bhikkhu. Aftersometime, he asked the Buddha to teach him a shortlesson so that he could return to Sunàparanta andstrive for arahatship. The Buddha warned him thatthe people of Sunàparanta were fierce and violent,but Puõõa replied that he would not allow anger toarise, even if they should kill him. In the PuõõovàdaSutta, the Buddha instructed him not to be enticedby that which is pleasant, and Puõõa returned andattained arahatship in his country. He won overmany disciples and built a monastery of red sandal-wood for the Buddha (according to some chroniclesof Myanmar, the Buddha made the prediction that atthe location where the red sandalwood monasterywas, the great king Alaungsithu of Pagan wouldbuild a shrine). He then sent flowers as an invitationto the Buddha and the Buddha came accompanied byfive hundred arahats, spent the night in the monas-tery, and left again before dawn.9

8. See entry ‘Puõõa’ in G.P. Malalasekera, A Dictionary of Pàli Proper Names (PTS 1937-38).

9. The Sàsanavaüsa says the Buddha stayed for seven weeks and converted eighty-four thousand beings to the Dhamma.

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Sàkka, the king of the thirty-three devas living in theTavatiüsa plane, provided five hundred palanquins forthe bhikkhus accompanying the Buddha on thejourney to Sunàparanta. But only 499 of thepalanquins were occupied. One of them remainedempty until the ascetic Saccabandha, who lived on theSaccabandha mountain in central Myanmar, joined theBuddha and the 499 bhikkhus accompanying him. Onthe way to Sunàparanta, the Buddha stopped in orderto teach the ascetic Saccabandha. When Saccabandaattained arahatship, he then joined the Buddha andcompleted the total of 500 bhikkhus who usuallytravelled with the Master.

On the return journey, the Buddha stopped at the riverNammadà close to the Saccabandha mountain. Here,the Blessed One was invited by the Nàga king,Nammadà, to visit and preach to the Nàgas, lateraccepting food from them. The tradition of Myanmarrelates that he left behind a footprint for venerationnear this river, which would last as long as the Sàsana(i.e. 5,000 years). Another footprint was left in the rock

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of the Saccabandha mountain.10 These footprints, stillvisible today, were worshipped by the Mon, Pyu, andMyanmar kings alike and have remained among theholiest places of pilgrimage in Myanmar. In thefifteenth century, after the decimation of thepopulation through the Siamese campaigns, knowledgeof the footprints was lost. Then, in the year 1638, KingThalun sent learned bhikkhus to the region;fortuitously, they were able to relocate the Buddha’sfootprints. Since then Shwesettaw, the place where thefootprints are found, has once again become animportant place of pilgrimage in Myanmar. And in thedry season thousands of devout Buddhists travel thereto pay respects.

The Visit to Arakan

In Dha¤¤avati, whose walls are still partially visibletoday, the Mahàmuni temple is located on theSirigutta hill. In this temple, for over two millennia,

10. Ashin Dhammacàra, Kyaungdawya zedidaw thamain (Yangon 1978), pp. 28, 29.

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the Mahàmuni image was enshrined and worshipped.The story of the Mahàmuni image, at one time one ofthe most revered shrines of Buddhism, is told in theSappadanapakaraõa, a work of a local historian.

Candrasuriya, the king of Dha¤¤avati, on hearing thata Buddha had arisen in India, desired to go there tolearn the Dhamma. The Buddha, aware of hisintention, said to ânanda: “The king will have to passthrough forests dangerous to travellers; wide riverswill impede his journey; he must cross a sea full ofmonsters. It will be an act of charity if we go to hisdominion, so that he may pay homage without riskinghis life.”

So the Buddha went there and was received with greatpomp by King Candrasuriya and his people. TheBuddha then taught the five and eight precepts andinstructed the king in the ten kingly duties, namely,(1) universal beneficence, (2) daily paying homage,(3) the showing of mercy, (4) taxes of not more than atenth part of the produce, (5) justice, (6) punishmentwithout anger, (7) the support of his subjects as the

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earth supports them, (8) the employment of prudentcommanders, (9) the taking of good counsel, and(10) the avoidance of pride. The Buddha remained fora week and on preparing for his departure the kingrequested that he leave an image of himself, so thatthey could worship him even in his absence. TheBuddha consented to this and Sàkka the king of thegods himself formed the image with the metalscollected by the king and his people. It was completedin one week and when the Buddha breathed onto it thepeople exclaimed that now there were indeed twoBuddhas, so alike was the image to the great sage.Then the Buddha made a prophesy addressing theimage: “I shall pass into Nibbàna in my eightieth year,but you will live for five thousand years which I haveforeseen as the duration of my Teaching.”

The Mahàmuni image remained in its original locationuntil 1784 when King Bodawpaya conquered Arakanand had the image transported to Mandalay where aspecial shrine, the Arakan pagoda, was built toenshrine the three-meter image. To have this image inhis capital greatly added to his prestige as a Buddhist

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king, as it was one of the most sacred objects in theregion. The king himself went out of his city to meetthe approaching image with great devotion and“through the long colonnades leading to the pagoda,there used to come daily from the Myanmar palace, solong as a king reigned there, sumptuous offeringsborne in stately procession, marshalled by a ministerand shaded by the white umbrella.”11

The Missionaries of the Third Buddhist Council

The Third Buddhist Council was held in the reign ofEmperor Asoka in the year 232 BC in order to purifythe Saïgha, to reassert orthodox teaching and torefute heresy. But the work of the Council did not stopthere. With the support of Emperor Asoka, experi-enced teachers were sent to border regions in order tospread the teachings of the Buddha. This dispersal ofmissionaries is recorded in the Mahàvaüsa, aSinhalese chronicle on the history of Buddhism:

11. Harvey, History of Burma, p. 268.

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When the thera Moggaliputta, the illuminator of thereligion of the Conqueror, had brought the (third)council to an end and when, looking into the future,he had beheld the founding of the religion inadjacent countries, then in the month of Katthika hesent forth theras, one here and one there. The theraMajjhantika he sent to Kasmãra and Gandhàra, thethera Mahàdeva he sent to Mahisamaõóala. ToVanavàsa he sent the thera named Rakkhita, and toAparantaka the Yona named Dhammarakkhita; toMahàrattha he sent the thera namedMahàdhammarakkhita, but the thera Mahàrakkhitahe sent into the country of the Yona. He sent thethera Majjhima to the Himàlaya country andtogether with the thera Uttara, the thera Soõa ofwondrous might went to Suvaõõabhåmi….12

According to the Sàsanavaüsa, the above mentionedregions are the following: Kasmãra and Gandhàra isthe right bank of the Indus river south of Kabul;Mahisamaõóala is Andhra; Vanavàsa is the regionaround Prome; Aparantaka is west of the upperIrrawaddy; Mahàrattha is Thailand; Yona, the country

12. The Mahàvaüsa (reprint: London: PTS, 1980), p. 82.

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of the Shan tribes; and Suvaõõabhåmi is Thaton. TheSàsanavaüsa mentions five places in Southeast Asiawhere Asoka’s missionaries taught the Buddha’sdoctrine, and through their teaching many gainedinsight and took refuge in the Triple Gem. There aretwo interesting features mentioned in the text. First, inorder to ordain nuns, bhikkhunãs, other bhikkhunãshad to be present, and secondly, the Brahmajàla Suttawas preached in Thaton.

The Sàsanavaüsa goes on to describe sixty thousandwomen ordaining in Aparanta. It states that womencould not have been ordained without the presence ofbhikkhunãs, as in Sri Lanka where women could onlybe ordained after Mahinda’s sister Saïghamittà hadfollowed her brother there. In this case, the authorsurmises that bhikkhunãs must have followedDhammarakkhita to Aparanta at a later stage.

The Brahmajàla Sutta, which the arahats Soõa andUttara preached in Thaton, deals in detail with thedifferent schools of philosophical and religiousthought prevalent in India at the time of the Buddha.

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The fact that Soõa and Uttara chose this Sutta toconvert the inhabitants of Suvaõõabhåmi indicatesthat they were facing a well-informed public, familiarwith the views of Brahmanism that were refuted by theBuddha in this discourse. There can be no doubt thatonly Indian colonisers, not the Mon, would have beenable to follow an analysis of Indian philosophy asprofound as the Brahmajàla Sutta.

Jàtaka scene painting from Amarapura, Burma (1911).

Australian National Gallery, Canberra.

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Chapter 2

Buddhism in the Mon

and Pyu Kingdoms

While there is no conclusive archaeological proof thatBuddhism continued to be practised in southernMyanmar after the missions of the Third Council, theSàsanavaüsa refers to an unbroken lineage of teacherspassing on the Dhamma to their disciples.

The Mon

In a third century ad inscription by a South Indian kingin Nàgàrjunakoõóa, the land of the Cilatas is men-tioned in a list of countries visited by a group ofbhikkhus. Historians believe the Cilatas or Kiratas (alsomentioned by Ptolemy and in Sanskrit literature) to beidentical to the Mon populations of Lower Myanmar.

The inscription states that the bhikkhus sent to theCilata country converted the population there to

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Buddhism. In the same inscription, missions to othercountries such as Sri Lanka are mentioned. It isgenerally believed that most of these countries hadreceived earlier Buddhist missionaries sent byBuddhist kings, but as civilisation in these lands wasrelatively undeveloped, teachings as profound as theBuddha’s had probably become distorted by localreligions or possibly been completely lost. It is possiblethat these missions did not so much re-establishBuddhism, but rather purify the type of Buddhismpractised there. Southern India was then the guardianof the Theravàda faith and obviously remained incontact with countries that had been converted inearlier times but were unable to preserve the purity ofthe religion.

As has been already mentioned, the first datablearchaeological finds of the Mon civilisation stem fromthe Mon kingdom of Dvàravatã in the South ofThailand. They consist of a Roman oil lamp and abronze statue of the Buddha which are believed to beno later than the first or second century ad. Indiscussing the Mon Theravàda Buddhist civilisation,

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we cannot remain in Myanmar only. For only bystudying the entire sphere of influence of the Mon inthis period, can a comprehensive picture beconstructed. This sphere includes large parts of presentday Thailand. In fact, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim,Yuan Chwang, who travelled to India in about 630 ad,describes a single Mon country stretching from Prometo Chenla in the east and including the Irrawaddy andSittang deltas. He calls the country Dvàravatã, but theannals of the court of China of the same periodmention Dvàravatã as a vassal of Thaton. We can,therefore, safely conclude that the Mon of the regionformed a fairly homogenous group in which thedistribution of power was obviously not always evidentto the outsider.

The Pyu

Lower Myanmar was also inhabited by another ethnicgroup, the Pyu, who were probably closely related tothe modern Myanmar. They had their capital at SriKsetra (near modern day Prome) and were also follow-

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ers of the Theravàda Buddhist faith. Chinese travellers’reports of the mid-third century ad refer to the king-dom of Lin-Yang where Buddha was venerated by alland where several thousand monks or bhikkhus lived.As Lin-Yang was to the west of Kamboja13 and couldnot be reached by sea, we can infer that the Chinesetravellers must have been referring to the ancient king-dom of Prome. This is all the more likely as archaeo-logical finds prove that only about one century laterPàli Buddhist texts, including Abhidhamma texts, werestudied by the Pyu.

The earliest highly developed urban settlement of thePyu was Beikthano, near Prome. However, its impor-tance dwindled towards the sixth century, when SriKsetra became the centre of Pyu civilisation. A majormonastery built in the fourth century has beenunearthed at Beikthano. The building, constructed inbrick, with a stupa and shrine located nearby, is identi-cal to the Buddhist monasteries of Nàgàrjunakoõóa,

13. Kamboja, a country referred to by Emperor Asoka in his inscriptions, is generally believed to be to the west of India. It could, however, also be identical with the Cambodia of today, and it is conceivable that two Kambojas existed.

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the great Buddhist centre of southern India. It is situ-ated near a stupa and a shrine, a design which is iden-tical to the one used in South India. Bricks had beenused by the Pyus since the second century ad for theconstruction of pillared halls, which formed the tem-ples of their original religion. Interestingly, the Pyubricks have always been of the exact dimensions asthose used at the time of Emperor Asoka in India. Butthe brick laying techniques used in the monastery inBeikthano were far inferior to the ones used in theirsouthern Indian counterparts.

For such a major edifice as the monastery at Beikthanoto have been constructed, the religion must have beenwell established at least among the ruling class. Howlong it took for Buddhism to become influential in Pyusociety is difficult to determine, but some historiansassume that the first contacts with Asokan religiouscentres in India took place in the second century ad.This would allow for a period of development of twohundred years until the first important shrine wasbuilt. Despite the Indian architectural influence, theinferior brick laying techniques found in Beikthano

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indicate that indigenous architects and artisans, ratherthan imported craftsmen or Indian colonisers, wereemployed in the construction of monasteries and otherimportant buildings.

It should, of course, not be forgotten that the Pyupossessed an architecture of their own and a highlydeveloped urban culture that had evolved quiteindependently of Indian influences. TheravàdaBuddhism found a fertile ground in this highlydeveloped civilisation. It is probable that the Pyucivilisation was more advanced than that of the Mon.The Pyu sites found around Prome are the earliesturban sites in Southeast Asia found to date. The urbandevelopments and datable monuments in Thailandand Cambodia are only from the seventh century.Older artifacts may have been found in Thailand, butthey were not products of indigenous people and donot prove the existence of a developed civilisation.

The information we have of the state of the religion inthe Mon and Pyu societies during the first fourcenturies ad is very limited. However, by the fifth

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century, with the development of religious activity inthe region, information becomes more substantive.The historical tradition of Myanmar gives the credit forthis religious resurgence to a well-known Buddhistscholar, âcariya Buddhaghosa.

Buddhaghosa and Myanmar

âcariya Buddhaghosa was the greatest commentatoron the Pàli Buddhist texts, whose Visuddhimagga andcommentaries to the canon are regarded asauthoritative by Theravàda scholars. The chronicles ofMyanmar firmly maintain that Buddhaghosa was ofMon origin and a native of Thaton. They state that hisreturn from Sri Lanka, with the Pàli scriptures, thecommentaries, and grammatical works, gave a freshimpetus to the religion.

However, modern historians do not accept thatBuddhaghosa was from Myanmar while some even

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doubt his existence.14 Despite this contention, Eliot, inhis Hinduism and Buddhism, gives more weight tocircumstantial evidence and writes:

The Burmese tradition that Buddhaghosa was anative of Thaton and returned thither from SriLanka merits more attention than it has received. Itcan easily be explained away as patriotic fancy. Onthe other hand, if Buddhaghosa’s object was toinvigorate Hinayanism in India the result of hisreally stupendous labours was singularly small, forin India his name is connected with no religiousmovement. But if we suppose that he went to SriLanka by way of the holy places in Magadha [nowBihar] and returned from the Coromandal coast[Madras] to Burma where Hinayanism afterwardsflourished, we have at least a coherent narrative.15

The Sinhalese chronicles, especially the Mahàvaüsa,place Buddhaghosa in the first half of the fifth century.Although he spent most of his active working life in Sri

14. Smith, Asoka’s alleged mission to Pegu (Indian Antiquary, xxxiv, 1905), pp. 185–86.

15. Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, I, p. 32.

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Lanka, he is also credited with imbuing new life intoTheravàda Buddhism in South India, and developingsuch important centres as Ka¤cipura and Uragapuramthat were closely connected with Prome and Thaton.Proof of this connection can be found in archeologicalfinds in the environs of Prome which include Pàliliterature inscribed in the Kadambe script on gold andstone plates. This script was used in the fifth and sixthcentury in southern India.

All in all, Myanmar has a valid case for claiming someconnection with Buddhaghosa. It is, of course,impossible to prove that he was born there or evenvisited there, but his influence undoubtedly led togreat religious activity in the kingdoms of LowerMyanmar.

Buddhism in Lower Myanmar: 5th to 11th Centuries

From the fifth century until the conquest of LowerMyanmar by Pagan, there is a continuous record ofBuddhism flourishing in the Mon and Pyu kingdoms.

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The Mon kingdoms are mentioned in travel reports ofseveral Chinese Buddhist pilgrims and also in theannals of the Chinese court. In the fifth century,Thaton and Pegu (Pago) are mentioned in theBuddhist commentarial literature for the first time.16

They were now firmly established on the map asBuddhist centres of learning. Despite this, Buddhismwas not without rivals in the region. This is shown, bythe following event some chronicles of Myanmarmention.

A king of Pago, Tissa by name, had abandoned theworship of the Buddha and instead practisedBrahmanical worship. He persecuted the Buddhistsand destroyed Buddha images or cast them intoditches. A pious Buddhist girl, the daughter of amerchant, restored the images, then washed andworshipped them. The king could not tolerate suchdefiance, of course, and had the girl dragged beforehim. He tried to have her executed in several ways, butshe seemed impossible to kill. Elephants would not

16. Mentioned in several places in the Manorathapåraõã, the commentary to the Aïguttara Nikàya.

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trample her,while the fire of her pyre would not burnher. Eventually the king, intrigued by these events,asked the girl to perform a miracle. He stated that, ifshe was able to make a Buddha image produce sevennew images and then make all eight statues fly intoheaven, she would be set free. The girl spoke an act oftruth, and the eight Buddha statues flew up into thesky. The king was then converted to Buddhism andelevated the girl to the position of chief queen.

Until now, archaeological finds of Mon ruins inMyanmar are meagre, but at P’ong Tuk, in southernThailand,17 a Mon city, dating from the second half ofthe first millennium ad, has been unearthed. Here,excavations have revealed the foundations of severalbuildings. One contained the remains of a platformand fragments of columns similar to the Buddhistvihàra at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka; another, with asquare foundation of round stones, seems to have beena stupa. Statues of Indian origin from the Gupta period(320–600 ad) were also found at the site. The Ther-

17. Cf. L.P. Briggs, Dvàravatã, the most ancient kingdom of Siam(JAOS, 65, 1945), p. 98.

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avàda Buddhist culture of the Mon flourished in bothDvàravatã and Thaton. However, the Mon civilisationin Thailand did not survive the onslaught of the Khmerin the eleventh century who were worshipping Hindugods. In Myanmar, the Mon kingdom was conqueredby Pagan. The Myanmar were eager to accept the Monculture and especially their religion, while the Khmer,as Hindus, at best tolerated it.

The Pyu culture of this period is well documentedbecause of archaeological finds at Muanggan, a smallvillage close to the ancient ruins of Hmawza. Theretwo perfectly preserved inscribed gold plates werefound. These inscriptions reveal three texts: the versesspoken by Assaji to Sàriputta ( ye dhammà hetuppa-bhava…), a list of categories of the Abhidhamma(cattàro iddhipàda, cattàro samappadhàna…), and theformula of worship of Buddha, Dhamma, and Saïgha(iti pi so bhagava…). At the same site, a book withtwenty leaves of gold protected with golden covers,was discovered. It contained texts such as the pañicca-samuppàda (dependent origination), the vipassanà-¤àõas (stages of insight knowledge), and various other

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excerpts from the Abhidhamma and the other twobaskets of the Buddhist scriptures. The scripts in allthese documents are identical to scripts used in partsof southern India, and can be dated from the third tothe sixth century ad.

In addition to these golden plates, a number ofsculptures and reliefs were found in Hmawza. Theydepict either the Buddha or scenes from his life, forexample, the birth of the Buddha and the taming of thewild elephant Nàlagiri. The sculpture is similar in styleto that of Amaràvatã, a centre of Buddhist learning inSouth India. There were also unearthed remains ofBrahman temples and sites of Mahàyàna worship ofeast Indian origin; hence it would appear that severalfaiths, of which the Theravàda was the strongest, co-existed in Sri Ksetra, the then capital of the Pyu. Thescript used by the Pyu is indicative of major links withBuddhist kingdoms in South India rather than with SriLanka. And it can be surmised that the bhikkhus of theDeccan and other regions of southern India were theteachers of both the Mon and the Pyu in religiousmatters as well as in the arts and sciences.

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The inscriptions show how highly developedscholarship of the Pàli Buddhist texts must have beenin Lower Myanmar even in these early days. Learninghad gone well beyond the basics into the world ofAbhidhamma studies. Pàli was obviously well knownas a language of learning, but unfortunately nooriginal texts composed in Sri Ksetra or Thaton havecome down to us. Interestingly, some of the textsinscribed on these gold plates are not identical to thesame canonical texts as they are known today.Therefore, the Tipiñaka known to the Pyu must havebeen replaced by a version preserved in a country thathad no close contact with the Pyu. This could wellhave been Sri Lanka, as this country came to play animportant role in the history of Buddhism in Myanmarthrough the friendship between the conqueror ofLower Myanmar, Anawratha, and the king who drovethe Hindus from Sri Lanka, Vijayabàhu.

The finds on the site of the ancient Pyu capital confirmthe reports of the Chinese pilgrims and also the Tangimperial chronicles of China which state: “They (thePyu) dislike taking life. They know how to make

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astronomical calculations. They are Buddhists andhave a hundred monasteries, with brick of glassembellished with gold and silver vermilion, gaycolours and red kino…. At seven years of age thepeople cut their hair and enter a monastery; if at theage of twenty they have not grasped the doctrine theyreturn to the lay state.”18

Both Buddhist cultures in the south of Myanmar, theMon and the Pyu, were swept away in the eleventhcentury by armies of the Myanmar who had found aunifying force in their leader, the founder of Paganand champion of Buddhism, Anawratha.

18. Parker, Burma with special reference to the relations with China (Rangoon 1893), p. 12.

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Chapter 3

Theravàda Buddhism Comes to Pagan

The Beginnings of Pagan

Pagan is believed to have been founded in the years849–850 ad, by the Myanmar, who had alreadyestablished themselves as rice growers in the regionaround Kyauksai near Mandalay. Anawratha began tounite the region by subjugating one chieftain afteranother and was successful in giving the Myanmar asense of belonging to a larger community, a nation.The crucial event in the history of Myanmar is not somuch the founding of the city of Pagan and thebuilding of its walls and moat, but more Pagan’sacceptance of Theravàda Buddhism in the eleventhcentury. The religion was brought to the Myanmar bya Mon bhikkhu named Shin Arahan.

The religion prevailing among the Myanmar beforeand during the early reign of Anawratha was someform of Mahàyàna Buddhism, which had probably

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found its way into the region from the Pàla kingdom inBengal. This is apparent from bronze statues depictingBodhisattas and especially the “Lokanàtha,” aBodhisatta believed, in Bengal, to reign in the periodbetween the demise of the Buddha Gotama and theadvent of the Buddha Metteyya. Anawratha continuedto cast terracotta votive tablets with the image ofLokanàtha even after he embraced the Theravàdadoctrine.19

In India, Buddhism had split into numerous schools,some of which differed fundamentally from theteachings of Pàli Buddhism, which is also calledTheravàda Buddhism (the doctrine of the Theras). TheAri, the monks or priests of this Mahàyàna Buddhistform of worship, are described, in later chronicles ofMyanmar, as the most shameless bogus asceticsimaginable. They are said to have sold absolution fromsin and to have oppressed the people in various wayswith their tyranny. Their tantric Buddhism included,as an important element, the worship of Nàgas

19. For a detailed treatment of Mahàyàna Buddhism in Pagan, see G.H. Luce, Old Burma Early Pagan (New York, 1969), I, p. 184ff.

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(dragons), which was probably an ancient indigenoustradition.

At this time, the beginning of the eleventh century, theBuddhist religion among the Mon in Suvaõõabhåmiwas on the decline as people were disturbed byrobbers and raiders, by plagues, and by adversaries ofthe religion. These most probably came from theHindu Khmer kingdom in Cambodia and the north ofThailand. The Khmer were endeavouring to addThaton and the other Mon kingdoms of the south totheir expanding empire. Shin Arahan must have fearedthat bhikkhus would not be able to continue tomaintain their religious practice and the study of thescriptures under these circumstances. He went,therefore, upcountry where a new, strong people weredeveloping, prosperous and secure from enemies.

It is interesting to note that in this same period,Buddhism was under attack in other places as well.The Colas, a Hindu dynasty strongly opposed toBuddhism, arose in southern India, one of the laststrongholds of Theravàda Buddhism. They were able

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to expand their rule to include most of Sri Lankabetween 1017 and 1070. The great Mon city,Dvàravatã, a Theravàda centre in southern Thailand,fell to the Khmer, the masters of the whole ofThailand, who were Shaivaite Hindus. In the north ofIndia, Muslim armies were trying to destroy what littlewas left of Buddhism there. “In this perilous period,”writes Professor Luce, “Buddhism was saved only bysuch valiant fighters as Vijayabàhu in Sri Lanka andAnawratha.”20

Shin Arahan Converts the King

Shin Arahan arrived in the vicinity of Pagan and wasdiscovered in his forest dwelling by a hunter. Thehunter, who had never before seen such a strangecreature with a shaven head and a yellow robe,thought he was some kind of spirit and took him to theking, Anawratha. Shin Arahan naturally sat down onthe throne, as it was the highest seat, and the kingthought: “This man is peaceful, in this man there is the

20. Ibid, I, p. 14.

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essential thing. He is sitting down on the best seat,surely he must be the best being.” The king asked thevisitor to tell him where he came from and was toldthat he came from the place where the Order lived andthat the Buddha was his teacher. Then Shin Arahangave the king the teaching on mindfulness(appamàda), teaching him the same doctrine Nigrodhahad given Emperor Asoka when he was converted.Shin Arahan then told the monarch that the Buddhahad passed into Parinibbàna, but that his teaching, theDhamma, enshrined in the Tipiñaka, and the twofoldSaïgha consisting of those who possessed absoluteknowledge and those who possessed conventionalknowledge, remained.

The king must have felt that he had found what hadbeen missing in his life and a genuine alternative tothe superficial teachings of the Ari monks. He built amonastery for Shin Arahan, and according to somesources, stopped all worship of the Ari monks.Tradition has it that he had them dressed in white andeven forced them to serve as soldiers in his army. TheAri tradition continued for a long time, however, and

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its condemnation is a feature of much later times, andnot, as far as contemporary evidence shows, of thePagan era.

The Sàsanavaüsa gives an alternate version ofAnawratha’s conversion according to which ShinArahan had originally come from Sri Lanka to studythe Dhamma in Dvàravatã and Thaton and was on hisway to Sri Ksetra in search of a text when he was takento Anawratha by a hunter. The king asked him, “Whoare you?” — “O King, I am a disciple of Gotama.” —“Of what kind are the Three Jewels?” — “O King, theBuddha should be regarded as Mahosadha the wise,his doctrine as Ummagga, his order as the Videhanarmy.”21

This version is interesting in that Anawratha isportrayed as being a Buddhist with knowledge ofJàtaka stories, such as the Mahosadha Jàtaka referredto above, even before meeting Shin Arahan. Thisassumption that he was no stranger to Buddhism is

21. Cf. Mahà-ummagga-jàtaka, No.546, The Jàtakas (reprint: PTS, 1973), p. 156.

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supported by the fact that earlier kings had beenfollowers of Buddhism in varying degrees. Caw Rahan,who died about 94 years before Anawratha’saccession, is said to have built a Sãma and fivePagodas, and Kyaung Pyu Min built the whitemonastery outside Pagan. Kyaung Pyu Min is believedto have been Anawratha’s father.

Anawratha Acquires the Scriptures

Through Shin Arahan, Anawratha had now found thereligion he had been yearning for and he decided toset out and procure the scriptures and holy relics ofthis religion. For he wished his kingdom to be securedon the original teachings of the Buddha. He tried tofind the scriptures and relics of his new religion indifferent quarters. In his enthusiasm he did not limithis quest to Thaton, but also searched among theKhmer in Angkor, and in Tali, the capital of theNanchào, a kingdom in modern day Yunnan, in China,where a tooth of the Buddha was enshrined. Buteverywhere he was refused. He then went to Thaton,

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where his teacher Shin Arahan had come from, torequest a copy of the scriptures. According to thetradition of Myanmar, Anawratha’s request wasrefused, and unable to endure another refusal he setout with his army in the year 1057 to conquer Thatonand acquire the Tipiñaka by force. Before conqueringThaton, however, he had to subjugate Sri Ksetra, thePyu capital. From there, he took the relics enshrined inKing Dwattabaung’s Bawbaw-gyi Pagoda to Pagan.

Some think that the aim of his campaign was mainly toadd the prosperous Indian colonies of Lower Myanmarto his possessions, while others think he may haveactually been called to Thaton to defend it against themarauding Khmer. Whatever the immediate cause ofhis campaign in the lower country, we know forcertain that he returned with the king of Thaton andhis court, with Mon artists and scholars and, above all,with Thaton’s bhikkhus and their holy books, theTipiñaka. Suvaõõabhåmi and its Mon population werenow in the hands of the Myanmar and the Mon cultureand religion were accepted and assimilated in theemergent Pagan with fervour.

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Initially the fervour must have been restricted to theking and possibly his immediate entourage, yet eventhey continued to propitiate their traditional gods forworldly gain as the new religion was considered ahigher practice. Theravàda Buddhism does not pro-vide much in the way of rites and rituals, but a royalcourt cannot do without them. So the traditionalpropitiation of the Nàgas continued to be used forcourt ceremonials and remained part of the popularreligion, while the bhikkhus were accorded thegreatest respect and their master, the BuddhaGotama, was honoured with the erection of pagodasand shrines.

There were contacts between the new kings ofMyanmar and Sri Lanka that are recorded not only inthe chronicles of the two countries but also in stoneinscriptions in South India.22 As the Hindu Colas hadruled Sri Lanka for more than half a century,Buddhism had been weakened and King Vijayabàhu,who had driven out the Vaishnavite Colas, wanted to

22. Cf. Wickremasinghe, Epigraphica Zeylan., I, pp. 242–55.

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re-establish his religion. So in 1070, he requested KingAnawratha of Myanmar, who had assisted himfinancially in his war against the Colas, to sendbhikkhus to re-introduce the pure ordination into hiscountry.23 It is interesting to note that the Cåëavaüsarefers to Anawratha as the king of Rama¤¤a, whichwas Lower Myanmar, also called Suvaõõabhåmi. Hewas approached as the conqueror and master ofThaton, a respected Theravàda centre, rather than asthe king of Pagan, a new and unknown country. Thebhikkhus who travelled to Sri Lanka brought theSinhalese Tipiñaka back with them and established alink between the two countries which was to last forcenturies.

Anawratha is mentioned in the Myanmar, Mon,Khmer, Thai, and Sinhalese chronicles as a greatchampion of Buddhism because he developed Paganinto a major regional power and laid the foundationfor its glory. He did not, however, build many of thetemples for which Pagan is now so famous as the great

23. Cålavaüsa, ch.60, vv. 4–8.

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age of temple building started only after his reign. It isimportant to realize that his interest was not restrictedonly to Pagan. He built pagodas wherever hiscampaigns took him and adorned them withillustrations from the Jàtakas and the life of theBuddha. Some maintain that he used only Jàtakas asthemes for the adornment of his religious buildingsbecause that was all he possessed of the Tipiñaka. Sucha conclusion is negative and quite superficial. After all,during Asoka’s time Jàtakas and scenes from the life ofthe Buddha were used for illustrations in Bharut andSanchi, the great stupas near Bombay. We cannottherefore deduce that the builders of Bharut andSanchi were acquainted only with the Jàtakas. Theseedifying stories which teach the fundamentals ofBuddhism so skilfully are singularly suited to educatean illiterate people beset by superstitions through thevivid visual means of the stone reliefs depicting thesestories. It is almost unthinkable that the Mon Saïgha,who taught Anawratha, had no knowledge of at leastall of the Vinaya. Otherwise, they would not have beenable to re-establish a valid ordination of bhikkhus inSri Lanka.

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Anawratha left behind innumerable clay tabletsadorned with images of the Buddha, the king’s name,and some Pàli and Sanskrit verses. A typical aspirationon these tablets was: “By me, King Anawratha, thismould of Sugata (Buddha) has been made. Throughthis may I obtain the path to Nibbàna when Metteyyais awakened.” Anawratha aspired to become a discipleof the Buddha Metteyya, unlike many later kings ofMyanmar who aspired to Buddhahood. Is this anindication that this warrior had remained a modestman in spite of his empire building?

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Chapter 4

Pagan: Flowering and Decline

Anawratha was succeeded by a number of kings ofvarying significance to Buddhism in Myanmar. Hissuccessors inherited a relatively stable and prosperouskingdom and consequently were able to embark on thehuge temple building projects for which their reignsare still remembered.

This is the time when kings such as Kyanzitta andothers built pagodas, libraries, monasteries, andordination halls. These kings must have possessedcoffers full of riches collected from their extensivekingdom which they lavished on the religion of theBuddha. Their palaces were probably built of wood aswas the last palace of the Myanmar dynasty. Thoughthe palaces must have reflected the wealth and powerof the rulers, the more durable brick was not deemednecessary for such worldly buildings. This is similar toviews still found in rural areas of Myanmar today. Theonly structure adorned to any extent in a village is the

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monastery and the buildings attached to it, such as therest house. The villagers are very modest with regardto their private houses and even consider it improperto decorate them. Their monastery, however, is givenevery decoration affordable.

Kyanzitta Strengthens Theravàda Buddhism

Kyanzitta (1084–1113), who had been Anawratha’scommander-in-chief and had succeeded Anawratha’sson to the throne, consolidated Theravàda Buddhism’spredominance in Pagan. In his reign, such importantshrines as the Shwezigon Pagoda, the Nanda,Nagayon, and Myinkaba Kubyauk-gyi temples werebuilt.

With the three latter temples, Kyanzitta introduced anew style of religious building. The traditional stupa ordagoba found in India and Sri Lanka is a solid moundin which relics or other holy objects are enshrined. Thearea of worship is situated around them and is usuallymarked by ornate stone railings. In the new style of

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building, however, the solid mound had beenhollowed out and could be entered. The central shrinewas surrounded by halls which housed stone reliefsdepicting scenes from the Buddha’s life and Jàtakastories. Kyanzitta’s aim was the conversion of hispeople to the new faith. Whereas Anawratha had beenbusy expanding his empire and bringing relics and theholy scriptures to Pagan, Kyanzitta’s mission was toconsolidate this enterprise. Enormous religiousstructures such as the Nanda Temple attracted thepopulace and the interiors of the temples allowed thebhikkhus to instruct the inquisitive in the king’s faith.

Professor Luce writes:

The Nanda (temple)… he built with four broadhalls. Each hall had the same 16 scenes in stonerelief all identically arranged. The bhikkhus couldcope with four audiences simultaneously. Thescenes cover the whole life of the Buddha. Whenwell grounded in these, the audience would pass tothe outer wall of the corridor. Here, running aroundthe whole corridor are the 80 scenes of Gotama’s lifeup to the Enlightenment. The later life of the

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Buddha is shown in hundreds of other stone reliefson the inner walls and shrines.24

Kyanzitta’s efforts for the advancement of Buddhismwere not limited to his own country. For in one of hismany inscriptions, he also mentions that he sentcraftsmen to Bodhgaya to repair the Mahàbodhitemple, which had been destroyed by a foreign king.The upkeep of the Mahàbodhi temple became atradition with the kings of Myanmar, who continued tosend missions to Bodhgaya to repair the temple andalso to donate temple slaves and land to the holiestshrine of Buddhism.25

Kyanzitta also initiated an extensive review and puri-fication of the Tipiñaka by the bhikkhus. This was thefirst occasion in Myanmar’s history when the task ofa Buddhist Saïgàyana or Synod, comparing theSinhalese and Suvaõõabhåmi’s Tipiñaka, was under-taken. It is possible and even probable that this huge

24. Luce, Old Burma Early Pagan, I, p. 79.

25. Cf. D.K. Barua, Buddha Gaya Temple, Its History(Buddha Gaya, 1981), pp. 59, 62, 63, 163, 176, 195, 244–247.

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editing work was carried out along with visitingSinhalese bhikkhus.

By nature of Myanmar’s geographical position,external influences swept in predominantly fromnorthern India, and therefore tantric Buddhism,dominant especially in Bengal, remained strong.However, Kyanzitta succeeded in firmly establishingthe Pàli Tipiñaka by asking the bhikkhus to comparethe ancient Mon Tipiñaka with the texts obtained fromthe Mahàvihàra in Sri Lanka. In this way, he also madeit clear that confirmation of orthodoxy was to besought in Sri Lanka and not in any other Buddhistcountry. Though Mahàyàna practices were tolerated inhis reign (his chief queen was a tantric Buddhist), theywere not officially regarded as the pure religion. It ischaracteristic of Pagan that these two branches ofBuddhism co-existed — the religion of the Theras,which was accepted as the highest religion — and thetantric practices, which included the worship of spiritsor nats and gave more immediate satisfaction. Pagodasare often adorned with figures of all types of deities,but the deities are normally shown in an attitude of

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reverence towards the pagoda, a symbol of theBuddha. The ancient gods were not banished, but hadto submit to the peerless Buddha. Tradition attributesto King Anawratha the observation: “Men will notcome for the sake of the new faith. Let them come fortheir old gods, and gradually they will be won over.”

An approach such as this, whether it was Anawratha’sor Kyanzitta’s, would suggest that the practice of theold religion of the Ari monks was allowed to continueand that the conversion of the country was gentle andpeaceful as befits the religion of the Buddha. Althoughlater Myanmar chronicles refer to the Ari monks as adebased group of charlatans who were totally rootedout by Anawratha, this is far from the truth. Apowerful movement of “priests” who incorporatedmagic practices in their teachings continued to existthroughout the Pagan period, and though they mayhave respected the basic rules of the Vinaya anddonned the yellow robe, their support was rooted inthe old animistic beliefs of the Myanmar.26 It should

26. Cf. Than Tun, Essays on the History and Buddhism of Burma(Arran, 1988), pp. 85ff.

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not be forgotten that the Myanmar first started tosettle in the area of Kyauksai in the sixth century ad

and that the “man in the field” was in no way ready forsuch highly developed a religion as TheravàdaBuddhism. The transition had to be gradual, and theprocess that started remains still incomplete in theminds of many people, especially in the more remoteareas of the hill country.

The example of Kyanzitta’s son Ràjakumàr, however,shows how even in those early days the teachings of theBuddha were understood and practised not only by thebhikkhus, but also by lay people and members of theroyal court. Ràjakumàr’s conduct is proof of his father’sability to establish men in the Dhamma and survives asa monument just as the ânanda temple does.

Ràjakumàr was Kyanzitta’s only son and his rightfulheir. Due to political misadventures Kyanzitta wasseparated from his wife and therefore not aware of thebirth of his son for seven years. When his daughtergave birth to his grandson he anointed him as futureking immediately after his birth. Ràjakumàr grew up in

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the shadow of his nephew, the crown prince, butneither during his father’s reign nor after his death didhe ever try to usurp the throne through intrigue or byforce. He was a minister zealous in the affairs of state,prudent and wise. He was also a scholar of theTipiñaka and instrumental in its review, vigorouslysupporting his father in his objective to establishBuddhism. But he is best known for his devotion to hisfather in his last years when his health was failing. Inorder to restore the king’s health he built five pagodaswhich to this day are called Min-o-Chanda, “TheWelfare of the Old King.” When the king was on hisdeathbed:

Ràjakumàr, remembering the many and greatfavours with which the king had nourished him,made a beautiful golden image of the Buddha andentering with ceremony presented it to the king,saying: “This golden Buddha I have made to help mylord. The three villages of slaves you gave me, I giveto this Buddha.” And the king rejoiced and said“Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.” Then in the presence of thecompassionate Mahàthera and other leadingbhikkhus, the king poured on the ground the water

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of dedication, calling the earth to witness. ThenRàjakumàr enshrined the golden image, and builtaround it a cave temple with a golden pinnacle.27

Later Kings

Ràjakumàr’s nephew was King Alaungsithu (c.1113–67), who continued the tradition of his dynasty ofglorifying the Buddha’s religion by building a vasttemple, the Sabba¤¤u Temple, probably the largestmonument in Pagan. During his many travels andcampaigns, he built pagodas and temples throughoutMyanmar. The faith that Shin Arahan had inspired inAnawratha and his successors continued to inspireAlaungsithu. Shin Arahan, who had seen kings comeand go and the flowering of the religion he brought toPagan, is believed to have died during the reign ofKing Alaungsithu, in about 1115.

After the death of Alaungsithu, Pagan was thrown intoturmoil by violent struggles for the throne. Several

27. Cf. Luce, Old Burma Early Pagan, I, p. 74.

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kings reigned for short periods and spent most of theirtime and resources in power struggles. One evensucceeded in alienating the great king of Sri Lanka,Paràkramabàhu, by mistreating his emissaries andbreaking the agreements between the two countries.Eventually Paràkramabàhu invaded Myanmar,devastating towns and villages and killing the king.The new king, Narapati (1174–1210), blessed thecountry with a period of peace and prosperity. Thisconducive atmosphere was to allow outstandingscholarship and learning to arise in Pagan.

Kyawswa (1234–50) was a king under whomscholarship was encouraged even more, undoubtedlybecause the king himself spent most of his time inscholarly pursuits including memorising passages ofthe Tipiñaka. He had relinquished most of his worldlyduties to his son in order to dedicate more time to thestudy of the scriptures. Two grammatical works, theSaddabindu and the Paramatthabindu, are ascribed tohim. It would appear that his palace was a place ofgreat culture and learning as his ministers and hisdaughter are credited with scholarly works as well.

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During the twelfth century, a sect of forest dwellersalso thrived. They were called ara¤¤aka in Pàli andwere identical with the previously mentioned Ari ofthe later chroniclers of Myanmar.28 This was amonastic movement that only used the yellow robesand the respect due to them in order to follow theirown ideas. They indulged in business transactions andowned vast stretches of land. They gave feasts andindulged in the consumption of liquor, and, thoughthey pretended to be practising the teachings of theBuddha, their practices were probably of a tantricnature. It would appear that they had a considerableamount of influence at the royal court and one of themain exponents of the movement was even given thetitle of royal teacher. Superstition and magic weregaining dominance once again and Anawratha’s andKyanzitta’s empire was slowly sliding into decadence.

The last king of Pagan, Narathihapate, whom theMyanmar know by the name Tayoupyemin29 (the king

28. Cf. Than Tun, op. cit.

29. The Myanmar word for Chinese to this day is teyou or tarou which is derived from “Turk,” for the Mongols are ethnic Turks.

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who fled the Chinese), repeatedly refused to paysymbolic tribute to the Mongol emperors in Pekingwho in 1271 had conquered neighbouring Yunnan. Heeven went so far as to execute ambassadors of theChinese emperor and their retinue for their lack ofdeference to the king. He became so bold and blindedby ignorance that he attacked a vassal state of theMongols. The emperor in Peking was finally forced tosend a punitive expedition which defeated the Paganarmy north of Pagan. The news of this defeat causedthe king and his court to flee to Pathein (Bassein). Asthe imperial court in Peking was not interested inadding Pagan to its possessions, the Yunnanexpedition did not remain in the environs. When theking was later murdered and the whole empire fellinto disarray, the Yunnani generals returned, lootingPagan. The territories were divided amongst Shanchiefs who paid tribute to the Mongols.

G.E. Harvey honours the kings of Pagan with thefollowing words:

To them the world owes to a great measure thepreservation of Theravàda Buddhism, one of the

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purest faiths mankind has ever known. Brahmanismhad strangled it in its land of birth; in Sri Lanka itsexistence was threatened again and again; east ofBurma it was not yet free from priestly corruptions;but the kings of Burma never wavered, and at Paganthe stricken faith found a city of refuge.30

Contacts with Sri Lanka

and the First Controversies

The contact with Sri Lanka was very important for thegrowth of the religion in Pagan. As was shownpreviously, it started with the friendship of Anawrathaand Vijayabàhu, both of whom fought for Buddhism:Anawratha to establish a new kingdom, Vijayabàhu towrench an old one from the clutches of the Hinduinvaders. They supported each other in their strugglesand then together re-established the Theravàdadoctrine in their respective countries, Anawrathasending bhikkhus to Sri Lanka to revive the Saïgha,while Vijayabàhu reciprocated by sending the sacredtexts. The continued contact between the two countries

30. G.E. Harvey, History of Burma, p. 70.

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was beneficial to both: many a reform movement,purifying the religion in one country spread to theother as well. Bhikkhus visiting from one country wereled to look at their own traditions critically and toreappraise their practice of the Dhamma as preservedin the Pàli texts. After the fall of the main Buddhistcentres in southern India, centres which had been themain allies of the Mon Theravadins in the south, SriLanka was the only ally in the struggle for the survivalof the Theravàda tradition.

Leading bhikkhus of Pagan undertook the long anddifficult journey to Sri Lanka in order to visit the holytemples and study the scriptures as they had beenpreserved by the Sinhalese Saïgha. Shin Arahan’ssuccessor as the king’s teacher left the royal court forSri Lanka, returning to Pagan only to die. He wassucceeded by a Mon bhikkhu, Uttarajãva, who led apilgrimage to Sri Lanka in 1171. This was to cause thefirst upheaval in the Saïgha of Pagan.

Uttarajãva travelled to Sri Lanka accompanied byChapada, a novice who remained behind on the island

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in order to study the scriptures in the Mahàvihàra, theorthodox monastery of Sri Lanka and the guardian ofthe Theravàda tradition. After ten years, he returnedto Pagan accompanied by four elders who had studiedwith him. The Kalyàõã inscription, written about threehundred years later, relates that Chapada consideredthe tradition of the Myanmar bhikkhus impure. He hadconsequently taken four bhikkhus with him because heneeded a chapter of at least five theras in order toordain new bhikkhus. It is possible that the Myanmarbhikkhus, who seemed to have formed a groupseparate from the Mon bhikkhus, had paid moreattention to their traditional worship than wasbeneficial for their practice of the Dhamma. It is alsopossible that there was an element of nationalistrivalry between the Mon bhikkhus and the Myanmarbhikkhus. As he showed a penchant for the reformmovement, the Myanmar king Narapati seems to haveaccepted the superiority of the Mon bhikkhus, thoughhe did not neglect the other bhikkhus. Chapada andhis companions refused to accept the ordination of theMyanmar bhikkhus as legitimate in accordance withVinaya. They established their own ordination,

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following which the Myanmar bhikkhus sent adelegation to Sri Lanka to receive the Mahàvihàraordination for themselves.

After Chapada’s death, the reform movement soonsplit into two factions, and eventually each of the fourremaining bhikkhus went his own way, one of themleaving the order altogether. “Thus in the town ofArimaddana (Pagan) there were four schools….Because the first of these to come was the school of theElder Arahan from Sudhamma (Thaton) it was calledthe first school; while the others, because they camelater, were called the later schools.”31

Scholarship in Pagan

It is surprising how quickly a relatively simple peopleabsorbed the great civilisation that arrived in theirmidst so suddenly. Even before the conquest ofThaton, Pagan possessed some ornate religious build-ings, which is indicative of the presence of artists and

31. History of the Buddha’s Religion, p. 74.

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craftsmen. It is quite likely, however, that these wereIndians from Bengal and the neighbouring states. Thetype of Buddhism that had come to Pagan from Indiawas an esoteric religion, as some old legends indicate.It was the jealously guarded domain of a group ofpriests, who made no attempt to instruct the peoplebut were happy if their superiority remained unques-tioned by a superstitious populace.

The advent of Theravàda Buddhism with its opennessand its aim to spread understanding must have beenquite revolutionary in Pagan and obviously the peoplewere eager to acquire the knowledge offered to themby the bhikkhus. Mabel Bode says in her Pàli Literatureof Burma:

Though the Burmese began their literary history byborrowing from their conquered neighbours, theTalaings (Mon) — and not before the eleventhcentury — the growth of Pàli scholarship amongthem was so rapid that the epoch following close onthis tardy beginning is considered one of the best thatBurma has seen.32

32. Pàli Literature of Burma (reprint: London, 1966), p. 14.

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The principal works of the Pagan period still extant arePàli grammars. The most famous of these is theSaddanãti, which Aggavaüsa completed in 1154.Uttarajãva gave a copy of this work to the bhikkhus ofthe Mahàvihàra in Sri Lanka and it “was received withenthusiastic admiration, and declared superior to anywork of the kind written by Sinhalese scholars.” TheSaddanãti is still used to teach grammar in themonasteries in Myanmar and has been printed manytimes. B.C. Law regards it as one of the three principalPàli grammars along with the grammars by Kaccàyanaand Moggallàna. K.R. Norman says: “The greatest ofextant Pàli grammars is the Saddanãti, written byAggavaüsa from Arimaddana [Pagan] in Burma….”33

Aggavaüsa was also known as the teacher of KingNarapatisithu (1167–1202) and was given the titleAggapaõóita. Unfortunately, no other works by thisauthor are known today.

The second famous author of Pagan was Saddhamma-jotipàla who has been previously mentioned under his

33. K.R. Norman, Pàli Literature (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983), p. 164.

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clan name of Chapada. He was a disciple of Uttarajãvaand is credited with a great number of works, but inthe case of some it is doubtful whether he actuallycomposed them himself or merely introduced themfrom Sri Lanka.34 His works deal not only with gram-mar, but also with questions of monastic discipline(Vinaya) and the Abhidhamma, which in later centu-ries was to become a favourite subject of Myanmarscholars. His work on Kaccàyana’s grammar, theSuttaniddesa, formed the foundation of his fame.However, his specialty would appear to have been thestudy of Abhidhamma, as no less than four notedworks of his on the subject attained fame:Saükhepavaõõanà, Nàmacàradãpanã, Màtikatthadãpanã,and Paññhànagaõànaya. According to the Piñaka-thamain, a history of Buddhism in Myanmar, he alsodevoted a commentary to the Visuddhimagga byBuddhaghosa called the Visuddhimagga-ganthi.35

34. Ven. A.P. Buddhadatta, in his Corrections to Geiger's Mahàvaüsa and Other Papers, offers an argument that there were in fact two Chapatas and that the one called Saddhammajotipàla, who wrote on the Abhidhamma, probably dates from the late fifteenth century. The Sàsanavaüsa mentions a contemporary second Chapata who was a shameless bhikkhu.

35. Piñaka-thamain, p. 37.

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There are no written records that refer to meditationbeing practised in Myanmar before this century. How-ever, his interest in the Visuddhimagga is indicative ofan interest in meditation, if only in the theory ratherthan in the practice.

Another scholar of Pagan, Vimalabuddhi, also wrote acommentary concerning Abhidhamma, the Abhi-dhammatthasaïgahañãkà, in addition to anotherimportant grammatical work, the Nyàsa, a commen-tary on Kaccàyana’s grammar.

Other grammatical works of some importance werewritten, but none acquired the standing ofAggavaüsa’s Saddanãti. However, a rather peculiarwork worth mentioning is the Ekakkharakosa bySaddhammakitti. It is a work on Pàli lexicographyenumerating words of one letter.

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Chapter 5

Shan Rule

Upper Myanmar

After Narathihapate had fled Pagan in fear of theMongol army, he was never able to re-establish hisauthority, even though the Mongols supported thePagan dynasty. The Mongol court in Peking preferreda united neighbouring country under a single ruler,but in spite of its efforts Myanmar was divided intoseveral principalities mainly under Shan tribal leaders.These self-styled princelings paid tribute to theChinese Mongol court and were nominally its subjects.The Shan, at this time still nomadic tribes in the north,broke into an already destabilized Myanmar like atidal wave. They penetrated the entire region as far asthe Mon country and established themselves as rulersin many towns and cities. The intrigues, fratricidalwars, and murders that make up the history of theircourts are innumerable.

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A division of the country into Upper and LowerMyanmar is somewhat arbitrary, as, after the fall ofPagan, the two regions were composed of many com-peting principalities. However, there were the two prin-ciple kingdoms of Ava in Upper Myanmar and Pago(Pegu) in Lower Myanmar. Hostilities between thesetwo prevailed, as well as with the neighbouring smallerstates including the Shan fiefs of Chiang Mai and Ayut-thaya in Thailand. Intrigues within and between courtswere rife. Sometimes these claimed victims only withinthe circle of the powerful and mighty, and sometimeswhole towns were looted and destroyed, and their pop-ulation massacred or carried off into slavery. But, inspite of politically unsettled conditions, the Saïgha sur-vived, because the new rulers, initially somewhat bar-baric, soon accepted the religion of their subjects. Justas the Myanmar had adopted the religion and cultureof the more refined Mon, so the Shan submitted to thesophisticated civilisation of the peoples they subju-gated. The Shan initially established their capital atPinya in Upper Myanmar to the north of Pagan andtransferred it to Ava in 1312. Ava was to remain thecapital of Upper Myanmar until the eighteenth century.

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The Sàsanavaüsa praises Thihathu, the youngest ofthree Shan brothers who wrested power from thePagan dynasty in Upper Myanmar, as a Buddhistking who built monasteries and pagodas. He had abhikkhu as his teacher and supported thousands ofbhikkhus in his capital Pinya and later Ava.However, Pagan remained the cultural and religiouscapital of the region for the whole of the fourteenthcentury. Scholarly works were composed in itsmonasteries throughout this period whereas no suchworks are known to have been written in the newcentres of power. The works of this period ofscholarship were mostly concerned with Pàligrammar.

Two generations later, a descendant of Thihathusecured himself a place in religious history as a greatpatron of scholarship. As in the courts of someprevious kings, his court was also devoted to scholarlylearning; and not only bhikkhus, but also the palaceofficials, produced treatises on religious subjects andthe Pàli language.

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Although the political situation remained unsettled inUpper Myanmar throughout the fifteenth century, inthe main, this affected only those in power and theirusurpers. Consequently the Saïgha appears to haveflourished, while the traditional devotion to thesupport of the Saïgha through gifts of the fourrequisites remained unchanged. The royal court,followed by the leading families, made great donationsof monasteries, land, and revenue to the bhikkhus.

In approximately 1440, two Mahàtheras from SriLanka settled in Ava.36 Here they joined a group offamous scholars, of whom Ariyavaüsa was the mostoutstanding. The Sàsanavaüsa tells us of his greatwisdom and humility in an anecdote.37

The elder Ariyavaüsa had studied the books of theAbhidhamma Piñaka, but felt he had not gained realunderstanding. Eventually he came to a bhikkhu inSagaing who kept his mouth always filled with water

36. See History of the Buddha's Religion, p. 95.

37. Ibid, pp. 102–104.

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in order not to have to engage in meaningless chatter.Ariyavaüsa did not talk to “the Elder Water-bearer,” asthis bhikkhu was known in the Myanmar language, butsimply performed the duties of a disciple to his teacherfor two days. On the third day, the Venerable Water-bearer spat out the water and asked Ariyavaüsa whyhe was serving him. When Ariyavaüsa told him thathe wanted to learn from him, the Venerable Water-bearer taught him the Abhidhammattha-vibhàvanã-ñãkà,a subcommentary on the Abhidhammattha-saïgaha.After two days, Ariyavaüsa grasped the meaning andhis teacher asked him to write a commentary on thisbook in order to help others to gain understanding.

During the composition of his first work, Ariyavaüsasubmitted his writings to the assembled bhikkhus onevery Uposatha day, reading out what he hadcomposed and asking his brethren to correct anymistakes they found. On one occasion, a visitingbhikkhu twice made a sound of disapproval during thereading. Ariyavaüsa carefully noted the passageswhere the sound of disapproval had occurred. Onreflecting on them in the evening, he found one error

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of grammar where he had used the wrong gender andalso a repetition, an error of style. He approached thebhikkhu who had made the sounds during the readingand out of gratitude for the correction gave him hisown outer robe.

Ariyavaüsa composed several works in Pàli: works onthe Abhidhamma, on grammatical subjects, and astudy of the Jàtakas. But his very importantcontribution to Buddhism in Myanmar was the factthat all his writing was in the Myanmar vernacular. Hewas probably the first bhikkhu to write treatises onreligious subjects in the local idiom, thus making thereligion accessible to a greater number of people. Thework by Ariyavaüsa still known today is acommentary on the anuñãkà (sub-commentary) of theAbhidhamma.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, a bhikkhu bythe name of Sãlavaüsa composed several epic poemsin Pàli. They were, of course, of a religious naturedealing with subjects such as the life of the Buddha, orJàtaka stories. This genre was later very popular in the

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Myanmar language and there are many poems relatingJàtaka stories which were sung by bards throughoutthe country until recently. In the Sàsanavaüsa,however, Pa¤¤àsàmi disapproves of bhikkhus writingor reciting poetry as he considers it to be in breach ofthe Vinaya rules. He says that because of this,Sãlavaüsa’s name was excluded from theTheraparamparà, a listing of eminent bhikkhus ofMyanmar by ancient chroniclers.

Lower Myanmar

The Mon civilization in Lower Myanmar flourishedafter Pagan’s importance waned, once again relivingthe era of glory that it had experienced prior toAnawratha’s conquest.

Wareru, the Shan ruler who had established himself inMartaban in 1287, was soon converted to Buddhism.He was a Shan peddler who had astutely wrestedpower from a son of the last king of Pagan, a son who

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had revolted against his father and founded an inde-pendent kingdom. Under Wareru’s rule, scholarship inthe Mon monasteries flourished and a code of law wascompiled which still forms the foundation of the legalliterature of Myanmar. The Mon bhikkhus based thiscode on ancient Hindu codes of law which had foundtheir way into Mon tradition through Indian colonisersand merchants.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century tworespected Mon theras named Buddhavaüsa andMahànàga revived the tradition of their countrymanChapada in making a pilgrimage to Sri Lanka. There,they accepted new ordination in the Mahàvihàramonastery, the guardian of Sinhalese orthodoxy. Thebhikkhus of the Mahàvihàra asked those ordained inother countries to revert to the lay-state before beingre-ordained as novices and full bhikkhus, as it wasconsidered of the utmost importance that theordination be handed down in an unbroken traditionfrom the time of the Buddha. This was especiallysignificant in Myanmar where there were somereservations about the continuity of the tradition. By

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disrobing, a bhikkhu forgoes the seniority he hasacquired through the years spent in robes and, in thiscase, he also states that he considers his formerordination invalid. One can imagine that such a step isnot taken lightly but only after careful consideration.

The Great Reformation of the Saïgha

King Dhammazedi (1472–92) takes a special place inthe history of the religion in Myanmar. He unified theSaïgha in the Mon country and purified the order ofthe bhikkhus. He recorded his great service to thecountry in the Kalyàõã inscription, which will bequoted below.

Dhammazedi was a bhikkhu of Mon origin who taughtone of the queens at the royal palace in Ava. This lady,Shin Sawbu, was the daughter of the king of Pago. Shehad been queen to several unfortunate kings of UpperMynamar and had beeen conveyed into the hands ofthe subsequent kings along with the throne. She had

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become disenchanted with the life of a queen anddesired to return to her native land. Dhammazedi anda fellow Mon bhikkhu helped her to escape andbrought her back to Pago. Eventually she becamequeen of Pago , but after reigning only a few years shewished to retire and do works of merit. She found thatthe only people worthy of the throne of Pago were herteachers, the two bhikkhus. She let fate decide whichwould be the future king by concealing miniatureimitations of the regalia in one of the two bowls inwhich she offered them their daily alms food.

She handed the throne over to Dhammazedi who hadreceived the fateful bowl and spent the rest of her lifeat Dagon (Yangon) building the terrace around theShwedagon Pagoda and gilding the sacred mound.The Shwedagon became what it is today chiefly thanksto Shin Sawbu’s munificence.

Dhammazedi assumed government in Pago afterleaving the Order of the bhikkhus. He moved thecapital closer to the Swemawdaw Pagoda and builtseveral pagodas and shrines. His name is also

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connected with a collection of wise judgements andthe translation of Wareru’s Code of Law into thevernacular. In 1472, Dhammazedi sent a mission toBodhgaya to repair the temple and make plans anddrawings of it.

Dhammazedi had received his education inmonasteries of Ava which adhered to the SihalaSaïgha. The Sihala Saïgha was the faction of theSaïgha of Myanmar that accepted only theMahàvihàra of Sri Lanka as the ultimate authority inreligious questions. King Dhammazedi knew fromdirect experience the state of the Saïgha in LowerMyanmar and was determined to improve it. Havinglived as a bhikkhu for so many years, he was alsosingularly qualified to change the Saïgha for thebetter.

He chose twenty-two senior bhikkhus to lead thereform movement and informed them:

Reverend Sirs, the upasampadà ordination of thebhikkhus of the Mon country now appears to us to

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be invalid. Therefore, how can the religion, which isbased on such invalid ordination, last to the end of5000 years? Reverend Sirs, from the establishmentof the religion in the island of Sri Lanka up to thispresent day, there has been existing in this island anexceedingly pure sect of bhikkhus…. Receive attheir hands the upasampadà ordination… and if youmake this form of the upasampadà ordination theseed of the religion, as it were, plant it, and cause itto sprout forth by conferring such ordination onmen of good family in this Mon country…. ReverendSirs, by your going to the island of Sri Lanka, muchmerit and great advantage will accrue to you.38

At the beginning of 1476 the chosen bhikkhus withtheir twenty-two disciples embarked on the journey toSri Lanka. They sailed in two ships, one taking abouttwo months while the other needed six full months toarrive on the shore of the Buddhist island. Theyreceived the upasampadà ordination at theMahàvihàra from 17th to 20th July 1476. The returnjourney of the forty-four Mon bhikkhus was not so

38. Kalyàõã inscription, Epigraphica Birmanica, Vol. III,Pt. 2, pp. 220–21.

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smooth, however. One group arrived home inAugust 1476, while the other group took three yearsto return to Pago and ten of the bhikkhus dieden route. Following their return, Dhammazedi had apure ordination hall (sãmà) consecrated and madethe following proclamation:

May all those who possess faith and desire to receivethe bhikkhu’s ordination at the hands of thebhikkhus ordained in Sri Lanka come to the Kalyàõãsãmà and receive ordination. Let those who have notfaith and do not desire to receive the bhikkhusordination of the Sinhalese, remain as they are.39

In order to confer the bhikkhu ordination outside themiddle country (i.e. northern India), a chapter of fivebhikkhus is needed, one of whom must be qualified toserve as preceptor (upajjhàya) and another as teacher(àcariya). The latter two must have spent at least tenyears in robes as fully ordained bhikkhus. So ifDhammazedi wanted to have local bhikkhus ordainedin the new ordination, it was necessary to find two

39. Ibid, p. 249.

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senior bhikkhus. Since those returning from Sri Lankahad been ordained for a period of only three years,they could not act as preceptor or teacher. Localbhikkhus who had not received the ordination of theMahàvihàra in Sri Lanka were unacceptable, asotherwise the ordination would again have beeninvalidated by one who was not of pure descent.Fortunately, the two theras who had undertaken apilgrimage to Sri Lanka at the beginning of the centuryand had received the Sinhalese ordination at that time,were still alive. As a result, one was able to act aspreceptor and the other as teacher of the newlyordained bhikkhus. The stage was now set for thereformation and unification of the Mon Order ofbhikkhus and soon the re-ordination of almost theentire Order of bhikkhus began. The Kalyàõãinscription records the number of 15,666 ordinationsin hundreds of ordination halls newly constructed forthe purpose.

It is interesting to note how forcefully the kingreformed the Order through royal decrees that wouldhardly be tolerated today. He declared that all

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bhikkhus who were, for example, practising medicineor other arts and crafts or who even slightly infringedon the Vinaya rules would be expelled. The king as alayman, however, did not have the power to defrock abhikkhu who had not broken one of the four Pàràjikarules.40 Dhammazedi circumvented this by threateningto punish with royal penalties the mother, father,relatives, and lay supporters of bhikkhus whosebehaviour was not in accordance with the rules of theVinaya.

It goes without saying that a king who could allowhimself to take such drastic measures in regard to theSaïgha must have had the support of a broad sectionof the Order and also the people. After years spent inrobes, he was keenly aware of the problems ofmonastic life and because of this even senior bhikkhusrespected and accepted his council. We can assumethat all his actions to reform the Order were firstlydiscussed with his bhikkhu teachers and then

40. A bhikkhu who kills a human being, has sexual relations, falsely claims to have attained superhuman achievements, or steals automatically ceases to be a bhikkhu and therefore even a laymancan take his robes away.

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implemented with their blessings. There being no suchthing as a Buddhist Church with a central authority,the Saïgha has little possibility to regulate itself. Onlythe committed support of a worldly power can protectthe Order of bhikkhus from those who take advantageof the respect that is given to the yellow robe.

Dhammazedi’s support for the religion was so greatthat his fame spread well beyond the borders ofMyanmar and bhikkhus from neighbouring countriessuch as Thailand came to his realm to receiveordination there. Though the reform movement didnot spread to Upper Myanmar and cause the samemass ordinations there, it did not remain withoutinfluence in the kingdom of Ava and otherprincipalities, and many bhikkhus came to the Monbhikkhus to receive the Kalyàõã ordination.41

41. The forty-four Myanmar bhikkhus were ordained in Sri Lanka in a water sãmà, a place of ordination floating on the water, on the Kalyàõã river. The first ordination hall built by Dhammazedi near Pegu was therefore called the Kalyàõã Sãma and the Sinhalese ordination the Kalyàõã ordination. Ibid, p. 249.

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Chapter 6

The Myanmar Build an Empire

Shan versus Myanmar

The beginning of the sixteenth century was one of themost difficult periods for Buddhism in UpperMyanmar. While the religious fervour of Dhammazedistill lived on in the kingdom of Pago in Ava, Shanrulers were endeavouring to bring about thedestruction of the Saïgha. A Shan king namedThohanbwa (?1527–1543) was particularly well-known for his barbarity. He destroyed pagodas andmonasteries and robbed their treasures. Although hewas a king, he was uneducated and ignorant. Hencefearing the influence of the bhikkhus and suspicious oftheir moves, he brought about the massacre ofthousands. Under these terror regimes of the Shanrulers the Myanmar did not feel safe. Many, includinglearned bhikkhus, fled to Toungoo, the stronghold ofthe Myanmar race in the south. Despite the anarchy

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prevailing, some respected treatises on Pàli grammarwere written in Upper Myanmar in these years.

Better times, however, lay ahead for Buddhism in theGolden Land. Two successive kings of Myanmar originfrom Toungoo would unite the country and fulfil theduties of Buddhist kings. The wars fought by these twokings, King Tabinshwehti (1531–50) and KingBayinnaung (1551–81), were long in duration andexceedingly cruel. They succeeded in gaining control ofthe Mon kingdom in Lower Myanmar and the kingdomof Ava. They conquered all of what is today Myanmarincluding the Shan states as far east as Chiang Mai,and made incursions into lower Thailand and Yunnanwhere some kings paid tribute to the Myanmar court.

Bayinnaung deferred to the Mon as far as culture andreligion were concerned and dressed in Mon style.Under his royal patronage, the Mon Saïgha producedscholarly works on grammar and the Abhidhamma andalso helped with the collection and standardisation ofa code of law based on the old Mon code compiledduring Wareru’s reign.

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Bayinnaung not only unified the country politically,but also made Buddhist principles the standard for hisentire dominion. He forbade the sacrificial slaughter ofanimals, a custom still practised by the Shan chiefs,the worshippers of certain spirits, and the followers ofsome other religions. He built pagodas andmonasteries in all the newly conquered lands andinstalled learned bhikkhus in order to convert theoften uncivilised inhabitants to gentler ways. The mainreligious building of his reign is the Mahàzedi Pagoda,a majestic monument to the Buddha in the capital,Pago. He also crowned the main pagodas in Myanmarwith the jewels of his own crown, a custom practisedby many rulers of the country. He continued in thetradition of Dhammazedi, in supporting the SihalaSaïgha and in sponsoring the ordination of manybhikkhus in the Kalyàõã Ordination Hall near Pago. Itis said that he built as many monasteries as there wereyears in his life.

It remains a mystery how a king who had such deepdevotion to the religion of the Buddha and who was sogenerous towards it could spend his life fighting

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campaign after campaign to expand his realm. Hecaused bloodshed and suffering in the conqueredregions and at home people starved because farmerswere drafted into the army. However this may be,Bayinnaung seems to have been able to reconcilefighting expansionist wars with being a piousBuddhist.

After King Bayinnaung, Pago rapidly lost itssignificance. Bayinnaung’s son persecuted the Monand consequently re-ignited racial tensions that wouldplague Myanmar for centuries. Later, Pago was to fallinto the hands of a Portuguese adventurer whopillaged the pagodas and monasteries. Eventually thewhole of Lower Myanmar, already depopulated by theincessant campaigns of Bayinnaung and his successors,was pillaged by all the surrounding kings andprincelings. The country was devastated and peoplestarved.

The Sàsanavaüsa records one major problem of theVinaya during the sixteenth century. At the beginningof the century, the bhikkhus of Toungoo were divided

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over whether or not bhikkhus could partake of thejuice of the toddy palm which was generally used toprepare fermented drink. The dispute was settled by arespected thera who decided that toddy juice waspermissible only if it was freshly harvested.

Political Influence of the Saïgha in Early Myanmar

What motivated the royal court probably remainedlargely a mystery to the ordinary citizens, except whenthey were pressed into service in the king’s army.There was little sense of collective responsibility as it iscultivated in today’s democracies. Everyone lookedafter himself and his immediate circle andgovernments were sometimes more of a scourge than aprotection. Kings did not always provide a visibleadministration beyond appointing governors at whosemercy local people were. These governors oftenendeavoured to establish independence as soon asthey perceived inherent weaknesses in their masters.Many accumulated great wealth for themselves.

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There was, however, one element in the policy ofrulers which, with a few exceptions, remained fairlystable throughout Myanmar history. Most kingssupported Buddhism and the Saïgha provided aframework of continuity as no other entity could. Raywrites:

They (the kings) were good Buddhists and never didthey waver from their kingly duty of acting as thepatron-guardian of the faith of the country.Moreover, whatever their numerical strength, thebhikkhus were real spokesmen of the people and themonasteries were the popular assemblies as it were;and each king that came to the throne sought to winthe bhikkhus over to his side.42

The best insurance of a peaceful life in Myanmar wasto become a bhikkhu, as they were not drafted intoarmies or enslaved by conquerors and as long as thelay people had food to eat they were also fed. Thebhikkhus not only provided a link between the peopleand those in power, they often played a role in the

42. Niharranjan Ray, Theravàda Buddhism in Burma, p. 212.

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affairs of state. This is illustrated by an event whichoccurred in the middle of the seventeenth century andis related by the Sàsanavaüsa.

The king, Ukkaüsika, popularly known as KingThalun, was a devoted Buddhist and thanks to him,learning flourished in Myanmar. The king’s son,however, tried to dethrone his father, and Thalun,taken by surprise, had to flee accompanied only by twocompanions. Coming upon a river, the only vessel insight was the boat of a sàmaõera. The sàmaõeraagreed to take them onboard as passengers, and theyended up in the sàmaõera’s monastery where theyrevealed their true identities and asked for protectionfrom their persecutors. They were referred to anothermonastery where lived a bhikkhu wise in worldlyaffairs. Following his advice, the bhikkhus formed aliving wall around the monastery and, as no Buddhistwill attack a man in robes, the rebels who had come tokill the king had to withdraw. Another example of thebeneficial influence of the Saïgha is their appeal forclemency to King Bayinnaung. Bhikkhus often tried tostay executions in accordance with the principles of

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mettà (loving kindness) and karuõà (compassion) andsometimes their efforts achieved success.

During one of Bayinnaung’s Thai campaigns, thepeasantry around Pago revolted and razed the royalcity to the ground. Bayinnaung, after hurrying backfrom Ayutthaya, captured several thousand rebels andwas ready to burn them alive. It was the custom thento burn deserters from the army alive and obviouslyrebellion was considered to be a crime of similargravity. The bhikkhus of all races intervened on behalfof the poor wretches and were able to save all from thepyre, except for seventy ring leaders, the most seriousoffenders.

There are several instances in Myanmar history whenbhikkhus also mediated between contending kings orprinces and helped to avoid bloodshed. This was oftenthe case when cities were besieged and both partiesrealised that they could not win. The king who wasbesieged would normally take the initiative and sendhis bhikkhus to the king in attack. Often the bhikkhuswere authorised to negotiate on behalf of the

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monarch. An armistice agreed by or in the presence ofbhikkhus was more likely to be honoured than apromise given without their blessings. Therefore, if thetwo parties were sincere in their offers to negotiate,they usually requested bhikkhus to be mediators andjudges.

The Spread of Abhidhamma

The seventeenth century was a period of dynamicgrowth in the history of Buddhism in Myanmar. Manyoutstanding developments took place, and principalamong these were the numerous translations of textsinto the Myanmar language and the great increase inthe study of the Abhidhamma. It is quite possible thatthe two developments were inter-connected.

In the first half of the century, Manirathana Theratranslated the following texts into the Myanmar lan-guage: Aññhasàlinã, Sammohavinodanã, Kaïkhàvitaraõã,Abhidhammaññhavibhàvinã, Saïkhepavaõõanà. Of these

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five, only the Kaïkhàvitaraõã, Buddhaghosa’s com-mentary on the Pàtimokkha, is not concerned withAbhidhamma. In the second half of the century Agga-dhammàlaïkarà translated Kaccàyana’s Pàli grammar,the Abhidhammaññhasangaha, Màtikà, Dhàtukathà,Yamaka, and the Paññhàna into the Myanmar tongue.Later, the Nettippakaraõa was also translated.

It cannot be a coincidence that nine out of twelvetranslated works were texts of the Abhidhamma or itscommentaries. The reason for these translations musthave been a developing interest in the psychology ofBuddhism among the Buddhist followers who couldnot themselves read Pàli. Whether these were onlybhikkhus or whether lay people were also interested inexploring the scriptures for themselves is difficult todetermine now. However, what is known is thatalmost every boy and many of the girls attendedmonastic schools, whose curriculum was probablyestablished by this period, if not earlier. Included inthe curriculum were studies of the Maïgala Sutta,Mettà Sutta, Ratana Sutta, and the other parittas, aswell as basic literacy which included some Pàli. In

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addition a number of the Abhidhamma texts had to becommitted to memory.

The intention behind these translations andcommentaries in the Myanmar language was obviouslyto make the words of the Buddha accessible to a wideraudience who would, then, not be solely dependent onthe authority of the Pàli scholars.

In the later half of the century, the bhikkhuDevacakkhobhàsa designed a system for the studyand teaching of the Paññhàna, the last book of theAbhidhamma, which in Myanmar is believed to be thehighest teaching of the Buddha. The king at the timeof Devacakkhobhàsa was so impressed by thebhikkhu’s proficiency in these higher teachings and byhis system of instruction, that he ordered thePaññhàna to be studied in all the monasteries ofMyanmar. It is not unreasonable to assume that theking himself studied these teachings. Otherwise hewould hardly have been in a position to appreciatethem and make them compulsory reading for theMyanmar bhikkhus.

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This emphasis on Abhidhamma in general and thePaññhàna in particular has survived in Myanmar to thepresent day. The movement, therefore, that began inthe seventeenth century is still of great significance forBuddhism there. The Paññhàna, for instance, isubiquitous in Myanmar. The twenty-four conditions ofthe Paññhàna can be found printed on the fans of thebhikkhus, on calendars, and on posters. In somemonasteries, the bhikkhus are woken every morningby twenty-four strokes on a hollow tree trunk, whilethe bhikkhu striking the tree trunk has to recite thetwenty-four conditions as he does so. Even littlechildren learn to recite the twenty-four conditionsalong with the suttas of protection. As the Paññhàna isthe highest and most difficult teaching of the Buddha,it is believed that it will be the first to be lost. In orderto slow the decline of the Sàsana, many people ofMyanmar, bhikkhus and lay people alike, memorizethe Paññhàna and recite it daily.

In Pagan, the Jàtaka stories and the history of theBuddha’s life were the main subjects of religious study.In later centuries, Pàli grammar and the study of the

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Vinaya were foremost on the agenda. Dhammazedi’sreform movement drew the attention back to thefoundations of all monastic life, the code of conductfor the bhikkhus as laid down by the Buddha himself.

Though stricter observation of the Vinaya would haveto be re-emphasised in the future, its foundation wasfirm enough to insure that progressive reformmovements would be instigated within the Saïgha andnot be dependent on external impetus. How far abhikkhu was allowed to stray from the ideal had beendefined in strictures that had become integral to theSaïgha. Based on this foundation of sãla (rightconduct, morality), the Saïgha was now free to giveincreased attention to higher teachings.

The age of the Abhidhamma had dawned. TheAbhidhamma remained no longer the domain of achosen few, but began to be studied by many. Thewealth of translations from the Abhidhamma wouldsuggest that in the seventeenth century it had becomeso popular that it may have been taught even to laypeople. The Myanmar language had developed and

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had been enriched with Pàli terms so that it couldconvey the difficult concepts of Abhidhamma.Civilisation had matured to an extent never seenbefore. Myanmar was ready to study the analysis ofmind and matter as taught by the Buddha. The stagewas being set for the widespread practice of insightmeditation (vipassanà bhàvanà) in later times.

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Chapter 7

The Eighteenth and

Nineteenth Centuries

In the succession of rulers of the eighteenth centurysome were strong and despotic, while others wereineffective and withdrawn. Some tried to expand theirpower and fought wars, while others appearedsatisfied with existing conditions. There were severalwars with Thailand and the population of Myanmarhad to bear the deprivations that war invariably bringsnot only to the conquered, but also to the countrywhere the conquering armies are levied.

After a war between the Mon and the Myanmar inwhich the Mon initially attacked and then conqueredAva itself, the Myanmar king Alaungpaya (1752–60),who believed himself a Bodhisatta, crushed Monresistance once and for all. After Pago had fallen intohis hands in 1756, Lower Myanmar was devastatedand many of the Mon survivors fled to Thailand orwere deported as slaves.

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Like Bayinnaung, Alaungpaya established a Myanmarempire, at the same time decimating the population ofthe country by drafting the peasantry into the army forcampaigns against Ayutthaya (Thailand) and othercountries. The Sàsanavaüsa does not comment on theatrocity of war. War is perceived as it is, cruel andpitiless — but it is the affair of rulers, not of bhikkhus.The manner in which rulers conduct their affairs isentirely their responsibility. Pa¤¤àsàmi probably tookvery seriously the Buddha’s injunction that a memberof the Saïgha should not talk about rulers and royalaffairs.

The Sàsanavaüsa pays much attention to acontroversy which raged in monastic circlesthroughout the eighteenth century. At the beginning ofthe century, some bhikkhus began to wear their robesoutside the monasteries as they were worn withinthem, that is, covering only one shoulder. Even whengoing on their daily alms round, they failed to drapethe robe in the traditional way. When challenged as tothe orthodoxy of this practice, they produced variousinterpretations and opinions, but could not validate

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their practice through the authority of the scriptures.Different kings endorsed one or other of the twoopinions and bhikkhus of the orthodox school evendied for their conviction when a king had outlawed thecovering of both shoulders.

The most interesting aspect of this historical period ofthe religion is not so much the actual controversy asthe power the king had in religious affairs. The kingsof Myanmar were not normally expert in the Vinayaand yet they took the final decision in matters ofmonastic discipline after due consultation with theleaders of the Saïgha. In the more than one hundredyears that this controversy prevailed, different kingssupported the orthodoxy of either view. This showsthat this system is not entirely satisfactory. However,the right view which was in accordance with theVinaya did eventually triumph due to the persistenceof the majority of the Saïgha. Only the worldly powerwas in a position to regulate the Saïgha into whichundesirable elements entered repeatedly. To keep theOrder pure, it had to be always under careful scrutinyand bogus ascetics had to be removed. The kings of

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Myanmar in co-operation with the Saïgharàjas43 andthe other senior bhikkhus had established a system ofsupervision of the bhikkhus by royal officials. In everytownship, the king’s representatives were responsiblefor ensuring that the bhikkhus adhered scrupulously tothe rules of the Vinaya. Bhikkhus who transgressedwere taken before religious courts and punishedaccording to the code of discipline.

The controversy concerning the correct manner ofwearing the robes came up for arbitration for the lasttime under Bodawpaya (1782–1819), the fifth son ofAlaungpaya. He decided in favour of orthodoxy andthenceforth all bhikkhus had to cover both shoulderson the daily alms round. This ruling created oneunified sect throughout Myanmar under the leadershipof a council of senior bhikkhus appointed by the king.These were called the Thudhamma Sayadaws and the

43. Saïgharàja is a position created by the king. The holder of the title is appointed by the monarch. It is the highest position as far as influence at the court is concerned as the king will consult the Saïgharàja in most religious matters. The Saïgharàja was usually assisted in his duty by a body (similar to a cabinet) of other senior bhikkhus also chosen by the monarch.

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Thudhamma sect has survived in Myanmar down tothe present day.

Bodawpaya appointed a chapter of eight eminentbhikkhus as Saïgharàjas, leaders of the Saïgha, andcharged them with the duty to safeguard the purity ofthe Order of bhikkhus. As a direct result of the disci-pline and stability created by the work of these seniorbhikkhus, the Saïgha prospered, and consequentlyscholarship flourished under Bodawpaya’s reign.

The name of the Mahàsaïgharàja ¥àõabhivaüsa isespecially noteworthy in this respect. ¥àõabhivaüsawas an eminently learned bhikkhu who had proven hiswisdom even as a young man. Only five years after hisordination as a bhikkhu, he had completed acommentary (ñãkà) on the Nettippakaraõa. Eight yearsafter full ordination, at the age of twenty-eight, hebecame Saïgharàja, and then Mahàsaïgharàja, thetitle conferred by the king on the highest bhikkhu inhis realm. Soon after this, he wrote his well respected“new sub-commentary” on the Dãgha Nikàya, theSàdhujjanavilàsinã. At the request of the king, he wrote

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a commentary on Buddhaghosa’s Jàtakaññhakathà andseveral other treatises.44

The king was so devoted to the head of the Saïghathat he dedicated a “very magnificent five storiedmonastery” to him and later many other monasteriesas well. According to the Sàsanavaüsa, ¥àõabhivaüsawas not only a scholar, but also practised the asceticpractices (dhutaïga) sitting always alone. He dividedhis time between the various monasteries under histutelage and was an indefatigable teacher of thescriptures.

Scholarship flourished in the reign of King Bodawpayaand Myanmar was able, for the first time, to returnthanks to Sri Lanka for nurturing the religion in theGolden Land. The bhikkhu ordination (upasampadà)preserved in Myanmar was re-introduced to Sri Lankawhere the Sàsana had been interfered with by anunwise king.

44. For more information on his work, see Bode, Pàli Literature of Burma, pp. 79–82.

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The Amarapura Nikàya in Sri Lanka

In the later half of the eighteenth century, theupasampadà ordination in Sri Lanka was barred to allexcept the members of the landed aristocracy. Thiswas a result of royal decree probably issued with thesupport of at least a section of the Saïgha. However,this was a flagrant defilement of the letter and thespirit of the Buddha’s instructions. The conferring ofthe upasampadà ordination is dependent only uponsuch conditions as the candidate being a man, freefrom government service, free of debt, free ofcontagious diseases, and upon his having his parents’consent, etc. Members of the lower castes had nowonly the possibility of becoming novices (sàmaõera), acondition that created dissatisfaction. A sizeablesection of ordained bhikkhus also disapproved of theroyal order, but were in no position to defy it withinthe country. The only recourse for those of the lowercastes desiring the higher ordination was therefore totravel to other Buddhist countries to ordain. At first,missions were sent to Thailand where Dhammazedi’s

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reforms lived on through the ordination conferred toThai bhikkhus in Pago and through the scores of Monbhikkhus who had found refuge in Thailand from theMyanmar armies.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, however,Sinhalese bhikkhus began travelling to Myanmar tofind the pure ordination there. The fame of the thenMahàsaïgharàja of Myanmar, ¥àõabhivaüsa, influ-enced their choice. Scholarship had developed in allfields: Pàli grammar, the Vinaya, the Suttanta, and theAbhidhamma. Myanmar had, after a long period ofdevelopment, become the custodian of Buddhism.

The first delegation from Sri Lanka arrived in 1800and was welcomed with a magnificent reception byKing Bodawpaya himself. ¥àõabhivaüsa, the wiseSaïgharàja, ordained the sàmaõeras as bhikkhus andinstructed them for some time in the scriptures.45

45. Bhikkhus of differing linguistic background used to communicate in Pàli. Even today a visiting Thai bhikkhu will speak with his Burmese brethren in the language of the scriptures.

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On returning to Sri Lanka, they were accompanied byfive Myanmar bhikkhus and a letter from ¥àõa-bhivaüsa to the Sinhalese Saïgharàja. Five bhikkhusform a full chapter and apparently the Myanmarbhikkhus were permitted to ordain bhikkhus withoutclass distinction. Even today, Sri Lanka possesses threeschools, the Amarapura Nikàya, the Siyama Nikàya(Thai school), and the Rama¤¤a Nikàya.

The Amarapura Nikàya was so called because KingBodawpaya had established his capital in Amarapura(between Mandalay and Ava) and the bhikkhus hadreceived their ordination there. The Rama¤¤aNikàya46 was presumably founded by bhikkhus whohad received ordination from Mon bhikkhus in thetradition of the Dhammazedi reforms and who hadfled to southern Thailand from the wrath of theMyanmar kings. Both these schools were allowed toordain bhikkhus without discriminating against thelower classes. Only the Siyama Saïgha (the Thaiordination) continued to follow the royal command,

46. The Rama¤¤adesa is Lower Myanmar, the Mon country.

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and ordained only novices of the higher castes asbhikkhus. Missions from Sri Lanka continued to travelto Amarapura to consult with its senior theras and theywere all given royal patronage and sent back with giftsof the Pàli scriptures and commentarial texts.

Bodawpaya’s Relationship with the Saïgha

Although King Bodawpaya would appear to have beena pious and devout king, his relationship with theSaïgha was somewhat problematic. He supported it attimes and even used it to extend his own glory, but attimes he seemed almost jealous of the respect thebhikkhus received from the people. He realised thatthe bhikkhus were not respected out of fear, but wereheld in genuine esteem and affection by his subjects.His jealousy became apparent on different occasions.

At one time, he declared that from then on thebhikkhus were no longer to be addressed by the tradi-tional title “Hpoungyi” meaning “The One of Great

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Merit.” This form of address was to be reserved for theking. Then again he tried to confiscate land and othergoods given to the Saïgha and to pagodas by previousgenerations. When the Saïgharàjas could not answerhis questions to his satisfaction, he invited the Muslimclergy for a meal to test their faith. He had heard thatthey were so strict in the observance of their disciplinethat they would rather die than eat pork. Unfortunatelyfor them, they did not display great heroism as they allate the pork offered to them by the king. Bodawpaya isalso reputed to have been beset by a form of megalo-mania. He wanted to force the Saïgha to confirmofficially that he was the Bodhisatta of the next Buddhato come in this world cycle, the Buddha Metteyya. Onthis issue, however, the Saïgha was not to be bent evenin the face of royal wrath. The bhikkhus refused, andthe king was finally forced to accept defeat. Anotherexpression of his inflated self-esteem was the MingunPagoda near Sagaing. It was to be by far the biggesttemple ever built. Scores of slaves and labourersworked on its construction until funds were depleted.However, it was never completed and remains today asa huge shapeless square of millions of bricks.

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To his credit, King Bodawpaya imposed the morality ofthe Five Precepts in his whole realm and had offendersexecuted immediately. Capital punishment was pre-scribed for selling and drinking alcohol, killing largeranimals such as buffaloes, spreading heretical views,and the smoking of opium. Bodawpaya ruled thecountry with an iron fist and brought offending laypeople as well as bhikkhus to heel. His successors werebenevolent, but possibly they could be so only becauseof the fear his rule had instilled in the populace.

The Fate of Buddhism in Upper & Lower Myanmar

Bodawpaya’s successor, Bagyidaw (1819–1837), wasthe first of the Myanmar kings to lose territory to thewhite invaders coming from the West. The Myanmarcourt was so out of touch with the modern world thatit still believed Myanmar to be the centre of the worldand her army virtually invincible. Hence the king wasnot unduly disturbed when the British raj, governingthe Indian sub-continent, declared war on the King-

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dom of Ava in 1824 (Bagyidaw had moved the capitalback to Ava). It came to a battle near the coast inwhich the Myanmar general Mahàbandhula achievedlittle or nothing against modern British arms. TheIndian colonial government occupied all of theMyanmar coast as far south as Tenasserim in 1826 andforced the treaty of Yandabo on King Bagyidaw. In thetreaty, he was forced to accept the new borders estab-lished by the Indian government and pay compensa-tion to the invaders for the annexation of the coast ofLower Myanmar.

However, Bagyidaw made a very important contribu-tion to the development of the Saïgha and to the liter-ature of Myanmar in general. His predecessor,Bodawpaya, had united the Saïgha by resolving thedispute relating to the draping of the robe over one ortwo shoulders. Bagyidaw saw the necessity of creatingstability for the Saïgha. He felt that this could beachieved to some extent by bestowing on it a sense ofits own history. He commissioned a work on the his-tory of the religion starting from the time of theBuddha, which was to show an unbroken succession of

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the pure tradition from teacher to pupil. Its purposewas to praise the diligent theras and expose theshameless ones.

This work, the Thathana-lin-ga-ya-kyan, was com-posed at the king’s request by the ex-bhikkhuMahadhamma-thin-gyan, a leading member of thecommittee appointed by King Bagyidaw to compile thefamous Hman-nan-ya-za-win, The Glass-palace Chronicle,a secular history of Myanmar. The Thathana-wun-tha(Sàsanavaüsa) -lin-ga-ya-kyan was completed in1831; and in 1897, it was printed in the form of amodern book for the first time in Yangon. Pa¤¤àsàmibased his Sàsanavaüsa on this work. About forty per-cent of the Sàsanavaüsa is straight translation fromthe original work, about forty percent summaries andparaphrasing of the latter, and only some twenty per-cent Pa¤¤àsàmi’s own work.47 Pa¤¤àsàmi states in hisintroduction to the Sàsanavaüsa that his treatise isbased on the works of the ancients (poràõa). The con-

47. For a full discussion of the relation between theTha-tha-na-wun-tha-lin-ga-ya-kyan and Pa¤¤àsàmi’s Sàsanavaüsa, see Victor B. Lieberman, A New Look at the Sàsanavaüsa(S.O.A.S Bulletin, Vol. 39, 1976), Pt. 1, p. 137.

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cept of mental property or copyright had not beenborn and there was no moral need to refer the readerto sources except to give authority to a statement. Theonly references that would lend authority to a treatisewould be the scriptures, their commentaries, and sub-commentaries, but not a work as recent as theThathana-wuntha-lin-ga-ya-kyan.

The preface to the original work in Myanmar explainsthe reason for its compilation. The king’s representa-tive had many times pleaded with the author to write ahistory of the succession of [righteous] religious teach-ers so that the people would not become heretical.Apparently the king felt that the lack of a work record-ing the history of the pure religion in its entirety leftscope for wrong views to arise. But with an authorita-tive record of the lineage of teachers, bhikkhus couldnot call on views of shameless bhikkhus of the pastanymore in order to support their heresies. This isexactly what had happened again and again throughthe centuries and especially in the robe-draping dis-pute. The ekaüsikas, the one-shoulder-drapers, hadrepeatedly dug out obscure teachers in order to

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support their point of view. This was to be madeimpossible once and for all.

Whether this has been successful is difficult toascertain without a detailed study of the developmentsin the Saïgha since the publication of this work.However, the fact that the original Myanmar chroniclewas revised and translated into Pàli for the FifthBuddhist Council indicates that it was by this timeconsidered a useful tool to put the king’s authoritybehind a well-defined orthodox lineage, thus making iteasy to refute heresy by referring to the historicalteachers.

Tharrawaddy-Min

King Bagyidaw never overcame his shock over the lossof part of his realm. He was declared insane and wasremoved from the throne by Tharawaddy-Min (1837–1846), King Mindon’s father.

In the reign of Tharrawaddy-Min, another missionfrom Sri Lanka visited Myanmar and was received by

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the Saïgharàja ¥eyyadhammabhivaüsa. ¥eyyadhammainstructed the two bhikkhus and the accompanyingnovice in the teachings and conferred the bhikkhuordination on the novice. He is known for his criticalemendation of the text of the Saddhammapajjotikà andits translation into Myanmar. He was also the teacherof the later Saïgharàja Pa¤¤àsàmi, the compiler of theSàsanavaüsa and one of the most influential theras atthe time of King Mindon. ¥eyyadhamma showed theneed for a recension of at least some of the Pàli textsby editing the Saddhammapajjotikà. His disciple,Pa¤¤àsàmi, was to preside over the recension of theentire Tipiñaka as Saïgharàja under King Mindon.

Pagan-Min

Tharrawaddy-Min was himself deposed because ofinsanity by his son Pagan-Min (1846–52), the brother ofMindon-Min. Pagan-Min appointed Pa¤¤àjotàbhidhajaas his Saïgharàja. In his tenure, scholarship receivedencouragement as the Saïgharàja himself wrote acommentary and its sub-commentary in Myanmar onthe Aïguttara Nikàya. Other works of the time, all in

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the vernacular, are a translation of the Saddhamma-vilàsinã and commentaries on the Saüyutta Nikàya andthe Dãgha Nikàya. This is also the time when theauthor of the Sàsanavaüsa appears. He started hisscholarly career with the translation into Myanmar ofa commentary on the Saddatthabhedacintà. His nextwork was a comparison of the existing versions of theAbhidhànappadãpikà and the translation of hisemended text.

In accord with the pre-eminence Myanmar hadachieved in the Theravàda Buddhist world, the kingsof the country became less fierce and wars were fewer.The successors of Bodawpaya seem to have shown agenuine interest in religion as well as in improving theadministration of the country. Upper Myanmar movedinto a period of peace, which meant improvedconditions for the bhikkhus.

The first half of the nineteenth century saw thetranslation of many Pàli texts into the Myanmarlanguage. Almost the whole of the Suttanta was nowavailable in the vernacular and many commentaries

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and sub-commentaries on Suttanta, Abhidhamma, andthe Vinaya were composed in it. This not only made iteasier for bhikkhus with limited linguistic skills tostudy the texts, but also made them readily accessibleto the laity. That people in a peaceful country havemore time for the study of religion is obvious and soonMyanmar would see the first Buddhist texts printed onmodern printing presses. This made it possible for agreat number of people to acquire texts relativelycheaply without having to pay a scribe to copy themlaboriously onto palm leaves.

Politically Pagan-Min was no luckier than Bagyidaw,as he lost the provinces of Pathein (Bassein) andYangon (Rangoon) to the British, who were ever readyto create some pretext for war. So, in 1852, theKingdom of Ava lost access to the sea and becameincreasingly dependent on the colonial power. Like hisfather, Pagan-Min was overthrown in a palace revolt.Although not a leader of the uprising, his brotherMindon was placed on the throne. He did not executethe deposed king as was usually the case after a revolt,but allowed him to end his days in dignity.

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The Colonial Administration and the Saïgha

The occupation by the British forces was of utmost sig-nificance for the Saïgha as the British administrationdid not grant the traditional protection afforded it by aBuddhist ruler. In accordance with the colonial policyestablished in India, that the colonial governmentshould be strictly secular, the new lords refused to takeon the role of a Buddhist monarch and accept respon-sibility for the enforcing of the bhikkhus’ discipline.Without this, Buddhism in Lower Myanmar soon suf-fered and offending bhikkhus went unpunished. Thecolonial administration would recognise its mistakeonly much later, when it was too late, and when theywere not able to establish control in the Saïgha anylonger.48

48. In the political struggle for independence the bhikkhus of Myanmar played a significant role. Political activity is, of course, not normally admissible for a bhikkhu. However, as the British administration had failed to fulfil its duties towards Buddhism and the religion was in decline, the bhikkhus felt they had to oppose the government in order to save their culture. When the government suddenly wanted tore-establish authority to keep the bhikkhus in their monasteries, their effort lacked credibility and authority and was not heeded. The colonial government had to resort to imprisoning bhikkhus in ordinary civilian prisons, but it was too late to break the movement of civil disobedience of the young activists, including the bhikkhus.

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King Mindon

Even today King Mindon’s reign (1852–1877) issurrounded by the mystique of a golden era in theminds of the Myanmar people. No war occurredduring the twenty-five years of his tenure and the kinghimself is said to have been of gentle disposition andadverse to violence. He even declared a dislike forcapital punishment which was customarily inflicted bysovereigns for the slightest disobedience or evendisagreement.49 He was not only held in esteem by hissubjects, but even praised by a British envoy. Thecolonisers’ comments on the Myanmar and their kingswere usually dictated by a parochial narrow-mindedness and a simplistic view that was onlywidened by contact with the conquered. ThereforeGeneral Fytche’s words describing King Mindon are all

49. In times of peace kings would use a eulogistic formula instead of giving the order for execution, like “I do not want to see his face ever again.” In times of war the orders were clearer. Sometimes even bhikkhus were executed. Mahàdhammaràjàdhipati (1733–52), for instance, executed the Saïgharàja and a Brahman because an important Buddha image was stolen. See The Glass Palace Chronicles (Hmannan I, 376).

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the more impressive: “Doubtless one of the mostenlightened monarchs that has ever sat on theBurmese throne.50 He is polished in his manner, hasconsiderable knowledge of the affairs of state and thehistory and the statistics of his own and othercountries. In personal character he is amiable and kindand, according to his light, religious.”51

King Mindon transferred the capital from Ava toMandalay, the last royal capital before the Britishannexation of the whole of Myanmar in 1886. In theearly years of his reign, Mindon strove to improvemonastic discipline. Although a system of officialinvestigation of complaints relating to bhikkhus’misdemeanours existed, each king had to take his owninitiative in re-establishing order in the Saïgha.

50. It was the considered policy of the Indian colonial government to portray the Myanmar kings as cruel villains. It annexed Upper Myanmar under the pretext of liberating a people who were oppressed by an ineffective government, much in the fashion of the Soviets liberating Eastern Europe and Afghanistan. After the annexation of Upper Myanmar, British publications describing the excesses of King Thibaw’s court and the relief of the liberated people amounted to a propaganda campaign.

51. Fytche, A. Burma, Past and Present (London, 1878).

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Mindon found that the attitude of many members ofthe Saïgha to their code of conduct was exceedinglylax. He therefore wanted all bhikkhus of his dominionsto take a vow of obedience to the Vinaya rules in frontof a Buddha image. He consulted the Saïgharàja whoconvened an assembly of mahàtheras, theThudhamma Council. As opinions regarding the vowdiffered, the primate’s disciple, Pa¤¤àsàmi, had todeliver a religious address in support of the king’sviews. He reasoned that vows were also taken by thebhikkhus at the time of ordination and that if the kingsincerely desired to improve the discipline in theOrder, he should be supported. All agreed, and thevow was prescribed.

The greatest challenge King Mindon had to face as aBuddhist monarch was undoubtedly his duty to lookafter the spiritual welfare of his subjects not only in hisown dominions, but also in the parts of Myanmaroccupied by the British. Moreover, he and many of theleading sayadaws of his court were increasingly awarethat the British were only waiting for an occasion toannex the whole of Myanmar. Mindon’s army clearly

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would not be able to stand up to the might of theIndian colonial government. Therefore, it was not onlyimportant to support religious activities in theoccupied territories but it was also essential to preparethe religion for the time when it would have to survivewithout the support of a Buddhist monarch.

The British had made it clear at the outset that theywould not take over the traditional role of theMyanmar kings, that of protector of the Sàsana. Thenew masters’ religion, Christianity, rapidly gainedinfluence through the missionary schools. The schoolswere popular because their education provided muchassistance in securing a job and favour with thecolonisers. Christian religious education was acompulsory part of their curriculum.

After the conquest of Lower Myanmar, many bhikkhushad fled north in order to remain within thejurisdiction of the Myanmar kings. Many monasteriesin British Myanmar were left without an incumbentand whole villages were therefore bereft of theopportunity to receive religious and general education.

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King Mindon, aware of this situation, tried to convincebhikkhus to return to Lower Myanmar in order toserve their people. The king’s efforts proved successfuland many bhikkhus returned to their places of origin.But soon it became clear that without the king’secclesiastic officials to control the discipline of theSaïgha, many bhikkhus developed a careless attitudetowards their code of discipline.

The Okpo Sayadaw, from Okpo between Yangon andPago, had stopped many bhikkhus on their way toUpper Myanmar when the movements of bhikkhus outof the conquered territories was at its peak around1855. He assembled the bhikkhus around himselfteaching that the Saïgha needed no protection fromthe secular power if it observed the rules of the Vinayastrictly. His monastery was the birth place of amovement of strict monastic discipline. He alsoemphasised that mental volition was what reallymattered in the religion of the Buddha and that acts ofworship done with an impure intention wereworthless. He obviously felt that much of the Buddhistpractice had become a ritual and that the essence had

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been lost. In addition to this, however, his movementalso challenged the authority of the king’s Council ofSayadaws, the leaders of the unified Thudhamma sect,when he declared their ordination was invalid due to atechnicality. As a result, he took the higher ordinationanew together with his followers.

The Okpo Sayadaw was not the only critic of theThudhamma sayadaws. In Upper Myanmar, theNgettwin Sayadaw criticised many religious practicesand maintained that a radical reassesment of religiousteachings was necessary. The Ngettwin Sayadaw wasalso a source of inspiration for the Okpo Sayadaw andother reformers. He had been the teacher of Mindon’schief queen and had also advised the king on manyoccasions. Interestingly, he was a driving force in amovement in Upper Myanmar that wanted to return tothe fundamentals of the religion, but more radicallythan the Okpo Sayadaw. The Ngettwin Sayadaw,together with many other bhikkhus, left the royal cityand went to live in the forest near Sagaing. He startedto preach that meditation was essential for allbhikkhus and he required an aspirant to novicehood to

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prove that he had practised meditation before hewould ordain him. All the bhikkhus around him had tospend a period of the day in meditation and heemphasised that meditation was of much greaterimportance than learning. He advised lay people tostop making offerings of flowers, fruits, and candles toBuddha images, but to meditate regularly on theUposatha days. Of course, his instructions thatofferings to Buddha images were fruitless and merelydirtied the places of worship, caused considerableunhappiness with the traditional Thudhamma Counciland presumably with many ordinary people. However,the Ngettwin Sayadaw never strove to form a differentsect by holding a separate ordination as did the OkpoSayadaw. His reforms were within the community andwithin a Buddhist society that was presided over by aking. The Okpo Sayadaw had no place for royalty inhis view of the world and did not hesitate to confrontthe system that was still alive, though obviouslydoomed.

Two other important sayadaws of King Mindon’s reigndeserve mention: the Shwegyin Sayadaw and the

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Thingazar Sayadaw. The Shwegyin Sayadawalso triedto reform the Saïgha and his movement is still verymuch alive and highly respected in Myanmar today.He had studied under the Okpo Sayadaw, but when hereturned to his native Shwegyin near Shwebo in UpperMyanmar, he avoided controversy in never rebellingagainst the Thudhamma Council. He introduced twonew rules for his bhikkhus, that they must not chewbetel and consume tobacco after noon. He alsomaintained that the Saïgha must regulate itselfwithout help from the authority, but he never doubtedthe validity of the traditional ordination ceremony.

The Thingazar Sayadaw was one of the most popularof the great sayadaws of his time. He was also part ofthe movement to return to the basics of the teachingsand greatly emphasised the importance of practice asopposed to mere scholarship. Though he was greatlyhonoured by the king and made a member of theThudhamma Council, he preferred spending longperiods in solitude in the forest. In the numerousmonasteries built for him by the royal family and thenobility of the country, he insisted on the practice of

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the purest of conduct in accordance with the Vinaya.However, he did not involve himself in disputes withthe extreme reformers or the Thudhamma council. Hebecame very popular through the humorous tales hetold in sermons preached in his frequent travels up anddown the country.52

King Mindon had no easy task. One section of theSaïgha was pressing for far reaching reforms, yet itwas the king’s duty to maintain a certain continuity ofthe traditional ways for the benefit of the people ingeneral. What complicated the situation was the factthat the Saïgha of Lower Myanmar felt more andmore independent of the Buddhist monarch and hisThudhamma council of senior mahàtheras. This isillustrated graphically by the Okpo Sayadaw’s declara-tion that the Saïgha needed no regulation by theworldly power. This view gained popularity also inUpper Myanmar. Luckily, King Mindon’s devotion toBuddhism was genuine and he was not deterred by thedifficulties confronting him. He was determined not to

52. Cf. Maung Htin Aung, Burmese Monk's Tales(New York & London, 1966).

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allow the Saïgha to split into factions that wereopenly opposing each other. This he achieved to someextent through careful diplomacy and through the call-ing of a great Synod, a Saïgàyana, in the royal city ofMandalay.

The Saïgàyana, or Buddhist Council, is the mostimportant function of the Buddhist religion. The firstSaïgàyana was held during the first Rains Retreatafter the Parinibbàna of the Buddha; the texts to beregarded as authentic were determined at this time.There had been three more Saïgàyanas since,according to the Theravàda tradition. The councilconvened by the great Emperor Asoka, whosemissionaries brought Buddhism to Myanmar, probablyprovided the most inspiration for Mindon. The FourthCouncil, the one prior to Mindon’s council, was held inSri Lanka in the first century BC, at the Aluvihàra nearMatale, for the purpose of writing down the Tipiñaka,which up to that time had been passed on orally.

King Mindon himself presided over the Fifth BuddhistCouncil, during which all the canonical texts were

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recited and the correct form was established fromamong any variant readings. The task took more thanthree years to accomplish, from 1868 to 1871. Whenthe bhikkhus had completed their great project, theking had all of the Buddhist scriptures, the Tipiñaka,engraved on 729 marble slabs. The slabs were thenhoused each in a separate small pagoda about threemeters high with a roof to protect the inscriptions fromthe elements. The small shrines were built around acentral pagoda, the Kutho-daw Pagoda, the Pagoda ofthe Noble Merit. To commemorate the great council,King Mindon crowned the Shwedagon Pagoda inYangon with a new Hti or spire.

The Fifth Buddhist Council and the crowning of theShwedagon Pagoda reminded all the people ofMyanmar of the importance of their religion, as well asof the fact that the king and the Thudhamma Councilof senior monks were still the guardians of the Sàsana.The authority of the Thudhamma Council was greatlyenhanced also in Lower Myanmar through the synod.Although the British had not allowed King Mindon toattend the raising of the new spire onto the

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Shwedagon, the crowning was a symbol of thereligious unity of Myanmar which persisted in spite ofthe British occupation. The religion was also later tobecome the rallying point for the Myanmarnationalists who fought for independence from thecolonisers.

King Mindon’s reign produced a number of scholarlyworks as well as translations from the Pàli.¥eyyadhamma, the royal preceptor, himself wrote asub-commentary on the Majjhima Nikàya, which hadbeen translated by one of his disciples under hisguidance. A commentary in Myanmar on the PàliJàtakas was composed by Medhavivaüsa and thecompiler of the Sàsanavaüsa, Pa¤¤àsàmi, put hisname to a great number of works. One of the queens ofKing Mindon requested Pa¤¤àsàmi to write theSãlakathà and the Upàyakathà. His teacher asked himto compose the Vohàratthabheda, Vivàdavinicchaya,Nàgaràjuppattikathà. He also wrote a commentary onAggavaüsa’s Saddanãti. Whether all these works werecomposed by Pa¤¤àsàmi or whether they werecomposed under his supervision and control is difficult

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to assess. It is interesting to note that a majority of hisworks were composed in Pàli, which was no doubt anattempt to encourage bhikkhus not to forgo Pàlischolarship now that Myanmar translations werereadily available. The calling of a great Buddhistcouncil to purify the scriptures was part of thismovement towards the revival of the study of theoriginal texts.

During King Mindon’s reign bhikkhus from Sri Lankacame to Mandalay on several occasions to solvedifficult questions of Vinaya and to receive the bhikkhuordination in Myanmar. After Mindon’s death in 1877,his son Thibaw ascended the throne. He was weak andof feeble intellect, and his reign was short. In 1886, helost his kingdom to the British empire and was exiledto India.

With the complete annexation of Myanmar by theBritish, an historical era came to an end. TheravàdaBuddhism developed in Myanmar over more than twomillennia. The visits of the Buddha were the first briefilluminations in a country that was shrouded in

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darkness. The worship of the Buddha that is thought tohave resulted from these visits and from the arrival ofthe hair relics, may have been merely part of a naturereligion. The pure religion could not endure for long ina country which was yet on the brink of civilisation.Later, however, the teachings of the Buddha werebrought repeatedly to those lands by various people.

The visits of the Arahats sent out after EmperorAsoka’s council are historically more acceptable thanthe visits of the Buddha. Their teachings wereunderstood and perpetuated possibly in Indiansettlements along the coast and later in communitiesof people from central Asia such as the Pyu. Throughtheir contact with India, these cultural centres of thePyu and Mon could remain in contact with Buddhism.At first the important centres of Theravàda Buddhismwere in northern India and later in South India andthen Sri Lanka. Through repeated contact withorthodox bhikkhus abroad, the understanding ofBuddhism grew ever stronger in the minds of thepeople of Myanmar. The religion was distorted dozensof times through ignorance and carelessness, but

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someone always appeared to correct the teachingswith the help of the mainstays of the Sàsana abroad.Gradually the role was reversed: instead of travellingabroad for advice, the bhikkhus of Myanmar becamethe guardians of Theravàda Buddhist teaching andtheir authority was respected by all. Eventually, whenTheravàda Buddhism had long been lost to India andits future was uncertain in Sri Lanka, it found a securehome in Southeast Asia, especially in Myanmar.

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Select Bibliography

Original Sources

Glass Palace Chronicle. Partly translated by U Pe Maung Tin and G.H. Luce: Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma. Oxford University Press 1923.

Cerre, P.H. and F. Thomas. Pagan, Chronique du Palais de Christal. Editions Findakly. France 1987.

Sàsanavaüsa. Translated by B.C. Law: The History of the Buddha’s Religion. London 1952.

Recueil des Inscription du Siam. Part II. G. Coedes.

Mahàvaüsa. Translated by Wilhelm Geiger. London: PTS, 1912. Reprint 1980.

Cålavaüsa. Translated by Wilhelm Geiger. London: PTS, 1929. Reprint 1973.

Dãpavaüsa. Translated by Hermann Oldenberg. Reprint: New Delhi 1982.

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Secondary Sources

Barua, Beni Madhab. Asoka and His Inscriptions. Reprint: Calcutta 1968.

Barua, D.K. Buddha Gaya Temple: Its History. Buddha Gaya 1981.

Bechert, Heinz. Buddhismus, Staat und Gesellschaft. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1973.

Bode, Mabel Haynes. The Pàli Literature of Burma. Reprint: London 1966.

Collis, Maurice. The Land of the Great Image. Reprint: Bristol 1946.

Eliot, (Sir) Charles N. E. Hinduism and Buddhism: An Historical Sketch. 3 vols. London 1921. Reprint 1957. See especially Vol. III, “Buddhism Outside India.”

Edwardes, Michael. A Life of the Buddha. London 1959.

Fytche, A. Burma, Past and Present. 2 vols. London 1878.

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Halliday, R.S. The Talaings. Rangoon 1917.

Law, Bimala Churn. A History of Pàli Literature. 2 vols. Reprint: Delhi 1983.

Luce, Gordon H. Old Burma, Early Pagan. 3 vols. New York 1969–70.

Maung Htin Aung. Burmese Monk's Tales. New York and London 1966.

Maung Htin Aung. The Stricken Peacock. The Hague 1965.

Niharranjan, Ray. Theravàda Buddhism in Burma. University of Calcutta 1946.

Norman, K.R. Pàli Literature. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983.

Phayre, A.P. History of Burma. London. 1883–84. Reprint 1967.

Than Tun. Essays on the History and Buddhism of Burma. Arran 1988.

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Thomas, E.J. The Life of the Buddha As History and Legend. London 1949.

Shway Yoe (G. Scott). The Burman. Reprint: Scotland 1989.

Stargardt, Janice. The Ancient Pyu of Burma. Vol. I. Cambridge 1990.

Periodicals

Annual Report of the Archeological Survey of Burma.

Bulletin de l’École Française d’ Extreme Orient.

Epigraphia Birmanica.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Journal of the Burma Research Society.

Journal of the Pàli Text Society.

Journal of the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University).

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Founded in 1958, the BPS has published a wide varietyof books and booklets covering a great range of topics.Its publications include accurate annotated transla-tions of the Buddha’s discourses, standard referenceworks, as well as original contemporary expositions ofBuddhist thought and practice. These works presentBuddhism as it truly is — a dynamic force which hasinfluenced receptive minds for the past 2,500 yearsand is still as relevant today as it was when it firstarose.

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