Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Buddhism in Myanmar
Buddhism (Burmese: ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), specifically Theravada branch (Burmese: ထေရဝါဒဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), is the official and state religion of Myanmar since 1961, and practiced by nearly 87% of the population. It is the most religious Buddhist country in terms of the proportion of monks in the population and proportion of income spent on religion. With approximately 48 million Buddhists, Myanmar has the fourth largest Buddhist population in the world, after China, Thailand and Japan. Adherents are most likely found among the Bamar, Shan, Rakhine, Mon, Karen, and Chinese who are well integrated into Burmese society. Monks, collectively known as the sangha (community), are venerated members of Burmese society. Among many ethnic groups in Myanmar, including the Bamar and Shan, Theravada Buddhism is practiced in conjunction with the worship of nats, which are spirits who can intercede in worldly affairs. Buddhists in Myanmar are governed by Burmese customary law.
Regarding the practice of Buddhism, two popular practices stand out: merit-making and vipassanā meditation. There is also the less popular weizza path. Merit-making is the most common path undertaken by Burmese Buddhists. This path involves the observance of the Five precepts and accumulation of good merit through charity (dana, often to monks) and good deeds to obtain a favorable rebirth. The meditation path, which has gained ground since the early 20th century, is a form of Buddhist meditation which is seen as leading to awakening and can involve intense meditation retreats. The weizza path is an esoteric system of occult practices (such as recitation of spells, samatha and alchemy) believed to lead to life as a weizza (Burmese: ဝိဇ္ဇာ Pali: vijjā), a semi-immortal and supernatural being who awaits the appearance of the future Buddha, Maitreya (Burmese: အရိမေတ္တေယျ Pali: Arimetteyya).
The early history of Buddhism in Burma is hard to decipher. Pali historical chronicles state that Ashoka sent two bhikkhus, Sona and Uttara, to Suvaṇṇabhūmi ("The Golden Land") around 228 BCE with other monks and sacred texts as part of his effort to spread Buddhism. The area has been recognized as being somewhere in ancient Southeast Asia, possibly in Thaton in lower Burma or Nakon Pathom in Thailand.
An Andhra Ikshvaku inscription from about the 3rd century CE refers to the conversion of the Kiratas (Cilatas) to Buddhism. These may have been the Mon-Khmer speaking peoples of ancient Arakan and Lower Burma (i.e. the Pyu states and Mon kingdoms). 3rd century Chinese texts speak of a "Kingdom of Liu-Yang," where people worshiped the Buddha, and there were "several thousand sramanas". This kingdom has been located in central Burma.
By the 4th century, most of Pyu had become predominantly Buddhist, though archaeological finds prove that their pre-Buddhist practices also remained firmly entrenched in the following centuries. According to the excavated texts, as well as the Chinese records, the predominant religion of the Pyu was Theravāda Buddhism.
Peter Skilling concludes that there is firm epigraphical evidence for the dominant presence of Theravāda in the Pyu Kingdom of Sriksetra and the Mon kingdom of Dvaravati, "from about the 5th century CE onwards", though he adds that evidence shows that Mahāyāna was also present. The epigraphical evidence comes from Pali inscriptions which have been found in these areas. They use a variant of the South Indian Pallava script.
Indeed, the oldest surviving Buddhist texts in the Pāli language come from Pyu city-state of Sri Ksetra. The text, which is dated from the mid 5th to mid 6th century, is written on solid gold plaques. The similarity of the script used in these plates with that of the Andhra-Kuntala-Pallava region indicates that Theravada in Burma first arrived from this part of South India.
According to Skilling the Pyu and Mon realms "were flourishing centres of Buddhist culture in their own right, on an equal footing with contemporary centres like Anuradhapura." These Mon-Pyu Buddhist traditions were the predominant form of Buddhism in Burma until the late 12th century when Shin Uttarajiva led the reform which imported the Sri Lankan Mahavihara school to Burma.
Hub AI
Buddhism in Myanmar AI simulator
(@Buddhism in Myanmar_simulator)
Buddhism in Myanmar
Buddhism (Burmese: ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), specifically Theravada branch (Burmese: ထေရဝါဒဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), is the official and state religion of Myanmar since 1961, and practiced by nearly 87% of the population. It is the most religious Buddhist country in terms of the proportion of monks in the population and proportion of income spent on religion. With approximately 48 million Buddhists, Myanmar has the fourth largest Buddhist population in the world, after China, Thailand and Japan. Adherents are most likely found among the Bamar, Shan, Rakhine, Mon, Karen, and Chinese who are well integrated into Burmese society. Monks, collectively known as the sangha (community), are venerated members of Burmese society. Among many ethnic groups in Myanmar, including the Bamar and Shan, Theravada Buddhism is practiced in conjunction with the worship of nats, which are spirits who can intercede in worldly affairs. Buddhists in Myanmar are governed by Burmese customary law.
Regarding the practice of Buddhism, two popular practices stand out: merit-making and vipassanā meditation. There is also the less popular weizza path. Merit-making is the most common path undertaken by Burmese Buddhists. This path involves the observance of the Five precepts and accumulation of good merit through charity (dana, often to monks) and good deeds to obtain a favorable rebirth. The meditation path, which has gained ground since the early 20th century, is a form of Buddhist meditation which is seen as leading to awakening and can involve intense meditation retreats. The weizza path is an esoteric system of occult practices (such as recitation of spells, samatha and alchemy) believed to lead to life as a weizza (Burmese: ဝိဇ္ဇာ Pali: vijjā), a semi-immortal and supernatural being who awaits the appearance of the future Buddha, Maitreya (Burmese: အရိမေတ္တေယျ Pali: Arimetteyya).
The early history of Buddhism in Burma is hard to decipher. Pali historical chronicles state that Ashoka sent two bhikkhus, Sona and Uttara, to Suvaṇṇabhūmi ("The Golden Land") around 228 BCE with other monks and sacred texts as part of his effort to spread Buddhism. The area has been recognized as being somewhere in ancient Southeast Asia, possibly in Thaton in lower Burma or Nakon Pathom in Thailand.
An Andhra Ikshvaku inscription from about the 3rd century CE refers to the conversion of the Kiratas (Cilatas) to Buddhism. These may have been the Mon-Khmer speaking peoples of ancient Arakan and Lower Burma (i.e. the Pyu states and Mon kingdoms). 3rd century Chinese texts speak of a "Kingdom of Liu-Yang," where people worshiped the Buddha, and there were "several thousand sramanas". This kingdom has been located in central Burma.
By the 4th century, most of Pyu had become predominantly Buddhist, though archaeological finds prove that their pre-Buddhist practices also remained firmly entrenched in the following centuries. According to the excavated texts, as well as the Chinese records, the predominant religion of the Pyu was Theravāda Buddhism.
Peter Skilling concludes that there is firm epigraphical evidence for the dominant presence of Theravāda in the Pyu Kingdom of Sriksetra and the Mon kingdom of Dvaravati, "from about the 5th century CE onwards", though he adds that evidence shows that Mahāyāna was also present. The epigraphical evidence comes from Pali inscriptions which have been found in these areas. They use a variant of the South Indian Pallava script.
Indeed, the oldest surviving Buddhist texts in the Pāli language come from Pyu city-state of Sri Ksetra. The text, which is dated from the mid 5th to mid 6th century, is written on solid gold plaques. The similarity of the script used in these plates with that of the Andhra-Kuntala-Pallava region indicates that Theravada in Burma first arrived from this part of South India.
According to Skilling the Pyu and Mon realms "were flourishing centres of Buddhist culture in their own right, on an equal footing with contemporary centres like Anuradhapura." These Mon-Pyu Buddhist traditions were the predominant form of Buddhism in Burma until the late 12th century when Shin Uttarajiva led the reform which imported the Sri Lankan Mahavihara school to Burma.