BUDDHIST BACKGROUNDS OF THE BURMESE REVOLUTION BUDDHIST BACKGROUNDS OFTHE BURMESE REVOLUTION by E. SARKISYANZ PH.D. apl. Professor Freiburg University PREFACE BY DR. PAUL MUS Professor at the College de France and Yale University • Springer-Science+Business Media, B.Y. I965 Dedicated to the memory 01 my unlorgettable teacher ARNOLD BERGSTRAESSER ISBN 978-94-017-5830-7 ISBN 978-94-017-6283-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-6283-0 Copyright I965 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form Originally published by Martinus Nijhoff in 1965. Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1965 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface by PAUL Mus. VII Foreword ..... XXIII Abbreviations . XXVII I. The Buddhist tradition of Burma's history . I 11. Buddhist traditions about a perfect society, its decline and the origin of the state . .. 10 III. Republican institutions in pre-Buddhist India and in the Buddhist order. .. 17 IV. The Buddhist welfare state of Ashoka. .. 26 v. Survival of Ashokan social and political traditions in Theravada kingship . .. 33 VI. On the problem of social ethics of Theravada Buddhism 37 VII. Emergence of the Bodhisattva ideal of kingship in Theravada Buddhism . .. 43 VIII. Pre-Buddhist fertility elements of the charisma of Burmese kingship . .. 49 IX. Economic implications of the Buddhist ideal of kingship 54 x. The Bodhisattva ideal of Burmese kingship . .. 59 XI. Kamma and Buddhist merit-causality as rationale for medieval Burma's social order . .. 68 XII. Buddhist ethics against the pragmatism of power under the Burmese kings. .. 75 XIII. Static cosmological models for the medieval Burmese state as microcosm . .. 82 XIV. Hindu-Buddhist universalist ideals of a world state .. 87 xv. The Cakkavatti ideal as a factor in the expansion and fall of the Burmese Empire. 93 XVI. Burma's ideological crisis in the British conquest . 98 VI TABLE OF CONTENTS XVII. The dis-establishment of Burmese Buddhism. Protestant missionary attack and modernistic Buddhist response. uo XVIII. The White Man's Burden of educating natives for self­ government and the counter-claim about the democratic and socialistic heritage of Buddhism. 120 XIX. Political activization trends within Burmese Buddhism and the beginnings of modern Burma's independence struggle . 128 XX. Economic crisis of Burma's Buddhist society under British rule. .. 136 XXI. Buddhism's Age of Decline and Burmese expectations of the Setkya-Min, restorer of the Golden Age. 149 XXII. The Setkya-min idea and Saya San's peasant revolt of 1930-1932 . .. ..... 160 XXIII. The beginnings of Burmese socialism and Buddhist- Marxist syncretism . 166 XXIV. Burma's victory in the independence struggle. 180 XXV. Ideological issues of Buddhist socialism . 192 XXVI. Political expectations around the 2500th year of the Buddhist era. 206 XXVII. Burma's synthesis of tradition and revolution. U Nu's Buddhist socialism . 210 XXVIII. The success of efficiency criteria against the symbols of Buddhist democracy. 229 Postscript . 237 Indexes. 244 PREFACE THERAVADA AND STATE POLITICS: THE BURMESE WAY Does this world of ours, so dangerously pregnant of its future, definitely call for the Buddhist valuations now at work in Theravada Buddhist countries, especially in Ceylon and Burma? Will it favor that attempt to reduce what survives, especially at popular, folkloristic level, of the historical Theravada tradition into some kind of a compromise with English constitutional principles, as a remainder of the Colonial Period? Supported as the Buddhist Church still is by the adhesion and vener­ ation of the lay community, the "Teaching of the Elders" (skr. sthaviravada) might seem to some, in reference to today's problems, less a help than an escape, seeking as it does an individual and funda­ mentally monastic liberation (mukti = nirva1Ja). Now that they have rid themselves of all direct tutoring from the West, is it wise of the Burmese to try to build themselves as a modern nation on such an antiquated ideal, inspiring as it may have been in the past? Even in ancient history, has not State Politics in the area derived its inspiration more from the pragmatic tradition of power developed in neighboring Hindu Kingdoms, than from so aloof and retiring a Church? Prominent Asian leaders and scholars have expressed doubts con­ cerning the whole issue. In Mr. Sarkisyanz's own words, Dr. Hla Myint, Rector of the University of Rangoon under the Army Govern­ ment in 1959, [once] tried to convince me, with all the weight of his authority that "Buddhism is unimportant for Burma politically" and that "Burma had no original ideas worth studying". In the eyes of such successors of the British rulers, astatesman like U Nu who takes folkloric, that is to say [according to them] "superstitious" notions of the "Uneducated Class" seriously and even orientates his progmm in their direction, committed treason against the "Educated Class". VIII PREFACE Undoubtedly, considering such terms as dharma, nirva1;ta, or atman (pali dhamma, nibbana, atta) , for whieh "Law", "Extinction" and "Self" are just insecure approximations, Modern Theravada Buddhism, in so far as it still deliberately centers on the Pali texts and on the extensive exegetie literature attached to them, will not easily find there meanings reconciliable with present conditions and circumstances and there is thus some danger that the traditions of the common people should more and more prove to be an obsolete language. Conversely, our Politieal Scientists and their Asian counterparts will have a hard time of it, trying to adjust authorized Buddhist words and phrases to the meanings themselves have in mind. What, for instance, will our "Welfare State" be in Pali and Sanskrit, or in Southeast Asian vernaculars, the cultural vocabulary of whieh derives from Indian models, even more than ours from Greek and Latin? Mr. Sarkisyanz's learned and vivid study goes a long way towards filling that gap, dramatically revealed to the West, a few years ago, by D. C. Vijayavardhana's Revolt in the Temple (Ceylon I953), an attempt to interpret the Message delivered twenty five centuries ago, not only in terms of the expanded universe in which we are living today but also against the background of the great thinkers who have given their characteristic colour to the thought of our times, to quote the publishers' preface. Taking both sides into account, Mr. Sarkisyanz's comprehensive approach will provide the staunchest bona lide Burmese Conservative with an expression, to hirn most acceptable, in his own figurative rather than conceptualized mode of thinking, of such a typieal Western concept as the above mentioned one, whereas the Westernized "Edu­ cated Class" will be brought better to understand the full meaning and communieation value, say for example ofthe Padeytha Tree, the "Tree of all Wishes" of Burmese popular tradition, a mythical counterpart of the Indian cosmic Kalpavrk$a or Kalpadruma. As a figurative trans­ lation of the benefieient, though perhaps to some degree utopie princi­ pIes connected with the Westemers' Welfare State poliey, it might be compared through N ear Eastern references with our Santa Claus and Christmas-tree cycles. It is not in Theravada Buddhist countries only that prophets and politicalleaders, having to face hard facts, have found convenient to tune down that kind of popular imagery, to bring it back to earth. This will answer deeply seated aspirations and longings in the mind of the common people. As a matter of fact, such motivations may even PREFACE IX present an objective value, when precisely their true object, under its various figurative expressions, is in reality ourselves i.e. our atti­ tudes, conceptions and decisions, and our illusions as weIl, prompt as these are to build themselves up into hard facts, when misinterpreted or neglected. Throughout South and Southeast Asia, in a general upsurge of renascent nationalities, Modern History has passed the period when these communication questions, between nations or between peoples and their leaders, were chiefly the preoccupation of a handful of Western specialists, more concerned with textual formulations than with their incidence on present events. All Burmese national Govern­ ments, whatever may be their political allegiance, will henceforth have to cope with these problems, if the country and people are to survive, in the full capacity of themselves. A comparison would be highly instructive between Mr. Sarkisyanz's approach and the Yen. Walpola Rahula's illuminating essay, What the Buddha Taught - especially the concluding chapter, What the Buddha T aught and the World to-day. Both authors reject vigorously the Western denunciation of the "narrow and selfish" outlook of the Theravada School, in contrast to "the broad ideal" professed by the Bodhisattvas of Mahayana, the Great Vehicle [of Salvation]", those Archangels of Mercy and Understanding (karu1Ja and prajfia), who could accede right now to NirvaI).a "without remainder" (nirupadhise$a), but have taken the solemn vow not to do so until their universal, untiring charity has brought the entire round of suffering creatures to that ultimate goal. No point, of course, is of greater importance for a doctrinal compari­ son between the different Buddhist schools, with a view to their possi­ ble reunification. A positive step would be taken in that direction, if Theravada Buddhism appeared, specially on account of the State Re­ ligion it has