The Generals Versus the Monks

What do hip-hop artist Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw and revered Buddhist monk Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa have in common? Both were killed by the ruling junta of Myanmar: Zeya Thaw in 2022 and the sayadaw in June 2024. 

Zeya Thaw and his wife, Ma Thazin Nyunt Aung, were pro-democracy activists who became leading figures in the younger generation of Myanmar’s struggle against their oppressive government. In 2022, Zeya Thaw was arrested, tried, and executed by the junta. Sayadaw Munindabhivamsa was a well-respected monk known for his peaceful teachings and support for democracy. The sayadaw, a 78-year-old retired member of the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, the highest Buddhist authority in Myanmar, was shot dead by junta troops at a checkpoint near Mandalay International Airport. Though the Tatmadaw, or the armed forces of Myanmar, claimed the killing was in error, it is widely viewed as being an execution as well.

I put these two together because they showcase the nature of the war the junta is carrying out against its own people, which increasingly targets “thought enemies” and activists anywhere and everywhere, even to the extent of killing Buddhist monks.

The Burmese Sangha Today

Sayadaw U Jatila is a meditation teacher and monk who leads a retreat center in Kyun Pin, in Wetlet Township. In 2022, the junta bombed two villages neighboring the center for two days, and at one point barged into the meditation center itself, guns drawn, shooting in the air and making threats. Sayadaw told the podcast Insight Myanmar of the sounds of people screaming, the burning of houses for days on end, and the purposeful destruction of the people’s basic resources by the army. He described soldiers coping by priming themselves with alcohol and drugs to carry out the brutal orders against their own people, many of whom maintaining in private that they just want the fighting to end.

Recently, Sayadaw U Jatila convened a meeting at his meditation center of sixty-four monks and four nuns from neighboring villages to discuss how to best share resources to better support the villagers. This led to the creation of the “Welfare Program of the Wetlet Sangha,” which supports the needs of both monastics and laypeople, including the most vulnerable populations during wartime. Sayadaw actively encourages his fellow monastics to seek dialogue with the junta’s soldiers. “When you see the soldier, don’t go; don’t run away! You have to see him, talk to him. But if you are very afraid, very scared to talk, please inform us. That’s why we made the Sangha group.”

The monastic sangha, with a population of more than five hundred thousand, is the largest institution in Myanmar after the military itself. Over the last two decades, the ruling generals have imprisoned several prominent, politically active monks. While some prominent monks have publicly cozied up to the generals, hundreds of others have been defrocked and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for critiquing their rule or supporting democracy. 

Although theoretically committed to shunning politics and worldly entanglements, Burmese monks have historically played an important role in struggles against both colonialism and fascism. In 2007, many monks rose up in the “Saffron Revolution,” notably by “turning over the bowl,” or refusing to take alms from members of the ruling junta. In a Buddhist context, refusing to allow someone to make merit is an extreme move of rejection. This last summer, some monks in Myanmar began turning over the bowl again.

As I wrote for Tricycle, in February 2021, the military seized power in a coup, returning it to dictatorial rule by the junta, who have held power off and on since 1962. The modest progress toward democracy that had been made with the election, and subsequent parliamentary leadership of the National League for Democracy (NLD), ended in 2015, sparking nationwide protests. Civil unrest was crushed by brutal violence. In retaliation, ethnic groups that had been oppressed or excluded from power in Myanmar rose up against the coup of the junta, both separately and in collaboration.  

In recent months, the country has moved into a tailspin of deepening war and disintegration. Myanmar’s currency has rapidly depreciated. Horrific assaults on the Rohingya, who have been victims of a so-called slow-burn genocide, have been widely reported as the government and the Rohingya Arakan militant group battle one another. At the same time, a series of victories for the resistance movements have raised the question of whether the junta’s time may actually be nearing its end. As the Irawaddy reports, “In this current phase of resistance victories, bonds of solidarity are strengthening among resistance forces and Myanmar people. Key ethnic armed organizations … are collaborating with the National Unity Government (NUG) … while reinforcing their commitment to ousting junta and establishing a democratic federal union. The populace is overjoyed about successive resistance victories, expressing their feelings online and on the ground.”

In a Buddhist context, refusing to allow someone to make merit is an extreme move of rejection.

Tricycle recently spoke with Mora (not his real name), a devout Burmese layman who was educated at a monastic-run school and is personally and intellectually very involved in the Myanmar sangha and its issues. Mora wanted people in the West to know that the military coup and subsequent rule of the junta has had a terrible effect on the well-being of the sangha, and that the majority of the monks are not happy with the junta’s rule. 

“The generals have been very clever, very strategic,” Mora tells Tricycle. “They make big donations to get close to high-ranking monks, and then they fill the ears of those monks with disinformation. Some of these very public monks then support the junta, and it creates the impression that the sangha supports the generals. But this is not true. The monks on the ground see the suffering of the people, the impact of the junta’s violent oppression on the villages, on their own families, and on their own ability to live a traditional monastic life, and they do not approve of the junta.” 

Despite being a displaced person himself, Mora has been working to set up networks to disperse humanitarian aid to the villages, an activity the junta actively tries to shut down. Mora does so at the risk of losing his freedom or even his life. “I do this without any hatred or anger in my heart for the generals, but because it is the right thing to do according to dhamma,” says Mora, “because this is the way of the Buddha’s teachings. To practice dhamma is to take responsibility for one’s own actions and to care for others.” 

Mora says that thousands of village monasteries have become de facto refugee centers for the displaced, wounded, and orphaned. “The monks are very active in caring for the people,” says Mora. Speaking of the recent act of “turning over the bowl” taken up by some monks, Mora says, “I have a dream that this will spread as it did during the Saffron Revolution.” 

Although the junta have been careful to project an image of fidelity to Buddhism, in practice it is well-known that they are more interested in occult and magical pursuits than Buddhist teachings, placing more trust in astrology and numerology than in Buddhist practice. According to the Irawaddy, “They treasure white elephants and lucky charms and are constantly seeking advice from astrologers,” a fact so well understood that arrests of political figures by competing factions in the ruling class has often included arrests of their astrologers as well. Previous high-ranking figures in Myanmar’s military dictatorships have been known to engage in black magic and craft their outwardly Buddhist activities according to occult principles in order to enhance their power.

There have also been some cases of very prominent monks resisting the generals’ plans. 

U Wirathu, a controversial monk known for inciting religious hatred against the country’s Muslim population, recently approached Ven. Mahabodhi Myaing, a highly revered forest monk, in the hope of garnering support. Though U Wirathu, a man Mora characterizes as “without ethics,” published a highly edited video of his meeting to suggest support, the full video, which Tricycle has not been able to examine but was seen by Mora, tells a different story. At one point, Ven. Mahabodhi Myaing comments on the weather, saying that when the wind becomes active, it can become violent. “In a similar way, when the mind is stirred up by defilements, it can become violent,” the monk continues. “Just like with you, U Wirathu.” 

I do this without any hatred or anger in my heart for the generals, but because it is the right thing to do according to dhamma, because this is the way of the Buddha’s teachings. To practice dhamma is to take responsibility for one’s own actions and to care for others.

Mora recently shared news of the plights of the monastics of Nyaung Thone Bin Monastery in Mogok, who were forced to flee en masse through a war zone, as their monastery was situated in a strategic area for battle between the junta and the resistance. The abbot of the monastery in Mogok left with all the monks and novices, traveling through the mountains and wilderness paths, while in Mogok their monastery, which housed up to two thousand monastics, was rendered uninhabitable in the fighting. The monks are now sheltering in a monastery near Mount Popa, where they are preparing to spend the remainder of Vassa (the rains retreat period) without adequate housing, food, or robes. 

Whatever the outcome of the current revolutionary violence against the junta, it is likely to be messy and nonlinear. The sangha continues amid the wreckage to hold open the door to the dharma and to alleviate suffering where it can. The monks and nuns of Myanmar, as well as those suffering from impoverishment, injury, and displacement, need our help. 

Those outside of Myanmar can support by donating to the following groups, among others:

Better Burma
Skills for Humanity
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