Research project Buddhist Heresies: The State, Orthodoxy, and Dissident Monks in Burma/Myanmar
Research project based at History of Religions, ERG, Stockholm University, funded by the Swedish Research Council.
This project examines tensions between the state and dissident and allegedly “heretical” monks and their followers in contemporary Burma/Myanmar. In heresy trials, the state has criminalized monastic teachings deviating from the state-defined orthodox “pure” Theravāda Buddhism that has long served as the kernel of national identity in the state’s nation-building projects. Forms of doctrinal Buddhism incorporating secular discourses (Western science, etc.) have enjoyed increasing popularity since the post-independence period and can be traced back to the British colonial period. This project will be the first study – a case study – of a popular dissident and allegedly “heretical” monk that illustrate these tendencies: Ashin Nyāna, “The Sky-Blue One,” and his movement. The aim of this project is to produce an ethnographic and historically situated study of this new Buddhist movement.
Project description
This project examines tensions between the state and dissident and allegedly “heretical” monks and their followers in contemporary Burma/Myanmar. In heresy trials, the state has criminalized monastic deviations from the hegemonic state-defined orthodox “pure” Theravāda Buddhism that has served as the kernel of national identity in the state’s nation-building projects since the early post-independence period. These “heresies,” perceived as threats to the state-sanctioned form of Buddhism, have frequently consisted in novel interpretations of Buddhism that have incorporated secular discourses (especially Western science, psychology, and empiricism) and have enjoyed increasing popularity since the post-independence period and can be traced back to the crisis Burmese Buddhism underwent in its encounter with modernity during the British colonial period.
Since the late socialist Ne Win period (1962-1988) in Burma/Myanmar, a scripturalist and literalist form of orthodox “pure” Theravāda Buddhism has been sanctioned by the State and monastic authorities, with intolerance against perceived deviations. This view has become linked to Buddhist nationalism, with Burma being regarded as the “last fortress” preserving “pure” Theravāda Buddhism. Since 1980, the State in Burma has sought to regulate Theravāda Buddhist doctrinal orthodoxy by means of the law. Monastic courts backed by the State have examined cases charged with “heresy” (Pāli adhamma). Buddhist teachings judged to be heretical are declared illegal and the further dissemination of such teachings is banned. Failure to comply with these judgments is punishable with imprisonment.
This project is a study of a popular dissident monk where all these strands converge: the blue-robed monk Ashin Nyāna, “The Sky-Blue One.” His teaching is shaped by secularization processes, Western science, and empirical positivism. For instance, he downplayed the teaching about rebirth and the Buddhist cosmology and focused on only one life. He maintained that he had rediscovered the original teaching of the Buddha that preceded the emergence of what he stated to be a later and corrupt Theravāda Buddhism. His popularity began to rise in the 1980s and reached its climax from the end of the 1990s to 2010 when he was arrested. His teaching was examined by monastic courts and found to be “heretical” in 2011. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment but was released in 2016 in an amnesty. That was his third imprisonment.
Based on textual sources, sermons, interviews, and fieldwork, the aim of this project is to make an ethnographic, sociological, and historical study of the dissident monk Ashin Nyāna and his movement that has been subjugated by the state. The project examines how his adherents make sense of this teaching in their everyday lives. Moreover, it investigates court material and other kinds of legal material; groups that are opposed to his movement (mainly Buddhist nationalist groups), and the monastic investigation of the heresy case.
As an ethnographic and historical study of this new Buddhist movement, this project will provide a lens through which the complexity of the intersection between religion, politics and law in Burma can better be understood, and how secularized forms of Buddhism have increasingly become popular in Burma.
Project members
Project managers
Niklas Foxeus
Affilierad universitetslektor
