17 - Buddhism in Burma: Disseminators

Summary

My previous paper has afforded you a bird's-eye view of the history of Theravāda Buddhism in Burma that covers a time-span of over 900 years. It has highlighted the actions and patronage of its supporters which have determined the direction and growth of the Faith. In this second and final instalment, the focus is on the disseminators of the Faith. Their contributions, which are complementary to those of the supporters, have had far-reaching repercussions in the Dhamma world.

The disseminators or propagators may be divided into two main categories: 1) authors, and 2) preachers. There are, of course, other media of propagation of religious knowledge to the laity, such as professional story-tellers, dramatic performers, monastic schools, and paintings and sculptures illustrating scriptural stories. Time, however, does not permit me to do justice to them.

These two categories will be presented so as to give a proper perspective in the context of the historical periods mentioned in my previous paper. These are the monarchical period embracing the four dynasties, the British period and the independence period.

The author category comprises both the members of the Order and lay scholars who appeared on the scene, quite understandably, fairly late.

The acquisition of the sets of the Piṭaka, together with Mon and perhaps some Sinhalese monks from Thaton, the capital of the Mon kingdom in lower Burma, in the middle of the eleventh century AD, laid the foundation stone for the pariyatti-sāsana complex that is in Burma today. The texts were studied assiduously and, as already mentioned, were edited by collating them with those sent later from Ceylon. Learned Mon monks who had been in upper Burma before the arrival of the Piṭaka sets, probably co-operated in this new task. Many of the monks applied themselves so diligently that some of them were already composing scholarly treatises in Pali only thirty years or so after the introduction of the Piṭaka texts.