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Ariya and the Golden Book: A Millenarian Buddhist Sect Among the Karen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Theodore Stern
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Millenarian movements provide a dramatic expression of discontent with the present order and an anticipation of its imminent and radical transformation. When they arise within a context of cultural confrontation, in which the limits of an indigenous culture are seen for the first time against the perspective of an advanced—and advancing—civilization, they may at times incorporate within their vision of the millenial condition some of the desirable aspects of that civilization. Indeed, under suitable circumstances movements that begin with chiliastic expectations may end by passing to major involvement with larger societies and the modern world. It is not a common condition, to be sure, and has recently been discounted. “Millenialism,” observes Bellah, “… could contribute only under very special conditions to social innovation, for it was usually a symptom of severe social pathology. Its consequences were often destructive, or the energies it released were quickly rechanneled into traditional forms….”

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , February 1968 , pp. 297 - 328
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Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

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References

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26 Sarkisyanz, 1955, p. 336, fn. 48; Gokhale, B. K., “Early Buddhist Kingship,” JAS, XXVI (Nov., 1966), 18–22Google Scholar.

27 Tin, Maung and Luce, G. H., “The Shwegugyi Pagoda Inscription, 1141 A. D.,” JBRS, X (Aug., 1920). 73Google Scholar.

28 Sarkisyanz, 1965, p. 45. For some instances in Burma and Thailand, see Dhani, Prince, “The Old Siamese Conception of the Monarchy,” The Siam Society Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative Publication, 2 vols., II (Siam Society, 1954), 164fGoogle Scholar., 172–4; Heine-Geldern, p. 8; Pe Maung Tin and Luce, p. 82; Tun, Than, “Religion in Burma, A. D. 1000–1300,” JBRS, XLII (Dec, 1959), 51, 53Google Scholar, “Māhākassapa and His Tradition,” ibid., p. 112; Wales, H. G. Quaritch, Ancient Siamese Government and Administration (Paragon, 1965), 16Google Scholar. See also the statement by Leach, E. R., “The Frontiers of ‘Burma,’” Comparative Studies in Society and History, III (Oct., 1960), especially pp. 56–59Google Scholar.

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31 Sarkisyanz, 1965, p. 94f.

32 Leach, E. R., quoted in John F. Embree and W. L. Thomas, Jr., Ethnic Groups of Northern Southeast Asia (Yale, 1950), p. 32Google Scholar. For a notice of a village allegedly populated by Mon refugees with Karen wives, see Mason, F., “Physical Characteristics of the Karens,” The Missionary Magazine, XLIII (Oct., 1863), 364Google Scholar. For an assessment of Mon cultural influences, see Luce, G. H., “Mons of the Pagan Dynasty,” JBRS, XXXVI (Aug., 1953), 1–19Google Scholar.

33 Symes, Michael, An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, in the Year 1795, 2 vol., I (Constable, 1827), 243Google Scholar.

34 Cady, 1958, p. 43, fn. 12.

35 Symes, II, 225.

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38 Symes, I, 125.

39 Smeaton, p. 189f.; see also Cady, 1958, p. 75. None of the gazeteers consulted makes reference to a Karen revolt of that year, and Cady (personal communication) is of the view that Smeaton's reference is properly to the Mon revolt. The Peguan rebellion of 1839 was raised by one Maung Setkya, grandson of a former prince of Pegu, who pretended to be the late heir-apparent, the Setkyamin (a Pali-Burmese coinage for cakkavatti), son of Bagyidaw. See Desai, W. S., History of the British Residency in Burma, 1826–1840 (Rangoon, 1939), p. 399f.Google Scholar For the relationship of this individual to gaing (sect) formation, see Sarkisyanz, 1965, p. 95f.; Mendelson, 1961, p. 575, “The King of the Weaving Mountain,” Journal Royal Central Asiatic Society, XLVIII (1961), 232Google Scholar.

40 Marshall, Harry I., The Karen People of Burma: A Study in Anthropology and Ethnology, Ohio State University Bulletin 26: 13 (Ohio State, 1922), p. 268Google Scholar.

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43 Marshall, pp. 211–213.

44 Marshall, pp. 210–218, 279 f., summarizes the Ywa myths. See also Mason, F., “Traditions of the Karens,” Baptist Missionary Magazine, XIV (1834), 382–393Google Scholar, also 1884, pp. 148–149; and Cross, E. B., “On the Karens,” JAOS, IV (1854), 300–305Google Scholar. A second myth, also current today, deals with the migrations of the Karen, led initially by Htaw Meh Pa, with his magical comb—or gold and silver combs—of immortality, until he went on ahead and vanished from sight. Thereafter the Karen split one from another (Marshall, p. 5 for one version), the Pwo from the Taungthu at the Valley of Five Piles of Paddy Husks, in western Thailand. One day, it is said, Htaw Meh Pa will reassemble his descendants once more (Smeaton, p. 177). Although Smeaton, pp. 225–226, cites a Karen viewpoint that the recovery of Htaw Meh Pa's land of plenty provided an alternative to the development of a charismatic Karen kingdom, in modern times at least the reuniting of the Karen is bound up with the achievement of the millenial state. In the words of one modern Karen, a Christian evangelist, “The seven parts of the pot [i.e., the seven ‘tribes’ of the Karen, in his enumeration Sgaw, Pwo, Padaung, Bwc, Karenni, Chin, and Kachin] will come together, and only then the Karen people will come into their light. Because only when the pot is together can we cook.”

45 Lacrampe and Plaisant, p. 179 f.

46 Mason, 1882–3, I, 75; cf. Warren, Henry C., Buddhism in Translations, III, Harvard Oriental Series (Harvard, 1922), 324–326Google Scholar; Sarkisyanz, 1965, ch. ii.

47 Mason, 1834, who also mentions the angels of heaven, sinless beings who accompany Ywa (p. 384).

48 Swanson, Guy E., The Birth of the Gods: The Origin of Primitive Beliefs (Michigan, 1964), pp. 64, 116.Google Scholar

49 Mason, 1884, p. 155.

50 Mason, 1884, p. 153.

51 Mason, 1834, p. 389.

52 Boardman, G. D., “Burman Mission. Mr. Boardman's Journal,” Missionary Register, IX (1829), 243 f., 278, X (1830), 22 f., 51, 89.Google Scholar

53 Cited by McMahon, A. R., The Karens of the Golden Chersonese (Harrison, 1876), pp. 235Google Scholar, 242f., who on Mason's authority places it “some 50 or 60 years ago.”

54 To the north, among the Bwe in Western Karenni (Kayah), missionaries in 1869 encountered a cult which, as described, bears incomplete correspondence with that of Ywa, lacking specifically millenarian features. The center of the cult was an inscribed brass plate kept at the principal village of Kyebogyi, said to have been part of a book given by the Supreme Being. It had come into the possession of the Bwe ancestor during a migration in which the Chinese, cast in the role of the elder brother, Htaw Meh Pa, went on before, leaving three objects for the Bwe, among them the book. Thought to be endowed with great powers, guarded by a spirit, the plate was the instrument through which the chief controlled his followers. In March—at the New Year?—the latter assembled to make offerings of silver and to sacrifice bullocks, goats, and fowl to it. Five ivory plates, about the size of Burmese palm leaf books, bearing writing in the same script, were not so worshipped. Like the Leke script, the writing seems to be a highly innovative derivation from the Mon-Burmese. The Bwe asserted that, though once able, they could no longer read it; indeed, to gaze upon the plate was to risk being blinded. Insightfully, Bunker suggests that the plate may possibly have been an “imposition” by a Minlaung. See Bunker, Alonzo, “On a Karen Inscription Plate,” JAOS, X (1871), 172–176Google Scholar; Brown, Nathan, “On a Karen Inscription,” Trans. As. Soc. Japan, VII (1879), 127–129Google Scholar; Cross, E. B., “On the Karens and Their Language,” JAOS, IX (1871), xiGoogle Scholar.

55 Boardman, X, 87.

56 Bennett, Cephas, “Tavoy Mission.—Journal of Mr. Bennett,” Baptist Missionary Magazine, XXVIII (1848), 318–321Google Scholar.

57 Quoted in Judson, Edward, The Life of Adoniram Judson, By His Son (A.D.F. Randolph, 1883), P. 397Google Scholar.

58 Quoted from his journal by Judson, 1883, p. 391.

59 Malcom, Howard, Travels in South-Eastern Asia, Embracing Hindustan, Malaya, Siam, and China; With Notices of Numerous Missionary Stations, and a Full Account of the Burmese Empire (Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln, 1839), 2 vols., I, 58.Google Scholar

60 Luther, Calista V., The Vintons and the Karens: Memorials of Rev. Justus H. Vinton and Calista H. Vinton (W. G. Corthell, 1880), pp. 40–53Google Scholar.

61 Quoted in McMahon, p. 398.

62 Mendelson, , “Messianic Buddhist Association,” “King of the Weaving Mountain,” and “Observations on a Tour in the Region of Mount Popa, Central Burma,” France-Asie, No. 179 (May-June, 1963), 780–807Google Scholar.

63 Bastian, p. 411.

64 Fytche, Albert, Burma Vast and Present: With Personal Reminiscences of the Country. (Kegan Paul, 1878), 2 vols., I, 67Google Scholar, fn. See also Scott and Hardiman, Pt. I, I, 31, for a translation of an annual register among the papers of the Hlutdaw, concerning the revolt and rise to power of Mindon Min. No sooner had his brother, the Kanaung Prince, persuaded him that the then ruler, Pagan Min, was disaffected toward him, than the prince and Mindon himself began to recall past portents now seen to foretell kingship for the latter. Only then did they muster their followers for the issue at arms. The Glass Palace Chronicle is rife with such portents.

65 Sources: Bastian, p. 410 f.; Fytchc, I, 67, 165, 170 f.; Marshall, p. 312; Spearman, H. R., ed., The British Burma Gazeteer (Government Press, Rangoon, 1880), 2 vols., I, 488Google Scholar; Stoll, W. G., “Notes on the Yoon-tha-lin Karens, Their History, Manners, and Customs,” Madras Journ. Lit. and Science, n.s. VI (1861), 52–67Google Scholar, esp. 55–57. Lehman, 1967, p. 110, relates this event, temporally at least, to the founding of the Kayah (Karenni) princedoms.

66 Under deterioration of their position beneath British rule, segments of the Burman population likewise mounted uprisings inspired by millenarian Buddhist hopes. For a summary of these, sec Sarkisyanz, 1965, Chs. xxi, xxii. A comparison of the millenarian gaings described by Mendelson and Sarkisyanz and the Buddhist secret societies of China (C. K. Yang, Religion in China [California, 1961], pp. 218–243) would well repay the effort.

67 Marin, G., “An Old Pwo-Karen Alphabet,” Man, XLIII, (1943), No. 5Google Scholar.

68 Carpenter, C. H., “A Tour Among the Karens of Siam,” Baptist Missionary Magazine, LIII (1873), 9–16Google Scholar.

69 Eveleth, F. H., “The Paramats,” Baptist Missionary Magazine, LXII (1882), 4–8, 331–333Google Scholar; Sangermano, p. 111 f.; Yoc, Shway, The Burman, His Life and Notions (Macmillan, 1882), 2 vols. I, 178Google Scholar f. On the Mān, see Scott, J. G., Burma, A Handbook of Practical Information (De La More, 1921), p. 387Google Scholar f.

70 Tun, “Mahākassapa;” Mendelson, 1963, 800; for a recent sect in Ceylon, see Yalman, Nur, “The Ascetic Buddhist Monks of Ceylon,” Ethnology, I (1962), 315–328CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

71 Rev. Thra Than Bya, quoted in Marshall, p. 298.

72 Adoniram Judson, quoted in Judson, p. 394.

73 Mason, 1834, pp. 388–392. In introducing the account, the editor of the Missionary Register suspended judgment.

74 Dr. Francis Wayland, president of Brown University and at that time president as well of the General Convention of the Baptists, quoted in Judson, p. 466.

75 As Smeaton, p. 199, recognized.

76 Mason, 1882–83, I. 95.

77 See Aberle, 1966, p. 320 f.

78 Malcom, I, 42.

79 Smeaton, p. 215.

80 Smeaton, p. 212.

81 Mason, 1882–83, II, 627.

82 Adoniram Judson, quoted in Judson, pp. 389, 390.

83 Marshall, p. 257.

84 For example, see remarks of E. B. Cross, inserted into account of Cephas Bennett, p. 317.

85 Luther, p. 44.

86 Adoniram Judson, quoted in Judson, p. 389.

87 Judson, pp. 384, 394.

88 Harvey Newcomb, A Cyclopaedia of Missions (Charles Scribner, 1854), p. 203.

89 Mason, 1882–83, I, 108.

90 See remarks of Smith, S. F., Missionary Sketches (W. G. Corthell, 1879), pp. 84Google Scholar, 87, 88. The controversy is detailed in Torbet, Robert G., Venture of Faith (Judson Press, 1955), p. 241f Mrs. Mason compounded her heresy by attempting to introduce Anglican liturgy.Google Scholar

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92 Smith, p. 123.

93 Marshall, p. 264.

94 Stevenson, H. N. C., The Hill Peoples of Burma, Burma Pamphlets, No. 6 (Longmans, 1944), p. 20Google Scholar; Marshall, p. 264 (where he is referred to as Ko Pisan), and Saw Tha Din, personal communication.

95 Stevenson, p. 20.

96 Niebuhr, H. Richard, The Kingdom of God in America (Harper, 1935)Google Scholar, especially ch. iv., “The Coming Kingdom;” Persons, Stow, American Minds: A History of Ideas (Henry Holt, 1958), esp pp. 176–177Google Scholar. The viewpoint of missionaries was often postmillenial, holding that they were to perfect the world for the Second Coming by a great ingathering for Christ of the souls of mankind. Thus see the poem, “The Triumphs of Messiah,” Missionary Register, X (1830), 86Google Scholar.

97 Malcom, II, 250–284.

98 For a historical survey of Baptist missionary policy, see Torbet. The Thai term is maw-sawnsasana.

99 Quoted in Smeaton, p. 39.

100 Christian, John L., Modern Burma: A Survey of Its Political and Economic Development (California, 1942), p. 159Google Scholar; Furnivall, John S., Colonial Policy and Practice: A Comparative Study of Burma and Netherlands India (New York, 1956), pp. 178–184Google Scholar, 391.

101 Christian, p. 216.

102 Smeaton, p. 225, notes the Karen viewpoint that one advantage to the government of the formation of the KNA is that it would “lead the Karens from the Utopian ideas, dangerous from the gullibility of ignorant Karens, and the liability to be led astray by pretended prophets.”

103 The Free Karen viewpoint has been characterized as “racial-salvationist” (U On Myint, “Inside the Karen State,” The Nation [Rangoon], Sunday, 30 Jan., 1955, p. 8).

104 Carpenter, pp. 11, 14.

105 The title is a loanblend of the Karen phu “grandfather” and Mon caik, which Shorto (1962, P. 93f.) glosses for Mon as “sacred being or thing, Buddha, pagoda, image of Buddha.” The latter also appears in the Karen title, Mu Caik, used for Buddhist monks, and in the Leke term, Pha Caik, “Father God,” applied to Ariya.

106 In similar manner, successors to the office of the chief prophets of the Bwe show initial reluctance to assume the burden of office (Marshall, p. 247).

107 There is worship twice daily before a small household shrine, with a small vase of flowers in central position and lacking an image of the Buddha; there are also weekly public ceremonies.

108 Although it is possible that Marshall's description of ‘traditional’ Karen strictness (e.g. pp. 139, 192, 288) may be drawn from peoples themselves under the impress of millenarian puritanism.

109 In conventional Buddhist cosmology Indra presides over the thirty-three gods dwelling in the Tawatissa heaven atop Mount Meru, which stands in the center of the universe, and leads them against the asuras, who emerge from subterranean cities to assault them. In a higher heaven, the Tusita, Ariya awaits his time. (See de la Vallee Poussin, L., “Cosmogony and Cosmology [Buddhist],” Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. Hastings, J., IV [T. and T. Clark, 1911], 134Google Scholar.)

110 These were all that the bu kho himself could name. “The earlier believers,” he asserted, “knew them all. I am a latter elder and am following what they told us.”

111 The Karen name for this deity seems to be drawn through the Mon from the Pāli rukkhajīvo (R. Halliday, A Mon-English Dictionary [Siam Society, 1922], p. 381.).

112 Warren, pp. 324–326.

113 Mason, 1884, p. 21.

114 Carpenter, 1873, p. 10 described “Kya-eng” as at that time the site of the most eastern Karen church in the district.

115 Saw Tha Din, personal communication. I should make it explicit that not only did Saw Tha Din interpret for me when no Thai speaker was available but that he reported to me many of his conversations with the Phu Chaik and other officials. The data garnered in a week's visit to Htimaw have been much enhanced by his contribution, although not instanced at every point in the text.

116 Marin, pp. 17–18. Thra Loo Shwe, “The Karen People of Thailand and Christianity” (M.S., 1962), p. 66. Although the former recorded Ariya as the primary divinity, he did not recognize in him the character of the Coming Buddha. Furnivall, by contrast, had earlier reported the cult of Metteya among the Delta Karen. Some of the features which he notes are shared by the Telakhon sect, in a more general way with several of the bu kho of the Ywa cult, and perhaps with the more orthodox branches of Buddhism as well. (Furnivall, J. H., “Meitteya and Shinmale,” and “Further Notes on Shin-ma-le,” JBRS, IX [Dec., 1919], pp. 158, 159Google Scholar. For Shinmale, see Tin, Pe Maung, “Buddhism in the Inscriptions of Pagan,” JBRS, XXVI [Apr., 1936], 59Google Scholar.)

117 The writer has sought to introduce soybeans as a substitute source of protein that does not contravene religious injunction.

118 Worsley, Peter, The Trumpet Shall Sound (MacGibbon and Kee, 1957), p. 127Google Scholar.

119 The denominations directly involved have been Baptist and Disciples of Christ. An account of the first visit to Htimaw is contained in Paul S. Dodge, “Two Weeks on an Elephant. Diary of the First Visit to the Telakhon of Thailand, Nov.–Dec, 1962,” reproduced by the Bangkok office of the Church of Christ in Thailand. The same issue includes an autobiographical note by Saw Tha Din, “The Third Call.” See also Tinker, Hugh, The Union of Burma (Oxford, 1957), pp. 37, 397Google Scholar.

120 I use the term in a less technical sense than does Wallace, A. F. C., Culture and Personality (Random House, 1961), pp. 34–39, from whom I have drawn itCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

121 The golden animal seems to correspond to the outtazaungs, often in the form of pretty girls, who guard such treasure in Burmese belief. (See Mendelson, “King of the Weaving Mountain,” p. 233.)

122 Mendelson, “Messianic Buddhist Association,” p. 375.

123 Paul S. Dodge, personal communication, 1966.

124 Festinger, Leon, Riecken, Henry W., and Schachter, Stanley, When Prophecy Fails (Harper and Row, 1964)Google Scholar.

125 Paul S. Dodge, personal communication, 1967.

126 Eggan, Fred, “Social Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Comparison,” Amer. Anthrop. LVI (Oct., 1954), 743–763CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nadel, S. F., “Witchcraft in Four African Societies: An Essay in Comparison,” Amer. Anthrop., LIV (Jan.-Mar., 1952), 18–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

127 To use the term which Geertz, employs in his essay, “The Integrative Revolution,” in Geertz, Clifford, ed., Old Societies and New States (Free Press, 1963)Google Scholar.

128 In this stance, the Telakhon fall into one of two conditions that Bellah, p. 193, sees as unfavorable for the religious encouragement of progress. In depending upon divine intervention to establish the millenial condition, they would appear to enter into the second.

129 Bellah, p. 184.

130 Shepperson, George, “The Comparative Study of Millenarian Movements,” Millenial Dreams in Action, Essays in Comparative Study, ed. Thrupp, Sylvia L., Comparative Studies in Society and History, Suppl. II (1962), p. 45Google Scholar.