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Buddhist training centres for kids and younger adults are multiplying throughout Myanmar, however whereas they declare to be politically impartial, critics say they train poisonous nationalism and army propaganda.
By FRONTIER
Ma Might Lwin* was shocked earlier this month when her nine-year-old daughter immediately refused to fulfill her finest pal, a Muslim lady.
“Mom, I don’t need to play together with her anymore as a result of she is among the kalars who kill animals,” Ma Yadanar Phoo* informed her mom, utilizing a derogatory time period for individuals of South Asian descent, and particularly Muslims.
“I used to be in shock. My daughter and her pal have performed collectively since they had been toddlers, as a result of they’re the identical age and our properties are simply separated by a fence. After I requested her the place she had heard such issues, she informed me she discovered them from a instructor at her Dhamma faculty,” she mentioned.
Might Lwin had despatched Yadanar Phoo to the Dhamma faculty within the native monastery on the lady’s grandmother’s urging. The older lady had needed the kid to find out about Buddhism beneath the steering of a monk held in excessive regard by the village in Ayeyarwady Area’s Danubyu Township.
“I believed that it wouldn’t be dangerous for my daughter to learn to discuss and behave respectfully with adults, and to manage her damaging feelings by mindfulness. However all she discovered was hate speech and racist concepts,” she mentioned.
Might Lwin determined to withdraw her daughter from the Dhamma faculty that exact same day, however she was afraid to air her grievances as a result of most of her neighbours wouldn’t tolerate criticism of the monastery.
“I informed the monastery that I couldn’t ship my daughter there anymore as a result of she wanted to check earlier than her highschool begins. If I informed them my true emotions, the abbot would reduce ties with our household,” she mentioned.
Amyo, batha and thathana
In line with social media commercials, Dhamma colleges are opening this summer season in nearly all village tracts in Ayeyarwady and Yangon areas, and a few in Mon and Rakhine states.
“Earlier than the pandemic, there have been Dhamma colleges in some villages. However this yr I’ve seen that monasteries in lots of villages appear to be competing to open their very own colleges. Monks ask their followers for funds and assist to ascertain them,” U Aung Kyaw*, a former village tract administrator in Ayeyarwady’s Danubyu Township, informed Frontier.
He additionally claimed that many of the monks opening these colleges are former members or supporters of Ma Ba Tha, the Affiliation for the Safety of Race and Faith.
Based in 2014, Ma Ba Tha was created at a second of political and social change, when many Buddhists in Myanmar believed their faith was beneath menace. The organisation was established a number of months after a number of incidents of anti-Muslim violence rocked Mandalay Area’s Meiktila city and different components of central Myanmar. The 969 Motion, a precursor of Ma Ba Tha led by ultranationalist monks, had allegedly contributed to the violence by stoking sectarian tensions.
Myanmar monasteries have a centuries-old custom of offering spiritual and a few secular types of training to youngsters, and Ma Ba Tha drew from that in sponsoring colleges just like the one Might Lwin’s daughter attended, with a give attention to Buddhist instruction. A lot of these colleges had been funded and run by the Dhamma College Basis, an organisation based in 2012 that quickly established an unlimited community of Buddhist training centres all through the nation.
The crowning achievement of Ma Ba Tha was the passing in 2015 of the controversial Race and Faith Safety Legal guidelines by a parliament dominated by the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Growth Occasion. Two of those legal guidelines, which Ma Ba Tha had lobbied for and even helped to draft, positioned obstacles on inter-faith marriages and non secular conversions.
Ma Ba Tha campaigned for the USDP within the 2015 election and its members usually accused the Nationwide League for Democracy of being a part of a conspiracy to make Myanmar a Muslim nation. Seemingly responding to this stress, the NLD didn’t put ahead a single Muslim candidate in that election, however did ban Ma Ba Tha in 2017, one yr after forming a authorities.
Not all the colleges are new. U Sandaw*, the top of a Dhamma faculty in a special village in Danubyu Township, informed Frontier that the college has held lessons on the monastery since 2013.
“We would like the kids to be extra well mannered and to know extra about Buddhism, so that they develop into good Buddhists. Due to this fact, we opened the lessons freed from cost. We provide all of the textbooks and all of the stationary the children use. They solely must attend the teachings,” he mentioned.
Some villagers interviewed by Frontier claimed that U Sandaw has been a Ma Ba Tha supporter for the reason that organisation was based.
Lengthy earlier than the 2021 army coup, Dhamma colleges have been supported by the Tatmadaw, who justify their function in politics as essential to defend amyo, batha and thathana (race, faith and the Buddha’s teachings), a slogan borrowed from nationalists who fought for independence from the British within the Thirties. Each earlier than and after the current army takeover, the junta chief, Senior Basic Min Aung Hlaing, has repeatedly urged in state media for individuals to open Dhamma colleges.
Now some mother and father really feel compelled to ship their youngsters to the Dhamma colleges in opposition to their will. Daw Zinmar Aye*, a civil servant, informed Frontier that her boss made her total division ship their youngsters to the college on the monastery that he normally donates to.
“Though he mentioned we are able to ship our kids voluntarily, we’re obligated to do it if we need to keep a superb relationship with our superiors. If he asks me whether or not my son is attending or not and I say no, his perspective to me will change,” she mentioned.
‘These days, younger persons are impolite and develop into terrorists’
Dhamma colleges in monasteries usually are not the one supply of Buddhist instruction for laypeople. A Yangon-based member of the Younger Males’s Buddhist Affiliation, a nationalist civil society organisation that’s greater than a century outdated, mentioned members are usually invited to offer classes to relations of Tatmadaw troopers and the police.
“We ship lecturers to the battalions and donate our textbooks. We practice them to maintain Buddhism alive, to unfold Buddhist literature and to foster solidarity amongst Buddhists,” he mentioned.
Shaped in 1906, the YMBA performed an important function within the wrestle in opposition to the British. When Myanmar lastly obtained its independence in 1948, the organisation pledged to by no means once more be concerned in politics, and for some time, it saved its phrase.
Nonetheless, it returned to the political area in 2019, when it conferred its highest honour on Min Aung Hlaing and appointed him because the affiliation’s lifelong patron. The YMBA has additionally developed an in depth relationship with the USDP and former members of Ma Ba Tha, with some believing it’s meant to function a successor to the banned organisation.
In line with the YMBA Fb web page, it has been repeatedly providing Dhamma coaching throughout the nation by its township chapters. In a current assertion, the group claimed to have opened 32 new Dhamma summer season colleges this yr.
YMBA chair U Ye Htun refused repeated interview requests from Frontier. Nonetheless, he defined why the organisation was opening extra Dhamma colleges throughout an interview on Might 4 with pro-military ultranationalist group Buddha Gone Yi.
“These days, younger persons are impolite and develop into terrorists. They kill monks and throw insults at well-known monks like Sitagu Sayadaw and the chair of the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee,” he mentioned, referring to a government-appointed council that regulates the monkhood. He added this behaviour “is a consequence of being brainwashed by different political forces. That’s why we want to practice the youthful technology to be peaceable.”
Sitagu, also called Ashin Nyanissara, is Myanmar’s most well-known Buddhist monk and has grown more and more near the army, even praising Min Aung Hlaing after the coup for his “nice generosity” and “knowledge” because the “head of state”.
In line with YMBA chair Ye Htun, the junta-appointed mayor of Nay Pyi Taw U Tin Oo Lwin has instructed the organisation to supply Dhamma summer season programs in all state major colleges within the capital, and has pledged funding to print textbooks.
The Myanmar Ladies and Youngsters Growth Basis can also be sponsoring Dhamma programs. In line with its Fb web page, it’s working with the YMBA to show highschool college students in Nay Pyi Taw. The MWCDF is chaired by the wives of some senior members of the junta, together with Daw Might Myint Maung, spouse of the Nay Pyi Taw mayor.
Due to its hyperlinks to the regime, YMBA has come beneath assault by resistance forces. Two of its township chapter chairs had been assassinated in Mon State in 2021 and a number of workplaces have reportedly been attacked with explosives.
Repeated requests for remark by Frontier to the junta’s Ministry of Non secular Affairs and Tradition and the MWCDF additionally went unanswered.
Elevating a brand new technology of Buddhists
There isn’t any standardised curriculum for Dhamma colleges, with completely different organisations utilizing completely different educating supplies.
Ko Min Lwin*, a instructor working for the Dhamma College Basis, claimed that his organisation primarily teaches youngsters concerning the Buddha’s teachings.
“We use one guide printed by the Division for Promotion and Propagation of Sasana that’s primarily about learn how to worship the Buddha. We additionally train them learn how to recite the scriptures,” he mentioned.
The YMBA makes use of its personal textbook, which a member mentioned teaches college students the 38 Mingalar Dhamma (the 38 highest blessings in life) preached by the Buddha himself.
“The record of 38 Mingalar Dhamma is one thing each youngster ought to know. After I was a child, our mother and father taught us learn how to behave in accordance with them,” mentioned the person, who’s in his 60s. “However these days mother and father need to work to fulfill the household’s wants, so that they don’t need to time to coach their youngsters. That’s why we’re educating ethics of their place.”
Bhadanta Sunanda, a member of one other affiliation, the Buddha Mar Ma Ka, informed Frontier that their major concern is to “stop Buddhism from disappearing”.
He mentioned the group operates each summer season colleges and Sunday lessons all year long, with about 1,500 college students from grades 1 to 10 attending.
“We train them utilizing our personal curriculum. We additionally organize three meals per day for our college students and organize ferry transport for them. We have now 4 targets: to boost a brand new technology of Buddhists, and to make these children dedicated to Buddhism, excel in training and be charitable,” he mentioned.
The affiliation additionally offers awards to high-achieving college students. “The prizes are a gold ring, a bicycle and a telephone handset,” he mentioned.
Whereas Dhamma colleges painting themselves and their curricula as politically impartial, activist and former political prisoner U Htun Kyi says the army regime has nefarious causes for backing them.
“These programs quantity to psychological violence, one of many worst sorts of violence. They’re educating youngsters that the tough state of affairs we’re struggling is a consequence of sins we dedicated in previous lives, not due to the junta’s injustices. The junta is utilizing faith as a weapon,” he mentioned.
Sayadaw U Waryama, a spokesman for the Spring Revolution Sangha Community, agreed. “Our rulers are brutal. These [ultranationalist] monks by no means criticise their abuses, however as a substitute train youngsters to be tolerant and well-behaved. It quantities to telling the individuals to not react when they’re handled unfairly,” mentioned the monk.
Anti-junta activists additionally say the army helps Dhamma colleges to stoke inter-faith tensions, which serve to justify harsh safety measures and forestall society from uniting in opposition to the regime.
Ko Chit Win Maung, spokesperson for the Magway Folks’s Strike Committee, mentioned that individuals need to combat all types of dictatorship, together with racist ideologies, and that his committee is making an attempt to coach individuals about spiritual and ethnic discrimination.
“We’re spreading our data on these points by writing on social media and organising panel discussions. We’re additionally consistently telling our comrades on the bottom that spiritual and ethnic discrimination will destroy concord, friendship and stability,” he mentioned.
U Waryama believes that junta-sponsored Dhamma colleges gained’t doom the anti-junta wrestle however may have long-term damaging results.
“This revolution is not going to be destroyed as a result of the kids who’re attending the colleges usually are not sufficiently old to get entangled in it. However they’re a part of a grasp plan by the junta to protect their energy in the long term,” he mentioned.
*denotes use of a pseudonym for safety causes
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