Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka and Myanmar
In Sri Lanka and Myanmar, some monks and movements cast Buddhism as besieged and the nation as its fortress, feeding violence against Tamils, Muslims and above all the Rohingya.
- Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka — Stanley J. Tambiah, University of Chicago Press (1992)
- Contesting Buddhist Narratives: Democratization, Nationalism, and Communal Violence in Myanmar — Matthew J. Walton and Susan Hayward, East-West Center (2014)
- Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (A/HRC/39/64) — UN Human Rights Council, United Nations (2018)
Both countries inherited a tradition, going back to their chronicles, of the king as protector of the Sangha and the land as a special home of the Dhamma. Under colonial rule, Buddhist revival became bound up with national revival.
- Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka — Stanley J. Tambiah, University of Chicago Press (1992)
- Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo — Richard Gombrich, Routledge (1988)
Sri Lanka. After independence, the 1956 election swept in a government backed by many monks, which made Sinhala the sole official language, alienating the Tamil minority. Ethnic tension turned into a civil war (1983–2009). In the 2010s, the monk-led Bodu Bala Sena (“Buddhist Power Force”) stirred hostility to Muslims, and anti-Muslim riots broke out in 2014 and 2018.
- Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka — Stanley J. Tambiah, University of Chicago Press (1992)
Myanmar. From 2012, the “969” and Ma Ba Tha movements, led by monks such as U Wirathu, spread fear of Muslims, and violence erupted in Rakhine State. In 2017, after attacks by a Rohingya armed group, the military launched operations that drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh. A UN fact-finding mission found evidence of genocidal intent.
- Contesting Buddhist Narratives: Democratization, Nationalism, and Communal Violence in Myanmar — Matthew J. Walton and Susan Hayward, East-West Center (2014)
- Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (A/HRC/39/64) — UN Human Rights Council, United Nations (2018)
Scholars stress that these movements are modern and political, and that Buddhists are deeply divided about them.
- Contesting Buddhist Narratives: Democratization, Nationalism, and Communal Violence in Myanmar — Matthew J. Walton and Susan Hayward, East-West Center (2014)
- Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka — Stanley J. Tambiah, University of Chicago Press (1992)
Buddhism is a minority faith worldwide and has vanished before, from India to Afghanistan. Sri Lanka and Myanmar are among its last strongholds, and they say Muslim growth, conversion and foreign pressure threaten it. Defending the nation, in this view, is defending the Dhamma.
- Contesting Buddhist Narratives: Democratization, Nationalism, and Communal Violence in Myanmar — Matthew J. Walton and Susan Hayward, East-West Center (2014)
- Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka — Stanley J. Tambiah, University of Chicago Press (1992)
The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar found in 2018 that the military's 2017 "clearance operations" against the Rohingya involved mass killing, rape and the burning of villages, and called for senior generals to be investigated for genocide. Hate speech by nationalist monks helped prepare the ground.
- Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (A/HRC/39/64) — UN Human Rights Council, United Nations (2018)
Many monks and lay Buddhists, in Asia and beyond, say nationalist violence betrays the Buddha's teaching of non-harm. Monks led the 2007 protests against Myanmar's military, and others have sheltered Muslims during riots. They see nationalism as politics using religion.
- Contesting Buddhist Narratives: Democratization, Nationalism, and Communal Violence in Myanmar — Matthew J. Walton and Susan Hayward, East-West Center (2014)
- Socially Engaged Buddhism — Sallie B. King, University of Hawai'i Press (2009)
Why it matters today
For many Buddhists this is the hardest subject of all: a religion known for non-violence linked to hate speech and mass atrocity. Most Buddhists reject it, some defend it as self-defence, and it shapes how the world now sees Buddhism.