Abstract
The achievement of independence in 1948 was in many ways a watershed in Burma’s history. At this time, a variety of Buddhist movements emerged that were part not only of a ‘Burmese Buddhist revival’, in which even the government was involved, but also a general re-enchantment of Asia. In the period following World War II, projects of nation-building and further modernization were implemented in many newly independent Asian nation states. The theories of modernization adopted by the rulers had presupposed that a new, rationalized and secularized order that had set them on the path of ‘progress’ would entail a decline of religion. However, instead there was a widespread resurgence of religion, and a variety of new, eclectic religious movements emerged in Southeast Asia. In the thriving religious field of postcolonial Burma, two lay Buddhist movements associated with two different meditation techniques emerged, viz.; the insight meditation movement and the concentration meditation movement. The latter consisted of a variety of esoteric congregations combining concentration meditation with esoteric lore, and some of these were characterized by fundamentalist trends. At the same time, the supermundane form of Buddhism became increasingly influential in the entire field of religion. The aim of the present article is to discuss how this supermundane dimension has reshaped the complex religious field in Burma, with particular emphasis on the esoteric congregations; to present the Burmese form of esoteric Theravāda Buddhism, and to situate the fundamentalist trends which are present in these contexts.
Highlights
NIKLAS FOXEUS dane form of Buddhism became increasingly influential in the entire field of religion
In early postcolonial Burma, there was a general expectation of the possibility for anyone to achieve soteriological success on the path to enlightenm ent and nirvana, and this was associated with a seemingly novel notion, viz. the Liberation Era that was popular at the time, at least in some communities
The different views of the meaning of the Liberation Era seem to correspond to the interests of two predominantly lay Buddhist movements in the post-independence period: the insight meditation (P. vipassanā) movement and the concentration meditation (P. samatha, samādhi) movement
Summary
NIKLAS FOXEUS dane form of Buddhism became increasingly influential in the entire field of religion. At the end of the nineteenth century, a linear scheme of gradual sāsana decline in five stages, as Alicia Turner (2009) has demonstrated, became popular among Buddhist lay associations and served as a conceptual framework to interpret and explain the crisis of the perceived decline of Buddhism under colonialism. It was widely expected that this era would return in 1957, the first year of the second half of the Buddhist era (see Houtman 1990, Foxeus 2011).6 This view reflected the optimism among Burmese Buddhists regarding the new political situation of an independent Burma. Some esoteric communities envisioned the Liberation Era as the ‘Great Weizzā Era’, at which time it would be easier to attain success on the path of esoteric knowledge and become a semi-immortal, accomplished
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