A group of Burmese Buddhist monks arrived in Dharamsala, India this week to meet with Tibetan monks and share information on their similar struggles for democracy. The Burmese monks brought with them a documentary that shows the 2007 monk-led protests in Myanmar and the subsequent government crack down. Myanmar’s military dictatorship has been keeping the country’s democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for fourteen of the past twenty years, though the government has promised her release in November. Though the types of Buddhism practiced by Tibetans and Burmese are quite different, Tibetan exiles claim that they have a lot in common with the Burmese monks: both believe they have suffered human rights abuses and persecution under oppressive governments. Read more here.
Related articles:
The Dalai Lamas and State Power
By Derek F. Maher , East Carolina University
(Vol. 2, January 2007)
Religion Compass
Burmese Monks in Bangkok: Opening an Abhidhamma School and Creating a Lineage
By Kelly Meister , University of California, Riverside
(Vol. 4, May 2009)
Religion Compass
Tibet Uprising and resistance
By James Steinberg
From The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest
Burma, democracy movement
By A. May-Oo Mutraw
From The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest