Buddhist just rule and Burmese national culture: state patronage of the Chinese Tooth Relic in Myanma
Juliane Schober
History of Religions Vol.36 No.3 Feb 1997 pp.218-43
COPYRIGHT @ University of Chicago
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With the State Law and Order Restoration Council working overtime
for the promotion, propagation and perpetuation of the Sasana, it is
a great reward for the people of this land that the Tooth Relic has
been brought on a "dethasari" journey for the benefit of all who
would like to take the opportunity to pay homage (Editorial, "The
Journey of the Tooth Relic," New Light of Myanmar [April 19, 1994])
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the most far-reaching efforts in modern Buddhism to create a
national cult of relic veneration occurred in early 1994, when the
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC, which presently
governs Myanma)(1) enjoined millions of people to participate in a
series of elaborate rituals so that citizens and foreigners could
pay homage to the Chinese Tooth Relic during its forty-five-day-long
procession throughout the nation's territory. This ritual veneration
of the Buddha's remains is discussed here as a modern transformation
of cosmological Buddhism practiced by the political establishment.
The article examines the contemporary social and political realities
of the state rituals and modern Buddhist nationalism to illustrate
competing visions of authority in Myanma and among transnational
communities. In doing so, it explores the transformation of root
metaphors and ritual service in cosmological Buddhist contexts into
the symbolic currency of a modern, secular state that seeks to
obligate the periphery to the hegemonic center in a variety of
public social domains. Participation in this economy of merit
transforms a ritual community into a national community in which the
state regulates access to merit, prestige, and power through complex
hegemonic structures. These state rituals took place in a crisis of
authority, namely, in the aftermath of popular resistance since 1988
that had created embittered and painful divisions within the
national community. The progress of the Sacred Tooth in Burma thus
became a vehicle for negotiating hegemonic visions of a modern
nation and its political authority, national community, history, and
culture. The analysis presented here draws on contemporary texts and
social, political, and cultural contexts of venerating the Sacred
Tooth and points to both traditional and modern interpretations of
these state-sponsored rituals.
In traditional Asian polities, the popular veneration of Buddhist
sacred objects such as relics and images is shaped by mythic
constructs found in texts such as the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, which
tells the story of the distribution of the Buddha's relics to
surrounding kingdoms. Such themes have been reproduced in Theravada
Buddhist cultural history since the time of Asoka in local
chronicles and in practices that impelled the construction of grand
Buddhist monuments, such as Asoka's construction of 84,000 stupas,
the Kandyian Shrine of the Tooth Relic, and the Thai Emerald Buddha
statue, among others.(2)
The veneration of the Buddha's physical remains (dhatu) is integral
to the practice of traditional or cosmological Theravada Buddhism(3)
and its social extension, the galactic polity.(4) Significant
aspects of popular Theravada practice, such as relic veneration, the
construction of stupas, and, more generally, state patronage of
rupakaya, create a field of merit and source of political
legitimation separate and distinct from merit-making patronage of
the sangha. It also establishes a socially and ritually
differentiated hegemony within which power relations are negotiated
and consolidated.(5) First, relics and similar sacred objects stand
for the entire body of the Buddha and, by extension, the totality of
his dispensation. They map a cosmic center and establish structural
orders between a microcosm, its periphery, and an encompassing
macrocosm, thus linking, for example, the Southeast Asian periphery
to the universal Buddhist order of things (dhamma). Second, a
teleological significance is attributed to the presence of relics in
a given location by my/ho-historic narratives that link the
historical present to a pristine time in the life of the Buddha.
Sacred realities are thus mapped onto temporal polities, and ritual
acts localize the Buddha's presence in cosmological, social, and
political domains to generate merit for the eventual transcendence
of this world (samsara) and attainment of enlightenment (nibbana).
Third, the ritual veneration of relics engenders a hierarchically
ordered, religio-political community. It also endows social actors
with charisma and historical events with significance beyond the
immediate contexts of cultural performance. A just ruler
(dhammaraja) acts as ritual patron of some of the tradition's most
evocative root metaphors.(6) He does so within the ritual and social
structures of an economy of merit. Homage and generosity (dana)
toward the Buddha's spiritual and material remains are seen as
indications of religiosity, social status, and political
legitimacy.(7)
Yet, 1994 in Myanma no longer denotes a time of traditional,
cosmological Buddhism. The ritual structures created by the
procession of the Chinese Sacred Tooth throughout the nation require
interpretations framed by competing contexts, foremost among them,
contemporary and frequently contested notions of Burmese history,
culture, and national community. While the officially advocated
imagination of Myanma's national community and history is
self-consciously modeled after traditional cultural paradigms rooted
in cosmological Buddhism, Charles Keyes et al. point out that in
modern nation-states, competing visions of authority and of modern
political ideology contest traditional orders and provide alternate
avenues for legitimation.(8) Cosmological features of venerating the
Chinese Tooth Relic in 1994 must be viewed within the context of
SLORC's political ideology and pragmatism.
The State Law and Order Restoration Council is a military regime
that retained power in the aftermath of a popular election victory
in 1990 favoring a multiparty system: hence, political authority in
modern Myanma: does not solely depend on the manipulation of
cosmological Buddhist symbols. At the same time, the state's ritual
theater(9) shows that SLORC seeks to strengthen its hegemony through
patronage of the Chinese Tooth Relic, through the creation of
historically linked and socially overlapping fields of merit
throughout the nation, and through mobilization of diverse
communities and resources. The state's appeal to the symbols of
cosmological Buddhism in a modern setting aims to create a
particular ethos and vision of this nation and its culture,
community, territory, and history that is "essentially" Burmese and
"essentially" Buddhist. It seeks to project--to its citizens and to
outside observers--a vision of Buddhism in which the state, sangha,
and laity speak in a single voice, emphasizing righteousness,
scripturalism, and morality (sila). By 1994, SLORC had largely
succeeded in silencing the sangha and secular political opposition,
empowered a class of military leaders, and commenced the formulation
of a new national constitution. Voices that speak within Myanma's
national boundaries for alternate visions of Buddhism, political
hegemony, and moral legitimation have largely fallen silent. Since
the state controls social discourse about public merit making,
alternate voices must be gleaned from silence, in absence from
ritual participation, and in the countertexts of expatriate
communities beyond Myanma's national boundaries.
The text, context, and countertext articulate competing
interpretations that nevertheless share salient presumptions about
the veneration of the Buddha's relics and their social significance.
The range of ritual interpretations encountered in this modern
context only underscores the cultural and symbolic significance of
relics as root metaphors in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.
II. CONSTRUCTING THE TEXT: NATIONALISM AND THE POLITICS OF RITUAL
The ritual progress of the Sacred Tooth throughout the Burmese
nation recalls historical antecedents, such as a similar visit of
this Tooth Relic to Burma and Sri Lanka at the time of U Nu's
Sanghayana. It also suggests a textual model found in the Cakkavatti
Sihanada Suttanta.(10) There, the Buddha tells the story of a world
conqueror whose reign is established by voluntary subjugation of
vassals to the Wheel of Law that precedes his progress and the
prosperity his kingdom thus enjoys.
The texts describing the procession (dethasari)(11) of the Chinese
Sacred Tooth to Myanma between April 20 and June 5, 1994, are
constructed by government media to document the participation of
social and political
An earlier version of this article was read at the Tenth Congress of
the International Association of Buddhist Studies in Paris in 1991.
1 am grateful to Steven Collins, Lance Cousins, Nobumi Iyanaga, Rita
Langer, Ornan Rotem, Paul Williams, and Nobuyoshi Yamabe for
comments, criticism, or help with tracing references in the course
of writing this article.
(1) D 3:84-85: "hoti kho so Vasettha samayo yam kadaci karahaci
dighassa addhuno accayena ayam loko samvattati, samvattamane loke
yebhuyyena satta abhassara-samvattanika honti, te tattha honti
manomaya piti-bhakkha sayam-pabha antalikkha-cara subhattha-yino
ciram digham addhanam titthanti, hoti kho so Vasettha samayo yam
kadaci karahaci dighassa addhuno accayena ayam loko vivattati.
vivattamane loke yebhuyyena satta abhassara-kaya cavitva itthattam
agacchanti. te ca honti manomaya piti-bhakkha sayyam-pabha
antalikkha-cara subhatthayino ciram digham addhanam titthanti." All
references to Pali and Sanskrit texts use the abbreviations listed
in app. A of this article. For full citations, see app. A.
References are to volume and page of the cited edition, except in
the case of the Abhidharmakosa and Visuddhimagga; references to the
former are to chapter and verse, and to the latter, to chapter and
section of the Warren-Kosambi edition and Nanamoli translation.
(2) This initial formula must be regarded as constituting a
significant piece of floating tradition that forms part of the
common heritage of ancient Buddhism. Apart from its occurrence in
all four surviving recensions of the Aggabha-sutta--see K. Meisig,
Das Sutra von den vier Standen: Das Agganna-sutta im Licht seiner
chinesischen Parallelen (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1988)--we find the
same formula (though with a slightly different account of the
process of world expansion) used in two other suttas of the Digha
Nikaya: the Brahmajala and Patika (D 1:17 and D 3:28-29; the
expansion formula here reads: "vivattamane loke sunnam
brahma-vimanam patubhavati. ath' annataro satto ayukkhaya va
punnakkhaya va abhassara-kaya cavitva sunnam brahma-vimanam
upapajjati, so tattha hoti manomayo piti-bhakkho sayam-pabho
antalikkha-caro subhatthayi ciram digham addhanam titthati"). Two
Anguttara passages (A 4:89; 5:60) also make use of parts of the
formula, while Vibh 415 (cf. D 3:88), which states that human beings
at the beginning of an aeon are born lacking the male or female
faculty, also alludes to it. Outside the Nikayas and Agamas, looking
beyond the Pali tradition we find the formula used in the Mahavastu
(see Le Mahavastu, ed. E. Senart, 3 vols. [Paris, 1882-97], 1:52,
338-39) and referred to and commented on by Vasubandhu in the
Abhidharmakosa (Abhidh-k 3:97c-d-98a-b; see Louis de La Vallee
Poussin, trans., L'Abhidharmakosa de Vasubandhu: Traduction et
Annotations, 6 vols. [Brussels: Institut beige des hautes etudes
chinoises, 1971], 2:203-4, and Abhidharmakosa and Bhasya of Acarya
Vasubandhu with Sphutartha Commentary of Acarya Yasomitra, ed. D.
Shastri, 3 vols. [Varanasi: Bauddha Bharati, 1970-72], 2:554).
(3) G. S. Kirk, Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other
Cultures (London, Berkeley, and Los Angeles: Cambridge University
Press and University of California Press, 1970), p. 281.
(4) See R. F. Gombrich, Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism
in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1971), pp. 153-91; S. J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in
North-East Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970),
pp. 32-52.
(5) The pioneering work is W. Kirfel, Kosmographie der Inder (Bonn:
K. Schroeder, 1920), but this devotes rather little space to
Buddhist sources in comparison to Brahmanical and Jain materials and
is now rather dated. It is Louis de La Vallee Poussin's work on the
Abhidharmakosa that has given us the most substantial material on
Vaibhasika cosmology; see his L'Abhidharmakosa de Vasubandhu,
Vasubandhu et Yasomitra: Troisieme chapitre de l'Abhidharmakosa:
Karika, Bha-sya et Vyakhya (Brussels: Academie royale de Belgique,
1919), and "Cosmology and Cosmogony (Buddhist)," in Encyclopaedia of
Religion and Ethics, ed. J. Hastings, 13 vols. (Edinburgh: T & T
Clark, 1908-27), 2: 129-38. The relevant portions of Nanamoli's
translation of Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga constitute the only
readily available and accessible sources for the developed
Theravadin system; see The Path of Purification (Colombo: Semage,
1964), 7:40-44, 13:29-65, p. 214, n. 14. The two more comprehensive
studies of the details of the Nikayas' cosmological outlook, Joseph
Masson's La religion populaire dans le canon bouddhique pali
(Louvain: Bureaux du Museon, 1942); and M. M. J. Marasinghe's Gods
in Early Buddhism: A Study in Their Social and Mythological Milieu
as Depicted in the Nikayas of the Pdli Canon (Vidyalankara:
University of Sri Lanka, 1974) tend to approach their subject from
the standpoint that talk of gods and the like in the Nikayas is
something of a concession to "popular" Buddhism rather than an
integral part of Buddhist thought-this is explicitly revealed in the
title of Masson's book and is perhaps less true of Marasinghe's
work; both these books, however, represent useful collections of
material on cosmological ideas as presented in the Nikayas. The
figure of Mara has received some additional attention: T. O. Ling,
Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil: A Study in Theravada Buddhism
(London: George Allen & Unwin, 1962); J. W. Boyd, Satan and Mara:
Christian and Buddhist Symbols of Evil (Leiden: Brill, 1975). R.
Kloetzli's more recent Buddhist Cosmology: From Single World System
to Pure Land (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983), while providing a
useful summary and overview of Buddhist cosmological ideas from the
Nikayas through to the developed Mahayana, from my perspective
passes rather quickly over the early materials and the Abhidharma.
One of the most interesting treatments of cosmology in the Nikayas
to have been published in recent years is Peter Masefield's
"Mind/Cosmos Maps in the Pali Nikayas," in Buddhist and Western
Psychology, ed. N. Katz (Boulder, Colo.: Prajna Press, 1983), pp.
69-93. See also R. E Gombrich, "Ancient Indian Cosmology." in
Ancient Cosmologies, ed. C. Blacker and M. Loewe (London, 1975), pp.
110-42.
(6) F. E. Reynolds and M. B. Reynolds, Three Worlds according to
King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology (Berkeley: Asian Humanities
Press, 1982). One of the sources employed by Phya Lithai was the
earlier Pali Lokapannatti; see E. Denis, trans. and ed., La
Lokapannati et les idees cosmologiques du bouddhisme ancien, 2 vols.
(Lille, 1977).
(7) S. Collins, Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada
Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 165-76,
218-24, 247-61.
(8) Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand,
pp. 34-35.
(9) Although we do find the beginnings of systematization in the
Anguttara-Nikaya, see Marasinghe, pp. 244-81.
(10) For a summary of the cosmological details as found in the
Nikayas, see ibid., pp. 43-62.
(11) See esp. Masson, pp. 18-38, and the chart facing p. 144 for
details of the various hierarchical lists found in the Nikayas.
(12) See in particular A 2:126, 230; 4:39, 241; cf. Marasinghe, pp.
244-68, and chart facing p. 62.
(13) See Marasinghe, p. 44; D 2:139, 253; M 3:101-2; A 1:227, 5:59.
(14) For example, D 1:62: "so imam lokam sadevakam samarakam
sabrahmakam sassamana-brahamanim pajam sadeva-manussam sayam abhinna
sacchikatva pavedeti." I follow the commentary (Sv 1:174) in taking
sadeva in the sense of sammuti-deva. It is possible to take samaraka
and sabrahmaka as indicating a plurality of maras and brahmas,
respectively (on the grounds that the Nikayas clearly do recognize a
plurality of brahmas and maras); on the other hand, it seems to me
probable that in the present context we should take imam lokam as
implying simply "this [one] world-system" that we occupy; see Boyd,
pp. 100-111; cf. the discussion of the terms loka, loka-dhatu, and
cakkavala below, n. 34.
(15) Marasinghe (n. 5 above), p. 260; cf. pp. 59, 259-61.
(16) See, e.g., the Mahasihanada-sutta (M 1:68-83).
(17) See app. B, "How Old Is Buddhist Cosmology? A Note on the
Agganna-Sutta."
(18) A 3:415: "cetanaham bhikkhave kammam vadami. cetayitva kammam
karoti kayena vacaya manasa" (cf. Abhidh-k 4:1).
(19) S 1:197-205; Marasinghe, pp. 207-13.
(20) S 1:111-13, 116-18, 130-31; 132-33; Marasinghe, pp. 185-98.
(21) According to the stock Nikaya formula (e.g., D 1:73), by
abandoning the five hindrances one attains the first jhana thereby
passing from the kamavacara to the rupavacara; the developed
cosmological tradition states that Mara dwells as a rebellious
prince among the paranimittavasavattin gods (S 1:133, 1:33-34); see
Boyd (n. 5 above), pp. 81-84, 111-19; G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary
of Pali Proper Names, 2 vols. (London: Pali Text Society, 1974),
2:613.
(22) S 4:38-39: "maro maro ti vuccati, kittavata nu kho bhante maro
va assa mara-pannatti va tit yattha kho Samiddhi atthi cakkhum atthi
rupa atthi cakkhu-vinnanam atthi cakkhu-vinnana-vinnatabba dhamma,
atthi maro va mara-pannatti va."
(23) Sn 435-39: "tassa m' evam viharato pattass' uttama-vedanam /
kamesu napekhate cittam passe sattassa suddhatam // kama te pathama
sena dutiya arati vuccati / tatiya khuppipasa te catutthi tanha
pavuccati // pancami thina-middham te chatthabhiru pavuccati /
sattami vicikiccha te makkho thambho te atthamo //. . .// esa namuci
sena kanhassabhippaharani / na nam asuro jinati jetva ca labhate
sukham" (trans. adapted from K. R. Norman, trans., The Group of
Discourses: Revised Translation with Introduction and Notes [Oxford:
Pali Text Society, 1992]).
(24) S 1:124.26-30: "atha kho tanha ca arati ca rage ca mara-dhitaro
yena bhagava ten' upasamkamimsu, upasamkamitva bhagavantam etad
avocum: pace te samana paricarema tit atha kho bhagava na manasakasi
yatha tam anuttare upadhi-samkhaye vimutto." See also Sn 835; Nd
1:181.
(25) The fact that the armies of Mara here in part overlap with the
five hindrances of sensual desire (kama-cchanda), aversion
(vyapada), tiredness and sleepiness (thina-middha), excitement and
depression (uddhacca-kukkucca), and doubt (vicikiccha) underlines
the point made already about the particular psychological
interpretation of Mara in terms of the five hindrances. (26) D
1:215-23.
(27) "vinnanam anidassanam anantam sabbato paham" (D 1:23),
interpreted by Buddhaghosa (Sv 2:393) as referring to nibbana.
(28) Masefield (n. 5 above). The Upanisadic locus classicus for the
terms is Brhadaranyaka 2.3.
(29) Masefield, p. 93, n. 32.
(30) Abbidh-s 1-5 (citta-samgaha-vibhaga); cf. Vism 14:83-110.
(31) Vibh 422-26; Vism 7:40-44, 13:29-65; Abhidh-s 22-24; Abhidh-k
3:1-3. Theravadin sources enumerate eleven realms in the kamadhatu
(four descents, the human realm and six heavens), sixteen in the
rupadhatu (three each for the first three jhana realms and
seven--including unconscious beings and five Pure Abodes--for the
fourth), and four in the arupadhatu; Abbidh-k enumerates ten in the
kamaloka (missing is the realm of asuras from the descents),
seventeen in the rupaloka (exchanging unconscious beings for two
further basic fourth dhyana realms), and four in the arupaloka;
bhasya to Abhidh-k 3:2b-d records that the Kasmiris accepted only
sixteen realms in the fourth dhyana while La Vallee Poussin, trans.
(n. 2 above), 2:3, n. 1, records a number of other slight variations
in the northern sources.
(32) Abhidh-av 182-289 ("bhumi-puggala-vasena cittuppatti-niddeso").
(33) The kind of consciousness that is characteristic of a being is
essentially a function of a being's bhavanga-citta; see R. Gethin,
"Bhavariga and Rebirth in the Abhidhamma," in The Buddhist Forum,
vol. 3 (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1995), pp.
11-35.
(34) Vibh 426; Abhidh-s 24.
(35) See Vibh 135-92; Vibh-a 199-200; bhasya to Abhidh-k 3:24 (La
Vallee Poussin, trans., 2:65-66); cf. R. Gethin, The Buddhist Path
of Awakening: A Study of the Bodhi-Pakkhiya Dhamma (Leiden: Brill,
1992), p. 351.
(36) Quite what constitutes a "world-system" is not clear. The term
cakkavala does not appear to occur in the four primary Nikayas.
Strictly a cakkavala (cf. Skt cakravala and Buddhist Sanskrit
cakravada) refers to the range of mountains surrounding the world;
the term is then used to refer to a single "world-system" as
constituted by the various realms that make up the world of
sense-desire; Buddhaghosa says that there are an infinite number of
such world-systems (Vism 7:40-44). The term used as a gloss for
cakkavala by Buddhaghosa here is loka-dhatu, which seems to be the
preferred term in the Nikayas. Thus the Anguttara Nikaya (5:59-60)
talks of a Mahabrahma ruling over a thousand such world-systems,
while the Majjhima Nikaya (3:101-2) talks of Brahmas ruling over as
many as a hundred thousand world-systems. It thus seems that
world-systems that are distinct and self-contained at the lower
realms of existence are not necessarily so at higher levels of
existence. However, Buddhist tradition does not conclude that one
should therefore talk of there being only one all-embracing
Brahma-world. In fact, A 5:59 already talks in terms of thousands of
Brahma-worlds, and the ancient conception of the thousandfold
world-system, the twice-thousandfold world-system (embracing 1
million worldsystems), and the thrice-thousandfold world-system
(embracing 1 trillion world-systems according to Pali sources and 1
billion according to northern) (see A 1:227-28, Mp 2:340-41,
Abbidh-k 3:73-74) seems to imply a kind of pyramidal structure of
world-systems: units of thousands of world systems (i.e.,
sense-sphere world-systems) are governed by a Mahabrahma, and units
of a thousand such Brahma realms are in turn governed by Brahmas of
yet higher realms, and so on. Whatever, as the Atthasalini says (pp.
160-61), there is no end to the hundreds and thousands of
world-systems: if four Mahabrahmas in Akanittha were to set off at a
speed which allowed them to traverse a hundred thousand
world-systems in the time it takes a swift arrow to pass over the
shadow of a palm tree, they would reach nibbana without ever seeing
the limit of world-systems.
(37) Sv 1:110; Vism 13:30; bhasya to Abhidh-k-bh 3:90c-d.
(38) Vism 13:32-55; Abhidh-k-bh 3:89-90, 100-102; cf. Reynolds and
Reynolds (n. 6 above), pp. 305-27.
(39) Vism 13:31, 40-41, 55.
(40) Vism 13:55-62 describes destruction by fire, water, and wind;
Vism 13:65 and Abhidh-k-bh 3:102 detail the sequence and frequency
of destruction by these three elements and are in complete
agreement: seven cycles of seven destructions by fire followed by
one by water (fifty-six destructions); followed by one cycle of
seven destructions by fire followed by one by wind (sixty-four
destructions); thus the Brahmas who live in the
Subhakinha/Subhakrtsna realms--the highest of the third jhana/dhyana
realms-have a life span of sixty-four aeons.
(41) Vism 13:33-35: "jhanam vine natthi brahma-loke nibbatti; etesan
ca keci dubbhikkha-pilita keci abhabba jhanadhigamaya, te katham
tattha nibbattanti tit devaloke patiladdhajhana-vasena, tada hi
vassa-sata-sahassass' accayena kapputthanam bhavissati ti,
loka-byuha name kamavacara-deva mutta-sira vikinna-kesa ruda-mukha
assuni hatthehi pubchamana ratta-vattha-nivattha ativiya
virupa-vesa-dharino hutva manussa-pathe vicaranta evam arocenti:
marisa marisa ito vassa-sata-sahassassa accayena kappa-vutthanam
bhavissati; ayam loko vinassissati, maha-samuddo pi ussussissati,
ayan ca maha-pathavi sinew ca pabbata-raja uddayhissanti
vinassissanti, yava brahma-loka loka-vinaso bhavissati, mettam
marisa bhavetha, karunam muditam upekkham marisa bhavetha, mataram
upatthahatha pitarum upatthahatha, kule jetthapacayino hotha ti,
tesam vacanam sutva yebhuyyena mantissa ca bhumma-devata ca
samvega-jata annamannam mudu-citta hutva mettadmi punnani karitva
deva-loke nibbattanti, tattha dibba-sudha-bhojanam bhunjitva
vayo-kasine parikammam katva jhanam paplabhanti. tad-anne pane
aparapariya-vedaniyena kammena deva-loke nibbattanti.
aparapariya-vedaniya-kamma-rahito hi samsare samsaranto satto name
natthi, te pi tattha tath' eve jhanam patilabhanti, evam deva-loke
patiladdha-jjhana-vasena sabbe pi brahma-loke nibbattanti tit"
(42) On aparapariya-vedaniya-kamma, see Vism 19:14, Abhidh-s 5:52,
Abhidh-s-t 131-32.
(43) Sv 1:110: "yebhuyyena ti ye upari brahma-lokesu va aruppesu va
nibbanti, tad-avasese sandhaya vuttam." (44) DAT 1:201: "aruppesu va
ti va-saddena samvattamana-lokadhatuhi anna-lokadhatesu va ti
vikappanam veditabbam, na hi sabbe apaya-satta tada ruparupa-bhavesu
uppajjanti ti sakka vinnatum, apayesu dighatamayukanam
manussalokuppattiya asambhavato." The fact that the DAT comments
here in this way when Vism-t fails to make any comment on
Buddhaghosa's account of the contraction of the world is perhaps
further evidence that the authors of the Nikaya tikas and Vism-t are
not the same; see L. S. Cousins, "Dhammapala and the Tika
Literature," Religion 2 (1972): 159-65; P. Jackson, "A Note on
Dhammapala(s)," Journal of the Pali Text Society 15 (1990): 209-11.
(45) Compare Kv 476.
(46) Abhidh-k-bh 3:89: "yada narakesv eka-sattvo navasisto bhavati
iyatayam lokah samvrtto bhavati / yaduta naraka-samvarttanya / yasya
tadanim niyatam naraka-vedaniyam karma dhriyate sa
lokadhatv-antara-narakesu ksipyate."
(47) This is stated by way of explanation of the last of three ways
in which dhyana belonging to the rupadhatu may be produced: by the
force of conditions (hetu), defined as repeated practice
(abhiksnabhyasa)' by the force of karma leading to rebirth in a
higher realm coming to fruition, and also by the nature of things
(dharmata) (Abhidh-k-bh 8: 38c-d: "rupadhatau dhyanotpadanam
etabhyam ca hetu-karma-balabhyam dharmatayapi ca samvartani-kale,
tadanim hi sarva-sattva evadhara-bhumikas tad dhyanam utpadyanti
kusalanam dharmanam udbhuta-vrttitvat.")
(48) Vyakhya to Abhidh-k-bh 8:38c-d: "upadesam antarenayatah
purva-dhyana-vasanayam satyam dhyanotpattir iti."
(49) Although composed in Pali, the Lokapannatti appears to be based
directly on Sanskrit traditions rather than the traditions of the
Sri Lankan Theravada; it corresponds closely to the Lokaprajnapti
translated into Chinese by Paramartha in 558 C.E. (Dents, trans. and
ed. [n. 6 above], 2:ii). The position recorded here on what happens
to hell beings at the time of the contraction of a world-system
appears to reflect exactly the position of Paramartha's translation
of the Lokaprajnapti (Dents, trans. and ed., 1:194, 2:225-26).
(50) Reynolds and Reynolds (n. 6 above), p. 308.
(51) The Nikayas and Agamas for their part prefer to speak of the
length of time beings will suffer in hell realms by way of simile
rather than specific numbers of years or aeons (see Kokaliya-sutta,
S 1:149-53; A 5:170-74; Sn 123-31; cf. bhasya to Abhidh-k 3:84).
Vibh 422:26, which deals with age limits in the various realms of
existence, says nothing about the hell realms, and begins with the
human realm; the commentary (Vibh-a 521) states that kamma is what
determines the life span of beings in the descents--as long as kamma
is not exhausted beings do not pass from those realms; the Anutika
apparently adds (see Nanamoli, trans., The Dispeller of Delusion, 2
vols. (London: Pali Text Society, 1987-90), 2:299, n. 7) that the
life span in Avici is an antarakappa (a sixty-fourth of a
mahakappa). Abhidh-s 23 (chap. 5, verse 21) states that there is no
definite age limit for beings in the four descents and for humans;
the length of time spent in these realms is dependent on the
specific kamma that brought about the rebirth. As far as human
beings are concerned this comment seems to be made with reference to
the tradition--found in the Cakkavattisihanada-sutta (D 3:58-79) and
Mahapadana-sutta (D 2:1 -54)--that the life span of humans varies
from ten years to 80,000 years at different periods within an aeon,
and thus does not mean that humans can outlive the aeon. Vasubandhu
too states (Abhidh-k 3:83) that the life span of beings in Avici is
one antarakalpa (an eightieth of a mahakalpa according to northern
tradition). Malalasekera (n. 21 above) comments (s.v. Avici,
Devadatta) that Devadatta is destined to suffer in Avici for 100,000
aeons, but the source he cites (Dhp-a 1:148) strictly says only that
at the end of 100,000 aeons Devadatta will become a paccekabuddha,
and not that he will spend that period continuously in Avici,
(52) D 1, passim; M 1:178-84, 344-48, 3:33-36, 134-37; cf. M
1:267-71. See Gethin, The Buddhist Path to Awakening (n. 35 above),
pp. 207-8.
(53) D 1:75-76: "so imam eve kayam parisuddhena cetasa pariyodatena
pharitva nisinno hot)."
(54) At M 3:36 there is just one attainment. The attainments are the
eight vijjas (Vism 7:20), the last six of which are often referred
to as abhinna (e.g., D 3:281) and the last three as vijja (e.g., M
1:482).
(55) D 1:76-83 (passim): "evam samahite citte parisuddhe pariyodate
anangane vigatupakkilese mudubhute kammaniye thite anejjappatte."
(56) D 1:84: "khina jati vusitam brahmacariyam katam karaniyam
naparam itthattaya ti."
(57) S. J. Tambiah, The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult
of Amulets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 49-52.
Tambiah confusingly describes the Abhassara realm as arupa at one
point and creates, to my mind, a rather misleading "dyadic
opposition between material states and formless states."
(58) Bhasya to Abhidh-k 3:100c-d: "prathame hi dhyane vitarka-vicara
apaksalah / te ca manasah paridahakatvad agni-kalpah / dvitiye
pritir apaksala / sa prasrabdhi-yogenasraya-mrdu-karanad ap-kalpa /.
. . / trtiye dhyane asvasa-prasvasah / te ca vayava eve / iti yasyam
dhyana-samapattau yathabhuta adhyatmiko `paksalah tasyam
dhyanopapattau tathabhuto bahya iti" (cf. Abhidh-di 115-16).
(59) Incidentally, this way of looking at the progress of the
practice of meditation as a return to a kind of primordial state is
not without parallels elsewhere in Indian tradition. The practice of
yoga as presented in the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali is also
essentially a species of return: a reversal of the stages of the
evolution of the tattvas from prakrti. Thus the full manifestation
of prakrti with the appearance of the five senses and their
respective objects is what characterizes ordinary human
consciousness; by the practice of samadhi the yogin gradually, stage
by stage, regains the primordial equilibrium of the three gunas in
unmanifest prakrti. The knowledge that discriminates between purusa
and prakrti can then he achieved.
(60) Vasubandhu does, however, designate the realms of the rupadhatu
as "places" or "locations" (sthana); the arupyadhatu, on the other
hand, is without location (asthana). This would seem to be because
to the extent that beings of the rupadhatu possess rupa-skandha
(they possess the senses of sight and hearing) they must have
location. Compare Abhidh-k 2:2-3, 7:3; Y. Karunadasa, The Buddhist
Analysis of Matter (Colombo: Department of Cultural Affairs, 1967),
pp. 161-62.
(61) For example, Vism 10; one should note here that in certain
contexts (e.g., Abhidh-s 5 Narada, trans., A Manual of Abhidhamma
[Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1980], p. 64) the four
formless attainments are treated simply as modifications of the
fourth (or, according to the Abhidhamma reckoning, fifth) jhana.
(62) Vism 12:2, 12-13, 58; Gethin, The Buddhist Path to Awakening
(n. 35 above), p. 102.
(63) D 2:156.
(64) P. M. Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations
(London: Routledge, 1989), p. 98.
(65) Both these expressions are connected with another expression of
this theme, namely, the Sautrantika theory of "seeds"; cf. P. S.
Jaini, "The Sautrantika Theory of Bija," Bulletin of the School of
Oriental Studies 22 (1959): 237-49.
(66) Vism 22:s6-s7; Malalasekera (n. 21 above), s.v. "suddhavasa";
Marasinghe (n. 5 above), p. 262; Abhidh-k-bh 6:42-44 (La Vallee
Poussin, trans. [n. 2 above], 4:221-28).
(67) Tattvasangraha 2:1107 (vv. 3549-5O):
"pancagaty-atma-samsara-bahir-bhavan na martyata / buddhanam isyate
'smabhir nirmanam tu tatha matam / / akanisthe pure ramye
`suddhivasa-vivarjite / budhyante tatra sambuddha nirmitas tv iha
budhyate." I read ramye `suddhavasavivarjite for Shastri's ramye
suddhdvasavivarjite, although a Tibetan translation of apparently
the same verse does not recognize the sandhi: "Rejecting the pure
abodes, he rightly and completely awakened in the ecstatic abode of
Akanistha." (See mKhas grub rje's Fundamentals of the Buddhist
Tantras, trans. E D. Lessing and A. Wayman [The Hague: Mouton,
1968], pp. 22-23.) The implication that the Akanistha realm is
somehow apart from the pure abodes is surely problematic, while the
phrase "akanistha-bhavane divye sarva-papa-vivarjite" (Lankavatara
Sutra 269.4) would seem to confirm my emendation.
(68) Tattvasangraha 2:1107:
"naraka-preta-tiryag-deva-manusya-bhedena pancagaty-atmakah samsarah
tad-bahir-bhutas ca buddha bhagavata ity asiddham martyatvam esam /
katham tarhi suddhodanadi-kulotpattir esam sruyate / ity aha
nirmanam tu tatha matam iti / etad evagamena samspandyann aha
akanistha ity adi / akanistha name devah tesam ekadese
suddhavasa-kayika name devah / atra hy arya eve suddha avasanti /
tesam upari mahesvara-bhavanam name sthanam i tatra carama-bhavika
eve dasabhumi-pratisthita bodhisattva utpadyante / iha tu
tad-adhipatyena tatha nirmanam upalabhyata ity agamah" (cf. G. Jha,
trans., The Tattvasangraha of Shantaraksita with the Commentary of
Kamalashila, 2 vols. [Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986], 2:1547;
Williams, pp. 180-81).
(69) Lankavatara Sutra 269.4-9, 361.1-6: "akanista-bhavane divye
sarva-papa-vivarjit / nirvikalpah sada yuktas
citta-caitta-vivarjitah / / balabhijna-vasi-praptah
tat-samadhi-gatimgatah / tatra budhyanti sambuddha nirmitas tv iha
budhyate / / nirmana-kotyo hy amita buddhanam niscaranti ca /
sarvatra balah srnvanti dharmam tebhyah pratisrutva / /. . .
katyayanasya gotro `ham suddhavasad vinissrtah/ desemi dharmam
sattvanam nirvana-puragaminam / / pauranikam idam vartma aham te ca
tathagathah / tribhih sahasraih sutranam nirvanam atyadesayan / /
kama-dhatau tatharupye na vai buddho vibudhyate /
rupa-dhat-vakanisthesu vita-ragesu budhyate."
(70) E. Lamotte, trans. Le traite de la grande vertu de sagesse de
Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitasastra), 5 vols. (Louvain: Bibliotheque
du Museon and Publications de l'Institut Orientaliste, 1944-80),
5:2431-32, 2438, 2442-43; E. Conze, trans., The Large sutra on
Perfect Wisdom with the Divisions of the Abhisamayalamkara (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1979), p. 165. Eighth-stage Bodhisattvas are
here described as enjoying the play of the higher knowledges
(abhijnakridanata), seeing Buddha fields (buddha-ksetradarsanata),
and producing their own Buddha fields in accordance with what they
have seen ("tesam buddha-ksetranam yatha-drstanam
sva-ksetra-parinispadanata"). The commentarial
*Mahaprajnaparamitasastra (see Lamotte, trans., 5:2433-35, 2439,
2444) fills this out and explains that at the eighth stage the
Bodhisattva sees the bodies of the Buddhas as "creations" (nirmana),
and that he accomplishes the concentration that fills the universe
with his own magical creations, like a magician producing
apparitional armies, palaces, and cities; from now on he knows the
precise circumstances of any new birth he will assume. During the
ninth stage he is a Bodhisattva in his last existence
(caramabhavika); finally, seated beneath the tree of enlightenment,
he at last enters into the tenth stage, the stage of the Cloud of
Dharma (dharma-megha bhumi). The Mahaprajna-paramitasastra here
appears to impose the standard nomenclature of the Dasabhumika Sutra
on the ten bhumis of the Prajnaparamita, despite the fact that the
details of the Dasabhumika scheme are manifestly different.
(71) Dasabhumikasutra 94.20-95.6: "yasyam pratisthito bodhisattvo
bhuyastvena mahesvaro bhavati deva-rajah." Compare Dasabhumisvaro
199.2-5; T. Cleary, trans., The Flower Ornament Scripture: A
Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra, 3 vols. (Boston: Shambala,
1984-87), 2:111.
(72) Lalitavistara 79.6-7: "jata-matrasya bodhisattvasya mahesvaro
deva-putrah suddhavasa-kayikan deva-putran amantryaivam aha." G.
Bays, trans., The Lalitavistara Sutra: The Voice of the Buddha: The
Beauty of Compassion, 2 vols. (Berkeley: Dharma, 1983), 1:164. See
also E Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1953), s.v. "mahesvara." The
Lalitavistara's account of the Pure Abodes is interesting in itself.
The Lalitavistara begins with the Buddha attaining a samadhi called
"the manifestation of the ornaments of a Buddha"
(buddhalamkaravyuha) (Bays, trans., p. 2); the lights that
subsequently issue from his body attract the attention of venous
gods of the Pure Abodes who come to him and request the Buddha to
teach the Lalitavistara, a teaching that "cultivates the skillful
roots of the Bodhisattva" (bodhisattva-kusala-mula-samudbhd-vana)
(p. 3). The gods of the Pure Abodes lead the way in coming to honor
the newly born Bodhisattva (p. 79) while later they create the four
omens that prompt the Bodhisattva to go forth (p. 136). Nobuyoshi
Yamabe has drawn my attention to Lamotte, trans., 1:519, which
associates tenth-stage Bodhisattvas called Mahesvaradevarajas with
the Pure Abodes.
(73) Dasabhumikasutra 90.11-15: "dharma-meghayam bodhisattva ekasyam
api lokadhatau tusita-vara-bhavana-vasam upadaya
cyavanacankramana-garbhasthiti-janmabhini-skramanabhisambodhy
-adhyesana-mahadharmacakra-pravartana-mahaparinirvana-bhumir iti
sarva-tathagata-karyam adhitisthati" (cf. Dasabhumisvaro 191.6-8;
Cleary, trans., 2: 107).
(74) Dasabhumikasutra 91.4-7, 14-18: "akanksann ekavalapatha
ekasarvabuddhavisayavyuham adarsayati / akanksan yavad anabhilapyan
sarvakarabuddhavisayavyuhan adarsayati / akanksan yavanty
abhilapyasu lokadhatusu paramanurjamsi tavata atmabhavan
ekaksanalavamuhurtena nirmite / . . . / cittotpade ca
dasadikspharanam gacchati / cittaksane capramana abhisambodhir yavan
mahaparinirvanavyuhan adhitisthati / . . . / svakaye capramananam
buddhanam bhagavatam aprameyan buddhaksetragunavyuhan adhitisthati"
(cf. Dasabhumisvaro 192.11-13, 193.3-6; Cleary, trans., 2:108).
(75) Lessing and Wayman, trans. (n. 67 above), pp. 16-39.
(76) Ibid., p. 27 see also T. Skorupski, "Sakyamuni's Enlightenment
according to the Yoga Tantra," Sambhasa (Nagoya University, Indian
Buddhist Studies) 6 (1985): 87-94.
(77) See M 1:21-24
(78) See, e.g., Abhidh-s 2 on "motivationless consciousness"
(ahetuka-citta) and Abhidh-s chap. 4, on the "consciousness process"
(citta-vithi); cf. L. S. Cousins, "The Patthana and the Development
of the Theravadin Abhidhamma," Journal of the Pali Text Society
(1981), pp. 22-46.
(79) See, e.g., J. Varenne, Yoga and the Hindu Tradition (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1976), pp. 127-63; J. Brereton, "The
Upanisads," in Approaches to the Asian Classics, ed. W. T. de Bary
and I. Bloom (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), pp.
115-35.
(80) S 1:62 = A 2:48: "naham tam gamanena lokassa antam nateyyam
dattheyyam patteyyan ti vadami ti. na kho panaham avuso appatva
lokassa antam dukkhass' antakiriyam vadami, api khvaham avuso
imasmim yeva vyamamatte kalevare sannimhi samanake lokam ca
pannapemi loka-samudayam ca loka-nirodham ca loka-nirodha-gaminim ca
patipadam."
(81) Meisig (n. 2 above).
(82) See n. 2 above. (83) See Meisig, p. 68
(84) Richard Gombrich, "The Buddha's Book of Genesis?" Indo-Iranian
Journal 35 (1992): 159-78; see also his Theravada Buddhism: A Social
History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1988), p. 85.
(85) Gombrich, "The Budda's Book of Genesis?" pp. 163, 161.
(86) Steven Collins, "The Discourse on What Is Primary
(Agganna-Sutta): An Annotated Translation," Journal of Indian
Philosophy 21 (1993): 301-93.
(87) Collins, Selfless Persons (n. 7 above), pp. 131-38. elites in
large-scale state rituals. In his discussion of nationalism, and the
kind of imagined community it engenders, Benedict Anderson remarks
on the significant role of "print capitalism" in the development of
national histories and ideologies of modern nation-states and
alludes to the demise of nation-states as transnational communities
assume greater significance in the twenty-first century.(12) The
reports in print, audio, and video media--all of which are run by
the government, including the New Light of Myanmar (NLM), a daily
newspaper--present the state's ritual role and political agenda.(13)
Its audience includes literate Burmese in the country's urban
centers, foreign diplomats, and a diaspora of Burmese living abroad.
Coverage and editorials on religious matters--particularly of the
Tooth Relic's national "procession"-exceeded at times more than half
of the print space. Such extensive media coverage indicates an
enormous investment of resources and symbolic capital(14) by
high-ranking military leaders, state institutions, and personnel.
Journalists, filmmakers, and other government mass media
representatives were involved in high-level planning strategy
sessions to ensure its public relations success. This resulted in
a--for Burma unprecedented--use of media coverage: daily radio
broadcasts of songs venerating the Tooth Relic, live television
coverage and frequent reports, and commemorative video productions
for sale to the public. The Buddha's rupakaya were frequently
featured in reports on modernization projects and in editorials
explicating the state's vision of modernity and Buddhism.
The text of the NLM tends to be written in an antiquated vocabulary
and formulaic style that emphasize chronologies, itineraries, and
lists of names and places. Alternate views remain largely
unmentioned, while official perspectives are abundantly echoed in
speeches and editorials whose authors (some of them rumored to be
high-ranking government officers writing under assumed names)
expound exhortations, ideological slogans, and moral imperatives.
The text thus is constructed through the state's symbology and
informs as much by what and how it reports as it does through
silence and omission.
Accompanying this text is a plethora of visual documentation. Like
their verbal complements, the black-and-white photographs printed in
this newspaper follow a standard stylistic format and are carefully
and self-consciously constructed. Yet, visual impressions often
convey more than words for they capture contextual details, have
greater evocative potential, and are more difficult to censor. While
many Burmese still deem a smile on a photograph as undignified, a
cognizant viewer detects seemingly forced gaiety in the faces of
those pictured in this media event.
The placement within the newspaper of reports on the Tooth Relic
similarly pointed to the significance attributed to these rituals. A
logo of the Sacred Tooth's encasement accompanied all coverage over
the two-month period. It was often placed near or beneath government
slogans praising the military's sacrifice and accomplishments in
furthering national unity, peace, and prosperity, making the
military--like the relic--worthy of support and reverence by
citizens. Such political slogans read: "Emergence of the State
Constitution is the duty of all citizens of the Union of Myanmar"
and "The Tatmadaw [military] has been sacrificing much of its blood
and sweat to prevent the disintegration of the union. All
nationalities are urged to give all co-operation and assistance in
this great task." Contextual political events reported include
diplomatic visits by foreign religious and political emissaries
during the Tooth Relic's stay in Myanma. Such reports amplify and
contextualize the significance the state attaches to the relic's
national procession under its auspices. They legitimate a military
elite as righteous leaders of the modern nation-state and mobilize
citizens through the state's pragmatic, symbolic, and ritual
hegemonies. The construction of SLORC's ritual community as national
community and of a national history realized through the state's
vision of Buddhism are thus spelled out in the official version of
the Tooth Relic's procession.
A. THE RITUAL THEATER OF THE MODERN STATE
The Sacred Tooth's procession created fields of merit that mapped a
universal Buddhist cosmology onto the territory of a modern
nation-state. It placed SLORC in a lineage of past kings and
obligated to them ritual clients, including contemporary national
communities of military, technocratic, business, and ethnic elites.
The ritual journey of the Chinese Tooth Relic from Beijing, China,
to Yangon, Myanma, and upcountry represents a culmination within a
broader cult of national veneration of stupas, images, relics, and
similar sacred objects and of an extended series of rituals that
centered on the state's patronage of Buddhism and featured ritual
acts of leading political functionaries and their subordinates in
publicized settings throughout the nation-state. It was preceded by
yet further state rituals that, for the first time since its ascent
to power in 1988, ritually dramatized SLORC's legitimacy, authority,
and prestige. The weeks immediately prior to the Sacred Tooth's
arrival were marked by Myanma's 1994 New Year's celebrations in
which SLORC functionaries assumed public roles in various ritual
contexts. The NLM described SLORC elites as rightful recipients of
popular respect, even affection, and as jovial recipients of water
absolutions (abhiseka) from state employees at stalls built for this
purpose by each ministry and state office in the capital and urban
centers throughout the nation. Large public gatherings and merriment
celebrated such auspiciousness with traditional Burmese songs and
dances.(15) Following this initial ritual affirmation of political
hegemony, political elites performed absolutions (abhiseka) at
rupakaya sites, including pagodas, Buddha images, and Bodhi Trees
throughout the nation.(16) These rituals recognized SLORC as the
rightful patron of rupakaya and restorer of royal sources of merit
in Myanma's history and culture. The merit they generate establishes
communities and differentiates hierarchically within them on the
basis of power and status.
In preparing for the arrival of the Sacred Tooth, the state planned
a procession (dethasari) of cosmic and national proportions. The
procession's splendor combined traditional Buddhist symbols of the
Brahmacariya, devas, and regalia of a just ruler (dhammaraja) with
modern technology, such as a Boeing 737 jet aircraft and luxury cars
and buses. Complex preparations heralded its journey. Ministers and
other high-placed officials at multiple coordination meetings
developed a protocol for the "conveyance of the Sacred Tooth" that
was self-consciously modeled after Burmese traditional proscriptions
for the procession of royalty and celestial beings.(17) Their
discussions considered such things as arrangements for the relic's
itinerary, the artiste' progress in building its encasement and
throne, reports on the physical condition of the elephant that was
to carry the sacred object in procession from the airport to its
temporary residence at Kaba Aye, the closure of major traffic routes
due to huge-scale dress rehearsals in anticipation of its arrival,
and provisions for security, crowd management, and health
emergencies.
Traveling from Beijing aboard a special Air China flight that
briefly stopped in Kunming, Yunnan, the Buddha's Tooth Relic was
accompanied by a delegation of eight Mahayana, three Tibetan Lamas,
four Yunnanese Theravada monks, and eleven laypersons, including the
deputy director of the bureau of religious affairs, Mr. Luo San
Chinai, the Burmese minister of religious affairs and chairman of
the Buddha Tooth Relic Conveyance Work Committee, Lieutenant General
Myo Nyunt, and officials from the religious and foreign affairs
ministries. Secretary-l Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt,(18) Myanma's
chief justice, the attorney general, other ministers, senior members
of the military, monastic leaders of the State Maha Nayaka Council,
nuns, religious lay associations, the Chinese ambassador to Myanma,
and representatives of the Chinese Lay Buddhist Association welcomed
the relic and the entourage at Yangon International Airport.(19)
A cast of more than 5,000 members of the military, civil servants,
actors in costumes of celestial devas, and royal servicemen staged a
dramatic fanfare. Thousands of onlookers lined the streets of the
capital to watch as the procession passed by with its elephant-drawn
carriage and festive emissaries.(20) The motorcade included the
limousines of political and religious dignitaries and dozens of
buses with schoolchildren, university students, pagoda trustees, and
representatives from music, film, and literary guilds, the national
development organization, Unity Solidarity Development Association
(USDA), Hindu and Chinese religious associations, the Red Cross, and
the fire brigade. It proceeded past lavishly decorated local pandals
several miles to the Maha Pasana Cave at Kaba Aye, where it was
enshrined and placed on public display around-the-clock.(21)
Inside the cave, the relic was displayed in a special encasement
placed on a lotus throne and flanked by two replicas and a Golden
Emerald Buddha statue whose history is said to be linked to the
Chinese Sacred Tooth during the first Burmese empire. The SLORC
chairman, Lieutenant General Than Shwe, and other government
ministers were the first to pay homage to the Sacred Tooth and
donate money. Later that day, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt and
senior monks of the Burmese Maha Nayaka Council publicly venerated
the relic, paid respects to its Chinese monastic delegation, and met
with members of religious lay associations in charge of continuous
chanting. The secretary also inspected donation procedures and
jewelry donated. The next morning, the Sacred Tooth again received
homage and offerings from Myanma's head of state, Than Shwe, and his
family, and from senior politicians. Food was offered to the Chinese
sangha, and the Sacred Tooth was then displayed for homage by the
general public. Early each morning, cabinet ministers in descending
rank order, their families, and subordinates made offerings to the
Sacred Tooth. Television, print, and photo coverage of these
rituals, the participants, public veneration, and donation tallies
continued daily throughout the six-week period.
After two weeks of public homage in Yangon, the Tooth Relic was
conveyed by an elaborate float and motorcade north along a
much-traveled route that parallels earlier journeys in Burmese
history.(22) The procession continued along SLORC's new highway
connecting Yangon with Mandalay, the last royal capital and the
economic center of upper Burma, which links peripheral ethnic
regions to the modern nation-state. Along its path, the procession
stopped at sites of historic and contemporary significance.(23)
After five days, the Tooth Relic arrived in Mandalay, where through
its public display "both sangha and laity" were allowed to gain
merit.(24) After nearly two weeks of public veneration there, the
relic was carried south again to Thazi, from where it was flown back
to Yangon and again enshrined at the Maha Pasana Cave.
During the final two weeks of display, ritual veneration by SLORC
elites, organized collectives, and the public reached enormous
proportions.(25) This final period also coincided with the Burmese
celebration of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and parinibbana on
the full moon day of Kazon (May 24, 1994).(26) On June 5, after
another series of homage, offerings, and donations by SLORC chairman
Than Shwe, his family, and high-ranking ministers, traffic in Yangon
was again rerouted to accommodate the return of the elephant
carriage to Yangon International Airport, from where the Sacred
Tooth was conveyed back to the People's Republic of China amid grand
ritual theater.
B. CONSECRATIONS AND PILGRIMAGES
This itinerary set into motion secondary cycles of ritual merit
making that illuminate the ways in which rituals of the center are
replicated at the national periphery. The ritual cycles
distinguished here fall into two categories. The first includes
repeated consecrations of the Tooth Relic and ancillary sacred
objects. The second ritual cycle comprises pilgrimages as ritual
service of client groups toward the center.
The consecrations focused on the Sacred Tooth, its two replicas, and
the Burmese Emerald Buddha image, which--according to Burmese legend
and the NLM--was given to the charismatic King Anawratha in the
eleventh century C.E. by "Chinese" guardians of the Sacred Tooth in
consolation for their refusal to relinquish it to him.(27) In this
way, the state sought to augment the number of sites where the
Buddha's remains reside in Myanma now.
Throughout its journey, the Tooth Relic was consecrated five times.
The consecrations were performed in elaborate theater and splendor,
officiated by Chinese and Burmese members of the sangha, and
sponsored by the political representatives of the SLORC
nation-state. The first consecration occurred prior to its departure
in Beijing and involved Mahayana monks, Tibetan lames, and 150
Yunnanese Theravada monks. Subsequent consecrations were performed
in the presence of the two replicas and Anawratha's Golden Emerald
Buddha statue shortly after the arrival of the Tooth Relic in Yangon
on April 30, 1994, and again immediately prior to its departure
up-country on May 5. The last two consecrations were performed in
the course of its procession up-country in Pyinmana on May 8 and
again in Mandalay on May 10, where both Burmese Theravada and
Chinese Mahayana monks officiated.(28)
The consecrations extended the lineage of the Buddha's remains in
two complementary ways that followed established patterns in the
Theravada tradition.(29) The lineage of the Buddha's relics,
represented by the Sacred Tooth, was ritually extended through two
replicas conveyed along with the "original" from China in 1994. The
gilded Emerald Buddha statue represented the royal lineage of
Burmese kings beginning with Anawratha, founder of the Pagan
dynasty. The three ancillary sacred objects were displayed alongside
the Tooth Relic at Kaba Aye's Maha Pasana Cave and, along with the
"original" Sacred Tooth, received public veneration. According to
the NLM, the government intends for the two replicas eventually to
be enshrined in pagodas to be built in Yangon and Mandalay.
Donations collected during the procession are to be used to cover
building costs for these two religious monuments and thus perpetuate
the ritual legacy of the Sacred Tooth in Myanma.
A second set of rituals comprises acts of venerating the Tooth Relic
as the culmination of pilgrimages to temporary sites of residence by
the state's client groups and transnational pilgrims. The protocol
for such high-profile visitors proscribes the veneration of both the
Sacred Tooth in Myanma and other Burmese reliquaries of the
rupakaya. These pilgrimages mobilized large numbers of diverse
social groups and formalized complex ritual patterns of patronage
that obligate pilgrims to the elites of the modern nation-state. The
travels of the Sacred Tooth not only established new ritual fields
of merit but also engendered countless pilgrimages to the sites of
its temporary residence.(30) Groups of pilgrims from relatively
local origins included religious associations (wut attain:) formed
at the state's instigation. They also comprised classes of civil
servants in government offices, neighborhood collectives, business
people, and other professional groups, such as medical specialists
or collectives of teachers and students at technological institutes
of higher education.(31) Pilgrims who journeyed from a greater
distance tended to be leaders of ethnic minorities, such as Wa,
Kachin, Palaung, Pa-O, the Social Welfare Society of Shan Nationals,
and the Lisu National Promotion of Buddhist Sasana and Culture
Association of Mogok. Among these pilgrims were also Chinese, and
particularly Yunnanese, Buddhists and Hindus living in Burma. Each
of these groups of pilgrims traveled to venerate the Buddha's
remains and to donate significant amounts of money, that they, their
families, and communities collected to fulfill their obligations to
the state's ritual patronage.(32)
Another cycle of pilgrimages was created by Buddhists from abroad
who visited Myanma during this time period. In addition to the
Chinese Mahayana, Tibetan, and Yunnanese Theravada monks who
accompanied the relic, lay and monastic delegations arrived from
South Korea and Laos. Cultural exchanges featured Russian novices
who received ordinations and attended Buddhist training courses in
Burma. Burmese missionary monks living in Calcutta, Buddha Gaya, and
Sri Lanka returned to Myanma to pay homage to the relic and accept
honors awarded to them by the Maha Nayaka Council and the Ministry
of Religious Affairs.(33) Prominently featured was the pilgrimage of
a Burmese Theravada monk, Sayadaw U Bhaddanta Panyavamsa of Sasana
Ranthi Monastery in Singapore, who is also affiliated with Theravada
communities in Penang, Malaysia, and Los Angeles.(34) Together with
a group of 100 lay Buddhists--most of whom were Singaporeans of
Chinese descent--he toured all major sites of Burmese historic and
religious significance. A similarly grand tour was arranged for the
senior members of the Chinese monastic delegation.(35) A poignant
moment in their pilgrimage took place when their Burmese hosts
removed a hair relic of the Buddha from its reliquary at Bothataung
Pagoda near Yangon for the distinguished visitors to behold and
contemplate.
C. NATIONAL AND TRANSNATIONAL PATTERNS OF PATRONAGE
The Sacred Tooth's sojourn in Myanma was marked by politics of
giving in national and transnational contexts. It engendered massive
donation drives, creating patterns of patronage in which ritual
clients incurred obligations toward the center. Each day, the NLM
conspicuously depicted donation rituals, reported precise amounts
received from individuals and collectives, and featured both donors
and SLORC functionaries who officiated as ritual recipients of such
gifts.
The NLM published daily lists of names and amounts donated for
contributions exceeding 5,000 kyats and ran daily tallies of both
funds received on a given day and total amounts received to
date.(36) While the largest portions of funds were collected from
collectives and the general public, a considerable portion was
received from major private donors. Altogether, the total funds
collected during the procession of the Sacred Tooth exceeded 162
million kyats and 13,700 pieces of jewelry. On June 5, the day prior
to the relic's return to China, the NLM reported: "Today's donations
included over 5.81 million kyats by pilgrims, 244 US dollars, 520
bhat, ten Bangladesh take, 65 Indian rupees, 4 Jamaican dollars,
1,100 Brazilian cruzeiros, 276 Chinese yans and three jaios, 1,000
Indonesian rupias, four Singapore dollars, five Israeli shekels,
five Nigeria nairas and 20 kobos, ten Philippines pesos, 250 Taiwan
dollars, 650 Cambodian riel, two Venezuela bolivar, 1,000 won and
three Malaysian dollars." This shows the extent to which successful
fund raising was projected into transnational realms. At a symbolic
level, they communicated the extent of SLORC's religious patronage
over national and international communities.(37)
Membership among donors profiled economic and political elites.(38)
Prominent members of the elite, including the Chairman of SLORC,
Than Shwe, and various ministers made significant donations on
several occasions. Some business families donated as much as 100,000
kyats. A secondary group of major donors included representatives of
professional and ethnic religious associations whose collective
donation drives exceeded the required minimum.(39) A third group of
donors whose contributions were featured by the press comprised
those who volunteered their services to facilitate crowd management
by providing first aid, fans, and soft drinks to exhausted pilgrims
who had waited for hours in long lines.(40) A fourth group comprised
foreign dignitaries from religious, economic, or political
backgrounds whose large public donations were similarly lauded in
the press. A number of foreign political dignitaries who visited
Myanma during this period, such as the prime minister of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Indonesian foreign minister, the
Yunnanese governor, and a military adviser from India, were among
the many visitors and made donations for religious causes.
The state provided donors with certificates of honor and access to a
select group for whom SLORC arranged daily rituals to share merit,
thus ritually acknowledging their participation. These ceremonies
were performed at the sites of the relic's residence at Kaba Aye in
Yangon and at the State Pariyatti Monastic University in Mandalay.
While such membership entitles one to privileges, it also entails
continuing obligations to the patronage of a political elite.(41)
Public portrayals of generosity in support of the Burmese national
ethos suggest as much implicit competition among donors for
political recognition as a certain eagerness to show one's
allegiance to prevailing power structures. Despite the large-scale
public outpouring of generosity, the perception prevailed that
contributions in kind and cash entailed pragmatic returns such as
access to political power and membership in a ritual community under
SLORC's auspices.(42)
III. PRAGMATIC CONTEXTS OF THE MODERN NATION STATE
The State Law and Order Restoration Council's patronage of the
Chinese Tooth Relic is a cornerstone in the construction of a
national ideology, community, and cult of venerating rupakaya.(43)
Its elaborate ritual theater and political investment were aimed at
multiple audiences and epitomized symbols in Burmese national
history, culture, and politics. Despite the cosmological character
of this state cult, the objectives it served were born out of the
pragmatics of modern politics. It legitimated political hegemonies,
mobilized large, diverse communities, and promoted the political
integration and cultural ethos of an imagined modern nation-state.
This section focuses on social, religious, and political contexts of
these state rituals to highlight the ways in which ritual
legitimated SLORC's political institutions and-facilitated pragmatic
agendas and nationalist visions for a modern Myanma nation-state.
The significance the state attached to these ritual patterns of
patronage thus emerges from the context of concurrent political
agendas.
An integral aspect of SLORC's construction of national history and
culture, the media presented the Tooth Relic's journey as a
long-standing cultural and religious legacy fully realized only now,
under the patronage of the present state. It was seen as a
culmination of Burmese royal lineages--beginning with the emergence
of the first Burmese empire during Anawratha's reign (1044-77)--and
of the successive distribution of the Buddha's relics since his
parinibbana, thus constructing both Buddhist and Burmese historical
paradigms for SLORC's ritual patronage.(44) The convergence of these
two lines of legitimation shapes a specific vision of Burmese
history and accounts for the seemingly endless list of dhatu cetiya
found throughout Myanma.(45)
The NLM constructions of history focus in particular on dynastic
reigns in the mid-eleventh and mid-sixteenth centuries and invite
comparisons with SLORC political legitimacy and its veneration of
sacred objects. Anawratha is credited with the establishment of the
first Burmese empire and with obtaining from "China" the Emerald
Buddha statue in lieu of the Tooth Relic he had requested.(46)
Bayintnaung's reign (1551-81) is credited with establishing the
second Burmese Empire and with securing a replica of the Sri Lankan
Tooth Relic, which was enshrined at Mahazedi Pagoda near what is now
Bago.(47) Such comparisons place SLORC at the fulcrum of lineages
within Buddhist and Burmese history. They also invoke Mircea
Eliade's(48) notion of the myth of eternal return and Benedict
Anderson's(49) views on the imagination of nationalist culture
through mapping mytho-historical events onto its territory.
In an effort to popularize its vision of Myanma's national history,
the SLORC promotes its archeological preservation and reconstruction
of multiple sacred places throughout the modern nation-state.
Burmese dynasties loom large in the contemporary public discourse
that promotes the traditional heritage of the Burmese nation-state.
Examples include the recent reconstruction of the Mandalay Palace
and its adjacent monasteries, the excavation and reconstruction of
King Bayintnaung's Kanbaw-zathardi Palace (Taung Oo Dynasty,
1486-1752), and the restoration of numerous pagodas and stupas
throughout Myanma's territory.(50) Other constructions of a Buddhist
national history and culture articulate geocosmic visions of SLORC's
modern nation-state.(51) A museum dedicated to the Buddha's
biography and the history of the Buddhist tradition recently opened
at the Mandalay Mahamuni Pagoda. There, the geocosmology of the
Buddha's remains across Asia is displayed with Burma at the center
of a multistory, three-dimensional "map." The state's politics of
culture are reflected in various political institutions. A new
ministry of culture oversees the restoration of national monuments,
the construction of a new National Museum, National Library, and
University of Culture for the revitalization of traditional arts,
crafts, and customs.
Intersecting these hegemonic structures and reenforcing their
objectives is the ministry of religious affairs. Current state
patronage of Buddhism focuses on public merit making at national
monuments and local pagodas, on instilling SLORC's vision of
Buddhism among the laity, and on missionizing among ethnic
minorities in the periphery. At present, the ministry's
responsibilities concern three major areas: the sangha, the laity,
and non-Buddhist minorities. A primary function has been the
supervision and management of the monastic Maha Nayaka Council,
which regulates all matters of the sangha through a centralized,
administrative structure that extends to the local level.(52) After
nearly a decade of stringent monastic reforms, the state gained
control over the sangha and all significant donations to it. This
emphasis on monasticism is complemented by missionization among the
international Buddhist community.
A second, recently constituted function of the ministry is the
Department for the Propagation and Promotion of Sasana, which
actively missionizes Buddhism. While, at the nation's center,
Buddhist missionization is touted as an effort of national
integration, in the periphery it is seen as an attempt to extend the
central government's control and infrastructure into territories of
ethnic minorities. Among Burmese Buddhist elites at the center, the
propagation of sasana proceeds through organizing lay associations
dedicated to religious instruction, recitation of prayers and
suttas, and an extensive grassroots network for procuring donations
to finance extensive religious construction, restoration, and
merit-making rituals. Seemingly, each government body sponsors
affiliated lay meditation or recitation societies and holds
temporary monastic ordinations for its staff. Several Buddhist
culture courses have been taught at prominent lay meditation
centers, and monasteries function again in the formal religious
education of children and youths. During his opening address to an
advanced course on Buddhist Culture in North Okkalapa Township,
where some of the heaviest riots occurred in 1988, the minister of
religious affairs, Lieutenant General Myo Nyunt, stated that "each
of the trainees is to help preserve national culture through
religious education and stressed the need to safeguard the nation
against the threat of extinction of race and culture."(53) While
financing enormous expenditures on religious affairs and religiously
motivated social welfare programs--such as hospitals and homes for
the elderly--through donations from private individuals and state
collectives, the state seeks to instill among its citizens its own
nationalist interpretation of Buddhist ethics.
Current politics are also characterized by the integration of
"national races"--ethnic and tribal minorities who, for decades,
have been engaged in armed resistance to the central
government--into the nation's territorial and social periphery.(54)
In collaboration with the Maha Nayaka Council, this department is
also involved in missionizing among the Christian and animist tribal
minorities in the periphery.
A third, less publicized function of the ministry focuses on similar
mechanisms organizing the activities of Christians, Muslims, and
Hindus, many of whom intersect socially with the ethnic majority of
Burmans. Many non-Buddhists, however, were systematically
disenfranchised from the state's ritual activities, which heightened
their political marginality. The cultural, political, and economic
contexts of venerating the Buddha's Sacred Tooth thus reflect the
state's objectives in propagating Buddhism.
Pragmatic political concerns emerge also in national and
transnational contexts, for the veneration of the Sacred Tooth is
intended to lend credence to the state's rhetoric of "stability,
peace, and tranquility" as a prerequisite for rapid modernization.
In the socioeconomic domain, the USDA is a nationwide, populist
economic organization that provides a conduit for the export of
cottage industries products. The state uses this network to instill
a specific vision of national unity and to mobilize citizens for
such civic duties as blood drives to benefit the military and other,
local social welfare activities.
The veneration of the Sacred Tooth constitutes a diplomatic gesture
to appease growing ethnic tensions between Burmese and Chinese
immigrants, whose economic investments, particularly in Mandalay,
have expanded rapidly during the early 1990s. It further represents
a conciliatory appeal to Burmese communities abroad, where political
opposition to the regime--largely silenced within the country--can
have a potentially damaging impact on financial backing for SLORC's
modernization agenda. The Burmese diaspora thus plays a pivotal
economic and political role in SLORC's international reputation.
Finally, the procession of the Tooth Relic has been a symbol in
diplomatic efforts to enhance Myanma's image with the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and among the transnational
community of Buddhists generally.
IV. COUNTERTEXTS: THE RHETORIC OF RESISTANCE
Both "texts" and "contexts" illustrate the state's control over the
parameters of religious discourse and practice in contemporary
Myanma. The religious discourse the state permits is phrased in
totalizing constructs that further its hegemony. The state's
discourse therefore also determines the nature of diverse responses
by those who contest or resist its authority in Burma and abroad.
Political dissent is often expressed in religious terms and
constitutes a countertext to SLORC's hegemonic discourse and ritual
theater. It is voiced in disparaging remarks about the legitimacy
and splendor of the grand Mahawizaya Pagoda, built by the preceding
Ne Win government next to the national Shwedagon Pagoda.(55) Others
ruminate about the sacrilege of this stupa's night-lit silhouette
serving as a backdrop for entertaining foreign businessmen in posh
restaurants that recently opened in this part of Yangon.
Voices of political dissent also emerge from religious donations
that circumvent the state's collection network. Especially among
elites, political opposition is expressed in perfunctory donations
to the state's religious causes, while more generous offerings
(dana) are made to sources of merit that reflect a personal choice
and are deemed more worthy of support. Widespread mobilization of
donations to the state's religious causes has reinforced this kind
of popular resentment because many Burmese Buddhists see it as a
form of taxation.(56)
Absence from partiCipation in state-sponsored merit-making ritual
contests the state's hegemony. Some refuse to participate in
state-sponsored acts of merit. The NLM rewards such everyday forms
of resistance mostly with silence. Occasionally, however, voices of
dissent emerge even in NLM reports. An example is found in the daily
lists of major donors published in the NLM during the Sacred Tooth's
tour. A tabulation over the course of six weeks indicates that on
any given day, nearly half of the donors chose to be absent from
rituals acknowledging their donations and SLORC's patronage, despite
their large contributions.(57) The NLM's admission of
less-than-unanimous participation by significant donors hints at the
sentiments of those Burmese Buddhists who seek to minimize their
participation in such merit-making rituals.(58)
Outside the nation's territory, some Burmese voiced cynicism about
SLORC's veneration of the Sacred Tooth. They harbored doubts about
how the donations will be used and suggested that the Chinese monks
accompanying the relic were not ordained members of the sangha, but
impostors Serving intelligence functions. Aware of its
"rediscovery," they contested the authenticity of the relic itself
and its provenance.(59) While Burmese have shown a penchant for
venerating a variety of Buddhist relics, authenticity is debated
when political legitimacy and ritual patronage are questioned.
V. THE HEGEMONIC DISCOURSE OF RELIC VENERATION
Some forms of venerating the Buddha's relics are acts of meditative
devotion or ritual service and have little relevance for the
interpretation of political or hegemonic constructs.(60)
Historically, however, Theravada Buddhist culture established or
perpetuated hegemonic structures through the construction and
patronage of Buddhist relics and reliquaries. The perspectives that
emerge from the modern Burmese Buddhist relic veneration in
large-scale state rituals show how sacred objects can legitimate a
specific vision of authority over diverse communities and how such
rituals can be a focal point for the articulation of culture,
history, and community. As relic cults have been significant foci in
the missionization, expansion, and universalization of the Buddhist
tradition, this contemporary Burmese example prods us to reexamine
the ways in which Buddhist relic veneration was negotiated in the
ritual theater of the traditional polity.
Some general observations emerge. The first concerns the role of
relics as root metaphors that evoke conceptions of power universal
to the Buddhist tradition. As root metaphors, relics exhibit
universal relevance across the tradition that can be "translated"
into specific local contexts and cultures sharing the same religious
heritage. Universal conceptions become particularized in social,
political, and historic contexts.(61)
A second commonality in the interpretation of relics as root
metaphors rests in the transformation of ritual service to the
Buddha's remains into particular patterns of political patronage. In
state rituals, relics support the creation of fields of merit,
status, and power and are therefore readily appropriated by
political ideologies and in the mobilization of ritual clients to
the state. Relics mediate between ritual and interpretive
contexts.(62) They become symbolic currency in the hands of those
able to patronize and control such sources of pristine power.
A third commonality therefore concerns the Buddhist veneration of
relics as concrete objects that embody sacred power and the affinity
of particularly military elites to seek them out. Their
appropriation is often seen as a reflection of secular power and
authority. In most traditional Theravada contexts, the sangha has
served as the primary field of merit for the laity. However, there
has also been a concurrent emphasis--that, at times, detracted from
patronage of the sangha--on the possession of sacred objects by
royal and other secular elites. Particularly significant in this
regard are social contexts in which relic cults detract from
patronage of the sangha and therefore articulate social and historic
configurations that valorize contextual interpretations of such root
metaphors. In such contexts, the state's veneration of relics may
indicate a politically motivated attempt to diminish the sangha's
position as a religious institution and source of merit and
charisma. Such a strategy characterizes contemporary relations
between Buddhism and the state in Burma, where the present focus on
relic veneration represents a uniquely Burmese transformation among
other articulations of modern Buddhism, nationalism, and the state
that emerged in Sri Lanka and elsewhere of Southeast Asia.
The State Law and Order Restoration Council's patronage of the
Chinese Sacred Tooth constitutes one version in a continuing
struggle for a national community and legitimacy. Since 1988,
political power in Burma has increasingly emphasized patronage of
rupakaya in a variety of ways, promoting in effect a full-scale,
national rupakaya cult that encompasses multiple local
manifestations of Buddhist history in Burma. The state's interest in
Buddhism emerges at a time when constitutional authority of the
modern nation-state is debated and in a cultural milieu where power
is often seen as vested in charismatic individuals rather than in
political processes or civil contracts. The state's patronage of
Buddhism has self-consciously effected a modern transformation of
cosmological Buddhism that focuses on merit gained from sacred
objects. This most recent Burmese example differs from traditional
predecessors in that its religio-nationalist character is construed
as a reaction to the contested realities of modern secular and
political pluralism. It further differs from traditional forms of
relic veneration in that ritual patronage of the Buddha's remains
accrues not to an individual, the traditional dhammaraja, but to a
class of civil and military elites that constitute the governing
body of a nation-state that otherwise conceives of its purpose in
modern political and pragmatic terms.
The State Law and Order Restoration Council's construction of
Burmese culture, history, and religion represents perhaps the most
far-reaching effort in modern Buddhism to create a state cult of
relic veneration by a national community in which the military
facilitates access to merit gained from venerating the Buddha's
remains. The ritual theater of venerating the Chinese Sacred Tooth
in Myanma was central to the state's quest for legitimacy and
projected a particular imagination of Burmese culture, history, and
religion. Thus, a modern, technocratic elite employs traditional
ritual patronage to consolidate its hegemony and compel a large
segment of its population to participate in the state's veneration
of Buddhist relics. The totalizing constructs of the modern
nation-state co-opt, for political purposes, the religious
sentiments of the Burmese Buddhist majority.
In orchestrating the veneration of the relic, the Burmese state
determines the parameters of religious discourse and hence the range
of responses by political opponents. Contextual perspectives on the
veneration of relics in Buddhist history call for an examination of
political ideology and pragmatics of state-sponsored ritual acts.
Such issues are voiced in countertexts that challenge the state's
rhetoric and reveal resistance within the polity, and in multiethnic
and transnational contexts. While rupakaya cults affirm the presence
of the Buddha's remains in specific social and political hegemonies,
they also valorize affairs peripheral or external to the polity,
such as Buddhist missionization and international diplomacy.
Inasmuch as this contemporary Burmese example invites comparisons
with other cults of relic veneration and popular piety, it
underscores ambiguities in the manipulation of sacred objects as
root metaphors for religious and national culture. Such ambiguities
are expressed, for example, in the ethical dilemmas of devout
Buddhists who find themselves enjoined in the state's mobilization
and rituals but who may question the relic's authenticity or the
ritual patron's legitimacy. Alternatively, others may believe in the
relic's sacrality but may seek to elude participation in its ritual
veneration for political reasons. Relations between hegemonic
constructs, cultural ideology, and popular acceptance therefore
speak to the politics of contested meanings in rupakaya cults.
This article represents part of a broader project on politics and
modernity in Theravada Buddhism and, in particular, on Myanmar's
engagement with national community, culture, and religion. I am
grateful to the Social Science Research Council and to the Arizona
State University for the research support they generously granted. I
want to acknowledge Andrew Bateman's assistance in archiving the
relevant documents and producing slides from newspaper photographs.
I am indebted to Hugh MacDougall for making available to me multiple
years of New Light of Myanmar print runs. My revisions of this
article have benefited from comments by Frank Reynolds, Wendy
Doniger, Larry Sullivan, Charles Keyes, John Strong, James Rush, and
James Foard. I also received many suggestions from discussants and
participants in the Seminar on Buddhist Relics, sponsored by the
American Academy of Religion and organized by Kevin Trainor and
David Germano, particularly from Donald Swearer, Charles Hallisey,
Louis Lancaster, Susanne Mrozik, and Robert Sharp. I thank them all
for their thoughtful comments; all mistakes and omissions are mine.
(1) In this article, I use the term "Myanmar" interchangeably with
"Burma" and "Myanma"--the more appropriate transcription. All of
these terms are derived from essentially the same adjective denoting
the ethnicity of the Burmese, but each carries specific political
connotations. The fact that the name of this country is so highly
contested speaks to the broader debate about how this nation should
be conceptualized.
(2) The creation, affirmation, and legitimation of hegemonic
structures through ritual veneration of the Buddha's relics has been
a central aspect from the earliest time of the tradition. The
distribution of the Buddha's relics in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta can
be read to imply such conceptions. Similarly, John Strong notes a
passage in the Asokavadana concerning Asoka's redistribution of the
Buddha's remains in eighty-four thousand stupas that underscores the
hegemonic character of the king's generosity. In response to Asoka's
promise to grant one share of the relics "to every city of one
hundred thousand people . . ., the people of Taksasila, because they
number thirty-six hundred thousand, request thirty-six shares of
relics. Asoka turns them down by threatening to execute thirty-five
hundred thousand of them!" See John S. Strong, The Legend of King
Asoka (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 115.
(3) For a discussion of the concept of cosmological Buddhism, see F.
E. Reynolds and M. B. Reynolds, Three Worlds according to King
Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Asian
Humanities Press, 1982); and Charles Keyes, Laurel Kendall, and
Helen Hardacre, "Contested Visions of Community in East and
Southeast Asia," in Asian Visions of Authority: Religion and the
Modern States of East and Southeast Asia, ed. Charles Keyes, Laurel
Kendall, and Helen Hardacre (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1994), pp. 1-16.
(4) See Stanley Tambiah's more recent statement on the galactic
polity in a chapter of his collection of essays (Culture, Thought
and Social Action [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1985]).
(5) In his discussion of the Sinhalese chronicle of the Buddha's
Sacred Tooth, the Dhatuvamsa, Kevin Trainor noted that its
veneration creates a ritually bounded community and differentiates
hierarchically within it ("Strategies of Authoritative Presence in
Sri Lankan Buddhism: The Dhatuvamsa and the Interaction of Relics,
Texts, and Rituals" [unpublished essay]).
(6) Turner's discussion of root metaphor stresses the generative and
persuasive capacity of such archetypes to engender "self-certifying
myth, sealed off from empirical disproof. It remains a fascinating
metaphysics. Here, root metaphor is opposed to what Thomas Kuhn has
called the `scientific paradigm,' which stimulates and legitimates
empirical research." See Victor Turner, Dramas, Field and Metaphors:
Symbolic Action in Human Society (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 1974), p. 29.
(7) Concerning the role of relics in Buddhist polities, such as the
Kandyian Tooth relic in precolonial Sri Lanka, John Strong writes
that "possession of the Buddha's tooth was seen as an indispensable
attribute of kingship. Its cult was the privilege and duty of the
legitimate ruler and was thought to ensure social harmony, regular
rainfall, bountiful crops, and righteous rule. Its possession meant
power." See John S. Strong, "Relics," in The Encyclopedia of
Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade (New York: Macmillan, 1987), p. 280.
(8) See Keyes, Kendall, and Hardacre.
(9) My use of ritual theater and the dramaturgy of power follows
Geertz's discussions of these concepts. In Negara: The Theatre State
in Nineteenth-Century Bali (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1980), p. 13, Clifford Geertz writes concerning the theater
state in nineteenth-century Bali and the doctrine of the exemplary
center: "This is the theory that the court-and-capital is at once a
microcosm of the supernatural order--`an image of . . . the universe
on a smaller scale'--and the material embodiment of political
order." He continues, "The competition to be the center of centers,
the axis of the world, was just that, a competition; and it was the
ability to stage productions of an eleven-roof scale, to mobilize
the men, the resources, and, not least, the expertise, that made one
an eleven-roof lord" (p. 120). And he concludes by stating that "the
confinement of interpretive analysis . . . to the supposedly more
`symbolic' aspect of culture is a mere prejudice, born out of the
notion . . . that `symbolic' opposes to `real'. . . . To construe
the expressions of the theatre state, to apprehend them as theory,
this prejudice, along with the allied one that the dramaturgy of
power is external to its workings, must be put aside. The real is as
imagined as the imaginary" (p. 136). To this characterization of
premodern state ritual as an apt description of SLORC's hegemonic
intent, I would only add that SLORC's modern theatre state is a
self-consciously constructed legitimation of its contested hegemony.
(10) See T. W. Rhys-Davids, ed., Dialogues of the Buddha, vol. 3,
Sacred Books of the Buddhists, vol. 4 (Oxford: Pali Text Society,
1991), pp. 59-76.
(11) The term used in the NLM, dethasari, is derived from the Pali
desa (a point, spot, place, region, or country) and sara (moving,
going, or following). It thus denotes a ritual progress from the
center through the region. (12) See B. Anderson, Imagined
Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism
(London: Verso, 1991).1 follow Anderson and Kemper in my treatment
of nationalism as a cultural form. Kemper writes, "The strength of
nationalism as a political phenomenon is its ability to draw on
sentiments--language, religion, family, culture--that appear to be
natural and autochthonous. Their cultural expression required the
emergence of a set of new and hardly autochthonous circumstances.
This is the paradox of nationalism. Its force depends on the
capturing of primordial sentiments, even though the drawing together
of language, religion, or culture with the polity is generally a
modern phenomenon. But to say that nothing at all was there is to
misunderstand the nature of culture by separating it from history."
See S. Kemper, The Presence of the Past: Chronicles, Politics, and
Culture in Sinhala Life (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
1991), p. 224.
(13) The New Light of Myanmar, hereafter cited as NLM, is published
daily in Burmese and English versions. Its length always comprises
twelve pages divided. It is divided nearly equally into reports of
foreign and domestic affairs, with some space devoted to public
announcements, advertisements, and TV or radio programs. Diacritics
have not been added to Burmese and Pali words used in the NLM text.
The discussion of the text and rituals associated with this relic
veneration relies primarily on the NLM. A five-month-long coverage
of religious affairs published in this paper (February to June 1994)
yielded over 1,000 news items and editorials. My choice of this
source was motivated in part by the fact that these reports and
editorials articulate the government's vision of its role in
religious matters. The discussion of contexts and countertexts draws
on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 1994. Such countertexts are
largely absent from government media, but they were voiced in
personal interviews prior to the Tooth Relic's arrival in the spring
of 1994 and later in conversations with members of the Burmese
diaspora.
(14) For a discussion of symbolic capital, see Pierre Bourdieu,
Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge Studies in Social
Anthropology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), pp.
171-83.
(15) Traditionally, similar rituals take place throughout Burmese
society as New Year celebrations are occasions for paying one's
respects to figures of authority by throwing water on them, washing
their heads, and asking forgiveness for past transgressions. The
ritual affirms status differences between the powerful and their
dependents. Gratitude and obligations expressed are traditionally
rewarded with gifts from one's superiors. These forms of veneration
associated with New Year's celebrations underscore the hierarchy of
power relations, good intentions toward one's dependents, and one's
ability to grant rewards.
(16) Unlike other acts of merit, the construction or restoration of
Buddhist reliquaries and patronage of similar symbols of rupakaya
facilitate acts of merit in the future. Restoration of stupas built
by past kings is therefore seen as both a religious and civic
obligation. Such ritual patronage toward rupakaya rewards the
original sponsor and subsequent restorers with potentially infinite
merit. The highest honor accorded to a layperson is therefore the
recognition of being a donor of a stupa, relic, or Buddha image
(hpaya: taga:). Foremost among such merit-making rituals were
ceremonies marking the restoration of stupas and the donation and
consecration of Buddha images. At Peik-chin-myaung Maha Nandamu Cave
near Pyin-Oo-Lwin, SLORC chairman and commander in chief of the
armed forces, Senior General Than Shwe acted as "donor of an image"
that consecrated in the company of his wife and highly placed
political functionaries (NLM, April 10, 1994). The NLM (April 4,
1994) reported a ritual hoisting of the diamond bud and umbrella
(hti:) to mark the restoration of Myo-U Pagoda near Thuwanna at
which Secretary-l Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt officiated and
planted a Bodhi Tree. Many of the pagodas presented renovated by
SLORC were also objects of U Nu's patronage in the 1950s. For a list
of these historically significant stupas, see Donald E. Smith,
Religion and Politics in Burma (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1965), p. 170.
(17) The NLM editorial "Ceremonial Welcoming for Sacred Tooth"
(April 24, 1994) speaks of the event in this way: "On arrival at
Yangon International Airport today, the Sacred Tooth Relic from the
People's Republic of China will be a ceremonial welcome with much
pomp and splendor [sic]. It will be accorded the `dewa win' or
ceremony concerning the celestial beings and the `raze win' or the
ceremony concerning the royalty. Thus, it will be a very colorful
ceremony which will include the chanting of religious verses and
specially composed `dhamma tay' or religious songs by film and video
stars, members of various asiayons [lay religious associations] and
yawgi aphwes [lay meditation organizations]. Members of the Sangha,
nuns, students, youths, and people from all walks of life, numbering
some 5,000 or more will assemble for the airport ceremony. By
elephant-drawn carriage, the Tooth Relic will be taken from the
airport via the approach road, Pyay Road and Kaba Aye Pagoda Road
into the precincts of Kaba Aye Pagoda where it will be in residence.
The Tooth Relic is carried in a golden reliquary emplaced in a
crown-like receptacle with a spire on top and a throne under it, all
gilt and encrusted with jewels. . . . This is the second journey to
Myanmar, the first being when Myanmar was holding the Sixth Buddhist
Synod for authentication of this teachings. As Buddhism continues to
flourish both in the Orient and the Occident, the Tooth Relic has
been held sacred by the faithful all over the world. Both domestic
and foreign media persons are making arrangements to cover the great
event extensively, via satellite. . . . Even those who live far from
Yangon and Mandalay are making arrangements for the pilgrimage so
that the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of having paid homage to the
Sacred Tooth will not be missed."
(18) A protege of U Ne Win, the former president of the Burmese
Socialist Union, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt heads, among other
offices, an extensive military intelligence apparatus.
(19) In his 1995 Numata Lecture, "Tooth and Cross," presented at the
University of Chicago, John S. Strong recalls a much similar order
of procession assembled for the Chinese Tooth relic on one of its
previous visits to Burma. He writes: "The Tour was a great success.
The tooth was welcomed at the Rangoon airport by President Ba U,
Premier U Nu, members of the Supreme Court, of the legislature,
secretaries of the Army, the Navy, and Air Force, ministers of
various governmental departments, foreign diplomats, monks, nuns,
and a huge crowd" (p. 32). It is likely that the script used for the
earlier visit also inspired the order of events during the 1994
visit. However, the general tenor of the two visits differs in that
the first took place in the context of U Nu's Sanghayana amid a
multitude of religious foci, popular religious activities, and
articulations of cosmological Buddhism sponsored by a modern state.
During the 1994 visit, the emphasis was exclusively on the
veneration of the Buddha's physical remains, and in particular on
the Chinese Tooth Relic, precisely because the state wished to
emphasize these sources of merit over and against merit that might
be gained by making offerings to the sangha.
(20) John Strong observed in his American Academy of Religion 1994
presentation to the Seminar on Buddhist Relics, "Buddhist Relics in
Comparative Perspective: Beyond the Parallels" that this relic
remained hidden from view when displayed at the Buddha's Tooth Relic
Pagoda outside Beijing. It was less obscured from view during its
procession in Myanmar in 1994, but nevertheless remained difficult
to "view."
(21) Construction of the Maha Pasana Cave was begun in 1953 under U
Nu to accommodate his convocation of the Sixth Buddhist Council. The
cave was "modeled after the Sattapanni Cave at Rajagaha, India,
where the first council was believed to have been held shortly after
the death of the Buddha. The cave is a large assembly hall [with a]
seating capacity [of] 10,000 covered by a huge mount of earth and
rock forming an artificial hill" (Smith, p. 160). It served as a
ceremonial hall for a variety of functions during the monastic
reforms of U Nu and U Ne Win. Although the NLM occasional refers to
"a previous visit" of the Sacred Tooth to Myanmar in the 1950s
(according to Smith, p. 169, two such visits occurred in 1957 and
1959, respectively), comparisons with the 1994 visit always give a
more favorable assessment of its most recent sojourn in Myanmar, on
account of present "peace and tranquility," grander rituals
displays, and the relic's journey up-country.
(22) The route roughly follows the Irrawaddi River, Burma's major
venue for river trade alongside a railway system built during the
British colonial area.
(23) The first stop for public homage was Bago (formerly Pegu), the
site of Bayintnaung's palace now under excavation and the Mahazedi
Pagoda, where this king, according to Burmese chronicles, is said to
have enshrined the Sri Lankan Tooth Relic that some claim he
obtained from King Dhammapala of Colombo in the mid-sixteenth
century. The Chinese Sacred Tooth was carried next to Nyaunglaybin,
and then to Taung Oo, Pyinmana, Yamethin (a predominantly Muslim
town), Meiktila, and Kyaukse, which is known for its elaborate
irrigation system that has supplied water for agricultural projects
since the Pagan dynasty (eleventh to thirteenth centuries C.E.).
(24) Mandalay, capital of the Kounbaun dynasty, has a distinguished
monastic and royal history. Since 1989, it has also been a major
site of monastic contestation of SLORC's governance. The NLM
emphasis on homage by "both sangha and laity" in Mandalay has
hegemonic implications, particularly as references to monastic
veneration of the Sacred Tooth are otherwise generally absent.
(25) The NLM reports that 176,800 pilgrims paid homage at Maha
Pasana Cave on June 3, and 194,400 on June 4, 1995 (NLM, June 4,
1994, and June 5, 1994).
(26) An editorial in the NLM (May 18, 1994) described its
significance in this way: "The people of the Union of Myanmar gets
[sic] an opportunity to pay homage to the Tooth Relic on 24 May or
the Fullmoon of Kazon well-known as thrice blessed day, as on this
day the would-be Buddha was born, Lord Buddha was enlightened, and
He attained Nibbana. This is a rare opportunity which the people of
Myanmar should seize." Another editorial (NLM, May 24, 1994)
comments on the "Kason Festival. . . . This year, the occasion has
been rendered more auspicious for the people of this land since we
have conveyed the Buddha's Tooth Relic from the People's Republic of
China for a 45-day obeisance to be afforded to the lay Buddhists who
regard it as a once in a lifetime opportunity. The State Law and
Order Restoration Council, after due coordination with the
Government of the People's Republic of China, has been able to
obtain permission to bring the Tooth Relic, a rare treat which two
good neighbours have been able to grant the people in the name of
cordiality and longstanding amity. Millions of the faithful have
been able to pay homage to the Tooth Relic, and millions of kyats,
gems and jewelry have been donated. All meritorious acts will be
topped this year by the pilgrimage to the Tooth Relic, and the laity
are overjoyed that this golden opportunity has been made possible."
(27) According to the NLM, the image had been revered by successive
Burmese dynasties until it was moved to Shwe Kyi Myin Pagoda during
the fall of the Kounbaun Dynasty and Mandalay Palace in 1885. It
reputedly remained hidden because there was fear of its desecration
under British colonial rule. Its "rediscovery" and transport from
Mandalay to Yangon occurred during the spring of 1994 in
anticipation of the Sacred Tooth's arrival.
(28) The consecrations were motivated by a dual set of concerns. The
relic was used to consecrate its ancillary sacred objects and the
sites of its residence in Myanma; a second concern was to avert
potential disaster that can precipitate during the move of a sacred
object from its permanent site of residence. According to popular
belief, the dislocation of the Buddha's rupakaya from its seat can
be detrimental to its social and geographical surroundings,
resulting in chaos and calamities. Additional concerns arise over
possible disrespect shown to sacred objects "out of place."
(29) For a discussion of these lineages in Theravada Buddhism, see
Frank E. Reynolds, "Rebirth Traditions and the Lineage of Gotama: a
Study in Theravada Buddhology," in Sacred Biography in South and
Southeast Asian Buddhist Traditions, ed. J. Schober (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1997), in press. (30) Concerning
organized pilgrimages, the NLM announced on April 27, 1994, that
"religious associations and students from universities, colleges,
institutes and schools who wish to make organized visits to Maha
Pasana Cave at Kaba Aye to pay homage to the Buddha's Tooth Relic
may dial 63158 of the Control Office of the Ministry of Religious
Affairs at the Cave or 60470. . . of the Ministry."
(31) The NLM (May 6, 1994) also reports that on its way north the
relic was venerated by "members of the sangha and people of the
villages. . ., Tatmadaw men and their families . . ., construction
workers of the Six-lane Yangon-Mandalay Highway, factory workers and
service personnel also paid homage to the Tooth Relic, offered
flowers and donated cash." The Yangon-Mandalay highway is
constructed with the labor of prisoners who wish to reduce their
sentences. The assignment entails risks to one's health and life as
many do not survive the harsh conditions.
(32) The sense that the relic was more enthusiastically received in
Mandalay than in Yangon is also conveyed by statistical tallies. On
the final day of its nine-day sojourn in Mandalay, 122,700 came to
pay homage. Altogether, the number of pilgrims in Mandalay alone
reached 775,000, while donations made there exceeded 54.9 million
kyats, and over sixty-five hundred items of jewelry were donated
(NLM, May 19, 1994, and June 7, 1994). A few individual business
people donated exceedingly high amounts, two donors (one of whom was
Armenian) giving one million kyats each, and 1.57 million kyats were
collected by business people to install air-conditioning in the hall
where the relic was to be displayed at the Mandalay State Pariyatti
Monastic University (NLM, May 2, 1994, and May 4, 1994). In general,
all donations identified in the NLM during the relic's stay in
Mandalay exceeded thirty thousand kyats (May 17-19, 1994). The high
donations of some minorities, such as 86,658 kyats collected by the
Mandalay Kokang Buddhist Association or 337,000 kyats given by the
Chinese Buddhist Association of Mogok, is perhaps indicative of
greater reverence felt toward the relic. Others may have also
welcomed an opportunity to profile themselves in this competitive
donation drive. For instance, daily offerings of fruits, valued at
two thousand kyats per day were provided by the Shan Buddhist
Association in Mandalay (NLM, May 15, 1994).
(33) According to the NLM (March 26, 1994), Lieutenant General Khin
Nyunt explained at a coordinating meeting that "the Sayadaws
carrying out the missionary duties abroad will be able to improve
their performance after visiting and witnessing Myanmar where
Theravada Buddhism flourishes."
(34) He was awarded the Agga Maha Pandita title by the State
Mahanayaka Council and the ministry of religious affairs. He donated
4 million kyats to specific purposes, including the Tooth Relic
(NLM, April 27, 1994).
(35) See NLM, April 22, 1994.
(36) Contrary to the newspaper's announcement that a minimum
donation of five thousand kyats would result in the inclusion of
one's name in the lists of donors published daily, donors listed by
name and address gave at least twice that much. This may indicate
that the real minimum was much higher than the five thousand kyats
announced in the NLM. In terms of actual purchasing power, a
correlation of one to one is not far off the mark. However, while
the official exchange rate was pegged at about six to one, the
black-market exchange rate was about 120 kyats to one U.S. dollar in
1994.
(37) For example, the staff of the Burmese consulate in Kunming,
Yunnan, collected US $550 for the Tooth Relic, while the Burmese
ambassador to Cairo contributed one hundred dollars.
(38) Since the early 1990s, when SLORC opened its economy to joint
foreign capital ventures, some foreign investors, including Burmese
expatriates, have been eager to capitalize on their returns in a
market characterized by high demands, few supplies, cheap labor, and
untapped natural resources. Few investors have made long-term
financial commitments, and most business people remain cautious
about unpredictable changes in government policies.
(39) A typical announcement (NLM, May 3, 1994) would read: "Trainees
of USDA Management Course no. 2/94 for Executives pay homage to
Buddha's Tooth Relic" and indicates that 392 trainees from Burmese
states and divisions contributed 41,908 kyats toward the Tooth
Relic.
(40) Examples include one thousand copies of books on the Tooth
Relic donated by two Yangon families (NLM, May 2, 1994); 4,340 fans
donated by a deputy minister of foreign affairs for pilgrims waiting
in long lines; twelve hundred Pepsi soft drinks donated by Pepsi
Cola Products of Myanmar, Ltd., and two thousand lemon barley soft
drinks contributed by another family to quench the thirst of
pilgrims (NLM, April 30, 1994).
(41) The systematic collection of private donations for religious
and social welfare purposes supports a wide range of projects in
contemporary Myanmar. While collections on behalf of the Tooth Relic
produced very high returns within a short time, they are
nevertheless part of a broader pattern whereby the state
increasingly seeks to finance religion, social welfare, and
monuments of national culture through private contributions.
(42) Against this background, reports in the NLM that singled out
the devotion of an impoverished eighty-year-old woman who had given
her entire life savings of 313.50 kyats to the Sacred Tooth sought
to valorize the ethics of public donations (see NLM, April 30,
1994).
(43) Although relevant to the broader context of relations between
China and Myanmar, this article does not address implications of the
Tooth Relic's cultural exchange for Chinese Buddhists in China, nor
does it interpret implications of the diplomatic exchange for
relations between the two nations.
(44) The three essays by Khin Maung Nyunt were published in the NLM
under the following titles: "Buddha's Sacred Tooth in Myanmar
History" (April 14, 1994, p. 3); "Buddha's Sacred Tooth Relic and
King Anawratha" [1044-77] (April 21, 1994, p. 5); and "Buddha's
Sacred Tooth Relic and King Bayint Naung" [1551-81] (May 14, 1994,
p. 2).
(45) The "lower left eye tooth" is said to have been enshrined in
Kandy, Sri Lanka, while the "upper left eye tooth" was taken by way
of Gandhara to China, where it is now said to reside near Beijing.
Concerning the history of "the" Chinese Sacred Tooth, Strong
("Relics" [n. 7 above], p. 281) writes, "a famous relic of the
Buddha in China was originally brought to Nanking in the fifth
century and then taken to Ch'ang-an (capital of T'ang dynasty, now
called Sian). Lost for over eight hundred years, it was rediscovered
in 1900 and is presently enshrined in a pagoda outside Peking. In
the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Chinese government, eager to
improve its relations with Buddhist nations of South and Southeast
Asia, allowed it to go on a tour to Burma and then to Sri Lanka,
where it was worshiped by hundreds of thousands of people." Khin
Maung Nyunt's essays allude to controversies concerning authenticity
and miracles in the transmission of Buddha's relics, but provide no
appraisals of sources used. Khin Maung Nyunt's account relies on the
Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma (trans. Pe Maung Tin
and Gordon H. Luce [London: Oxford University Press], 1923), on the
work of the British historian G. E. Harvey, and on the Thai Prince
Dhamrong Rajanubhab's account of his "Journey through Burma in
1936." The Glass Palace Chronicle provides an account of Burmese
dynasties, beginning with mythological accounts and Anawratha's
reign (1044-77). Compiled in 1829 after the first Anglo-Burmese war,
the compilation represents a reconstruction of Burmese dynastic
history based on indigenous sources (Hmannan Yazawindaw Gyi, 3 vols.
[Meiktila: Ma E Tin, 1936]). Among works by British historians, G.
E. Harvey's A History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March
1824: The Beginning of the English Conquest (reprint, London: Cass,
1967), though often cited, presents frequently an unreliable
treatment of sources.
(46) This image was flown from Mandalay to Yangon and displayed with
the Chinese Tooth Relic and its two replicas. Khin Maung Nyunt
asserts that the image had been revered by successive Burmese
dynasties until 1885. Khin Maung Nyunt writes: "Through years of
gilding by devotees, the emerald (jade) image is now totally
encrusted with gold" (NLM, April 21, 1994, p. 5), Khin Maung Nyunt
cites the Glass Palace Chronicle's account of Anawratha's mission to
China, which is given the Burmese gloss of "Gandhalit," Gandhara
(Hmannan Yazawindaw Gyi, 1:259-64). Pe Maung Tin and Gordon Luce
(pp. 80-83) translated the episode of Anawratha's legendary voyage
to the Chinese kingdom of "Gandhala," his failed attempt to obtain
the Tooth Relic, and Sakra's consolation in the form of an emerald
image that he caused "to pass to and fro with the sacred tooth and
descend from the sky, and rest within the jewelled casket on the
king's head" (p. 83). D. G. E. Hall (A History of Southeast Asia
[London: Macmillan, 1964], pp. 132-40), writes that tribute missions
to the Tai kingdom Nanchao were undertaken by Anawratha's
predecessors and successors but gives no indication of Anawratha's
mission to "China." There is no independent confirmation that
Burmese tribute missions during the centuries preceding and
following Anawratha's reign went further north than Nanchao. Htin
Aung (A History of Burma [New York and London: Columbia University
Press, 1967], p. 35), mentions that Nanchao, where then Mahayana
Buddhism prevailed, was said to be in possession of the Sacred Tooth
Relic and that the king provided Anawratha with a replica. Htin Aung
does not comment on the provenance and "authenticity" of Anawratha's
Emerald Buddha image. Concerning the mythic traditions associated
with the Emerald Buddha statue in Southeast Asia, readers are
referred to Frank Reynolds's essay, "The Holy Emerald Jewel: Some
Aspects of Buddhist Symbolism and Political Legitimation in Thailand
and Laos," in Religion and Legitimation of Power in Thailand, Laos,
and Burma, ed. Bradwell L. Smith (Chambersburg, Pa.: Anima, 1978),
pp. 175-93; and Stanley J. Tambiah's discussion on the Thai Emerald
Buddha (The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets,
Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology [Cambridge: University of
Cambridge Press, 1984]).
(47) Khin Maung Nyunt refers to the Glass Palace Chronicle (3:35-36)
for a description of Bayintnaung's military assistance to the
Ceylonese King Dhammapala after the political turmoil of 1576. He
also cites Harvey's account (pp. 32-33) on the miraculous
replications of the Sri Lankan Tooth Relic now enshrined in numerous
Burmese pagodas.
(48) See Mercea Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return or, Cosmos
and History, Bollingen Series 46 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1974).
(49) See Anderson (n. 12 above).
(50) Frequently, Than Shwe, Khin Nyunt, and other high-ranking SLORC
officers inspect such sites, officiate at ceremonies marking their
completion, act as ritual patrons, and are credited with restoring
such sources of merit.
(51) Relations between cosmology, territory, and nationalism in
nation-states are taken up by Anderson and by Thongchai Winichakul
(Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation [Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1994]), whose discussion focuses on the
process of political modernization in Thailand.
(52) The Maha Nayaka Council supervises the affairs of all nine
officially recognized ordination lineages, registration of
individual monks, monastic education, and leadership training
programs for abbots. Its central body is housed at Kaba Aye,
adjacent to the ministerial offices. Monastic representatives to the
central Maha Nayaka Council rotate every few months, which renders
their presence largely ceremonial and entrusts its agenda firmly in
the control of the ministry.
(53) NLM, April 25, 1994
(54) Despite token recognition of ethnic diversity, goodwill tours
featured in the public media, and SLORC's negotiations with
minorities, military battles continue at the nation's borders. The
integration of minorities into a modern nation-state is fraught with
problems at several levels and centers on issues such as economic
development, concessions of relative independence, and minority
representation at the national convention charged with the
formulation of the state's constitution. (55) According to rumors,
Ne Win's influence on the present SLORC government is still
significant.
(56) Popular discontent with the state's patronage of the sangha
emerged during the early 1980s, when the present monastic reforms
commenced. Many Burmese Buddhists felt that the state had been too
zealous in excommunicating charismatic monks and other monks whose
teachings had been ruled "false doctrine" (adhamma). The
reintroduction of monastic registration and review of monastic
properties further alienated the sangha. Successful in terms of
implementing state mandates, but a failure in terms of popular
support the activities of the state's monastic reforms diminished
until the sangha instantly emerged as a infrastructural link in the
popular uprising of 1988, which was precipitated by severe economic
reforms. Relations between the state and the sangha have remained
contested.
(57) The long, daily lists of major contributors and their donation
amounts conclude with formulaic acknowledgments such as, "A total of
72 donors including 34 who did not attend the ceremony today offered
K 1,813,191.55" (NLM, April 29, 1994) or a "total of 163 donors
including 77 who did not attend the ceremony donated K 3,395,747,75
today" (NLM, May 27, 1994).
(58) The newspaper's statistics show less-than-unanimous
participation in the state's ritual patronage A significant number
chose to stay away from such ceremonies, while their names and
actions were known to the authorities
(59) The history of the Chinese Tooth Relic is as miraculous as the
transmission of relics elsewhere in the Buddhist world. Kenneth
Ch'en (Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey [Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1964], pp. 179-80) observes that in the
T'ang capital of Ch'ang-an "at least four temples claimed to have
specimen of the Buddha's teeth. These four were put on display by
the temples annually . . . the public . . . came in endless streams
to worship the sacred relics." An account of the Buddha's Sacred
Tooth in Chinese Buddhism is also found in Soper's description of
Hsiang-Kuo-Ssu, an imperial city monastery of the Northern Sung
period, located in the modern day province of Honan (Alexander
Soper, "Hsiang-kuo-Suu: An Imperial Temple in Northern Sung:"
Journal of the American Oriental Society 68 [1948]: 19-45, esp. p.
25, n. 23).
(60) For discussions of other forms of ritual veneration of the
Buddha's remains, see John S. Strong, "Gandhakuti: The Perfumed
Chamber of the Buddha," History of Religions 16 (1977): 390-406, and
"The Transforming Gift: An Analysis of Devotional Acts of Offering
in Buddhist Avadana Literature," History of Religions 18 (1979):
221-37; and J. Schober, "In the Presence of the Buddha: Ritual
Veneration of the Burmese Mahamuni Image," in Sacred Biography in
the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia, ed. J. Schober
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), in press.
(61) See Bourdieu (n. 14 above).
(62) See Tambiah, Culture, Thought and Social Action (n. 4 above);
and Turner (n. 6 above).