Reading about the events unfolding in Burma in the newspapers is enormously frustrating. It seems the billion professional news people reporting the story have all at once mastered the art of writing endlessly about “the monks” in a way that tells us nothing important about the monks. The story has been wrapped in an enormous Moab-colored robe that’s just so exotically mesmerizing editors go dizzy. “Look it’s a monk! Look it’s ten thousand monks! Soooo beautiful!”

That’s what I was searching for when the bull-headed Myanmar Milosevics went and pulled the plug on the internet. Frrzzzpp: no more digital communications from Burma. Sorry, ha-ha, you’re stuck with the New York Times!

Judith Simmer-Brown is a senior dharma teacher and twenty-seven-year faculty member in the Religious Studies department at Naropa University. She has deep ties with the region and has thankfully much to share on recent events. We spoke very briefly over the weekend.

JT: So I feel like we’re getting nothing really about the monks. We see the photos in the papers but the photos beg questions that go unanswered in the articles. They’re Buddhist. That much I know. They’re Theravada? Is that the, um, sect?

Judith Simmer-Brown: Theravada, yes, but sect is the wrong word. It’s a major form of Buddhism, more a school of thought, akin to Protestantism. It’s predominant throughout South-East Asia— in Sri Lanka, Thailand….

I agree there’s nothing good about this in the mainstream media. The thing to know, which has been partly touched upon, is that, in Theravada, the monastic tradition is precious; the monks are the precious treasure of the society. To support the monks is the best thing in life you can do as a layperson. The monastic tradition is just so central to the way of life, just something everyone experiences on some level. The people and the monks are bound together. In Thailand every young man takes temporary vows, for three months to a year…

We think Buddhism, though, in our popculture mind, and we think meditative not activist. The shorthand image is of people focused on otherworldly concerns… Politics and oil prices, of all things, it seems so hopelessly worldly.

That’s a misconception. Buddhists are not withdrawn from the world. On the contrary. That the monks have been relatively nonpolitical in the recent past is in fact a revealing anomaly in Burma. It speaks to the brutality of the regime. The monks have been given the message: “stay out of politics and you’ll be able to continue undisturbed.” It’s a pervasive and really oppressive message, especially given that in other Therevada countries there’s a great deal of civic engagement, a long tradition of engagement.

I can’t think— other than the iconic immolations during Vietnam— I can’t think of anything I’ve read about protests and so forth… what kind of engagement?

Just off the top of my head, well there are so many examples… In Thailand, for instance, monks have opposed deforestation very publicly, going out into the forests and ordaining trees… In Sri Lanka monks organize grassroots efforts in villages to alleviate the effects of poverty… There are many many examples of monastic engagement. Withdrawn is exactly wrong I would say.

You know in Burma, the monastics have also been coerced directly, threatened. The kidnap and murder of monks has been ratcheted up in recent months. That’s key to understanding things. The protests from that perspective, and the monks’ role in the protests, is no surprise. The people are so protective of the monks— their spiritual well being is wrapped up in care for the monks. People grab the monks on the street to shield them, place their bodies between the monks and the soldiers and police, shuttle them off in cabs.

The government will never enjoy the respect of the monastics. It’s unspeakable to abuse the monks, to have them tortured and murdered. The monks are the rival source of power. Soldiers have been infiltrating the monasteries, trying to shut it down from within. There are incredible stories… none of which are in the newspapers….

So how do you know what’s happening?

Oh email lists… I have relationships with people from research trips, longtime friends and so forth. The emails are full of terrible reports…

It is a nonviolent tradition of course but the government has sent infiltrators into the monasteries, young soldiers with shaved heads in robes, who then behave within the ranks in ways to incite, to provide a pretext for the authorities to crack down. It’s been eighteen years of crackdown, ever since Aung San Suu Kyi won the prime-ministerial election.

It’s unbelievable what happened, by the way. It was so political, such an open endorsement, call for change, when the monks walked past Aung San Suu Kyi’s home, where she’s of course been under house arrest. That was exactly what the junta didn’t want to happen. That wasn’t about oil prices. You know, it couldn’t be explained away, the monks’ open endorsement of a rival political figure— the rival political figure. Just unbelievable. The monks knowing the power and open politics of that action.

You know, I mentioned the young soldiers… that’s part of the story too, that in many ways this is a youth movement. If you look at the photos, the monks are young. Young men from the hinterlands become monks to get an education and to enter a way of life that is respected, that the society reveres. There’s a youth energy to what’s happening now…

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John Tomasic is managing editor at Pop and Politics.Here’s Prof Simmer-Brown on consumer culture.

This is the body of a *monk* found in a creek in Burma. The photos were on MoeMaKa Media, a blog covering the demonstrations.

This is a government that kills not only its own people, but also its religious leaders.

I have not put up other disturbing photographs from the crackdown, like one of a student’s brains, which were blown out of his head and lay in a gutter. But maybe if the images are strong enough, people will not be able to ignore them.

The junta claims the death toll is around 10, but the real number may be in the thousands. Hla Win, a military intelligence officer who defected from the Burmese junta after he was ordered to kill hundreds of monks, said: “Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.” Read more here.

They also spoke of the thousands of monks in Burma who were killed, beaten or arrested for marching in protest of the government. The monks have been locked in their monasteries – or detained – all weekend. Some have been on a hunger strike.

Seth Mydans had a great piece about the importance of the monks in Burma.

The vast majority at the vigil were Burmese living in Los Angeles. And just about everyone – including many of the journalists – wore red, as supporters of the Burma movement have been doing in similar vigils and rallies all over the world.

The monks sat lined up in the front facing the crowd, who sat or kneeled in front of them on the ground. The monks led chanting of religious prayers, and hundreds of voices joined in. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but got emotional just listening to the music and knowing that what was at stake was critically important to everyone there.

The monk leading the service stressed the need for unity among Burmese in order to overcome the junta, which started cracking down on the demonstrations Wednesday. The monk therefore led Christian and Muslim prayers in addition to the traditional Buddhist ones.

There were a crew of journalists including some from ABC and FOX. I know it’s all over the news every single day, but it still surprises me that the world is actually paying attention to Burma. Most people couldn’t give a s*&t for decades, and now, now KCAL 9 news cares. Every movement needs monks – they do wonders for publicity.

The Wall Street Journal ran a cover story on Friday discussing the role of the Internet and citizen journalism in Burma (renamed Myanmar by the junta) over the past few weeks.

The article states: “Citizen witnesses are using cellphones and the Internet to beam out images of bloodied monks and street fires, subverting the Myanmar government’s effort to control media coverage and present a sanitized version of the uprising.”

The majority of phone lines have also been cut. Journalists based in other countries are now relying on the few people who still have phone access.

Until Friday morning, people inside Burma could send emails but had limited access to foreign news. Most news websites were banned due to the government’s tighter control during the two-weeks of demonstrations.

“Most of the Myanmar people don’t know what’s going on [in] their land,” a Burmese man emailed me on Thursday.

Despite the crackdown, the demonstrations continued Friday. They mark the 11th-straight day of protests and marches by monks and civilians in Rangoon, Mandalay and cities across Burma.

Photo: Soldiers arrive at Sule Pagoda on Thursday. Photo taken by an American in Rangoon during the demonstrations.
Contact: hingber@gmail.com

The Burmese junta continues to order troops to beat up monks and protesters as it cracks down on the mass demonstrations in Burma (renamed Myanmar by the regime). Reports coming out of Burma say that troops attacked people at a monastery in Rangoon Thursday morning and then arrested about 100 monks and laymen. An American who was in Rangoon told me this:

“Eyewitnesses said three trucks filled with soldiers arrived at the monastery at about 12:15am on September 27. When the monks refused the soldiers’ demand to open the gate, a fight broke out in which both sides hurled bricks at each other for about 20 minutes.

“The soldiers eventually crashed through the gate with one of the trucks and used bamboo sticks to beat everyone in the monastery— including monks, laymen, women and children, some of whom were related to or were under the care of the head abbot, or sayadaw.”

The beatings occured at Ngway Kyar Yan Monastery in South Okkalapa township in Rangoon. The junta killed up to eight people, including monks, earlier Wednesday.

I know this is a “blog,” but I have no commentary. Troops beating up monks. Enough said.

Photo credit: MoeMaKa Volunteer Reporters inside Rangoon
Contact: hingber@gmail.com

On my second day living in Rangoon, Burma (renamed Yangon, Myanmar, by the ruling junta), I visited the blockaded American Embassy. After my passport was passed from person to person to person, I got in.

It was August 2003. Burma had been ruled by an oppressive, military dictatorship for more than 40 years.

I was 22, fresh out of college, and had come to work at the Myanmar Times and Business Review. Before my trip to Burma, foreign correspondents and Asia experts warned me about the situation there: don’t talk about the political crisis and don’t trust anyone, they said.

I had been warned not to trust even the Burmese staff at the embassy, so after my registration papers were complete, I asked to speak with an American.

A Marine greeted me and asked what he could do to help.

“I was just wondering,” I said. “What do I do if there is an emergency?”

“What kind of emergency?”

“Oh, you know,” remembering stories about the 1988 demonstrations when the army gunned down 3,000 protesters, “street riots and the like.”

“If there are street riots,” he said with a laugh, “stay in your apartment and we’ll come and find you. But I don’t think you have to worry.”

The junta controlled Burma with such a tight fist that street riots were practically unfathomable. Little did he know, four years later, Burma is now erupting in demonstrations and protests that have thrown the country into the international spotlight.

On the way back from the embassy, I was spotted by young boys trying to sell me postcards. I did not want postcards but they seemed to be more interested in practicing their English anyway.

We began walking through the downtown together, them pointing out the Yangon City Development Council and other government buildings. I snapped picture after picture, until one grabbed my arm and said, “Not here!”

I looked up and realized there were military guards with large rifles in the vicinity. “You saved my life,” I said. “Thank you.”

We came to a big intersection and they helped me cross the four lanes of speeding traffic. The Burmese cross one lane at a time, waiting in the middle of the road until the next lane is free. I never grew comfortable with this mode of traversing so I would find a Burmese who looked like he knew what he was doing, stick closely next to him and hope for the best. I didn’t know if there were many pedestrian-related traffic accidents in Rangoon— the media was not allowed to report them— but I wouldn’t have been surprised.

We crossed the intersection and a stooped woman in her 80s with piercing eyes and few teeth caught sight of us— two young kids and a tall white foreigner. She pulled me aside and, after nervously looking over her shoulder, whispered into my ear, “Be careful…Snakes in the grass. Snakes in the grass.”

I knew she was not referring to reptiles but to the notorious military intelligence (MI) officers positioned in tea shops, offices and schools throughout the country to spy on its people. Because of those “snakes,” no one talked openly in public places, not even at the Myanmar Times.

I nodded my head and thought, Wow, Burma really feels like a scary movie.

The boys took me to Sule Pagoda, the temple in the center of downtown that I could see from my balcony. It is at the heart of the protests this week.

I’m now living in Los Angeles. The closest I can get to Sule Pagoda is through the photographs flying around the web of monks and civilians protesting there.

It’s very scary knowing that these protests might turn into another horror story. The junta is petrified of losing power and might once again violently suppress the demonstrations.

On the other hand, this is the moment anyone and everyone interested in Burma has been waiting for. Finally, after 19 years, the people are standing up to the regime and demanding change. They want decent jobs and safe drinking water for everyone. They’re tired of reading censored newspapers and having the electricity go out at all hours of the day and night. They want to elect their leaders and then hold them accountable.

And they want it so badly they are risking their lives to get it. I applaud their courage.

——
Photo Credit: Daily Mail. view more photos at irrawaddy. Contact hanna at: hingber@gmail.com

Hundreds of thousands of Burmese monks and civilians have spent the past week marching in cities across the country, demanding change. They want an end to the repressive, tyrannical rule of the junta. They want free and fair elections.

These are the biggest protests in Burma (renamed Myanmar by the junta) since 1988, when the army gunned down and killed 3,000 protesters.

The major difference between now and then is that the world is watching this time. Burma— an isolated country that rarely makes the news— was a headline story across the world today. People inside the country are breaking their usual habit of silence and risking their lives to share glimpses of what is happening. They are posting photographs, videoclips and written updates every minute.

I lived in Burma for a year in 2003/2004. The military regime oppressed the country so well that there was almost no political dissent. Anyone who spoke out against the government was quickly detained and usually tortured. An activist was arrested while I was there for passing out the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

And now— thousands of people are marching down Sule Pagoda Road— the street I lived on. It’s beyond amazing. I only hope that this time the junta does not fire back. If you want to help support the democracy activists, you can donate money to US Campaign for Burma.

Photo credit: King