by Feraya Nangmone

“Thabeik Mauk

Each man silently remembers the same history, that of hunger strikers from hundreds of years ago, members of the holy sangha. When the monks waited to protest, the corruption and violence of the king and his minions, they paraded through the streets with their alms bowls turned upside down. By refusing to accept offerings from the king, they cut him off from his own wealth – his riches were nothing if he could not make the merit-gift of them for his future lives.”

It seems like it has been a long time since the monk’s uprising, but it is only a year ago that it happened. That was when the world watched in different corners of the globe at one of the most important events in Burma’s history. At the beginning of the auspicious event when the monks went out on the streets of Rangoon there was a great sense of defiance, excitement and full support for the sangha of Burma. We watched as the streets were covered with a flowing sea of brilliant orange and burgundy. It was a peaceful and intensely emotional scene of dignified protest. How we admired and cheered for the monks, although at the same time, concerned for their safety. Some of us went out and tried to protect the monks by forming a human shield around them, holding each other’s hands. For a day or two the Burma army was not seen. Then they menacingly appeared on our TV screens, but it wasn’t until the full moon day that they struck, beginning their attack on the sangha. Suddenly there was mayhem; soldiers opened fire at anyone they could see; they did not discriminate; they viciously beat the protesters; one soldier even shot a Japanese news photographer at close range.

“How can this happen? How can a Buddhist country treat their holy monks this way?” It is because the Burma regime have completely lost the meaning of what Buddhism is all about. It is firstly about practicing the holy dhamma, especially the precepts: -

I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.
I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given.
I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.
I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech.
I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness.

The Burma Military Regime thinks they are beyond the law of the land, beyond the rule of international law, and beyond the natural law of dhamma.

They, the regime said it was the young rebellious monks who started the problems, but did it matter if they were young or old? The immense desperation, hunger, anger and helplessness of the people of Burma was bravely expressed by these courageous monks. The older monks who led the protest were not wild nor hot-headed; they knew what they had to do for the people of Burma, and it was time to do something.

Monks and people were arrested, tortured, killed; many monks were hunted down and disrobed. The people slain in the streets had their bodies removed quickly without a trace. Weeks and months after the uprising, people were still being arrested and some are still in hiding or fled over the border.

The monk’s protest was not only a momentous and important event in Burma’s history, the monks partly achieved what they set out to do – they made the world become aware of Burma, what was happening to the people of Burma, who have been cruelly and brutally suppressed by the Burma Military. The situation became too much for any human to bear, so desperate that the monks sacrificed their lives and took to the streets, and in many senses this is just the beginning of the Saffron Revolution. We shall always remember with gratitude and respect for what the monks did for the sake of Burma’s suffering and severely deprived people.