CJ Articles

The institution of the Sangha in the ancient Myanmar
 A brief survey

(Venerable Dhammasami, Shan state, Myanmar)
February 24, 2001

Introduction

The Sangha as the focus

Vitality of Buddhism is generally attributed to the monastic community. The view of the great reformist monarch, king Badow, popularly known as King Bodaw-paya probably represents that of the majority of Burmese Buddhist. In his royal order dated 17 October 1787, he said:

“The Sasana of the Lord Buddha is like a great tree that has heartwood.¹ Like any giant trees with heartwood , sap-wood, inner bark, outer bark, branches and leaves, the Buddha’s Sasana has magga and phala as its heart, wisdom as its sapwood, Jhana as inner bark, Sila as outer bark, material requisites as branches and leaves. Monks and novices, ordained with an aim to benefit from this great tree (of the Buddha’s sasana) should not indulge in material requisites and live heedlessly. Even if one is not able to enjoy the taste of the heartwood, sapwood and inner bark, one should take the opportunity to enjoy the taste of the outer bark: this enjoyment alone will make the Sasana prosper….” ²  (my translation)

This indicates that Buddhist practices in Myanmar are centred on the monastic community, as opposed to “protestant Buddhism” that questions “the traditional monastic monopoly in withdrawal from the world” asserting that “religious rights and duties are the same for all” ³ The Sangha are therefore the centre of focus in studying Buddhism in Myanmar.

The Structure of Sangha Organization in the Kon-Boung Dynasty

Among the Myanmar dynasties, the Kon-Boung period has left us with many royal orders issued by kings and ecclesiastical heads of the Order and in face, only two royal orders still extent in Myanmar antedate this period.

From those royal orders, we learn that there has hardly been a time in the history of Buddhism in Myanmar when the country has had only “one fraternity of the Sangha”, even though successive kings and their governments have tired to unify it. Here by “fraternity” we generally mean any group of Sangha with established distinct interpretations of vinaya, as handed down from generation to generation. The following examples in the history of Buddhism in Myanmar will highlight more of what a tradition of Sangha connotes in Myanmar. Fraternity is also known as sect, nikaya, gana or gaing in Burmese. 

During the reign of King Narapatisithu (1173-1210 A.D) of  Pagan, a monk who was a native of Ramannadesa, Lower Burma, called Chappada returned to the Burmese capital Pagan after receiving ordination and ten-years long training at the hands of the Mahavihara  monks in Ceylon. Accompanied him from Ceylon were his four colleagues Sivali, Ananda,Tamalinda and Rahula. On their arrival, they called into question the validity of the ordination procedure in the Sonuttara lineage, the then existing Sangha in Pagan considered to have come down from Sona and Uttara, one the several missions of Emperor Asoka (3rd B.C.) and subsequently, formed their own community of monks conducting separate ecclesiastical ceremonies. Theirs was a fraternity, nikaya developed not on different doctrinal argument. This fraternity came to be know as Sihala-sangha” the Order of Ceylon” or Pacchima-sangh, “the later Order”, in contrast to the early tradition of Sonuttara lineage believed to have been introduced by one of the Asoka’s Missions.

King Dhamma-zedi of Hamsavati (1464-1492 AD) made the twenty-two most senior monks of the Ramannadesa go to Sri Lanka for ordination or rather re-ordination only to suppress the then existing six fraternities of the Mon Sangha.⁴ All the monks, no matter how senior they were, had to disrobe first before being re-ordained in the Ceylonese Order, thus causing them to lose their seniority in the monkshood. While the Kalyani inscription makes a mention of “heresy and corruption” being prevalent among the Sangha, the overwhelming reason for the radical action taken by King Dhamma-zedi was, no doubt, the inability of those six divisions of the Order in his kingdom to perform ecclesiastical ceremonies together due largely to their disagreement on the procedure of consecrating Sima, “a chapter hall”and the ordination procedure that  must be performed in it; ⁵ indeed no particular doctrinal controversy was discussed in the Inscription. The king saw “the six fraternities” as being too proud to consult and cooperate with each other “thinking inwardly: We, indeed, are wise and able.” ⁶

It appears rather irony  to us that King Dhamma-zedi should have chosen to dispatch the senior monks to Ceylon as five of the six traditions claimed to have maintained Ceylonese traditions; three of them retraced their lineage from Ananda,⁷ Sivali and Tamalinda ⁸, the friends of Chappada who set up their own their communities after quarrelling among themselves on some points of the vinaya rules, and one from Buddhavamsa Mahathera, the Elder Buddhavamva who was the tutor to queen Shin Saw Pu of Hamsavati, the predecessor and mother-in-law of king Dhamma-zedi, and the other from Mahasami Mahathera, the Elder Mahasami; the latter two elders were ordained in Ceylon and established their Sinhalasanghapakkha, the fraternity of Sinhala Order” in Muttimanagara, Martaban. ⁹

King Alaungpaya, also Alaungmintaya (1752-60); in his royal order issued in 1753, about a year and half after becoming a king, he banned all Buddhist fraternities or nikayas ¹⁰ other then “the Left Shoulder”, Tong-gaing from his kingdom. ¹¹ Unfortunately, the only tradition he allowed was later banned and the head of the Order he appointed, Atula Sayadaw,  exiled by one of his sons, Shin Pyu Mya Shin who succeeded him.¹²

Despite all those successive efforts by the Myanmar’s rulers up to the present government, the Sangha as an institution remains embodied in different traditions, sometimes for practical reason of effective administration within the Sangha itself, not necessarily because of any doctrinal differences; sometimes for unresolved controversy. ¹³

It is to be noted, however, that a tradition with marked doctrinal differences within Theravada School is not recognized by the existing the monastic community and the government, and as such deserves to be banned. This has been evident in the cases of the monastic Order of the Aris and that of Zawti who were banned by the royal orders during the reign of Kings Anawratha and Bodaw-paya respectively. The Ari Gaing were the priests of Tartaric Mahayanaism in which naga and spirit worship appear to have been prominent. ¹⁴  The Zawti Gaing were once considered anti-monasticism that centered their practices around lay leaders and had extremist interpretation of “intention”, cetana,  the core of Buddhist ethics. To them, building a bridge is wrong because a murderer may use it to cross and kiss someone; the builder and donor of the bridgebegets demerit just as the murderer; trading is wrong as it involves lying. During King Bodaw-paya’s reign, the Zawti Gaing was found in and around Shin Phyu Kyunt in central Burma despite the sect being claimed by Michael Mendelson as a Shan reformist movement.¹⁵

Thethana-baing, the Head of Monastic Order the Term “Thathana-baing”

Despite the fact that the head of the Order was known as the thathana-baing, most of the royal orders have revealed that the kings themselves did not use this term. Instead, a term sayadaw¹⁶ “royal tutor”, that appears so common nowadays was used; the other senior monks were simply addressed as saya,  “teacher” like in “saya Ambagaha and four monks from Ceylon”.¹⁷  When the term sayadaw came to apply to many royal tutors, and then later to all other respectable monks, the kings came to use the title thathana-byu sayadaw, meaning the head of the mission to propagate Buddhism; the position, thathana-byu was to distinguish the head of the Order from other sayadaws. ¹⁸ The Thathana-byu was also understood as the guardian of the sasana as in some of the royal orders ¹⁹ he was addressed as thathana-htein, “the guardian of the sasana”.

Early in the Kon-Bang period, a thathana-byu Sayadaw seemed to regard himself as truly the guardian of the sasana when he mentioned his status after his title in his Order dated 29th May 1755 as thathana-byu thathana zaung “ The Missionary and the Guardian of the Sasana”. Thathana zaung  has the same meaning with thathana-htein but the latter implies some supervisory patronizing role while the former takes a humble tone to denote somebody who is protecting the sasana. The most senior disciple of the Buddha, Venerable Mahakassapa is reported to have said that “the modest (lajji) monks will protect (rakkhissati) the sasana in the future”. The thathana-byu may have seen themselves as fulfilling this legacy. Historians of our times, however, freely use the term thathana-baing.²⁰

The office

A thathana-baing, who is the head of the monastic order in the land is appointed by the reigning monarch and his tenure lasts, as far as our records are concerned until he die or when the rule of the monarch he serve comes to an end. There were instances when a succeeding king reappointed the thathana-baing of the previous rule.

The king crates a council of highly learned and senior monks, generally consisting of seven to eleven members, to advise the thathana-baing, though the latter’s authority is absolute in religious affairs. His influence is usually extended beyond his ecclesiastical domain; he advises king on state affairs. Most thathana-baings are known for their being learned in the Tripitaka and for being knowledgeable in state administrative affairs. Nanavamsa, the youngest thathana-baing in the Kon-Boung era, was only aged 35 when appointed; he wrote nearly 60 books; among them, two in Pali, a sub-commentary to the Silakkhandhavagga and a chronicle of King Bodaw-paya titled Rajadhirajavilasinni. He also translated some Sanskrit grammar works into Burmese. His interest and scholarship covered medicine and astrology.

During the Kon-Boung period, the successive kings built special halls and a monastery to be used as the office of the thathana-baing and the Supreme Monastic Advisory Council. They are known as “Sudhamma hall”, Thudhamma Zayat and Sudhamma monastery. Any meeting led by the thathana-baing would take place in the Sudhamma Hall, and the Sudhamma monastery was where they took rest during intervals. Sudhamma is said to be the name of a hall in the Tavatimsa Heaven. King Mindon, in fact, built as many as thirty-three halls to match the number of their counterparts in the Tavatimsa. Monastic examinations were held in one of those halls, which were situated next to his palace. The halls were also used as ecclesiastical court and for all grand royal religious ceremony. It is from the name of this hall(s) that the majority of the Sangha in Myanmar derive the name of their nikaya.  Indeed, theirs has never been formed as a nikaya but Sudhamma has been a name to denote the mainstream of the Sangha in the country as opposed to those who separate from this main tradition and form their own nikaya like Shwe Gyin and Dvara.

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End note:

1. The Buddha makes a compelling simile comparing a tree with heartwood to his teaching. He asks the monks not to be attached to material benefit and reputation that teaching could bring; not even to be satisfied with virtue and concentration but to achieve the proper goal of perpetual liberation of the mind. For more details  see Mahasaropama Sutta & Culasaropama Sutta MN
2. The Royal Orders of Burma, Part IV, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 1986 p. 625.
3. Richard Gombrich  & Gnananath Obeysekere, Buddhism Transformed, Delhi (reprint) 1988 p. 4
4. Kalyani Inscription p. 58
5. lbid.
6. lbid.
7. Ananda sent an elephant which the king offered him back to is relatives in Kanci, which drew criticism from Tamalinmal. They released the elephants offered to them in the forest. Ananda refused to bow to pressure saying that it was proper for a monk to look after his relatives as this was encouraged by the Buddha. Ananda was excommunicated and consequently he and his follows became known as a separate tradition.
8. Tamalinda caused the people to offer the four requisites to his pupils, which Sivali pointed out as an inappropriate matter. Tamalinda in return replied that it would be inappropriate only if one asks the four requisites for oneself but it is allowable to do it for others. Sivali refused to perform any ecclesiastical rites with him from that time; this caused another tradition to emerge.
9. Kalyani Insription. P. 58
10. They are mentioned in the Order as Gamavasi (the Village Dwellers). Ok Htoke Lon (Round Hat). Ok Htoke Pya (Cap), Mo Gyo Thwa (Blade-Shape Tall Hat). Talapat Ni (Red Forehead Band). And Talapat Phy Sect (White Forehead Band). Kon-Baung Yazawin (Chronicle of Kon–Baung). Vol. 1, Mandalay 1867.p. 70.
11. The Royal Orders of Burma. Part Three, University of Kyoto, Kyoto 1985 p. xxiii.
12. lbid, Part Four, University of Kyoto, Kyoto 1968 p. 327.
13. In the case of Toung-Gaing and Yong-Gaing, the One-Shoulder-Covered Sect and the Two-Shoulders-Covered Sect, the Sangha was in irresolvable dispute and was divided into sects.
14. The Glass Palace Chronicle, p. 56.
15. Sangha and State in Burma, pp. 131.2.
16. ‘Daw’ is a suffix attached to t he end of a noun to describe something as being royal, for example, thama-daw, royal physician, tatma-daw, royal army; sometimes it means being noble like in taya-daw, noble teaching (of the Buddha) and thangha-daw, the noble Sangha.
17. The Royal Orders of Burma, Part V., Kyoto University, Kyoto 1986 p. 868.
18. Ibid, p. 395.
19. For instance, the Order issued on 30th May 1783 by King Bodaw-paya. lbid, Part. IV. P. 252
20. Ashin Kelatha (Pakokku); Mandalay Thathana Win (History of Buddhism in Mandalay), Dept. of Religious Affairs, Rangon, 1980 pp. 96, 144 & Pariyatti Sasanahita Association: A History on Centenary Anniversary, Thukhawadi Press, Mandalay 1998 p. 15.