Christianity and Myanmar

2008
Christianity in Myanmar has undergone different political systems along the history.
This chapter presents with five sub-topics: geographical setting of Myanmar, people
of Myanmar, monarchical period of Myanmar, arrival of Christianity and Church
expansion in Myanmar.

Geographical Setting of Myanmar

Myanmar is the largest country by land area in Southeast Asia. The area of the
country is 676, 552 square Kilometers, its neighboring countries are China and Laos
in the Northeast and East, Thailand in the East, and India and Bangladesh in the West
and Northwest. Myanmar has a physical landscape consisting of a central plain, a
horseshoes curve of hilly areas in the West, North, and East, and a coastal strip
extending to Southward.

The geographical setting of the country itself is one of the causes that contribute to the
internal conflicts. Myanmar rivers valleys and deep mountain ranges, running from
north to south, prepare migration of people from China. There are many tribes who
migrated from Tibet down to Myanmar. The geographical situation inside the country
divided these people into groups. The mountains, hills, valleys, plain and deltas inside
the country have guided the tribes as they choose respective areas which are good for
their settlement and occupation. Myanmar secluded from the outer world by
mountains and sea, appears destined for political unity by nature. Anthropological
relationships of mongoloid stock and at least remotely, akin. The geographical
situation of the country seems to favor the unity of the country, but in fact it has
created internal divisions in the country throughout its history. High Landers and low
Landers settle down throughout Myanmar. National unity of the country depends on
the relationship among the ethnic groups.

People of Myanmar
According to the report of Myanmar Travel Information, there are 135 ethnic groups
in Myanmar. Kachin, Kayah, Kayin (Karen), Chin, Bamar (Burman), Mon, Rakhines
and Shan are major ethnic groups. The Bamars, who occupy the central plain, are
( 69% ) of population. Many of the ethnic minorities live in the hilly areas. The Shans
( 8.5% ), Kayins ( 6.2% ), Rakhine ( 4.5% ), Mons ( 2.4% ), Chins ( 2.2% ), Kachins
(1.4% ), and Kayahs ( 0.4% ) have been given political recognition by having
constituent states of the Union named after them.

Military regime took over power in 1988 from the Socialist government. Then,
Burma, the name of the country, changed officially as Myanmar in 1989. Other
anglicized names of some ethnic groups, were also changed; from Karen to Kayin,
from Burman to Bamar, and Arakkhanese to Rakhine. Burmese language was
changed as Myanmar language. Changing the names shows nationalism and anti-
western spirit.

Of the nations in Southeast Asia, Myanmar is the one which encounters with the most
perplexing ethnic minority problems. The traditional religion, culture, and languages
of ethnic minorities in highlands area, are distinctive from the majority Bamars in
plain areas. Having past mission works in Myanmar re-evaluated, it is discovered that
a greater number of Christians come in a massive form from the ethnic minority back
ground while only a handful Christians come from the majority Bamar Buddhist
background. So, it is sorrowful that the conflict between Bamars and other ethnic
groups, is often seen as conflict between Buddhist and Christian.

The conflict between Bamars and other ethnic groups still going on. Some rebels of
ethnic minorities turned to legal fold during the reign of military government which
has ruled since 1988. Myanmar government always claims that this unity of different
ethnic groups, is heritage of British Colonialism. On the other hand, leaders of ethnic
minorities often accuse Myanmar Government as endeavoring to Burmanize all ethnic
groups of the country. Globalization in twenty first century influences all people of
Myanmar. Public media make ethnic minorities aware of their rights and
opportunities. Civil society, especially in plain region, becomes multi-cultural
nowadays.

Monarchical Period of Myanmar

The kingdom of Bamar, the Bagan kingdom, was established in the eleventh century
AD by king Anawrahta. With the establishment of the Bagan kingdom, the Bamar
could develop their military and political supremacy over other ethnic groups and
gradually became the ethnic majority in Myanmar. For the promotion of ethics and
morality in the kingdom king Anawrahta established Theravada Buddhism in his
domain. He defeated and destroyed Thaton, the royal city of Mon people who had
migrated into Myanmar before Bagan dynasty. Then he took all their monks and
Buddhist scriptures to Bagan. With these resources King Anawrahta, with the help of
the primate Shin Arhan, directed the propagation of Theravada Buddhism in the
Kingdom, and Bagan rapidly became a great center of religion and culture. Then, the
promotion of Buddhism came to be regarded as the duty of the king. Following king
Anawrahta's example, the successive king's carried on their royal function for the
propagation of Buddhism.

The Bagan Kingdom obtained ascendancy by conquering the neighboring kingdoms.

Anawratta, who became king of Bagan in 1044, annexed territory of Shan people who
had migrated into Myanmar before Bagan dynasty, as well as Mon kingdom in 1057.
Mongol armies invaded the Bagan kingdom in 1289 and brought it to an end.
Therefore the Bamar Kingdom became divided. The Bamar people re-established
their kingdom at Ava city in 1364 and revived the Bagan culture and improved
Burmese literature. The Shan regained their territory and could re-establish their rule
in 1527. Under the leadership of king warrior, the Mon also re-established their
kingdom in lower Myanmar with Martaban as its capital. Byinnya, who succeeded
warrior, shifted the capital to Pegu in 1365. During the reign of Dhammazedi (1472-
92), the Mon Kingdom reached a golden age through commerce. It also became a
great center of Buddhism.

In 1531, a new Bamar kingdom was established with Toungoo as its center. Its King
Tabinshwehti (1531-50) established a unified kingdom of Myanmar once again by
conquering the Shan and the Mon. King Anaukpetlun, who came to the throne in 1605
shifted the capital to Ava. In 1752 the Mon people attacked Ava and all Myanmar
came under the rule of the Mon. However, King Alungphaya established the third
Bamar kingdom (Konbaung Dynasty) and expelled the Mon from upper Myanmar
and recaptured the Shan state. He conquered lower Myanmar from the Mon in 1757.
His son, Bodawpaya, conquered Arakan in 1784 and Tenasserim in 1793. Then,
Myanmar was brought, once again, into the rule of the Bamar king until it was
colonized by the British in 1885 after the three Anglo-Bamar wars (1824-1885).

Christian mission entered Myanmar under monarchical rule. But church expansion
among the ethnic groups was successful after British colonized the country.

The Arrival of Christianity

(a) Roman Catholic Mission
The first Christians who came into Myanmar were captive Portuguese soldiers and a
few traders and adventurers in fifteenth century. Among them, there were chaplains
who were responsible for their spiritual welfare. It seemed that these chaplains
worked only among the Portuguese traders and soldiers. There is no evidence of their
work among the people of Myanmar.

The first Christian missionary to Myanmar was French Franciscan, named Pierre
Bonfer. He arrived in Thanlyin which was principal seaport of the country in 1554.
He learned Mon language and attempted to proselytize among the people. Failing in
his efforts, he left in 1557. Then, a Portuguese mercenary, Filipe de Britto, took
advantage of a confused political situation and established himself as ruler of
Thanlyin in 1559. The Jesuit missionaries who arrived in Thanlyin made a number of
converts, the most famous of whom was Natshinnaung, ruler of Toungoo and eminent
poet. King Anaukpetlun captured Thanlyin in 1613 and resettled its Christian
population in a number of villages in northern Myanmar. There Roman Catholics
were known as bayingyis which derived from Arabic feringhi, denoting the Franks or
Europeans. These Catholics served as royal musketeers and gunners.

The Italian Barnabite Order started a mission in 1721 to care for the bayingyi
communities. The Barnabites established schools and a seminary, but their most
outstanding achievement was their literary work in the Myanmar language and their
printing on the press of the Congregation of Propaganda the first Myanmar books,
such as a language primer and an expositions of Christian doctrine in 1776, a prayer
book and a catechism in 1785. In 1869 there were already three Roman Catholic
mission fields in eastern, northern and southern Myanmar. In 1894, there were
thirteen Roman Catholic villages and churches were established in Thoneseh, Pegu,
and Myaungmya. Roman Catholic missions were successful on a certain level.
However, they sometimes had to face the hostilities of the Buddhist population and
their kings. During the first Anglo-Bamar war (1824-26) the Bamar troops arrested
some priests. Also during the second Anglo-Bamar war in 1853, many Christians
were persecuted.

Under the monarchical rule, Catholic mission encountered with persecution during the
times of political crisis. But it is found that some Myanmar kings granted freedom of
worship to the Catholics in politically peaceful periods.
(b) Baptist Mission
The first Protestant missionaries arrived at Yangon in 1807. They were Chater and
Felix Carey which were sent by the English Baptist mission in Serampore, India.
Chater left Myanmar in 1812 to establish a Baptist mission in Srilanka. Carey, who
had gained access to the Myanmar court by his skill in smallpox vaccination, resigned
from the mission in 1814 to enter the service of the court. The work of the Baptist
mission was soon taken over by the American Baptists.

Adoniram Judson and his wife, the first American Baptist missionaries arrived in
Yangon in 1813. For a decade, he spent his time among the Burmese people learning
Burmese language, translating the Bible, writing gospel tracts, and preaching the
gospel. His work among the Bamar, however, was not successful because the gospel
which he preached was unwelcome by the Bamar who continued to have a strong
Bamar-Buddhist national spirit. Maung Naw, the fist convert in 1819, and few other
Bamar were the only converts won during Judson's work among the Bamar. Shortly
after the conversion of Maung Naw, Judson went to Ava in 1820 to ask the king's
approval for his preaching, but he was scornfully rejected. Meanwhile, as the war
broke out between Myanmar and British, Judson was arrested and confined in a death
prison at Aungpinle where he awaited execution. After nearly one and half years of
prison confinement, Judson was released in November 1825 to help interpret peace
negotiations with the British.

The acquisition of the Tenasserim Coastal are of Myanmar by the British after the
first Anglo-Myanmar war in 1826 opened the way for Judson's mission among the
Karen, one of the ethnic minority groups in Myanmar. The Gospel was welcome by
the Karen people who later became evangelist to other Karen tribes and other ethnic
groups. The response to the Baptist mission among the ethnic minorities, except the
Shans, Mons and Rakhines, has been very great, but the response of the Burman
people has always been small.

In order to win converts from Buddhism, Adoniram Judson, accompanied by other

American Baptist missionaries had used various means in their mission approach such
as literacy mission, person-to-person evangelism, educational mission, social mission
and medical mission. As soon as Judson and his wife arrived in Yangon, they learnt
Burmese language. He wrote gospel tracts. He completed translation of the Bible into
Burmese language in 1834 and the dictionaries (English to Bamar and Bamar to
English) in 1843. He saw literary mission as one of his significant means to bring the
Gospel to the Buddhist indigenous people in Myanmar. He used the method of
person-to-person evangelism. In 1819, he built a small religious building called zayat
in the Bamar fashion beside the public road where pedestrians and visitors could stop
and hear the Gospel. His mission approach was neither monologue nor pupil model,
but dialogue or round-table model. He could converse with visitors in that small
building. Furthermore, Judson and the American Baptist missionaries introduced
western education in Myanmar. They established two kinds of mission schools: Day
School and Boarding school. These mission schools were established not only to train
local converts regardless of race, religion and gender. These are attractive because
girls were not allowed to study in Buddhist Monastic Schools. Medical mission was
also attractive to Myanmar people. The first American Baptist medical missionary
was Jonathan Price who arrived in Myanmar together with his wife and daughter on
December 1821. His mission was famous so much so that Myanmar King Bagyidaw
invited him to stay in the capital. The missionaries did not only save the soul but they
also heal the physical body.

Judson and other American Baptist missionaries used holistic mission approach.
Therefore, they were successful to a certain level though they encountered with
difficulties in Myanmar.

Church Expansion
(a) Christianity under Colonial Rule
Other protestant missions came into Myanmar under British rule. Anglican church
originated in the chaplaincy of the British soldiers in Myanmar soon after the first
Anglo-Bamar War (1824-26). The American Methodist Episcopal Mission work was
begun in 1879. The Methodist work in Upper Myanmar started in 1886 with pioneer
missionary G. H. Hateson, an army chaplain. The Adventist work was started in 1919.
Leonard Bolton, the first Assemblies of God missionary, came in 1924, and the first
Pentecostal church was established in Putao (Northern Myanmar) in about 1933.
Salvation Army work began in 1915. Church of Christ missionaries came from China
and established a church in Northern Myanmar in 1933. Presbyterianism was
introduced when the British soldiers and traders came in the nineteenth century, after
the second Anglo-Bamar War.

Catholics, Baptist and other Protestant groups could do their mission works freely
under colonial rule. There was considerable growth of Christianity, eventhough; the
British government did not enforce Christianity upon the people of Myanmar. They
had the policy of "religious neutrality," which means that they did not interfere in
religious affairs. There was a remarkable rate of conversion from the ethnic
minorities. The Christian missions involved in educational, agricultural, and social
work during colonial periods. There were schools run by Protestant and Roman
Catholic Missions. Because of educational, agricultural, and social works the ethnic
groups who were once oppressed and devoid of social status came to be aware of their
ethnic identities.

On the other hand, unlike Myanmar Kings, the British government was neutral to
religion, and thus they did not support Buddhism nor build pagodas. In the realm of
education, the monastic Schools lost their position and the roles of monk in education
declined. The traditional monastic schools were not compatible with the government,
missionary and Buddhist day schools. The decline of monastic headship led to the rise
of nationalistic monks who challenged the British government. Among them, U
Ottama was so famous in Myanmar history. He and other political monks aroused an
anti-colonial spirit among the Bamar Buddhist nationalists, and Christianity came to
be viewed as the colonial religion.

Another reason for seeing Christianity as colonial religion has to do with British
policy for Indian Army. In 1857, the British adopted the policy of recruiting for the
Indian Army not from the more advanced communities of the plains but from the
"martial races" of the hills. This policy was translated in Myanmar into one of
recruiting for the military from the Christian ethnic minorities. The nationalist
movement developed the gulf between the Buddhists and Christians challenged the
colonial order and the Christians who loyally supported it.
During World War II, the Japanese army with Bamar soldiers invaded Myanmar to
expel the British. But the ethnic minorities remained faithful to the British and many
of them served in the British army. For this reason many Kayin people, being accused
of being pro-British, were killed and persecuted by the Japanese army in the Pathein
and Myaungmya areas of delta region of lower Myanmar.

Nationalistic Bamar Buddhists misunderstood local churches of ethnic minority

groups to be British colonial heritage. This misunderstanding has been handed down
to many people of Myanmar in 21st century. It is a challenge to church growth of
Myanmar today.

(b) Religious Affairs Under U Nu (1948-1962)

When Myanmar regained independence on January 4, 1948 at 4:20 am, the choice of
date and time as astrological calculation indicated a traditionalist orientation in the
post colonial order. So, the link between Buddhism and political authority which had
been disrupted during the colonial period was restored. In the first decade after
independence, Buddhism under the leadership of U Nu, became a part of the official
ideology and the Communists who were in rebellion were castigated as a "danger to
Buddhism." The revival of Buddhism became an important part of state activity, so
much so that it became difficult for a non-Buddhist to become the symbolic head of
state. The most visible event of this Buddhist revival was the conveying of the Sixth
Buddhist Council in 1956.

On September 26, 1959, a year before the election was held U Nu declared that he
would make Buddhism the state religion if he won the election. As he won election in
1960, he drew a constitution to rule the country via parliamentary democracy with
Buddhism as the state religion. The non-Buddhist groups opposed the proposal for
making Buddhism the state religion.

(c) The Church under Socialist Government (1962-1988)

In 1962 the Revolutionary Council seized power and the rule of U Nu's Parliamentary
Democracy came to an end. The proposal of making Buddhism the state religion was
also set aside. In order to suppress the insurgencies in the country, the council
established a military dictatorship and began to develop socialist rule over the
country. Then they published the statement of their ideology "the Burmese Way to
Socialism" in April 1962. The act of the Revolutionary Council, in implementing the
socialist program, had a great impact on Christianity.

In 1966 the socialist Government expelled all foreign missionaries and 375
missionaries left the country. National Christian leaders have been carrying on the
mission of the church in Myanmar. There has been a gradual accession of Christianity
under the indigenous missions or leadership. In 1963, the Myanmar Baptist
Convention celebrated the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the American Baptist
mission work in Myanmar. By the time the total number of Baptist was 216, 632.
According to the statistics of the Myanmar of Council of churches in 1970, the
number of Baptists was 520, 000. This certifies the considerable growth of the
Baptists within the decade after 1962. The mission movements such as "Chin for
Christ in one century," "Three Hundred Three Years Mission," among Kachin people,
and Kayin's "AD 2000 Mission" that had awakened in the last decades of twentieth
century won a number of converts. In the same period, the Anglican Church and the
Methodist Church in Myanmar, despite the loss of their Church members due to the
expulsion of foreigners in 1966, were growing and active in evangelism. When the
Upper Myanmar Methodist Church became autonomous in 1964 they had only three
districts. But later, they were able to establish new districts and new mission fields.
The lower Myanmar Methodist could also establish new churches. The Anglican
Church became autonomous in 1966 and conducted evangelistic work in four areas.
Three new Anglican dioceses could be established within this period.
After the return of foreign missionaries from Myanmar, national Christian leaders
could implement their own vision which God revealed to them. Myanmar churches
became independent to contextualize the gospel of Christ in the country.

Source: Christianblog.com