A Tale of Two Temples

ဧရာ၀တီမဂၢဇင္းမွာ ေဖာ္ျပခ့ဲတ့ဲ ေဆာင္းပါးတပုဒ္ပါ။
ထုိင္းႏုိင္ငံမွာ ဘာသာေရးဆုိင္ရာတားျမစ္ခ်က္ေတြ၊ ဗီဇာ စည္းကမ္းခ်က္ေတြေၾကာင့္ ျပည္ပ သံဃာေတြ ေနထုိင္ သီတင္းသုံးႏုိင္ေရး အခက္အခဲ ေတြ႔ေနေၾကာင္း ေရးထားတ့ဲ ေဆာင္းပါး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ခ်င္းမုိင္ျမိဳ႕က ျမန္မာဘုန္းႀကီးေက်ာင္း (၀ပ္ဆုိင္မြန္း)မွာလည္း ဒီအခက္အခဲ ရိွေနေၾကာင္း သတင္းထြက္ေနခ်ိန္မွာ ဒီေဆာင္းပါးကုိ ျပန္လည္ ေဖာ္ျပေပးလုိက္ပါတယ္။

By Aung Zaw/Lampang
NOVEMBER, 2002 - VOLUME 10 NO.9
The Irrawaddy

Religious restrictions and visa regulations for foreign monks threaten to put an end to the long tradition of Burmese Buddhism in Thailand.

Upon entering the compound of Wat Pafang in Thailand’s Lampang Province guests are greeted silently by its manicured green lawns palm trees and a golden stupa at the back. Inside the prayer room, centuries-old Buddha images meditate placidly while visitors admire the thick wooden poles covered with gold leaf.

The landscape may be fairly typical of other Buddhist temples around the country but as one of the oldest Burmese temples in northern Thailand, Wat Pafang has had a unique history. But now these temples and their monks are feeling the effects of government regulations passed over a decade ago, leaving the future of Burmese Buddhism in Thailand in doubt.

U Shwe Aut and Daw Wa built Wat Pafang in 1891. Today, the temple is under the care of U Shwe Aut’s great-grandsons and granddaughters, who were born in Thailand and are no longer able to speak Burmese.

U Shwe Aut, who took the Thai name Suwana-Adth, was one of many wealthy Burmese timber merchants and trading partners of the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation involved in logging businesses in Thailand.

Locals believed that these rich Burmese timber merchants and their families involved themselves in restoring and constructing temples in northern Thailand and other merit-making ceremonies in order to ask for forgiveness and protection from the spirits that lived in the trees they felled. But regardless of whether these construction works were acts of absolution or of devotion, many of the temples built by loggers in Lampang—as well as Phrae, Chiang Mai, Mae Sot, Mae Sariang and Mae Hong Son—still stand today.

During the Burmese occupation of Lanna—roughly the area that covers present-day northern Thailand and beyond—temple construction in northern Thailand was prolific. Burmese rulers captured Lanna in 1556, and over the subsequent 200 years they built numerous religious structures around Chiang Mai, though most were destroyed by locals after the Burmese left.

Years later, however, at the turn of the last century, Burmese timber merchants returned to northern Thailand during the reigns of Thailand’s King Rama V and his second son, Rama VI. The result was the restoration and revival of many Burmese temples and secular structures in Lanna. Particularly evident from their restoration work in Lampang, aside from their great wealth, was their affection for Burmese fine arts and architecture.

Today, there are nine Burmese temples in Lampang city alone but only two are still administered by Burmese monks. The others are under the care of Thai abbots.

In addition to Wat Pafang, Wat Tha Ma Oo, built in 1893 by timber trader U San Ohn, is the other Burmese-run temple in Lampang.

Sayadaw U Dhamananda, 83, is the chief abbot at Wat Tha Ma Oo. Living in Thailand for decades, U Dhamananda has gained high respect from both Thai and Burmese Buddhists. In 1992, he returned to Burma at the invitation of the military junta, then known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc), which honored the sayadaw by granting him one of Burma’s highest religious titles. But never one to hide his distaste for the rulers in Rangoon, U Dhamananda kept his distance from the generals. As a result, Burmese temples in Lampang receive little support from the Burmese embassy in Bangkok.

U Dhamananda is sill active in teaching religious texts and precepts and inviting Thai monks to come study at his center every year. Recently, monks from Cambodia have come to study at Wat Tha Ma Oo.

But U Dhamananda’s advanced age raises the discomforting question of succession at Wat Tha Ma Oo, leaving Burmese in Lampang and the temple’s trustees worried for the future of the temple.

Succession, however, is not the only troubling question facing Burmese temples in Thailand. All temples and monks in Thailand, with the exception of Vietnamese annum and Chinese sects, are subject to Thai law, and Burmese temples are no exception. In the past when Burmese abbots passed away or left their temples in Thailand, Burmese governments would intervene in nominations, and Burmese abbots and monks who came to look after temples in Thailand were issued one-year visas that could be extended for five years.

But this is no longer the case.
Thai religious laws promulgated in 1962 and amended in 1992 require all abbots to be Thai nationals of any ethnic descent and to be ordained by a Thai preceptor. In the 1990s, this policy was revoked, thus forcing Burmese monks to renew their visas each month.

After Thailand changed its visa policy, U Tilawka, the abbot at Wat Pafang in 1986, moved to a Burmese temple in Singapore.

Like many Burmese lay people, most Burmese monks, who appreciated and enjoyed living in Thailand but could no longer bear the difficulties caused by the new restrictions, left the kingdom altogether for the West and neighboring countries.

In Singapore, U Tilawka and other Buddhist monks can apply for permanent citizenship and are permitted to live in temples. Temple trustees also have the right to nominate abbots.

Recently, U Zawana, a 35-year-old former abbot of Wat Pafang who enjoyed great respect among both Thai and Burmese, went back to Burma. During his stay in Lampang, U Zawana regularly returned to Mandalay for brief visits and, the monks at Wat Pafang expected he would do the same. But he never returned to Thailand and left the monkhood instead. Monks in Lampang said that he grew depressed, perhaps because of the new visa restrictions, but particularly due to the growing ego conflicts among Burmese monks in Thailand.

Wat Pafang is currently without an abbot and Burmese laymen who regularly visit Lampang expressed concern and sorrow for the uncertain future of the two Burmese temples. One visitor to Lampang, U Nandathaya, says that unity among monks at Wat Pafang and Wat Tha Ma Oo is paramount in order to preserve the two temples, but that others could help as well. "We need assistance from [Burmese] embassy officials. No one is standing up for us."

Burmese monks who have left Thailand for other countries believe that they were deliberately forced out of the country by the tightened visa regulations. They also feel that the ban on nominations for temple abbots by Burmese was designed to impel these foreign monks to return home. Rangoon’s inaction and lack of support on issues of temple maintenance and succession have stirred feelings of neglect among the monks.

Other foreign monks who come to stay in Thai temples have an easier time than their Burmese counterparts. A Malaysian monk who is currently staying at Wat Sri Chum [see p 34] in Lampang said that he and his compatriots receive one-year visas for Thailand and have encountered few bureaucratic hassles. "The Burmese don’t have the proper papers—they are ‘Robin Hood’ monks," he said wryly.

But both Burmese monks and laypersons have come to live in northern Thailand for years and fear for the future of the temples in Lampang if the remaining Burmese are sent home.

Mae Mee, 83, whose grandfather constructed a temple in Lampang, recalls the days when Burmese and Thais coexisted peacefully. She also explains that many Thais also move to Burma because "they don’t need passports". Born in Thailand, Mae Mee speaks only a few words of Burmese but that has not compromised her affection for Burma. But while she speaks fondly of her visits to Rangoon—particularly Shwedagon Pagoda—she laments that the country has experienced few positive developments in her lifetime, especially in comparison to Thailand.

Now, she worries for Burmese monks who have to renew their visas every month. During the conversation a Thai man in his 60s with a Burmese wife approached Mae Mee and ingratiated her by saying that Burmese temples should be maintained by "Myanmar monks".

But secular political issues have not been wholly separated from religious practice, as both monks and laypersons experience political prejudices because of the government’s actions back home.

Burmese temples in Lampang are foreign, and hence mysterious, to outsiders. Such misunderstandings can often lead to conflict, and in the case of Thai-Burmese relations, even the smallest row can sometimes spark a major conflagration between the two countries. It is unsurprising then that the Burmese embassy in Bangkok keeps records of the temples in Lampang.

A confidential document from the embassy contains a report on Wat Kyaung Khan, built in Lampang in 1918 and built by U Ngwe Tin, the son of the architect of Wat Pafang, U Shwe Aut. The report states: "In 1986, at Way Kyaung Khan, local sangha (Buddhist council) asked Burmese monks who have no visa to stay in temples to leave. The temple was later occupied by Thais."

The document continues, "In 1996, Thai officials said they found 39 illegal Burmese monks living in Lampang who were told to leave."

The document also notes Tha Ma Oo Sayadaw’s (U Dhamananda) candor and his uneasiness with local Thai monks and clergy but adds that he receives many Thai local laypersons as guests who seek advice or wish to pay their respects.

Centuries have passed since the earliest Burmese temples marked the landscape of northern Thailand, but lingering animosities remain. From the sacking of Lanna in the 16th century to the delicate bilateral relations today, historical and political baggage remains a heavy obstacle to forging a greater understanding among civilians from Thailand and Burma.

Just as it is difficult to predict the future of bilateral relations between the two governments and the two countries’ people, the future of Wat Pafang and the other Burmese temples in Thailand remains uncertain. One can only hope the tranquil charm of Wat Pafang will not become a relic of the past.