Geography/People

Myanmar Geography: 

• Population: 57,970,293

• Myanmar is located in Southeastern Asia, it borders the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, and it is between Bangladesh and Thailand

• Myanmar's land area is approximately 676,578 sq km (slightly smaller than Texas) with 1,930 km of coastline

• The climate in Myanmar: Tropical monsoon; cloudy, rainy, hot, humid summers (southwest monsoon, June to September); less cloudy, scant rainfall, mild temperatures, lower humidity during winter (northeast monsoon, December to April)

• Terrain: Central lowlands ringed by steep, rugged highlands

• Natural resources prevalent in Myanmar: Petroleum, timber, tin, zinc, copper, natural gas, lead, coal, arable land, hydropower, etc. 

• Myanmar land use: (2018 est. CIA World Factbook) 19.2% agricultural land, 16.5% arable land, 2.2% permanent crops, 0.5% permanent pasture, 48.2% forest, 36.6% other. 

• Myanmar is located conveniently near major Indian Ocean shipping lanes; the north-south flowing Irrawaddy River is the country’s largest and most important commercial waterway. 

Languages and ethnic groups rooted in Myanmar:

• Native people of Myanmar/Burma are referred to as Burmese

• Ethnic Groups: Burman (Bamar) 68%, Shan 9%, Karen 7%, Rakhine 4%, Chinese 3%, Indian 2%, Mon 2%, other 5%

• The largest ethnic group (the Burman or Bamar) has historically had the majority of control over politics, however, to this day, they have not successfully taken control of the entire national territory; the military ranks mainly come from this ethnic group; the Burman mainly populate the central parts of the country, while various ethnic minorities have traditionally lived in the peripheral regions that surround the plains in a horseshoe shape; the government has identified 135 ethnic groups in Myanmar.

• Languages: Burmese (official)

• Minority ethnic groups use their own languages

• Religions: Buddhist 87.9%, Christian 6.2%, Muslim 4.3%, Animist 0.8%, Hindu 0.5%, other 0.2%, none 0.1% (2014 CIA World Factbook est.)

• The religion percentages are estimates based on the 2014 national census, which included an estimate for the non-enumerated population of Rakhine State. Rakhine State is presumably associated with the Islamic faith; as of December 2019, Muslims make up less than 3% of Myanmar’s population due to the large outmigration of the Rohingya population since 2017.

Forms of religious practice prior to colonization:

• The Theravada (or Hinayana) school of Buddhism was the most important institution in Myanmar. 

• Buddhism is the most central of all the primordial values that define a Burman (and some of the minorities as well, such as the Shan and the Mon.)

• Every kind in Burma tried to regulate the Sangha (monkhood), purify practices, reform various sects and scriptures, and build pagodas. 

• Buddhism in the classical period defined political legitimacy, it permeated the government and peoples’ lives and values. 

• The monarch was the patron of the faith, and his close entourage and advisers were often composed of senior monks, for entrance and exit from the ecclesiastical order was easily accepted.

• The Sangha influenced the monarchs and tempered their reigns, for the just ruler was defined by Buddhist principles. The king ruled because he was morally superior to the people by virtue of his karma. But the monarch had an obligation to help improve the livelihood of his subjects so that they in turn could improve their karmas. 

• The monks had a very important role in educating the populace, and all schools in the precolonial period were in Buddhist monasteries. 

Pressures that colonization created: (Colonial Period: 1885-1948)

• Before the British came to Myanmar most education took place within the monasteries of Sangha where young men developed into novice monks.

• Once British colonial policy was established in Myanmar the Sangha monastic community was fundamentally undermined.

• The British gave ethnic minorities access to power while marginalizing the majority Burman community by taking away Burmese political and religious authority.

• The British introduced a new Westernized education system that was drastically different from the traditional Sangha practices.

• The majority of the graduates from the newly implemented education system (based on secular modernity) entered the ranks of civil servants in the colonial administration.

• The Sangha were hesitant to give into the ways of this new education system because they didn’t agree with teaching in a secular way as it contradicted their Buddhist teachings. 

• In 1895, the British neglected to follow Myanmar tradition where the current leader was supposed to appoint a new ruler of the Sangha. This led to political fragmentation and a steady decline of presence of the Sangha and their teachings. 

• In an attempt to help support the expansion of the colonial economic infrastructure, the British assisted with the immigration of thousands of predominantly Muslim Bengali Indians for cheap labor. 

• This caused Nationalism to develop which led to tension between ethnic groups (Burman vs. non-Burman) and religious groups (Buddhist vs. non-Buddhist).

• Anti-Muslim and anti-Bengali narratives still cease to exist today in Myanmar.

How religion has changed post-colonization:

• Buddhism is just as prevalent today in Myanmar as it once was prior to their colonization. The classical prestige of the Sangha continues into the contemporary period.

• In Pagan, there are several thousands of pagodas, many of which are still in use today. 

• The British, to avoid charges of favoring Buddhism and to open avenues for Christian missionaries, eliminated the position of the most senior monk, the thathanabaing, which led to the demotion and denigration of Buddhism by depriving it of its administrative cohesion. 

• Secular education is more popular in Myanmar today, yet the majority of the Burman population (87.9%)(CIA World Factbook) remains Buddhist.