The Buddha was a devoted nationalist: Buddhist nationalism,ressentiment, and defending Buddhism in Myanmar

Since 2012, Buddhist nationalist movements – especially the 969 movement and Ma Ba Tha – have emerged in Burma/Myanmar seeking to defend Buddhism against mainly the Muslim minority, with monks delivering nationalist anti-Muslim sermons to huge audiences. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how a discriminatory nationalist agenda can – by appealing to the common trope of Buddhism-in-danger – appear to be justified to Buddhists. Based mainly on nationalist sermons, as well as on fieldwork and nationalist publications, this article examines discourse on the Buddha as a nationalist. First, it argues that Burmese Buddhist nationalism, analytically, should be understood as a ressentiment ideological discourse that also informs a Buddhist-nationalist discipline claimed to bring karmic merit. Second, it traces the roots of this ideology to the colonial period. Third, the article outlines and seeks to define how ‘Buddhist nationalism’ should be understood in an emic sense.     

The meaning of home for Karen and Chin refugees from Burma: An interpretative phenomenological approach

Loss of home is common to all people from a refugee background yet we have little understanding of the diversity of meaning associated with this important concept. A phenomenological approach was used to explore experiences of home amongst Karen and Chin refugees residing in Brisbane. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants from Karen and Chin backgrounds. The participants comprised five females and four males (mean age 40 years, median length of time in Australia 1.33 years). Participants described their migration stories, including pre- and post-migration history. Analysis was conducted using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes, explicating the meaning of home for participants, were identified: home as the experience of a psychological space of safety and retreat; home as the socio-emotional space of relatedness to family; and home as geographical-emotional landscape. Loss of home was experienced as a multidimensional loss associated with emotional and physical disturbances. These findings, based upon a phenomenological paradigm, enhance understanding of the experience of being a refugee and of the suffering engendered by loss of home. They open up the possibility for conceptualizing refugee responses in terms of human suffering and meaning making.     

Physical Correlates of Torture Exposure in Karen Refugees

We explored associations between torture history and physical health symptoms of 111 Karen refugees newly arrived to the United States. We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of electronic health data collected at the initial refugee health-screening exam. Unique to this analysis was the exploration of relationships between torture exposure, war trauma, and presenting physical and psychological health issues. We identified no unique effects of torture on physical health above and beyond trauma exposure. Overall, in our sample we found a high prevalence of underlying infectious conditions, pain, and hypercholesterolemia, regardless of torture exposure. We discuss effects of war trauma and torture experiences on physical exam findings and implications for future research.     

Gentle Nazarene or Failure?

This paper argues through three case studies that representations of Jesus by practitioners of other religious traditions, in this case Buddhists, are conditioned by historical and social factors. The first two cases, David Hewavitarne/Anagārika Dharmapāla (1864–1933) and Allan Bennett/Ananda Metteyya (1872–1923), demonstrate that negative experience of Christian theology and practice broadly resulted in the judgment that Jesus was a failure. The more conciliatory and exploratory approach of my third case study, convert to Buddhism Maurice O’Connell Walshe (1911–1998), illustrates the factors that have led to (1) socially engaged cooperation between Buddhists and Christians and (2) the respectful dialogue on Jesus and the Buddha in the 21st century.     

Gift narration: dynamic themes of reciprocity,debt, and social relations in Theravāda Buddhist Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Scholarly studies of Buddhist gift-giving have explored the many ways in which gifts are or are not reciprocal. This topic is revisited in this article by the author drawing greater attention to the practice of narration. Instead of understanding Buddhist words about dāna as representing religious doctrines or the experience of its social practice, the author considers how Buddhists narrate dāna as a means of maintaining relationships with self and others. Examining narratives of one monastic gift-recipient, meanings of dāna and moral principles of gift-giving are shown to vary alongside shifting relations between givers and receivers. This case suggests that themes of reciprocity are most salient when narrators grapple with interpersonal threats. Offering possible interpretations of this correlation, the author argues how reciprocal forces could be external social conditions to which narratives respond as well as created ex nihilo through the practice of narration as a strategy of ordering interpersonal conflicts potentially unrelated to reciprocity.