Body snatchers cart off the remains of a legendary abbot. Is the theft linked to the junta, the result of astrologers’ advice, a jealous rival abbot, or was it the action of loyal disciples?

IT was a dark night on April 2 when the body of the revered U Winaya, the Thamanya Sayadaw (abbot), one of Burma’s holiest monks, was mysteriously stolen.

According to the guard on duty, a group of unidentified armed men drove up to the building, tied him up, and demanded the key to the bullet-proof glass leading to the tomb where the body of the Thamanya Sayadaw, who died in 2003, was kept.

The Thamanya Sayadaw in Karen State was a vocal admirer of aung San Suu Kyi, right, and a well-known critic of the military government.

Four days later, monks at the Thamanya Monastery received an anonymous telephone call claiming the abbot’s body had been burned and the ashes left at Kaw Ka Dah village near the edge of the monastery grounds. At the site—a small chedi dedicated to the sayadaw—former aides discovered a small heap of ashes, together with charred bones and the handles of the abbot’s glass coffin.

For a brief time, the charred remains were put on display, but fearful they might be violated again and also uncertain whether they were indeed his remains, monks decided to put the ashes under lock and key. Authorities in Pa-an promised to investigate the strange disappearance, but after a few days the issue went quiet.

A Yadaya chae-inspired Plot

The abbot was an admirer of and spiritual adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi and often expressed his admiration for the democracy leader and criticized the military government. For some, the disappearance of the abbot’s body in the weeks leading up the referendum appeared to be highly significant. Indeed, many believed his body was stolen in a bizarre yadaya chae-inspired plot, designed to cheat fate and help the military regime win the referendum. Yadaya chae is a uniquely Burmese practice intended to reverse bad fate by taking active steps to change the future, based on the advice of an astrologer.

The abbot’s refusal to endorse the regime when he was alive was a continuing source of embarrassment for the generals. Tales are legendary of the abbot’s preference for Aung San Suu Kyi over the hapless former Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, who was reportedly subjected to a series of humiliations when he visited the monastery at Thamanya Mountain.

Bestowing high honors on the abbot in an attempt to get his public support only resulted in embarrassment to the regime. When, at last, ill health forced the abbot to move to Rangoon, Khin Nyunt gladly paid his hospital bills and a wheelchair-bound Ne Win reportedly visited him, but, maddeningly for the generals, it was to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house the monk went following his discharge from the hospital.

Senior generals and their families are well-known for patronizing astrologers such as E Thi and Daw Da Mae Thi in search of answers to political conundrums and indulging in extraordinary yadaya chae rituals to reverse the problems of state. The overnight transformation of banknote denominations in 1987 that wiped out half the country’s currency, the sudden, hysterical, nationwide promotion of physic nut (kyet sue) fields—now all but abandoned—and the astrologically approved move of the government to Naypidaw are but a few examples of the regime’s bizarre extremes of behaviour during the last few decades.

Stealing the Thamanya Sayadaw’s remains, for some, is seen as a gruesome ritual designed somehow to reverse potential misfortune. They say it is well within the realm of possibility, especially in the run up to the referendum while the regime was extraordinarily tense about achieving approval of the constitution.

Indeed one well-respected astrologer and regime watcher said, on condition of anonymity, that top brass and family members had intensified their yadaya chae activities in the weeks before the referendum.

“In one recent incident, officials at the Shwedagon Pagoda witnessed Kyaing Kyaing, the wife of Snr-Gen Than Shwe, climb to the plinth platform of the pagoda where women are not permitted,” he said. “Slavishly followed by attendants sheltering her with gold and white umbrellas, she walked around the pagoda three times clockwise, shouting ‘Aung Pyi!’ (victory).”

The date for the referendum—May 10, 2008 (5-10-2008)—was, according to the same source, chosen using yadaya chae. Instead of picking a date that added up to nine, as the generals normally do, they astonished observers by choosing numbers that added up to 16.

“This is the worst date they could have possibly chosen,” the astrologer said, pulling out ‘Cheiro’s Book of Palmistry, Numerology and Astrology’ during an interview. “The number 16 is associated with strange fatalities, a danger of accidents and fatalistic tendencies. Any plans made for that day should be rearranged, or they will be defeated.

“There can only be two explanations for that date,” he said. “Either the adviser who chose it was a traitor who wanted the referendum to fail, or he settled on it as an elaborate ruse designed to neutralize the threat the generals felt the referendum held for them, by pairing it with another bad omen—the date—transforming two negatives into a positive – a typical yadaya chae type trick.” 

While there is no evidence that suggests any yadaya chae ritual involving the abbot’s body actually took place, observers say the continuing presence of his remains on display, his close links with Aung San Suu Kyi, and his public disapproval of the regime could have been enough to ensure its removal. 
 
Something’s Rotten in Karen State

While the Sayadaw was admired from afar by politicians and generals in Rangoon, he also enjoyed an exalted position in southern Karen State where his self-declared “peace zone” monastery was an important refuge for displaced persons in an area that has suffered from conflict for more than half a century. Sheltering more than 4,000 people in the monastery area, the abbot’s followers were a striking contrast to those of U Thuzana, the abbot of Myainggyi Ngu, whose monastery, based in northern Karen State, is fortified by Democratic Karen Buddhist Army soldiers.

Unlike U Thuzana, who is surrounded by Karen soldiers who are loyal to him and are feared for their unpredictable violence, Thamanya Sayadaw was renowned throughout Burma and Thailand for his compassion. Thousands of pilgrims visited him daily, showering the monastery with donations, which the abbot used to shelter the homeless, repair roads and build schools.      

Even before his body was stolen, controversy was already swirling over his remains. According to a guide who visited the monastery the day before the body was taken, in recent months the body had begun to decompose and a putrid smell emanated from the two glass coffins.

One source said: “It was well-known in Pa-an that the Myainggyi Ngu abbot wanted the body burnt. He was unhappy it was being displayed in such a deteriorating state so that Thamanya disciples could continue raising money. He felt it was immoral. Prior to the disappearance, key supporters had reportedly held a meeting with the authorities and U Pinya, the sayadaw of the nearby Taungalay Monastery—who was a close friend of the Thamanya Sayadaw’s—to discuss the issue.”

Moreover, local people say that since the abbot’s death, visitors have been less concerned with following to the monastery’s strict principles. When the abbot was alive, everyone living in or near the monastery was vegetarian and disciples would abstain from eating meat for days prior to their pilgrimages. Reports of drinking and gambling in the area had already begun to filter back to Pa-an before the body disappeared.

Another local observer pointed to a conflict over fundraising between the two abbots as a potential cause of conflict.

The Myainggyi Ngu abbot has embarked on a high-profile fundraising drive. His followers solicit funds around central Pa-an and campaign day and night at the Pa-an monastery for donations.

“But the presence of the sayadaw’s body in Thamanya meant devotees were still visiting the monastery and donating money there instead,” the observer said. “It was the body that attracted pilgrims because the temple itself, a very simple blue-and-white tiled affair with no elaborate chedis, remarkable Buddhas or stunning artwork, was unlikely to attract pilgrims. U Winaya had spent all of his devotees’ money on feeding and sheltering the poor”. 

Nearly two months after the body’s theft, it is still a mystery. The building where the Thamanya Sayadaw’s body once rested remains untouched. Vases of pink and yellow plastic flowers, white lace umbrellas and baskets of fruit— even the twisted metal and smashed glass—all lie as they were on the night the thieves entered the building, a disturbing visual reminder of the violence wrought on the abbot’s body.  High up on the wall, a clock ticks in the surrounding silence.

Adding to the mystery, of course, is uncertainty about whether the ashes unceremoniously dumped at the entrance to the monastery grounds are really the abbot’s. Without a DNA test, we will never know.

Many aides and disciples openly admit their doubts. They point out what they believe to be the abbot’s extraordinary magical powers, which, some believe, enabled him to secretly enter Aung San Suu Kyi’s house while she was under house arrest. They intimate his body’s disappearance is a result of the abbot’s powers, and it will shortly be replaced, by the return of the abbot himself to human form.

Whatever the beliefs of some disciples, the mystery remains, intensifying the Thamanya Sayadaw’s powerful presence, even in death, while also attracting curious, confused pilgrims and bringing more money to the monastery.