Preserving Burmese traditions in Thailand

In 1886 the British finally conquered Mandalay, the historic capital of the last independent Burmese kingdom. San Toe, a servant of the beleaguered King Thibaw and a devout Buddhist, fled the newly colonized city, bringing with him an image of the Buddha crafted by Mandalay artisans. He worked in the logging business as an employee of the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation before settling in the town of Mae Sariang in northern Thailand. There he built a Burmese monastery in 1909 to house his cherished Buddha image.

Historically, the Burmese have viewed the city of Mandalay as a source of pride and an important link to Burma’s rich cultural and religious traditions. The name of the monastery in Mae Sariang, Wat Mandalay, reflects this connection and honors the lineage of the monastery’s central religious artifact—the Mandalay-made Buddha image.

The original monastery has since been replaced by a new structure, built up over the years by a succession of Burmese monks. Visitors to the monastery in Mae Sariang, which stands in the center of the quiet border town near the Salween river, will easily recognize its Burmese roots in the architecture of the site—the wooden monastery, Buddhist sculptures by Burmese craftsmen, the golden stupa and a statue of the Buddha sitting under a Banyan tree in the middle of the compound.

“When I first came here, the town was sleepy and isolated,” said the Venerable U Nyanika, Chief Abbot of Wat Mandalay. The monastery has developed under the guiding hand of the noble 83-year old monk. U Nyanika came to Bangkok in 1959 to study the Thai language. In 1961 he moved to Mae Sariang to preside over Wat Mandalay, where he has remained—except for six years in Penang, Malaysia—until today.

Despite the fame of its revered Buddha image, the real pride of the monastery is its banyan tree, reputed to be a scion of the original Bodhi tree under which Siddhartha Gautama, the Lord Buddha, attained enlightenment.

A cutting from that tree was taken to Sri Lanka more than 2,000 years ago by the daughter of the Indian emperor Asoka. According to U Nyanika, cuttings from the one that subsequently grew in Sri Lanka were taken to Burma at the time of U Nu’s administration as part of a Buddhist exchange program.

Pointing at the sturdy banyan tree in the compound of Wat Mandalay, U Nyanika says proudly: “The one you are looking at is one of them.”

Wat Mandalay features a variety of sculptures and other artifacts created by Burmese artisans.  San Toe’s Buddha image occupies a place of honor in the monastery’s prayer room. U Nyanika told The Irrawaddy that to look after the treasures of Wat Mandalay and to travel the world to promote Burmese Theravada Buddhism is a “life-long responsibility.” For his dedication to Buddhist missions abroad, Burma’s military junta has recently honored U Nyanika by bestowing upon him one of Burma’s highest religious titles.

The first Burmese Buddhist mission occurred in the 13th century, when the leading monk from Pagan traveled to China and brokered a peace agreement between the two warring nations. Some historians also cite archeological evidence from Bodhagaya in India to suggest that Burmese monks had established monasteries and lived in India, also during the 13th century.

After gaining independence from the British in 1948, Burma actively promoted Theravada Buddhism as a point of national pride by sending Burmese monks abroad as part of a Buddhist exchange program. Today Burmese monks still visit neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. State-sponsored programs for such exchanges, however, declined sharply after the late military dictator Gen Ne Win—well-known for his discourteous treatment of Buddhist monks—seized control of the government in 1962.

In the absence of state-sponsored involvement, Burmese monks living outside Burma rely mostly on support from Buddhist donors. Burma’s ruling junta has shown a consistent reluctance to support missions abroad. Maybe that’s understandable, given the big percentage of the nation’s budget allocated for military spending. Walking through the compound at Wat Mandalay, U Nyanika explained that, without the support of both local Buddhist devotees and Burmese communities in Malaysia and Singapore, the monastery could never have achieved its current level of development.

Despite the success of Wat Mandalay in preserving the traditional roots of Burmese Buddhism, U Nyanika and other monks at the monastery fear that other centuries-old Burmese temples in northern Thailand will not be so fortunate. Nine Burmese-founded temples in Lampang, also in northern Thailand, are now headed by Thai abbots. One of them—Wat Sri Chum, founded in 1890 by a Burmese businessman and known in Burmese as Nyaung Wine Khuang—is now registered with the Thai Department of Fine Arts as a national treasure. “These days, we seem to be losing the battle to preserve our heritage,” said U Kawwida, one of Wat Mandalay’s young abbots.

Burmese monks have traditionally occupied the position of abbot at Burmese-founded temples throughout northern Thailand. In 1992, however, the Thai religious laws were adjusted to require all abbots of monasteries in Thailand to be Thai nationals, regardless of ethnic origin. They must also be ordained by a Thai Buddhist preceptor.

U Nyanika has earned the respect of both Thai and Burmese Buddhists. Traditional Burmese religious ceremonies are still celebrated at Wat Mandalay, particularly the one held during the full moon of Kason—the second month of the Burmese lunar calendar—which falls in May on the western calendar. The annual celebration marks three anniversaries: the birth of Siddhartha, his attainment of enlightenment at the foot of the Bodhi banyan tree, and the demise of Buddha. This important celebration has been held at Buddhist temples throughout Burma for centuries.

U Nyanika has successfully kept this tradition alive at Wat Mandalay. In this year’s celebration, local Thai and Burmese Buddhists joined together at the temple to pour water at the foot of the banyan tree, recite the precepts of Buddhism and meditate. Men, women and children formed a procession around the compound accompanied by a musical troupe playing Burmese folk music with flutes, cymbals, traditional drums and bamboo clappers, adding a note of boisterous fun to the festivities.

The ceremonies marked more than an important Buddhist holiday. Wat Mandalay has stood—in one form or another—for nearly a century and has served the needs of its resident Burmese monks, visiting monks from Burma, and Burmese Buddhists in Thailand. As monks and devotees ceremonially watered the banyan tree and prayed before the monastery’s namesake Buddha image, they were also tending the roots of traditional Burmese culture and spirituality—transplanted to Thailand but still very much connected to Mandalay’s past.

U Nyanika said that he still takes great pleasure in his administration of the monastery and that he has considerable strength to carry on despite his age—a strength that also derives from Burma’s past.

“Do you know why I can live and work for so long?” U Nyanika asked with a smile. “Because I live in the name of Mandalay.”