Religious Conflict between Theravada Buddhist Monks and Rohingya in Myanmar : A Call To response

Religious Conflict between Theravada Buddhist Monks and Rohingya in Myanmar : A Call To response

By  Thang Deih Lian (Davidlianno)

Myanmar, consists of eight tribes, exits at the Southeast Asia. It is a multi–religious country. Since the last decades, “Theravada Buddhism” is practiced as the state religion. Statistically, the major religions such as “Buddhism is 75.2%, Christianity 8.8%, Islam 5.6%, and Hinduism 1.6%.” Buddhism was introduced in Myanmar during the 3rd century BC, and later from 11th century, Burmese King Anawrahta, who was converted by a Mon bhikkhu, Shin Arahan to Theravada Buddhism, promoted Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar. Thus, the influence of Buddhism was dramatically increased, later, it became the cultural heritage for the Burmese. Primarily Chin tribes, Kachin tribes and Kayin tribes are knows as Christian ethnic tribes in Myanmar. “Hinduism in Burma is practiced by about 840,000 people.”

Around 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas live in Burma and about 80% living in the western state of Rakhine. They have been fighting on and off since the 1940s to create an Islamic state in Western Burma.5 As a result, particularly from 2012, the religious conflict between Theravada Buddhist monks who are identically conservative to their beliefs and Rohingya Muslims emerged. Accordingly, this paper urges to identify the conflicts or violence betweenthe two parties, in general, to identify the responses from the government, civilians and Christians; and finally to state the proposals.