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Young Burmese Monks Ready to Take Up Arms

Buddhist movement gets bolder; some suggest stockpiling weapons

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 20, 2008 6:41 AM CDT

(Newser) – After seeing nonviolent protesters killed or detained in last year’s protests against the ruling junta, younger segments of Burma’s Buddhist monks are becoming more radical, embracing armed resistance and overt dissent, the Christian Science Monitor reports. "We need weapons,” one young monk said. “That is the only way we can bring down this regime."

Though those endorsing the use of violence against the junta are still in a minority, monks have become bolder in other ways. Monasteries provide education in English and math to the poor in Burma, but have recently added political history lessons as well. "Most young people don't even know about 1988," a young monk says of that year’s failed democratic uprising.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

Buddhist monks feast on meals donated by a newlywed couple July 12, 2008, at a monastery in Yangon City, Burma. The monks walk around the city every day asking for donations or food. (AP Photo)

"Last September the Army proved too powerful for us and defeated our nonviolent tactics," says one young Burmese monk. "We need weapons. That is the only way we can bring down this regime." (AP Photo)

A Myanmar Buddhist monk, a survivor of Cyclone Nargis, gathers wood near his temple Thursday, May 29, 2008, outside of Yangon. (AP Photo)

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The regime is like a rabid dog. It bit us and infected us with militancy. The old ways aren't working. - Anonymous Burmese monk

The younger activists' frustrations are growing. They want to take up arms because they were so brutally suppressed last September. They have gone their whole lives without seeing change. - Win Min, professor of Burmese political studies at Thailand's Chiang Mai University

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Young Burmese Monks Ready to Take Up Arms