Buddhist Backgrounds of the Burmese Revolution

Front Matter....Pages I-XXIX
The Buddhist Tradition of Burma’s History....Pages 1-9
Buddhist Traditions about a Perfect Society, Its Decline and the Origin of the State....Pages 10-16
Republican Institutions in PRE-Buddhist India and in the Buddhist Order....Pages 17-25
The Buddhist Welfare State of Ashoka....Pages 26-32
Survival of Ashokan Social and Political Traditions in Theravâda Kingship....Pages 33-36
On the Problem of Social Ethics of Theravâda Buddhism....Pages 37-42
Emergence of the Bodhisattva Ideal of Kingship in Theravâda Buddhism....Pages 43-48
Pre-Buddhist Fertility Elements of the Charisma of Burmese Kingship....Pages 49-53
Economic Implications of the Buddhist Ideal of Kingship....Pages 54-58
The Bodhisattva Ideal of Burmese Kingship....Pages 59-67
Kamma and Buddhist Merit-Causality as Rationale for Medieval Burma’s Social Order....Pages 68-74
Buddhist Ethics Against the Pragmatism of Power under the Burmese Kings....Pages 75-81
Static Cosmological Models for the Medieval Burmese State as Microcosm....Pages 82-86
Hindu-Buddhist Universalist Ideals of a World State....Pages 87-92
The Cakkavattî Ideal as a Factor in the Expansion and Fall of the Burmese Empire....Pages 93-97
Burma’s Ideological Crisis in the British Conquest....Pages 98-109
The Dis-Establishment of Burmese Buddhism. Protestant Missionary Attack and Modernistic Buddhist Response....Pages 110-119
The White Man’s Burden of Educating Natives for Self-Government and the Counter-Claim about the Democratic and Socialistic Heritage of Buddhism....Pages 120-127
Political Activization Trends within Burmese Buddhism and the Beginnings of Modern Burma’s Independence Struggle....Pages 128-135
Economic Crisis of Burma’s Buddhist Society under British Rule....Pages 136-148
Buddhism’s Age of Decline and Burmese Expectations of the Setkya-Min, Restorer of the Golden Age....Pages 149-159
The Setkya-Min Idea and Saya San’s Peasant Revolt of 1930–1932....Pages 160-165
The Beginnings of Burmese Socialism and Buddhist-Marxist Syncretism....Pages 166-179
Burma’s Victory in the Independence Struggle....Pages 180-191
Ideological Issues of Buddhist Socialism....Pages 192-205
Political Expectations Around the 2500th Year of the Buddhist Era....Pages 206-209
Burma’s Synthesis of Tradition and Revolution. U Nu’s Buddhist Socialism....Pages 210-228
The Success of Efficiency Criteria Against the Symbols of Buddhist Democracy....Pages 229-236
Postscript....Pages 237-243
Back Matter....Pages 244-250