Buddhism and Economic Action in Burma¹

The Buddhist world view, and especially its notions of rebirth and karma, provide a cognitive orientation within which religious spending is a much sounder and much more profitable investment than economic saving (in the usual sense of “saving“). This, at least, is the case in Burma, from which the materials for this paper are taken. Contrary, then, to the usual claims concerning Burmese improvidence, their consumption behavior, given this world view, is both provident and rational.