Monks, morality and military. The struggle for moral power in Burma—and Buddhism's uneasy relation with lay power

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In 2007, young Buddhist monks demonstrated against the military regime and its neglect of the economy and education, as well as against its repression. The monks applied Buddhism's ethical concepts as spiritual politics against the regime's increasing totalitarian tendencies. The article analyses and discusses how Buddhism and different notions of power characterize the struggle for democracy in Burma. The opposing sides, the young monks and the regime share a Buddhist cosmological imaginary. But they apply Buddhism differently in the struggle and have different perceptions of subjectivity. Following a brief outline of the military regime's rule, the article discusses power and Buddhism as interpreted by the opposition, the Generals and the young monks.