Buddhism in Rakhine

Two thousand five hundred years have passed since the time of Parinirvana of Gautama Buddha. Throughout the centuries, ever since the introducing of Buddhism up to the present time, Rakhines professed Buddhism without break. The present - day Buddhism in Rakhine is the Theravada Buddhism using the Pali canon of Tripitaka which are Vinaya (conduct), Sutta (Sermon) and Abhidhamma (a mixture of metaphysics, psychology and mind development) Pitakas. The Buddhists here worship caityas and stupas. They believe that one can acquire great merit by building and decorating them. The Buddha images are also worshipped after glorifying by conducting a ceremony called Anekasa, that is recitation by a number of monks surrounding the image. The people worship these caityas, stupas tnd Buddha images by offering flowers, food, incense, light and prayers. They believe these acts to be meritorious. They believe in the idea of the transfer of merit. That is, by making gift one can acquire religious merits and one can also transfer such merits to one's near and dear ones or their welfare and happiness by performing meritorious deeds like offering alms and the four necessaries to the Sanghas and giving charities to the poor and the needy, and doing good deeds personally or in words or in thoughts, one gains merit and will go to devas abode after death. Where as by doing evil deeds or getting involved in evil acts personally or in words or in thoughts, one falls into downward state of existence, a state of suffering or even to the abyss of hell such as Rauruwa, Avici etc,..after death. They believe in the three ways to salvation, i. e.,the Arahatship, the Pratya-kabuddhahood and the supreme Bud-dhahood. The lay people strive for Arahatship as the way to Nirvana. They accept the idea that the universe is cyclic and that they live in a Buddha cycle called Bhadrakaipa and are expecting the coming of the fifth Buddha, Maitreya. There are many members of the Buddhist Order, that is, the monks (Sangha) who wear yellow robes and strictly observe the Vinaya Pitaka. They have given up all the wordly pleasures and lived a pure life striving to attain Nirvana. The lay people have noviciating ceremonies for boys who spend sometimes, usually a week or more in a monastery under the guidance of revered abbot to experience the life of the monkhood. During his stay in the monastery as a monk, the boy learns for himself the religion of his parents, the abbot guiding him of course. If he likes the life of a monk and wants to forego the worldly pleasures, he can become a monk for life. But he will be qualified for full membership of the Order only after attaining the age of twenty. If not this ceremony can be taken as a preparation for adult life. In Rakhine State, unlike Myanmar proper, noviciating of a boy is done only when the boy reaches an age when he can understand and assimilate Buddha's teaching. Especially during the period of Wasoe (Buddhist lent which falls during rainy season), people are accustomed to keep sabbath taking five, eight, nine or ten precepts. People in more advance stage of piousness meditate to free themselves from ten "fetters", i.e. Samyojana. Such are the beliefs and practices of present day Buddhists of Rakhine State. The same is true for the past centuries. One can travel to Rakhine and see for oneself numerous caityas (pagodas), stupas and innumerable Buddha images built and made by the king of these dynasties. Especially the town of Mrauk -U (former Mrauk -U City), being the last of the Rakhine capitals, is rich in these religious edifices and images. Miniature stupas, miniature caityas, bronze bells, bronze lamps and many types of bronze Buddha images, crowned and uncrowned were obtained from the relic chambers of the old ruined caityas and stupas. They belong to the period of Dhanyawaddy and Vesali. When did Buddhism first introduced into Rakhine? And what type of Buddhism was that? According to tradition and our historical annals, Buddhism was intro¬duced into Rakhine during the life -time of Buddha himself. Keeping tradition part, let us search for concrete evidences which will give of Buddhism introduced. We have found one Fat Monk image with a line of inscription in Brahmi script used about the beginning of the Christian era. This Fat Monk, Sacca-kaparibajaka, was related to an incident in Buddha's life. Images of Buddha were also found together with this image. As there were no inscriptions nor dates inscribed on them, it is difficult to assign them to the same period as the Fat Monk. Apart from this image we can search for more concrete evidences. We may take the miniature stone stupas with Ye Dharma verses on them, the stones with Ye Dharma verses fallen out of the ruined stupas or caityas, and inscription found on one of the Mahamuni sculptures as the solid evidence for dating the upper limit of the introduction of Buddhism in Arakan (Rakhine). The dating can be done palaeographically and these writing can be assigned to some time about the 4th or the 5th century A.D. The Ye Dharma verse reveals the cream of the teaching of the B It is very clear that the people who made these stupas and who inscribed the Ye Dharma verses for the posterity professed the type of Buddhism based on the teaching of the Buddha and not on the personality of the Buddha Again, the word mahasramana in the verse means the Great Monk. By using this word, it is clear that the Buddha was referred to as a Great Monk and not as a God. We have seer; a ceti dedicatory inscription from eighth century Vesali. The inscription mentioned one to purify his own mind to attain Nirvana. The three impurities, lobba, dosa and moha should be discarded revealing that the Buddhism practiced at that time was based on the teachings of Buddha. Therefore, we can definitely say that the Buddhism that flourished during this period was not Tantric Buddhism nor the advanced Mahayana with plenty of Gods and Goddesses.

Reference : An abstract from the Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan