East anD SOUTHEAST ASIA MYANMAR

The Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar (also known as Burma) was, for decades, essentially on permanent house arrest, much like the Nobel Prize-winning pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was in that suspended state for 21 years. Since 1962 the the country has been beneath the thumb of an autocratic dictator or military regime. Through it all the Burmese people kept hope alive that one day they might attain political freedom, even occasionally rising up in conjunction with the many Theravada Buddhist Monks who maintain a position of some respect in Burmese society. Miraculously -- and it did feel like a miracle, considering how very rarely society-opening political change happens without severe unrest -- when in 2010 Myanmar began to have democratic elections, giving people -- Suu Kyi's "National League for Democracy" and monks included -- the possibility to choose their leaders.

There is much that is positive about that story, and one would be right to have hope for Myanmar's future...but life is complicated. The majority of Myanmar's people practice Buddhism, especially those in power, and there is continual conflict with the Muslim minority, including pervasive persecution of the most populous Muslim group, the Rohingya. Did Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's pro-democracy forces use their increased power to end internal oppression, or at least crusade for equality for all Myanmar's citizens? Not exactly. Then, in 2021, Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, seized control from the elected government, ousting San Suu Kyi and returning the country to autocratic rule and infuriating, devastating internal war. We go on….

LEARN ABOUT THE LIFE OF A BURMESE MONK: INTERACTIVE LESSONS FOR KIDS