Burma: The Robes With No Monks in Them
October 26th, 2007
By DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, Assistant Editor, TMV Columnist
In Burma, I’m told Than Schwe’s shame is that he orders soldiers raised as Buddhists to violate their vows to never hurt another sentient being. That Than Schwe not only lives out his evil ideals; in perverting Buddhism, he works hard to corrupt the young as well.
Than Schwe has to bribe the young men to do his bidding. They do their grisly work not out of loyalty to Than Schwe, but because the dictator bribes the soldiers by giving they and their families adequate food… this in a country that Than Schwe has been a bad father to, for he has purposely arranged to let the majority of the children and old people, and all ages in between, starve. Than Schwe is a bad father who feasts like a javelina while letting his children starve.
This time of year, October, there comes a Buddhist feast, a holiday celebration at the full moon, when the monks divest themselves of their old robes, and the people, with love, bring them new robes.
In the poorest regions, the people don’t have enough money for enough thread to make a whole robe, so they bring little scraps of red cloth and saffron cloth, and give these to the monks. And the monks receive them gratefully, and sew the pieces and remnants together until each monk has a full ‘new’ robe now.
Some say the gifting of the robes are based on a very old story about the Mother of the Buddha who, reincarnated as a god in Tavatimsa, perceived from her heavenly home that her son would soon be discarding the royal robes of his birth, and donning a monk’s colored robes instead.
She wanted to be the one to give her boy his new ruby and saffron robes …but had only one night left to accomplish weaving them. Magically, because of her deep love for her child, she wove like never before, the most magnificent robes in a single night. These were carried to the Buddha by a sacred messenger…
and some of the old people I have heard this story from, say that the Buddha in his monk’s robes, was truly now in the earthy red womb his mother had woven for him to keep his knowledge and wisdom safe, and that just like the jewel in the womb when a child is conceived, the Buddha on earth, shone like a beautiful red lotus with saffron lining.
So, in Burma and in other Buddhist countries, at this time of year, when the full moon is seen as a giant eye wide open, there is a commemoration of Buddha’s mother’s swift weaving. Many of the villages launch weaving competitions to see who can make the finest of red and saffron robes.
Normally, for weeks now, the Burmese would be weaving and mending and sewing the robes to carry to a special meeting ground with their beloved monks… for this time of year, late October, thousands of monks would leave their monasteries and walk to that special place to bless the people and to also receive the new brilliant colored robes woven just for them by hands of the people who love them most.
But…wait… last week a diplomat to Burma said that he’d visited 15 monasteries and all of them were empty, the monks nowhere to be seen.
Apparently one of Than Schwe’s favorite things to do, an endeavor that is public knowledge worldwide and one of the central reasons why he is scorned so deeply, is, to not only order the young to hurt the holy people badly or to kill them, but then to rip the monks’ robes off their bodies to demonstrate, against all Buddhist practices, that this monk’s life, this nun’s life, is less than the value of dirt to Than Schwe.
Accordingly, as of yesterday, Than Schwe has shut down Yangon and other cities tight by bringing in walls of military vehicles and men. They say people are afraid to venture from their homes, that still, no monks are in sight, which is like saying the stars do not show in the night sky anymore.
But the monks and nuns who are yet alive, I feel certain are like the stars during the day; they are there; they are just very difficult to see in broad daylight. But they are there.
And also, perhaps Than Schwe has forgotten that the moon, the full moon, is watching him with her wide open eye, and as we know the moon can pursue a man through the trees. No matter how deeply Than Schwe might try to plunge into the jungle of subterfuge in order to hide his shameful acts, the moon is watching.
And so are we Than Schwe.
Many many in this world are watching your every move.
This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 5:57 am and is filed under Than Shwe, Burma. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
