10,000 Myanmar monks protest in Mandalay (anti-government protests getting larger and larger!)

Associated Press via Yahoo! News ^ | 2007 Sep 22

[Wiz]

It smells like count down to revolution, and the fall of regime! It's getting larger and larger, day after day. Let the dominoes of rainbow revolution keep on flipping!

[Cindy]

“t smells like count down to revolution...”

Yep.

[angkor]

Shwedagon Pagoda

[pepsionice]

Generally...you can almost anyone protest and it really doesn’t matter. Having monks show up...is an entirely different matter. Most soldiers aren’t going to beat up on monks...which would be the typical opposite if it were college students or the poor.

[angkor]

The worrisome problem is that the various Burma juntas have shown no qualms in the past about shooting down large numbers of unarmed protestors in cold blood.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The elephant sneezed and fell on its knees, and that was the end of the

[Cindy]

I understand what you’re saying...but maybe a sort of democracy is rising here.

Time will tell.

[angkor]

September 22, 2007

Bahan, Rangoon; 11: 30 a.m.
About 1,000 monks marched peacefully from Shwedagon Pagoda in Bahan Township on Saturday morning, witnesses said.

Mandalay; Mid-day
About 10,000 monks marched peacefully in Mandalay on Saturday, the largest city in upper Burma, The Associated Press reported.

[angkor]

“...that was the end of the...” ?????

[Cindy]

Thank you for the update angkor.

[expatguy]

Monks are a bit more difficult to shoot it seems.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[Stirner]

Other than an end to the military junta, what do the monks want? What does “democracy” amount to in the Burmese context? I know little or nothing about Burma/Myanmar, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Buddhists want Buddhism to be the official religion there, and that other religions should be suppressed, or at least rendered second-class, disadvantaged. Maybe that would be necessary to counter Muslim militance, but, if true, it hardly matches up with Buddhism’s image as peaceful and unworldly. Can someone who knows more tell me if what I read is correct?

[Wiz]

Gen. Aung San’s daughter Aung San Suu Kyi is pretty famous, and the military has always restricted her moves for the fear of her influence. She is the key figure in the country. She is likely liberal in terms of her pacifist views, not an “Iron Lady” that wants to fight with guns, even the junta is an evil to the society to the people.

The protest began with the anger of the control of fuel price, but I am not sure that was the reason for the monks to rise up, but now the monks have finally concluded the regime evil in public. In Thailand, Buddhism is part of the citizens’ life, and has strong influence, but I am not how much influence it has on the people of the entire South East Asia.

I am expecting too much, but I hope this will be the beginning of dominoes of democracy flipping all over South East Asia, including Laos and Vietnam. That will be a kick in the belly of China.

[Wiz]

ping

[Wiz]

How do you see the influence of Buddhism of the entire South East Asia region, excluding Thailand? Does it have more weight than the government?

[Gengis Khan]

Sounds like a great news!

[VOA]

bump

[Gengis Khan]

I dont know many countries where Buddhism has suppressed any religion. Buddhism may well be the official religion (just like Christianity is the official religion in many countries) but they tend to be far less radical or theocratic.
As for Burma, the choice is between a Communist China backed military junta and Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratic forces backed by Buddhist monks. Or between a nominally Buddhist state and a Chinese proxy.

[Amadeo]

The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees
And that was the end of the monk
The monk, the monk, the monk.

Of course....

[indcons]

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