The military regime, in cooperation with the Japanese NenbutsushuBuddhists, plans to hold the fourth World Buddhist Summit in Burma during this December 9-12. (boxun.com)

About 150 Buddhist organizations from 30 countries are invited .

The discussion about Hinayana Buddhism and the old Indian dialek Pali becomes popular and hot both in the common life and in the fields of culture and religion .

Burma is the world's centre of Hinayana Buddhism, almost all Hinayana Buddhist scriptures are in Pali language.

If we research the Buddhist history of Burma before the 5th Century, we'll find the Mahayana's traces in most parts of our country .

In the 5th Century, Hinayana Buddhism was spread from India to Sri Lanka,from where by sea southward to South East Asia (It is the reason why it is called South- Buddhism )

In 403, Buddhaghosa, a senior monk, brought Theravada Buddhist scriptures from Sri Lanka to Mon Kingdom of Thahton and preached there over, making Thahton become the Holy Land of Theravada. In 1044 Anawrathar became the king of Pagan Dynasty. He resolutely oppressed the Ari-religious belief that had been influencing over Upper Burma (Ari-religious belief is supposed to be a mixture of Mahayana, Bramanism and native Ariism. Some historian suspected it is a sect of Tantrism ) To replace the Ari-religious belief, Anawrathar invited Arahan, the Mon monk to be the State Monk in 1065.

Anawrathar sent the troop to wipe out Mon kingdom in 1067 and brought both Theravada Buddhist scriptures and the Mon-king Manula to Pagan.

In 1192, the king of Pagan dynasty Narapatisithu introduced from Sri Lankathe late Theravada, the revised one.

The contribution of Pangan dynasty and his Anawrathar to the Buddhism is, introducing and preaching, nationwide and internationwide ,the Hinayana Buddhism.

Through Burma's great efforts, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Yunnan's Shan-Areas accepted one by another the Hinayana Buddhism.

Hinayana Buddhism is the primary Buddhism.

When discussing about Buddhism , people always mistake Hinayana for a small one and Mahayana a big one , so Hinayana Buddhists prefer to use Theravada in stead of Hinayana.

In fact, in the world of academy and religion, Hinayana and Manayana have no ameliorative or derogatory evaluation.

Hinayana buddhists see Bhudda as their Lord, they seek personal self-liberation, the way of arahats which holds that a person seeking nirvana as an end to worldly misseries can achieve only on his own merit.

Mahayana buddhists believe in multi-buddhas.They believe that all huam beings are capable of attaining Buddhahood. They emphasize to bring all living bodies to nirvana.

There are around 400,000 monks in Burma, approximately the same quantity as those Burmese soldiers.

Burmese monks practise strictly according to Lord Buddha's teaching: no killing, no cheating, no bad thinking and no ill-treating, always showing sympathy and love to all living bodies .

On the contrary, Burmese soldiers train themselves every minute how to kill people.They obey strictly to the generals ,arresting, torturing and killing everyday the revolutionaries, demonstrators and dissidents. In recent years the military regime classifies the monks into 4 catagories:

the State Monks, the Senior Monks, the Ordinary Monks and the Young Monks.

The military regime donates funds to the Senior Monks and "bribe"some of them to safeguard the government's interests. People name such kinds of bribed senior monks

"political monks"

Ironically, the military regime labelled all monks of anti-military-government as "pseudo monks "or "political monks".

Those monks labelled as "pseudo monks "or "political monks", will beforced to cast off their robes and then treated with the military-regime's law¡ªtorture and prison.

In 1965, over 700 monks in Hmawbi, a town near Rangoon, refused to accept the malicious rules of the military regime. All were arrested.

In 1974, the monks took part in the U.N General Secretary U Thant' funeral, which led later to the people's revolution, several monks and people were bayonetted dead, over 600 monks were disrobed and imprisoned.

La Ba, a fearless monk who persistently criticized the military regime, was arrested in 1976 by accusing him of murder and cannibalism.

In 1978 masses of "riot-staging" monks were first disrobed by force and then mercilessly beated and jailed, their monasteries were banned and property confiscated .

U Nayaka, a respected ethic Arakanese monk ,who disobeyed to the military regime,was "invited to dialoqe" at an intelligence camp for several days and one day the authority announced "he committed suicide by hanging himself".

In the nationwide uprising of 1988, the monks participated veryactively.Many of them were shot dead in clusters of bullets.The rest of"political monks" were disrobed and sentenced to long-term imprisonment.U Kawiya, a respected monk of Mandalay, was sentenced to death in 1989.

On August 27, 1990, over seven thousand monks of Mandalay, the cultural centre of Burma, collectively refused to accept alms from the military families.They performed no religeous services for them too. As a result, their monasteries were closed and hundreds of "political monks" arrested, including the senior monks U Sumangala and U Yewata. All the monk leaders were faced long-term imprisonment, and all boycotting "pseudo-monks",young and old, were disrobed and tortured.

In the jail, the "pseudo-monks" are not treated as monks but prisoners and thus they experienced all kinds of torture.The welknown monk U Yewata died sooner after his release.

No one knows how many "ordinary monks" lost their lives.

In order to punish the "political monks and pseudo-monks", the military regime established in 1980 "The State Sangha Council". They appointed or settled their "respected senior monks" at the monasteries .

Thus an active and effective "cleansing movement of Buddism" begins.

Massive "problem-monks" were continuously disrobed by force and sentenced by "law".

after the 1988 people's uprising, U Nyanissara, a senior monk, recorded a tape which discussed democracy in Buddhist precepts, was also driven out of the monastery.

Only one word at the final conclution:

no matter Hinayana or Mahayana;

no matter South-Buddhism or North-Buddhism;

no matter Therawada bringing from Mon Kingdom (primary one) or from

Sri Lanka (late one);

if you dare to join-hand with Euro-American democracy, then you already "subvert the government", you already "have illicit relations with the foreign country".

What are you now facing ?----torture and prison!

(thanks the former student activist Ko Wai Moe for his concrete facts anddata) (boxun.com)