Monks hold sit-in protest at Bodhgaya

Htein Linn

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

November 26, 2007 - Over 100 monks from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka yesterday began a sit-in protest at Bodhgaya, a historical place of Buddhist worship, to create awareness among pilgrims of the Burmese military junta's ongoing campaign against the Buddhist religion inside the country.

Joined by the Indian-based All Burma Students League (ABSL), over 100 monks from the three countries will continue the sit-in protest for five days until November 29, a protestor said.

"We are doing it [the sit-in protest] to highlight what is going on in Burma. Than Shwe [Burma's military head of state] on one hand is acting as if he is sponsoring the Buddhist religion by appeasing the monks and abbots, but on the other hand he is also killing them," Kyaw Than, Chairman of the ABSL, who is joining the monks in the protest, told Mizzima.

As a response to the mass protest led by Buddhist monks last September, widely known as the Saffron Revolution, the Burmese military junta opened fire and killed several monks. Reportedly the junta also arrested several hundred monks and other activists and kept them at interrogation camps in Rangoon and other cities across the country.

Beside the sit-in protests, monks and student activists have also pasted posters and paintings of Burmese monks being beaten and killed during September's Saffron Revolution in Burma. The slogans include, 'Than Shwe Evil Blasphemer of SPDC', referring to the State Peace and Development Council, the name under which the Burmese junta rules the country.

According to Kyaw Than, the protest has displeased the Burmese junta as the Burmese Consulate in Kolkata has come to check on the activities and has lodged at a monastery in Bodhgaya.

"As he [the Burmese Consulate] heard of our activity, he came to Bodhgaya and lodged himself in a monastery. He also threatened Burmese monks joining in the protest and pulled down posters. But we repasted the posters," added Kyaw Than.

He added that at the end of the protest on November 29, protestors have planned to hold a protest march from the Japanese Shrine to the Mahabodhi Shrine, and the Indian minister for Bodhgaya has pledged to join the rally.

Located in India's Bihar State, Bodhgaya is held to be the site where Siddhartha Gotama, the Buddha, achieved enlightenment.