| Research Abstract |
Some of the findings of this research are put together and published in the research parer as an independent volume. To understand properly the present system of Theravada Buddhasasanapyu Ovadacariya Committee, this paper provides elucidation on its organization, job specifications, management, and the like by fieldwork and the primary research in the Burmese Buddhist literature. It also gives the historical background for the reason why such a committee was established in Myanmar, going back to the age of British colonialism.
And from the viewpoint of how the missionary idea of the committee is embodied on a local level, in this paper I described the actual state of Burmese Buddhist missionaries who are appointed and sent to ethnic minorities by the committee.
And this paper provides not only Buddhist monks who have been engaged in missionary work among the Chins, for example, in Mindat, kanpetlet at the foot of Mt.Victoria but also the present religious state of Theravada Buddhism in the State of Chin.
The research brought further revelation that laylmen missionaries and"Buddhist developers"exist ; the former ones who assist Buddhist missionaries in converting local minorities in the form of a layman missionary who receive benefits from Department for the Promotion and Propagation of the Sasana, Ministry of Religions Affairs, the latter ones highly similar to Thai Buddhists who are engaged in promoting social development.
|
