Myanmar

Christianity in Myanmar

Christians in Myanmar are estimated to make up around 8.2% of the population, roughly 5.5% Protestant, 1.3% Roman Catholic, and the remainder members of independent churches. Of these groups, about 2.5% identify as Evangelicals and 2.1% as Pentecostals. Many of Myanmar’s Karen, Kachin, Chin, Karenni, Lahu, and Naga are Christian.

Many of these ethnic minorities had long been in conflict with...

General Aung San

Aung San (1915-1947) was a nationalist and military figure who is considered the founder of modern Burma. He is the father of Aung San Suu Kyi. At the beginning of WWII, in 1939, he began secret conversations with the Japanese and ultimately collaborated with them in their invasion of Burma. By 1945, however, he turned on the Japanese and helped liberate Burma with the British. Although many in the British government viewed him as a traitor, they ultimately negotiated with him about the future of...

General Ne Win

General Ne Win (1910-2002) was the supreme commander of the Burma Socialist Programme Party and a figurehead in 1958 and 1962 coup d’états. He repealed many of the Buddhist laws that had been put in place by his predecessor, U Nu, and instituted controls of the ...

Hinduism in Myanmar

Approximately 2% of Burmese people are Hindu. Burmese Hindus are a mix of Bengalis, Tamils, Telegus, and Uttar Pradeshis who arrived in Burma under British colonialism. With the military coup of 1962, about 1 million Indians were forced out of Burma, but some remained, mostly in Yangon (Rangoon), Mandalay, and in the Bago District. As India is a close neighbor, Hinduism has had a regional influence for centuries and Hindu gods are sometimes included among the nats, or spirits, worshiped by some Burmese Buddhists. Due to historical ties between Hinduism and Buddhism, Hindus have faced far...

Islam in Myanmar

Myanmar has had a Muslim presence since as early as the ninth century. Muslim sailors intermarried with local Burmese woman and settled permanently in port cities along the Burmese Coast, especially in the Arakan/Rakhine region. Arab and Persian sources mention Myanmar in the 9th and 10th centuries in the context of trade; historically, Myanmar has been at the center of a vast trade network spanning China, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and North Africa. Other Muslims in Myanmar included Indians captured in war and resettled in the interior and Muslim mercenaries in service of Burmese...

Judaism in Myanmar

Burma was once home to a thriving Jewish diaspora community, which at one point numbered over two thousand, and which was part of a much larger regional community stretching from India to China. The integration of Burma into the British Empire meant that it was governed by a common international law, the Pax Britannica, which facilitated regulated trade between members of the tightly knit and widespread Jewish community linked by family, language, and faith.

The Musmeah Yeshua, Rangoon’s synagogue built in 1893, was the center of Jewish life in Myanmar until the mid-century....

Kachin, The

The Kachin are a majority-Christian ethnic group made up of numerous tribes, located in Upper Burma. In 1876, Protestant missionaries cultivated relationships with the Kachin and many converted to Christianity. Kachin leaders signed separate treaties with the British that granted them significant autonomy in the area known as the Kachin Hill Tracts. The Kachin also allied with the British during WWII, while the majority Burmans...

Karen, The

The Karen are an internally diverse group of ethnic minorities who live primarily in southern and southeastern Burma. They are the second-largest non-Burman ethnic group in Myanmar comprising some 6% of the population, and are mostly Christian. During WWII, roughly 28% of Karen served in the Burmese army, which by British policy deliberately excluded ethnic Burmans. During the war, the Karen continued to support the British even as Burmans, led by...

National League for Democracy (NLD), The

The National League for Democracy was formed during the popular revolutions of 1988 and emerged as the major opposition party in 1990 elections. Although its leader Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest at the time of the elections, the party won 392 of the 447 seats in parliament that were contested. Their victory stunned Myanmar’s military leaders, who promptly invalidated the election results and refused to hand over power.

More recently, the NLD won almost all of the seats...

Panglong Agreement, The

The 1947 Panglong Agreement was the outcome of the Panglong Conference, a meeting on the eve of independence between Burmese nationalist hero Aung San and representatives of several of the largest minority groups in Burma, namely the Chin, Shan, and Kachin. These groups agreed in principle to the formation of the Union of Burma, which became the first post-colonial government. However, other ethnic groups, most prominently the Karen and...

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Myanmar

Christianity in Myanmar

General Aung San

General Ne Win

Hinduism in Myanmar

Islam in Myanmar

Judaism in Myanmar

Kachin, The

Karen, The

National League for Democracy (NLD), The

Panglong Agreement, The

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