Traditional spirit worship is common but is treated with disdain by strict Buddhists
travelled for hours, some for days. It didn’t matter. They had made it to Taung Pyone. Every August hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over Myanmar descend on this village 20km north of Mandalay to commune with nats, spirits willing to bless the faithful with good fortune if they are given the right offering. Nats accept bananas, coconuts, booze and cash—the more the better.
claim that, starting about ten years ago, Buddhist monks began to target nat-worshippers. Sometimes they just scolded and insulted them; at other times they physically threatened them, stole offerings of food and money and destroyed statues of nats. These attacks have taken place not just in Taung Pyone, they say, but at other festivals and spirit-possession ceremonies around the country.
No longer. Hostility towards the spirit lords has grown over the past decade, says Ms Wallis, due in part to the opening of Myanmar to the world. Urbanites are ashamed of what they see as Buddhism’s “dirty, shameful, crazy cousin”, as she puts it. Similar movements to cleanse Islam of what purists see as the superstitions of uneducated villagers have a long history in Indonesia and Malaysia. Efforts have been made to purge Buddhism of folk religion in Sri Lanka and Thailand, too.is difficult.
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