An unforgettable day in Myanmar’s history

Sitagu Sayadaw
Dr. Ashin Nyanissara
(D.Litt., Ph.D.)
16 December, 2016, India

Your Excellencies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning,

I deem it a great honour to have the opportunity of speaking on behalf of the entire Myanmar people at this occasion to mark the centenary of His Majesty King Sipaw’s expiration. Today is an unforgettable day indeed for Myanmar on which His Majesty died here at Ratana Giri at the age of (58). To be exact, this tragic event took place on 16 December 1916. King Sipaw, one of the sons of King Mindon, who was the founder of Mandalay Royal Capital, was born in the capital but died out of the country as a captive of the British imperialists, over which the entire Myanmar people feel immensely bitter about imperialism. I bring with me to this occasion the message of Myanmar people to convey to the whole world that we oppose any forms of aggression or imperialism, and at the same time, condemn any forms of violence or atrocities. And we wish that the world people live in peace, free from worries, with loving-kindness extended to one another.

Our Lord Buddha showed us the way to complete cessation of the continuity of the circle of birth. He also pointed out the three causes that would extend the process of rebirth. It is called Papanca in Pali language, which includes Craving, Conceit and Wrong view. The practice of these three evil things surely prolong the rebirth process.

In 1599 the British, under the influence of extreme greed, established British East Indian Company in India under the pretext of doing business. Actually, they were armed pirates under the guise of merchants and they had an intention to make a fortune in a short time in dishonest way. In that sense, they robbed wood, jewels, fruits and spices from the natives living along Indian coast and also forcibly recruited the local people into their armed group. They assumed the people of Asia to be uncivilized, and so they made an attempt to bring the western culture into Asian society, with an intention to make the Asians civilized.

The British didn’t really want to share their occupied territory with other imperialists who followed in their step, so they drove the French and the Dutch out of India. So, the French had to retreat to Indochina and the Dutch to Indonesia. Then, they tried to occupy as much land as they could in India, Pakistan and Myanmar. To that end, they began to occupy Bombay, then Madras and the whole territory of east India. Then they moved on to Bangal, with their stronghold in Calcutta where they could trade chilies and pepper with other parts of the world.Then, they formed the government there, and in September 1857, they continued to occupy Delhi. As a result, the last king of India Shah Bahadu Zafar was abdicated and deported to Yangon. He was detained in an iron cage in a house until death. The house where he was detained was located in the vicinity south of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

The extreme greed of the British pirates was uncontrollable even though the whole territory of India had been under their occupation. This drove them to extend their aggression to Myanmar, resulting in three wars, the first war in 1824, the second in 1852 and the third in 1885 respectively. Myanmar people were brave enough for their defensive wars with the British, but, mainly due to the lack of modern firearms and preparedness for the war, Myanmar lost the whole coastal region, which included Rakhine and Taninsari, after the first war in 1824, and half of lower Myanmar up to Yangon, Bago, Pyinmana and Thayet in 1852. Again in November 1885, the British Naval fleet carrying 10,000 troops went up the Ayeyarwady river, landed in Mandalay and occupied the Royal Palace. They captured King Sipaw and wives and took them in bullock carts to their fleet embarked at Mandalay port. Then the king and wives were taken by boat to Yangon, proceeding to Madras. After being detained a few years in Madras, they were sent to Ratana Giri, where they had to spend their last days.

As all are aware, today is the 100th Anniversary of the passing away of His Majesty King Sipaw. Unfortunately, the same incident happened to both kings of Myanmar and India. We feel very sorry that the Myanmar king had to die in India whereas the Indian King had to spend his last day in Myanmar. Our two countries also had the same bitterness about being colonized by the British imperialists.

Why did the Asian countries become colonies of imperialists? How can we draw a conclusion? Imperialists are those who want to rule other countries and use force to get power over the people. What do we see in them- good or bad things? If we see good things, we have to be optimistic about them, and we have to reject if we see bad things. What I see is that imperialists are those overwhelmed by extreme greed, conceit and wrong view. But it is undeniable that some good qualities such as mindfulness, effort, diligence, courage and intelligence are latent in them, which enabled them to establish the Great British Empire. In the case of easterners, we were brought up by the teachings of our respective religious leaders such as Buddha, Jina, Jesus, Confucius and Mohammed, which is advantageous to us in making these three evil things less, but our weak point, compared with them, is lack of human power and mind power, which imperialists are endowed with.

We are also hesitant about doing risky things, sacrificing for others, and exploring and innovating new things. And we got used to enjoy living in our own territory without observing the outside world. These are the main factors that led us to fall into servitude.

We are proud to be the people of Asia for the fact that all greatest religious leaders were born in Asia. So Asia is said to be the region where all world religions originated. Science and technology, which is said to be the western culture, were introduced after the eastern culture.

But, unfortunately, the advancement of science and technology made the westerners more aggressive and “Papanca” the three evil things, which were already latent in them, grew bigger and more deeply rooted, resulting in their effort to put the eastern countries under their colonial rule. It can be said that the western imperialists ruled most parts of Asia with the wrong use of advanced technologies. As a matter of fact, there is the main culprit behind the scenes is Papanca-greed, conceit and wrong view_ which masterminds all evils, prolonging the process of rebirth. It is the master of all evildoers. So my suggestion here is that we, the people of Asia, try our utmost with the best use of our latent abilities like effort, diligence, mindfulness, courage and intelligence in order not to be enslaved again by any western imperialists, and also put our all-out efforts in conjunction with the spirits of sacrifice, loyalty and unity followed by the will of exploration and innovation so as to stand tall as independent nations ruled by our own governments.

I would like to urge all friends, who happen to meet one another on this unforgettable day at this unforgettable place, not to forget the bitter and sorrowful experiences our two countries shared and also King Sipaw and Shah Bahadur Zafar had to face with.

Seeing the imperialism as a source of our great bitterness, I'm of the strong view that it is of utmost importance for our two peoples to join hands to oppose and fight against any forms of aggression or invasion, so that our two peoples would be able to enjoy self-determination under the rule of our national governments.

Thank you very much. Sitagu Sayadaw
Dr. Ashin Nyanissara (D.Litt., Ph.D.)
Vice Sangha Raja
Chancellor of Sitagu International Buddhist Academy
Honorary Professor of International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University
Chairman of International Association of Theravada Buddhist Universities
Chairman of the board of director of Theravada Dhamma Society of America