Mahāsantisukha Buddha Sasana Center
မဟာသန္တိသုခ ဗုဒ္ဓသာသနာပြုကျောင်းတော်ကြီး
Back View of Mahāsantisukha Buddha Sasana Center
Religion
AffiliationTheravada Buddhism
Location
CountryTamwe Township, Yangon, Yangon Region, Burma
Mahasantisukha Buddha Sasana Center is located in Myanmar
Mahasantisukha Buddha Sasana Center
Shown within Myanmar
Geographic coordinates16°48′39″N 96°10′49″E / 16.810952°N 96.180405°E / 16.810952; 96.180405
Architecture
FounderPannavamsa
CompletedDecember 17, 1999 (1999-12-17)

Mahāsantisukha Buddha Sasana Center (Burmese: မဟာသန္တိသုခ ဗုဒ္ဓသာသနာပြုကျောင်းတော်ကြီး) is a Theravada Buddhist monastery located in Natchaung Ward, Tamwe Township, Yangon, Myanmar.[1] The monastery was inaugurated on 17 December 1999, and was spearheaded under the leadership of Pannavamsa, and was sponsored with the support of the Burmese government.[1]

Ownership dispute

Between 2002 and 2004, the government, under Khin Nyunt's guidance,[2] confiscated the monastery and handed it to the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, a government body that oversees Burma's monastic population.[3] In March 2014, Pannavamsa wrote to President Thein Sein to resolve the ownership conflict.[4]

Monastery raid

On 10 June 2014, 300 police and 280 Yangon Region Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee members and Ministry of Religious Affairs officials raided the monastery at 11 pm, evicting 20 monks and 32 laypersons from the site.[3] The raid was heavily criticized for its heavy handedness, and was conducted while Pannavamsa, the monastery's founder, was away in Japan on a missionary trip.[3] Monks in the monastery had been instructed on May 18 to leave by the end of the month, following the March 6 decision of the 47-member State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee.[3]

Several monks were detained after the raid.[3] 5 Buddhist monks, namely Uttara, Pannacara, Sendara, Nandiya and Tejinda, were disrobed, arrested and charged with disobeying Buddhist clergy rules and defaming religion under section 295(a) of the Myanmar Penal Code and 20/90 of the 1990 Law Relating to the Sangha Organizations.[5][6] One of the arrested monks, Uttara, is a British citizen.[7]

Religious affairs minister Hsan Sint was dismissed by Thein Sein on 19 June 2014 over his handling of the monastery raid and defiance of the president's orders.[8]

The dispute ended on 13/14 December 2015. A district court judged the charge invalid.[9][10][11]

References

  1. 1 2 "Mahasantisukha Buddhist Missionary Centre". Myanmarnet.net. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  2. ↑ Aung Kyaw Min (11 June 2015). "On anniversary of raid, monk urges president to intervene". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Aung Kyaw Min (13 June 2014). "Govt, Sangha committee under fire for night raid". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 16 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  4. ↑ Aung Kyaw Min (13 March 2014). "Penang Sayadaw asks president to resolve dispute with Sangha body". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  5. ↑ Aung Kyaw Min (8 July 2015). "Charged monks accuse Sangha authorities of misusing power". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  6. ↑ Ye Mon (30 June 2014). "Prisoner committee to consider lobbying for release of monks". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  7. ↑ Aung Kyaw Min (13 May 2015). "London Sayadaw rejects Sangha committee charges". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  8. ↑ Htoo Thant (11 July 2014). "MPs agree to strengthen corruption commission". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  9. ↑ "Five Monks Cleared of Insulting Religion in Long-Running Mahasantisukha Monastery Case". Irrawaddy.com. 11 December 2015. Archived from the original on 17 October 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  10. ↑ "Mahasantisukha monks acquitted of defamation". Dvb.no. 11 December 2015. Archived from the original on 13 July 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  11. ↑ "London Sayadaw case dismissed". Mmtimes.com. Archived from the original on 4 June 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
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