Mizzima
“The military's always claimed that they are the guardians of the religion, they are the guardians of democracy. And that they're the guardians of the country now, after the military coup,” Ashin Kovida tells the Insight Myanmar podcast.
“When they raided my monastery, they said they are the guardians of all [of Buddhism] in the country! I couldn't say anything because they came with guns.”
Ashin Kovida is one of Burma’s most visible, pro-democracy monastics, and he shares his intriguing story in this Insight Myanmar podcast episode here: https://insightmyanmar.org/complete-shows/2023/10/26/episode-204-ashin-k...
“I was born in a village. There's no electricity, no television, no motor car… that is called a village in Burma!” Ashin Kovida laughs. He followed a traditional path: receiving a monastic education, then ordaining as a full bhikkhu at the age of 20; he has worn the robes ever since. Early on he was interested in studying English, but was admonished by senior monks who saw the language as irrelevant, and even antithetical to their Buddhist responsibilities. So he continued to learn in secret.
Through his English study, he learned about Western, liberal, political concepts, such as human rights and democracy, but he was initially skeptical of them as being foreign. And he was particularly dismissive of Aung San Suu Kyi. However, an educated monk helped him see these subjects in a different light, and Kovida began to understand that he had been indoctrinated by the military’s propaganda. Then through listening to the BBC and VOA, and practicing his English with foreign tourists, his views evolved even further. Eventually, he convinced one tourist to smuggle in a copy of Aung San Suu Kyi’s Freedom From Fear, and through reading this book, came to believe that in fact, the ideals she espousing were not just important, but even perhaps worth dying for.
Not surprisingly for a monk, he fell back on Buddhist teachings to better understand democracy. “The Buddha was from a family of kings, and so he understood about politics,” he explains. “Of course, he didn't get involved in politics for power, but he still gave advice about good governance. The Buddha once told the king not to go against the will of the people. The rulers must rule in accordance with the will of the people. This is the most important thing which is the fundamental of democratic principles. Any government must respect the will of the people. But the military junta, they never respect the will of the people, and at times they are against the will of the people!”
Eventually, his critical engagement on these subjects soon put him in the crosshairs of the regime, so he left for Switzerland as a refugee in 2006, and stayed there until it was safe to return home in 2016. In 2021, the military came for him yet again. They took his devices, and although they didn’t arrest him, they did apprehend several other monks at his monastery. Some of these have not been heard of since, and are feared dead. Ashin Kovida fled to Thailand, where he continues to live, advocating for the democracy movement in his native country.
Today, Ashin Kovida is not afraid to call out those monks he feels are too cozy with the regime and who don’t speak out against their ongoing campaign of terror.
For him, speaking the truth is a core teaching of the Buddha, adding that at times, it is necessary to even “give up your life for the truth!” And while he sees many lay activists sacrificing themselves in order to speak this truth, he fears that many monks continue to be brainwashed in seeing the military as their protector, while regarding democracy as a threat that places the entire Sāsana at risk.
When it comes to the spread of extremist Buddhist messaging, Ashin Kovida believes that Western media shares some of the blame. For example, he has known Wirathu— the leader of the infamous, anti-Muslim Ma Ba Tha— for many years. Before Wirathu became a well-known figure, Ashin Kovida tried to get him to moderate his views, finding him very poorly informed about world events; he also suspected that Wirathu might well be driven by personal animus because his mother had married a Muslim man after his father died. When Wirathu began to gain attention through his Islamophobic rants, journalists flocked to Myanmar to cover him. Ashin Kovida pleaded that they give equal attention to the many progressive monks who vehemently disagreed with Wirathu, but he and his colleagues were never once interviewed to get their views!
“For the [international] media, when a tiger bites a human, this is not a story. But when a human bites the tiger, that's the story! So when the monks are against the dictator, when the monks are against Ma Ba Tha, it is not really a story for the media. But when the monks get involved in violence and extremism, that's a shocking, interesting story for readers.”
That said, Ashin Kovida readily acknowledges the blame as also lying within Burma, itself. Referencing the Bob Marley song “Get Up, Stand Up,” he quotes the line, “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” He continues, “We were fooled by 969. It's good to note the qualities of the Buddha and the qualities of the Dhamma, but this was misused by the military.” But of course, few Burmese remain fooled by the military’s xenophobic propaganda. He also criticizes the infamous 1982 citizenship law which excludes the Rohingya, as well as the regime’s recent attempt to prohibit marriages between Buddhist women and non-Buddhist men.
Ashin Kovida also has thoughts on other, well-known, Burmese monks. Touching on Thabarwa Sayadaw, he feels he is quite naïve about ongoing events, and not taken seriously by most Burmese. “There are many Buddhist monks in Burma who do not agree with him. I think he's a kind of xenophobic too, and because he got support from the conservative Buddhist lay people, he's afraid to lose this support. Now, the young generations do not accept him anymore. Even the elder generations do not accept him inside the country! We are not afraid of him, but I think we worry more about Sitagu Sayadaw.”
Perhaps the most famous monk in the country, Sitagu’s role was explored in depth in a previous podcast interview with Bhikkhu Cintita. Ashin Kovida describes how Sītagu was initially a strong advocate who stood up to the military, but later came to value popularity and honors over human rights and democracy. Ashin Kovida feels that by this point, Sītagu is quite misinformed about what is really happening in the country. Moreover, Ashin Kovida notes that he had been meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, but after Ma Ba Tha warned him that she did not adequately support the Saṅgha, he ceased to interact with her further. So while Sītagu Sayadaw continues to enjoy close connections with the military, he has lost much of his standing among the people - and many lay Burmese are now willing to voice aloud (or post online) their disdain, which is a sharp departure from past tradition, when the laity would rarely criticize monastics.
While many Burmese monks feel uncomfortable to publicly receive lay criticism, Ashin Kovida welcomes this change. “The Buddha himself encouraged criticism, but of course, constructive criticism,” he explains. “The Buddha allowed anybody to criticize the monks.” He references the story of a young seven-year-old novice admonishing Sariputra, one of the Buddha’s chief disciples, for not wearing his robe properly. “Criticism is not contradicted by Buddhist teachings! So we should criticize anyone who is against the Dhamma.”
He is well aware that his opinion about this is likely in the minority. “Conservative monks, of course, they are afraid of losing where they are! But I think this is everywhere, it happens in the world. Everything is changing, nothing lasts forever,” he says. “The monks have to change! If they don't change, they will lose their positions. We have to change the [monastic] education system. They have to open up their mind, and they have to learn.”
Indeed, Ashin Kovida posits that many of these problems can be traced back to archaic monastic education methods, and he criticizes schools that limit their curriculum to just Buddhist studies. Beyond core subjects like math and English that he feels should be taught, he believes that Western philosophy and psychology have a place in the curriculum as well, particularly to show how Buddhist teachings can be understood through those different frameworks. And he welcomes the newest developments in science, feeling that, if anything, they will only prove the essential truths of Buddhism.
Referencing the English phrase, “Reading without thinking is like eating without digesting,” he feels that monks need to spend more time examining, practicing, and applying what’s conveyed in a text than simply memorizing the words.
“We Buddhist monks, we just learn by heart, without thinking anything! So we learn a lot, but we don't know anything! That’s just borrowing knowledge.” Moreover, he is concerned that limiting the subjects taught in monastic schools does not just isolate monks from knowledge, but it also cuts off their interactions with the wider world. Ultimately, Ashin Kovida believes that this rather isolationist perspective in traditional Buddhist education has the effect of preventing Buddhism from becoming more relevant and meaningful to diverse populations in foreign places. Because Myanmar’s lay population now has ready access through technology to the different ways of thinking and being in the modern world, he thinks monks will no longer be seen as qualified resources if they can’t understand the changing lives of their supporters. “I am not afraid of any foreign influence because I believe in humanity. I believe everybody is a human,” he says simply.
Ashin Kovida further adds that simply wearing the robes of a Buddhist monk or living within a Buddhist monastery is meaningless if one engages in unethical behavior.
“In Western societies, for example, they are not Buddhist, they do not go to the Buddhist temple. But there is a lot less corruption. I don't say they are perfect, but almost no corruption. Wherever you go, you don't see anybody steal. But in Burma, even the pagodas are not safe, they worry about losing their motorbikes or something like that. So it doesn't matter if you call yourself Buddhist or not! Actually, the Buddha said, ‘When you see the Dhamma, you see me.’”
This informs Ashin Kovida’s view as to the future of Burmese Buddhism. At a time when some wonder where the faith is heading while caught in the current strife, his answer is very clear.
“Buddhism doesn't need to go anywhere! Ledi Sayadaw, was a revolutionist,” he asserts, referring to the famous 19th century monk, adding that many at the time accused him of being Communist, so radical were his ideas. “He was criticized by conservative monks because he gave a Dhamma talk in plain Burmese language, while the other monks spoke about Dhamma in Pāḷi, which nobody understood. And so Buddhism doesn't need to go anywhere, but monks have to change the way to approach the Buddha's teaching.”
While some have justified extremist and even violent behavior as necessary to “protect” Buddhism, Ashin Kovida rejects this idea wholeheartedly. “We worry about losing Buddhism, which is against the Buddhist teaching, but we don't need to worry,” he says. “Worrying about losing the Buddha's teaching is not the way to the Buddha's teaching! If you want to follow the Buddha's teaching, just practice, that's it!
Check out the interview with Ashin Kovida for the Insight Myanmar podcast here:
https://insightmyanmar.org/complete-shows/2023/10/26/episode-204-ashin-k...
