[Home]  
[Long Contents][Short Contents] [Reviews]
[Front Cover] [Press Release] [Download Burmese Fonts] [Download PDF]
[Search] [Statistics] [Other Publications] [Asceticism Conference]  

Houtman, Gustaaf. Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Monograph Series No. 33. Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1999, 400 pp. ISBN 4-87297-748-3

Preface iii

Acknowledgements vi

Introduction 1

Part I. Myanmafication – Imprisoning Burma

1. Democracy, the demise of socialism and Aung San amnesia 15

2. Myanmafication (1): reinventing national unity without Aung San 37

3. Myanmafication (2): the quest for national unity 59

4. Myanmafication (3): the four attributes of disciplined democracy 81

5. Myanmafication (4): building Mangala country and the Myanmar human origins 121

6. On military authority (ana) and electoral influence (awza) 157

Part II. Mental Culture Transcends Prison

7. Mental culture and freedom 179

8. Democracy imprisoned 187

9. Transcending boundaries: samsara, the State, the prison and the self 195

Part III. Mental Culture and Liberation Politics

10. Political opposition and Buddhism 213

11. Concepts in liberation politics 227

12. Aung San and the ‘religion’ question 243

13. Mental culture and crisis government 265

Part IV. Aung San Suu Kyi and Buddhism

14. Sources on Aung San Suu Kyi 277

15. Aung San Suu Kyi: a personality cult? 281

16. Buddhicisation of Aung San Suu Kyi 287

17. Freedom from fear 295

18. Revolution of the spirit 301

Part V. Mental Culture in Democracy Politics

19. Byama-so tayà: social meditation and the politics of influence 307

20. Samatha meditation and the politics of power and control 331

21. Vipassana contemplation, democracy and the politics of wisdom and purity 337

Appendices

1. Mental culture and politics in myth 344

(1.1) Vipassana – a late historical transformation of the institution of sacrifice

(1.2) The role of mental culture in the world-origin myth

(1.3) Mental culture in Manu's legal tradition

(1.4) Mindlessly spilt honey drop causes destruction of Benaris

(1.5) Royal discipline requires mental culture

(1.6) The mandala – enlightenment and political structures

(1.7) Vipassana and the founding of the Burmese State

(1.8) The powers of the universal monarch

(1.9) Burmese identity, nationalism and brahma-vihara (samatha)

2. NLD activists: quotations and criticisms 355

Bibliography 385

Tables

1. Elected governments and unelected regimes of Burma since national independence 11

2. Mental culture in Burma and its socio-political connotations 12

3. Myanmar versus Burma 45

4. Context of ‘Adaptation of Expressions Law’ 46

5. Dictionary glosses of Bama and Myanma 50

6. Core political terms and their relation to mental culture 61

7. Attributes of diverse legal systems operating in Burma 86