The Patriotic Association of Myanmar ( my, အမျိုးသား ဘာသာ သာသနာ စောင့်ရှောက်ရေး အဖွဲ့), abbreviated Ma Ba Tha () in Burmese and variously translated into English as Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, Organisation for the Protection of Race and Religion and Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion is an ultra nationalist Buddhist organisation based in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

(Burma). Some PAB members are connected to the

969 Movement The 969 Movement () is a Buddhist nationalist movement opposed to what they see as Islam's expansion in predominantly-Buddhist Myanmar (Burma). The three digits of 969 "symbolise the virtues of the Buddha, Buddhist practices and the Buddhist ...

Establishment

On 15 January 2014, PAB was formally established at a large based conference of Buddhist monks in

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

, with the mission of defending

Theravada Buddhism ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

in Burma. Its Pali name is Sāsana Vaṃsa Pāla (), which literally means "protector of race and

Śāsana Śāsana ( sa, शासन, śāsana; pi, sāsana; my, သာသနာ ) is a Buddhist and Shaivite term for their philosophy and practice. It can be translated as teaching, practice, discipline, doctrine, and "the teaching of the Buddha". Since ...

." PAB may have been formed in response to the

State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee The State Saṅgha Mahā Nāyaka Committee ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် သံဃာ့မဟာနာယကအဖွဲ့, abbreviated Mahana or in Burmese, SSMNC in English) is a government-appointed body of high-ranking Buddhis ...

's prohibition of the '969' emblem for political uses.

Leadership

PAB is led by a central committee composed of 52 members, including both senior scholar monks and nationalist monks.

Ashin Wirathu Wirathu ( my, ဝီရသူ, pi, ; born 10 July 1968 in Kyaukse, Mandalay Division, Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, Burma) is a Burmese Buddhist monk, and the leader of the extremist 969 Movement in Myanmar. He has been accused o ...

is a prominent member of PAB and is described as "the leader of the most extreme fringe" of the group. PAB has extensive networks and chapters at state and township levels across Burma. PAB is currently chaired by the Ywama Sayadaw Ashin Tilokabhivamsa. Its headquarters are located Ywama Pariyatti Monastery (ရွာမပရိယတ္တိ စာသင်တိုက်),

Insein Township Insein Township ( my, အင်းစိန်မြို့နယ်, ) is located in northern Yangon. The township comprises 21 wards, and shares borders with Shwepyitha township in the north, Hlaingthaya township in the west, Mingaladon to ...

Yangon Region Yangon Region(, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in the heart of Lower Myanmar, the division is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, and ...

Legislative lobbying

In 2013, the Burmese Ministry of Religious Affairs drafted 4 controversial

Race and Religion Protection Laws The 2015 Race and Religion Protection Laws are a series of 4 controversial laws passed in Myanmar. The laws were drafted in 2013 and pushed by the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion, or Ma Ba Tha. They include the ''Popu ...

designed to regulate religious conversion and interfaith marriage, and enforce monogamy and population-control measures, based on draft texts proposed by PAB members. In March 2015, the country's lower house, the

Pyithu Hluttaw The Pyithu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်သူ့ လွှတ်တော်, ; House of Representatives) is the ''de jure'' lower house of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the bicameral legislature of Myanmar (Burma). It consists of 440 members, of whic ...

, approved two of the bills. The first of the 4 laws, which regulates population-control measures, was enacted in May 2015.

Campaigns

In 2014, PAB members began a campaign against

Ooredoo Ooredoo QSC ( ar, أريد; formerly ''Qtel'') is a Qatari multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Doha. Ooredoo provides mobile, wireless, wire line, and content services with market share in domestic and international telec ...

, a

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

-based telecommunications company that had entered the country to build its cellular infrastructure. In 2016 supporters of Ma Ba Tha campaigned against the

Rohingya The Rohingya people () are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an ...

on Facebook.

Later activities

In May 2017, the

, which regulates the Buddhist clergy, ordered the group disbanded. The group renamed itself as the Buddha Dhamma Charity Foundation, which was also outlawed, according to government officials. In June 2019, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun donated 30 million kyats to the Buddha Dhamma Parahita Foundation, a successor group, after its members protested the government's lawsuit against their leader Wirathu.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Dhamma Vaṃsānurakkhita Association of Myanmar
Buddhist organisations based in Myanmar 2014 establishments in Myanmar Political organizations established in 2014 Religious organizations established in 2014 Violence against Muslims Far-right politics in Myanmar Buddhist nationalism Anti-Islam sentiment in Myanmar