The Venerable

Shin Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the human leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese ...

Uttarajīva ( my, ရှင်ဥတ္တရဇီဝ ; died c. 5 October 1191) was

Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

Pagan Kingdom The Kingdom of Pagan ( my, ပုဂံခေတ်, , ; also known as the Pagan Dynasty and the Pagan Empire; also the Bagan Dynasty or Bagan Empire) was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-da ...

during the reigns of three kings

Narathu , image = Dhammayangyi Temple at Bagan,Myanmar.jpg , caption = Dhammayangyi Temple built by Narathu , reign = 1167 – February 1171 , coronation = , succession = King of Burma ...

Naratheinkha Naratheinkha ( my, နရသိင်္ခ, ; 1141–1174) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1171 to 1174. He appointed his brother Narapati Sithu heir apparent and commander-in-chief. It was the first recorded instance in the ...

and

Narapatisithu Narapati Sithu ( my, နရပတိ စည်သူ, ; also Narapatisithu, Sithu II or Cansu II; 1138–1211) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1174 to 1211. He is considered the last important king of Pagan. His peaceful and p ...

from 1167 to 1191. The

Theravada Buddhist ''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' ...

monk presided over the realignment of

Burmese Buddhism Buddhism ( my, ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), specifically Theravāda Buddhism ( my, ထေရဝါဒဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), is the State religion of Myanmar since 1961, and practiced by nearly 90% of the population. It is the most re ...

with the Mahavihara school of

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, away from the Conjeveram-

Thaton Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 km n ...

school of

Shin Arahan , image =Shin Arahan.JPG , caption = Statute of Shin Arahan in Ananda Temple , birth name = , alias = , dharma_name = mnw, ဓမ္မဒဿဳ , birth_date = c. 1034 , b ...

.Harvey 1925: 55–56

History

The primate, who was of

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * An ...

descent, and a group of Burmese monks visited

on a religious mission in 1180.Hall 1960: 23 (Some Sri Lankan sources state the year of the visit was more likely circa 1171-1173.)Sirisena 1978: 67 He also brought a few young monks, including a 19-year-old Shin Chapata.Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 320 Over the course of visit, Shin Uttarajiva decided to realign Burmese Theravada Buddhism, which probably came from Conjeveram in South India via Thaton, to the Mahavihara school. The returning monks refused to accept the validity of Thaton-Buddhism ordination. The quarrel became a

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

: those who derived their ordination from

Shin Arahan , image =Shin Arahan.JPG , caption = Statute of Shin Arahan in Ananda Temple , birth name = , alias = , dharma_name = mnw, ဓမ္မဒဿဳ , birth_date = c. 1034 , b ...

were known as the Former Order; those who derived it from Ceylon were known as the Latter Order. The king supported the new movement. More and more monks were sent to Ceylon where they received ordination at the ancient Mahavihara Monastery. Shin Uttarajiva died in October 1191 (right around the end of

Buddhist Lent The ''Vassa'' ( pi, vassa-, script=Latn, sa, varṣa-, script=Latn, both "rain") is the three-month annual retreat observed by Theravada practitioners. Taking place during the wet season, Vassa lasts for three lunar months, usually from July ...

). By then, the Mahavihara school became the predominant school of Burmese Buddhism. Shin Chapata also returned from Ceylon right after his teacher's death, and carried on his teacher's reformation effort. But the old order did not yield easily. The schism lasted two centuries before Conjeveram Buddhism finally died out. Shin Uttarajiva was succeeded by Shin Siha Maha Upali as primate.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Uttarajiva Theravada Buddhist monks Burmese Buddhist monks Pagan dynasty Burmese people of Mon descent Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 12th-century Burmese people