Shwegyin Nikāya (, ; also spelt Shwekyin Nikāya) is the second largest monastic order of monks in Burma. It is one of nine legally sanctioned monastic orders (''

nikāya ''Nikāya'' () is a Pāli word meaning "volume". It is often used like the Sanskrit word '' āgama'' () to mean "collection", "assemblage", "class" or "group" in both Pāḷi and Sanskrit. It is most commonly used in reference to the Pali Buddhist ...

'') in the country, under the 1990 Law Concerning Sangha Organizations. Shwegyin Nikaya is a more orthodox order than Sudhammā Nikāya, with respect to adherence to the Vinaya, and its leadership is more centralized and hierarchical. The head of the Shwegyin Nikaya is called the ''Sangha Sammuti'' (), whose authority on doctrine and religious practice is considered absolute ().

Statistics

According to 2016 statistics published by 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 ...

, 50,692 monks belonged to this monastic order, representing 9.47% of all monks in the country, making it the second largest order after Sudhammā. With respect to geographic representation, the plurality of Shwegyin monks live in

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, ...

(23.66%), followed by

Sagaing Region Sagaing Region ( my, စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and lon ...

(17.47%), Bago Region (16.58%), and

Mandalay Region Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region t ...

(13.98%).

History

The

monastic order Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important rol ...

was founded in the mid-nineteenth century by a chief abbot monk in the village of Shwegyin (translated into english as Gold or suvaṇṇa into Pāḷi); hence, its name. It formally separated from the Sudhammā Nikāya during the reign of King

Mindon Min Mindon Min ( my, မင်းတုန်းမင်း, ; 1808 – 1878), born Maung Lwin, was the penultimate King of Burma (Myanmar) from 1853 to 1878. He was one of the most popular and revered kings of Burma. Under his half brother King P ...

, and attempts to reconcile the two sects by the last king of Burma,

Thibaw Min Thibaw Min, also Thebaw or Theebaw ( my, သီပေါ‌မင်း, ; 1 January 1859 – 19 December 1916) was the last king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) and also the last Burmese monarch in the country's history. His re ...

, were unsuccessful. Monks of the order did not participate in the nationalist and anti-colonial movement in British Burma of the early 1900s. In the 1960s, with the ascent of Ne Win to power, the order gained monastic influence in the country, as Ne Win sought counsel from a monk at the Mahagandayon Monastery, a Shwegyin monastery in Amarapura. During the

2021 Myanmar protests 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, the order urged Senior General

Min Aung Hlaing Min Aung Hlaing ( my, မင်းအောင်လှိုင် abbreviated: MAL ; born 3 July 1956) also known as Alaungsithu is a Burmese politician and army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Coun ...

to immediately cease the assaults on unarmed civilians and to refrain from engaging in theft and

property destruction Property damage (or cf. criminal damage in England and Wales) is damage or destruction of real or tangible personal property, caused by negligence, willful destruction, or act of nature. It is similar to vandalism and arson (destroying proper ...

. Its leading monks reminded the senior general to be a good Buddhist, which entailed keeping to the

Five Precepts The Five precepts ( sa, pañcaśīla, italic=yes; pi, pañcasīla, italic=yes) or five rules of training ( sa, pañcaśikṣapada, italic=yes; pi, pañcasikkhapada, italic=yes) is the most important system of morality for Buddhist lay peo ...

required for at least a human rebirth.

Statistics

History

Notes

References

See also