Changing Buddhist Practice in Burma - Online Burma Library

support. According to Ferguson (1978: 70), Sangha was composed of
different sects, and the rise of a particular sect was often correlated with the
rise of new kings. In other words, a new king would nominate a new sect,
rather than the one sponsored by the previous king, and both king and Sangha
found their respective legitimation in this new cycle.
When a new sect came to be associated with the powerful, its rival would
'respond' in opposition by retreating into the forest and adopting different
monastic rules and norms. Similarly, with his rise to political power, after
nominating the official Sangha, the Burmese king would construct and reside
in a new city, donate new pagodas and monasteries, and appoint new
ministers, both at court level and as representatives in remote regions
(Ferguson 1978: 67-83). The advent and subsequent growth of the Shwegyin
sect, contended Ferguson (1978: 71-5), in Burma in 19 th - 20 th centuries was
due to the political process of the quest for legitimacy associated with the
accession of King Mindon, who reigned from 1853 to 1878.
The survival and maintenance of Buddhism depended on king and his polity.
King and Sangha interacted and related to each other in reciprocal as well as
antagonistic relationships. In the reciprocal relationship "Kingship, as the crux
of order in society, provides the conditions and the context for the survival of
sasana (religion). They need each other: religion in being supported by an
ordered and prosperous society is able to act as the 'field of merit' in which
merit making can be enacted and its fruits enjoyed, while the king as the
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