每日英語跟讀 Ep.K215: Myanmar's Monks, Leaders of Past Protests, Are Divided Over the Coup

Day after day, despite a raging pandemic and the threat of snipers’ bullets, a small band of Buddhist monks in burgundy robes gathers in the city of Mandalay in Myanmar. Their acts of dissent last only a few minutes, hasty candlelight vigils or flash-mob protests in the shadow of a monastery with gilded eaves.

一天又一天，總有一小群穿著酒紅色僧袍的僧侶，不顧新冠肆虐和子彈威脅，聚集在緬甸瓦城。他們表達異議的行動只持續幾分鐘，在一座金屋簷的寺院附近舉行短暫燭光守夜或快閃抗議。

The clerics’ demand is lofty: men in uniform, men who protest a bit too loudly that they are pious Buddhists, must exit politics. The military has dominated Myanmar for the better part of 60 years, most recently by staging a coup against an elected government and killing more than a thousand people for daring to oppose its power grab.

這群僧侶訴求很大：穿軍服的男人，抗議得有點大聲以致不能算虔誠佛教徒的男人，應退出政治。軍方在過去60年裡大部分時間統治緬甸，最近一次是藉由發動政變推翻民選政府，並殺害千餘名反對軍方奪權的民眾。

“In the future, there should be no dictatorship at all,” read one sign held aloft by a monk Monday.

一名僧侶周一高舉標語「未來根本不該有獨裁者」。

In an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation where monks are seen as the supreme moral authority, the political chaos since the Feb. 1 coup has laid bare deep divisions within Myanmar’s clergy. While a minority of monks have openly joined the protest movement, and hundreds have been imprisoned for it, clerics have not taken the leadership role that they were known for in past bouts of resistance to the military. Some prominent monks have even given the generals their blessing.

在佛教徒占壓倒性多數、僧侶被視為最高道德權威的緬甸，從2月1日政變開始的政治亂局，暴露出緬甸佛教僧侶內部嚴重分歧。雖然少部分僧侶公開加入抗議，其中數百人因此入獄，但僧侶並沒擔負起領導抗爭的角色，跟他們在過去幾波反軍政府示威潮中不同。有些知名僧侶甚至祝福軍方將領。

This split in the monastic community, Buddhist clerics say, is partly due to the military’s assiduous courting of influential monks, luring them with donations and promises that soldiers, more than civilian leaders, are the true defenders of the faith. Harder-edged tactics have also been used to discourage monks from protesting, as armed security forces occupy monasteries — potential centers for resistance — and order clerics to return home, citing the pandemic.

佛教僧侶說，僧侶界對軍方態度不一，部分是因軍方籠絡具影響力的僧人，捐獻香油錢取悅他們，並保證軍人而非文人領袖才是佛教真正捍衛者。軍方也採用較強硬手段阻止僧人抗議，如武裝部隊占領可能成為反對運動核心的僧院，並以疫情嚴重為由命令僧侶回家。

The relative absence of monks from the protests, particularly in the first weeks after the coup, has not matched the broader mood in Myanmar. Millions marched in the streets after Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the army chief, ordered the jailing of elected leaders. Even today, as security forces shoot protesters on sight and the coronavirus rips through the country, pockets of democratic rebellion have endured.

僧侶參與反政變示威相對不踴躍，在政變發生頭幾周尤其如此，與緬甸廣大人民心聲不合。緬甸國防軍總司令敏昂萊大將下令關押民選領袖之後，數百萬人上街遊行抗議。就算是現在，安全部隊當場對示威者開槍和疫情蔓延全國之際，仍有少部分民主人士持續抗爭。

For centuries, Myanmar’s monks have taken bold political stands, from hunger strikes demanding independence from Britain to street protests against the army’s rule in 2007. And although the government-run national clerical council mostly capitulated to the new order imposed in February, some monks have defied it.

幾百年來，緬甸僧侶一直採取大膽的政治立場，從絕食抗議要求脫離英國獨立，到2007年上街反對軍方統治。雖然政府組織的全國僧侶委員會成員大多屈服於2月起軍方的新秩序，但也有僧侶反抗。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5739954