The Disappearing Alms Rounds
Our monastic team leader on the ground has written the following update regarding the recent challenges that monastics are facing in receiving adequate food amid the conflict now raging across the country. Because of these ongoing problems, we have initiated a new program called The Alms Rounds in which foreign donors can directly support monks and nuns in need through an earmarked donation to this cause. We thank you in advance for any support to this project!
Due to the economic collapse since the first days of the military coup in 2021, ordinary people did not only suffer from its effects but the monastic communities also encountered food insecurity. The World Food Programme (WFP) reported the country’s emergency, based on the latest estimates, that 13.3 million people are food insecure due to political crisis, conflict, economic downturn, pre-existing poverty, and climate-related shocks. For these reasons, this country-wide crisis has impacted monastic communities including monks, nuns, and novices, relying only on local alms.
Our local team recently conducted research and we discovered that monastic communities are not obtaining nourishing food regularly in the cities with a large monastic population. Sadly, the same thing is true in many rural areas as well. To help these monastic communities across the country, we will begin to organize almsgiving activities during the ‘rounds of alms’ of the monks and novices. We will survey communal almsgiving charity associations in different communities and help the struggling associations to continue their noble charity works, as far as our overseas donations can come in to support.
We are now developing a plan to organize regular almsgiving in the Sagaing Hills, one of the holy Buddhist sites in my country. The Sagaing Hills are covered with a cluster of pagodas, monasteries, and nunneries. According to the book ‘The History of Famous Pagodas in Sagaing’ written by Nandar Min Lwin and the 2018 report of the Sagaing Township Department of Religious Affairs under the Ministry of Immigration, there were 8,332 monks and 6,803 novices in 1,389 monasteries, and 8,441 nuns in 476 nunneries all over the Sagaing Township. It also reported that there were 719 Buddha Statues (ဘုရား), 881 pagodas (စေတီ) and 4 stupas (ပုထိုး) in the township in March 2017. Our second target group of monastic beneficiaries will be the monastic communities in Mandalay, the ancient capital city of Myanmar in the late 19th Century. It is also another city where there is a large monastic population as large as in Sagaing. We mainly work to offer alms rice and some nourishing curries such as chicken, fish, or egg, for monks and novices weekly, bi-weekly and monthly.
Our second program is to help the local monastic almsgiving charities continue their works which were halted due to the economic collapse after the coup in 2021. A lot of monastic communities all over our country used to rely on these kinds of local small-scale and big-scale communal almsgiving groups from the level of an urban quarter to the township-wide. Due to the lack of volunteers and local donors given the current conflict and danger and poor economy, the charities almost disappeared or most of their charitable works were halted over the last four years after the coup. It is really tragic. Many of these programs have lasted for over a century, through things like World War II, the colonial period, the previous military takeovers of Ne Win and Than Shwe, etc. But now, this has become too much, and the result is that our monks and nuns are going hungry. It is very worrying, to be honest.
And so, any donations that are earmarked for this cause will be directly allocated to support these efforts. We want to help to provide regular meals and sustain the charitable work that has been severely affected by the ongoing crisis. Your contribution will help relieve the burden on local communities and keep alive the tradition of supporting monks, nuns, and novices who depend on these alms for their daily sustenance.