Episode #302: Blood on the Lotus
Thabarwa Sayadaw’s rise to prominence as a revered figure in Myanmar’s religious and humanitarian landscape is closely intertwined with the complex socio-political dynamics of the country. For readers unfamiliar with this famous monk, a short biographical section is provided below, pulled from an interview that Thabarwa Sayadaw gave on this platform back in 2019; it is not just the first interview ever published on Insight Myanmar Podcast, but remains one of the most listened-to episodes of all time!
Born into a family of Chinese ancestry in Myanmar, Thabarwa Sayadaw describes his early life as being shaped by significant hardships under the military regime. Like many others from marginalized communities, he faced severe restrictions due to his lack of full citizenship rights. These limitations barred him from pursuing higher education and forced him to navigate life through alternative means. He eventually turned to entrepreneurship and opened a convenience store franchise. His business ventures thrived—no small feat before the transition period, when corruption was rampant—but the success came at a cost. The immense stress involved in running the business led him to experience a series of nervous breakdowns, pushing him to seek solace in meditation.
Thabarwa’s early engagement with intensive practice began within the Mogok and Thae Ingu traditions, but it was his immersion in vipassana meditation at the Dhamma Joti Vipassanā Center, established in the tradition of S.N. Goenka, that had the most profound impact on him. This transformative experience inspired him to seek full ordination as a monk, a decision that would alter the course of his life. He established his first meditation center in downtown Yangon, occupying part of a residential building. However, his vision quickly expanded, and over time, Thabarwa’s humanitarian work began to attract a larger following. His work led to the creation of his flagship monastery in Than Lyin, where he and his disciples began providing shelter, food, and care to those on the margins of society. His mission continued to expand, and the focus on serving the poor, elderly, disabled, and displaced has become a defining feature of his work.
The success of Thabarwa’s charitable efforts, however, cannot be separated from the broader political context in Myanmar. Under the military regime, Thabarwa described his centers operating under constant threat. The military’s tight control over public and religious life made it difficult for monasteries like his to secure donations or even operate openly. At one point during our interview, Thabarwa shared that his center’s very existence was threatened by the authorities, and that local officials once attempted to shut it down for good, citing illegal construction and lack of proper permits. “A government officer reported that the Thabarwa center is opening illegally and making construction without permit. It was really dangerous because many people were staying at the center,” he recalled in the interview. For a period, the center operated discreetly, always under the looming threat of closure.
However, the country’s transition to greater societal freedoms after the 2012 reforms marked a critical turning point for Tharbarwa’s mission. With the introduction of a free press and increased personal liberties, the center’s welcoming embrace of marginalized communities gained public visibility and legitimacy, and with that, validation and support. Thabarwa acknowledged in that same interview that the freedom which journalists were then able to operate played a crucial role in ensuring his center’s survival. The increased media attention brought greater stability to his growing network of centers, which eventually allowed him to expand internationally, thus allowing his mission to grow and thrive in ways that were previously impossible under military rule.
But this present episode, which covers Thabarwa Sayadaw’s deeds and actions following the 2021 military coup, tells a quite different story. Our guest, Jansen Stovicek, originally from the Czech Republic, was a long-time Buddhist monk in Myanmar, known as Ashin Sarana. He spent time with Thabarwa both prior to and since the coup, and his perspective is both informed and timely. (Note that although he has since disrobed, because he was still a monk at the time of our interview, we will refer to him by his monastic name.)
Ashin Sarana begins the discussion by reflecting on interactions he had with Thabarwa Sayadaw prior to the coup, which were overwhelmingly positive. For three years, he made biweekly trips to Thanlyin, where he gave Dhamma talks and taught meditation to Burmese and foreign yogis. “We had a very good relationship,” he recalls, noting how their partnership helped expand Buddhist teachings within the community. He recounts that their relationship grew so close that Thabarwa would sometimes invite him to sit beside him on a teaching throne, translating his teachings into English as they were being delivered in Burmese. Ashin Sarana also remembers how Thabarwa had offered him a place to stay when he was struggling to find a monastery due to various issues, including the COVID pandemic.
Yet, as it did for so many people in Myanmar, everything changed after the military coup in February, 2021. Alarmed at the brutal crackdowns that took the lives of many nonviolent activists, Ashin Sarana could not stay silent, and joined an Insight Myanmar episode to express his views. Arguing that Buddhism cannot coexist in any form with dictatorship, he called out the regime’s violence and oppression, insisting that this was antithetical to the core values of compassion, peace, and non-violence found in Buddhism. His decision to publicly speak out against the regime landed him in the military’s crosshairs. When he learned his safety was at risk, he had to flee the country.
Thabarwa Sayadaw took a very different path, one that may be surprising given what is known of his own past persecution at the hands of the military. Soon after the coup, he began expressing concern about the actions of activists and democracy leaders, framing their nonviolent protests as emotionally charged and misguided. Back in 2021, when BBC Burmese asked him about anti-Muslim human rights violations, Thabarwa Sayadaw avoided the question by instead voicing his frustration about an early protest in which the military began attacking civilians. He claimed without evidence that the activists were likely responsible for the clashes, and that the soldiers merely trying to restore order. He said: “In this case, a lot of people are in the protest and there are some who are aggressive in nature and who incite violence as they can't control their emotions. There are a lot of people, so there is a lot of misunderstanding and mistakes. More importantly, there is a lot of misunderstanding with people believing in false rumors, who see truth in falsehood, so they say falsehood and act falsely which becomes harder to control.” Essentially, the Sayadaw painted those young activists as immature and prone to believing in “fake truths.” Sadly, there is no record of Thabarwa Sayadaw criticizing the regime, period, not even about the violence and death its soldiers inflicted during those infamous crackdowns.
Indeed, Thabarwa Sayadaw has demonstrated a reluctance to criticize the junta in any form, leading many to conclude that he actually supports the military. Several months after the coup, a video showing a discussion between the Sayadaw and his supporters was posted online, and soon went viral—but for all the wrong reasons. At one point, Thabarwa was asked about the military’s ongoing campaigns in minority communities. He answered, “One of the strengths of the military is the advantage of religion. In the border areas there is no one to do it. The army is the only one who is doing good in those areas, building pagodas, monasteries, and giving alms.” To say that such remarks are shocking is an understatement, given the well-documented history of human rights abuses—extending to a formal declarations of genocide, as in the case of the Rohingya—committed by the military in Myanmar’s ethnic regions.
However, Thabarwa Sayadaw continues to claim that he is not pro-military or anti-democracy, despite these concerning past statements. This is also what he told U Sarana when he met him last year in Vietnam. “He was repeating again and again that he is not on any of the two sides,” Ashin Sarana recounted. “He says he cannot ask the military to stop doing anything because if he does that, then the military will not listen or they could be disappointed.” Hearing this, U Sarana wondered if Thabarwa was implying that his silence—verging on passive support—might be a strategic choice.
It is this line of argumentation that his supporters use as a defense, as they insist that it is only his “neutrality,” in their words, that allows him to continue his impressive humanitarian work, without becoming a target of the military regime. As explained in detail in his first interview, Thabarwa Sayadaw’s teachings focus primarily on the cultivation of merit through good deeds, such as providing food, shelter, and medical care to those in need. His network of centers operates with an open-door policy, offering help to anyone regardless of background or beliefs. Therefore, his supporters insist Thabarwa must tread very carefully to ensure that his vital humanitarian projects can continue. (In this sense, he could be compared to Sitagu Sayadaw, another well-known monk who continues to support large scale aid work even while acting and speaking in ways that legitimatize the military junta.)
But the reality is that Thabarwa’s actual statements are far from neutral: they only either defend the military or speak critically about protestors and religious minorities. And so for many, his unwillingness to condemn the military’s violent actions, as well as his occasional remarks about the military being a stabilizing force in the country (as well as a Buddhist protector), suggest a far more sympathetic—even apologist—stance than he and his supporters acknowledge.
Another theory attempting to make sense of Thabarwa Sayadaw’s post-coup statements is that as a Buddhist monk, he simply doesn’t know too much about what’s really happening on the ground, or in the political sphere. “It seems that he’s very much relying on the information given by the military and therefore he’s unable to accept any information from anywhere else,” Ashin Sarana notes. This is also a view that Ashin Kovida expressed in a previous interview, adding that he thinks Thabarwa’s overall perspective is “xenophobic.”
Ashin Sarana was himself surprised as he began to hear some of Thabarwa’s views in the months following the coup. “I did not agree with them,” he remarks simply. This disagreement reached a critical point during a meeting between them in Vietnam, where he directly challenged the Sayadaw, highlighting the ideological divide that had developed between them. More specifically, Ashin Sarana expressed concerns that Thabarwa was being swayed by military-backed narratives, particularly regarding the actions of the opposition groups. He notes that Thabarwa seemed to accept the military’s version of events, in which groups like the People's Defence Force (PDF) were painted as the instigators of violence, and the military being concerned primarily with law and order. Despite his efforts to correct the narrative, he was not able to get Thabarwa to accept that much of the unrest was caused by the military’s repeated human rights violations.
Ashin Sarana went on to express concern that Thabarwa’s students also seemed largely unaware of the broader political and humanitarian efforts being undertaken by the National Unity Government (NUG). “I could see that they were amazed—they didn’t know that the NUG is actually sending humanitarian support successfully.” He went on to inform them that “the military just kills, steals, and imprisons.”
Another topic which Thabarwa Sayadaw has strong opinions about concerns Aung San Suu Kyi, and his deeply negative remarks about her struck a particularly concerning chord with Ashin Sarana. He notes how the Sayadaw had made statements suggesting that Suu Kyi was to blame for the country’s political crisis, asserting that she should no longer engage in politics. “He was suggesting that actually, she is responsible for all of the errors that are in Myanmar!” Ashin Sarana exclaims. “He’s saying that, of course, it’s better if the military, alone, is in power because when there is one party in power, it is easier to decide and resolve problems.” This also made it difficult for him to understand how Sayadaw could claim that he was not taking sides. “The problem was that he didn’t say anything like that about the military! People were wondering, why does he suggest that Aung San Suu Kyi stop her work, but he doesn’t say the same for the military?” The outrage from Thabarwa’s statements spread across borders, and his arrival at the San Francisco Airport was greeted by members of the Burmese diaspora who came out to protest him.
Some believe that Thabarwa Sayadaw has so deeply drunk the military’s kool-aid that he has become indoctrinated into believing their spurious justifications that their main aim is to protect Buddhism, and that he fears an improved economy in Myanmar will prove detrimental to the peoples’ religious faith. In many talks, Thabarwa has expressed a deep suspicion of the role that modern development plays, saying that economic growth, education, and foreign influence will erode traditional Buddhist values. “He has expressed the view that development is not compatible with Buddhism,” Ashin Sarana explains.
Moreover, Thabarwa has suggested that even education and access to professional opportunities are problematic, as they heighten the sense of ego, and make it harder to follow the Buddha’s teachings. For example, in the aforementioned video, Thabarwa stated, “When people become educated, they become arrogant and start thinking they know the best ... As long as you don’t give up this pride, you think you are your own master, you don’t let anyone teach you, then religion becomes weaker.” Ashin Sarana finds this stance especially troubling; he strongly believes that it is only when a society has achieved a measure of financial stability and physical safety can they have the time and means to devote themselves to practice and study, not to mention being able to offer sufficient almsgiving and material support for the Sangha.
Finally, there is another, very different kind of argument that some of Thabawa's disciples have made to justify his statements: that he has attained high mental states, possibly even full enlightenment, and so his thinking has quite literally transcended conventional thinking altogether.
Thabarwa, himself, is not shy about suggesting that he is somehow special, his speech and actions beyond what others can accurately evaluate. In a second, as-yet unpublished interview with Insight Myanmar, he said, “I am not a normal citizen in Myanmar. I am a meditator. I am also a meditation teacher. So my view will not be the same as the common people in the country for sure. I can do more than the normal people.” Thabarwa goes on to define “normal people” as those who do not fully appreciate the complexities of cause-and-effect and the role of karma. He used the example of how, in his view, the people’s anger towards the military for locking up political prisoners was misdirected. To him, the activists’ own, past actions resulted in bad karma today, and so blaming the military reveals an incomplete understanding of Buddhist cosmology, and therefore immature development as a meditator. In the same way, the military’s power grab is credited to their past good deeds, but ignores the role of their violence and corruption. In the same interview, Thabarwa said, “There are problems between those who are using a one-sided view, and I want to solve the problem using Right Understanding. There is no limit in my teaching, and no limit in my action, that is I'm using the power of the truth.”
Thabawa’s belief that he understands the workings of the world beyond what others can virtually shuts down any attempt at real communication, as he and his followers believe that his wisdom simply surpasses the views and opinions of “normal people.”
Ashin Sarana does acknowledge that Thabarwa’s calm demeanor and apparent absence of anger was impressive, even during heated debates, is often interpreted as a sign of spiritual advancement. “I was actually challenging him incredibly fiercely at some points,” he says, “but the Sayadaw never showed even a little bit of negative emotion, like zero, even when the discussion seemed to be hot. Regardless how I tried to challenge him in whatever ways, totally no anger, ever.”
However, when considering Thabarwa’s history of statements that seem to condone the willful committing of violence and terror by the military, express discomfort towards non-Buddhists and show near contempt for democracy activists as misguided and ignorant, one may well find it hard to accept the veracity of his attainments as reason to place him above reproach. Ashin Sarana also expresses deep concerns that anyone who apparently sees himself as fully enlightened would be able to hold so strongly onto such what Ashin Sarana believes are seemingly misguided views on Myanmar’s political situation, because they are so are easily contradicted by the facts. “One thing I need to add is that there is one kind of attachment that arahants entirely relinquish, and that is attachment to views. And I wonder if the Sayadaw actually has attachment to a view regarding the military.”