Christianity as a Majority Religion of the Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar: Exploring Triple Dialogue in the Currents of World Christianity

2019 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
David Thang Moe
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Local Religion ◽  
Mission Period ◽  
Minority Religion ◽  
World Christianity

It is common to say that Christianity is a minority religion in Asia. Yet this article argues that Christianity is a majority religion of the ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia in general and Myanmar in particular and that one dimension of dialogue is not adequate in an age of world Christianity. Using a ‘triple dialogue’ as a methodology, the article explores three of the most salient issues of Myanmar ethnic minorities in the currents of world Christianity. First, the article revisits a cross-cultural relationship between foreign missionaries and locals in a colonial period and how Western mission impacts on Christians’ relationship with people of other faiths. Second, it explores the current issues of interreligious relationship between Christians and Buddhists and how Christian-Buddhist interaction plays a role in developing Christianity as a Myanmar local religion in a postcolonial mission period. Finally, it examines an intercultural hospitality between the ethnic Christian migrants and Western Christians and a ‘glocal’ relationship between migrants and their homeland Christians in a post-Western Christian period.

Buddhist Nationalism and Burmese Christianity

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-167
Author(s):  
Pum Za Mang
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Religious Conversion ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
The West ◽  
Western Religion ◽  
The Cross ◽  
World Christianity ◽  
Political Milieu

Buddhist nationalists in Burma have characterised Christianity as a Western religion and accused Christians in the country of being more loyal to the West than to the motherland. This essay, however, argues that Christianity is not Western, but global, and that Christians in Burma are not followers of the West, but Burmese who remain as loyal to their homeland as do their fellow Burmese. It is stressed in this article that the indigenous form of Christianity after the exodus of the missionaries from Burma in 1966 has proved that Burmese Christianity should be seen not as a Western religion, but as a part of world Christianity. This article also contends that a combination of social change, political milieu, tribal religion and the cross-cultural appropriation of the gospel has contributed to religious conversion among the ethnic Chin, Kachin and Karen from tribal religion to Christianity.

scholarly journals “Imperium in Imperio”: The Corporation, Mining, and Governance in British Southeast Asia, 1900–1930

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
DAVID BAILLARGEON
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
State Model ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
State Regulations ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Corporate Ventures

This article examines the history of mining in British Southeast Asia during the early twentieth century. In particular, it focuses on the histories of the Burma Corporation and the Duff Development Company, which were located in British-occupied Burma and Malaya, respectively. It argues that despite being represented as “rogue” corporate ventures in areas under “indirect” colonial rule, the contrasting fates of each company—one successful, one not—reveal how foreign-owned businesses operating in the empire became increasingly beholden to British colonial state regulations during this period, marking a shift in policy from the “company-state” model that operated in prior centuries. The histories of these two firms ultimately demonstrate the continued significance of business in the making of empire during the late colonial period, bridging the divide between the age of company rule and the turn toward state-sponsored “development” that would occur in the mid-twentieth century.

scholarly journals Cross-cultural psychiatric assessment

1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh Bhugra ◽  
Kamaldeep Bhui
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Patient Interaction ◽  
Cultural Expectations ◽  
Different Cultures

Different cultures vary in their perceptions of mental illness (Karno & Edgerton, 1969), which can affect their utilisation of orthodox psychiatric facilities (Padilla et al, 1975; Sue, 1977). Mental health services may be seen by ethnic minorities as challenging the value of traditional support systems, reflecting dominant Western cultural values and harbouring implicitly racist psychological formulations. The clinician-patient interaction may become fraught with misunderstandings if the two parties come from different cultural backgrounds and bring distinct cultural expectations to the encounter.

FORTRESS MAYAPAN: DEFENSIVE FEATURES AND SECONDARY FUNCTIONS OF A POSTCLASSIC MAYA FORTIFICATION

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley W. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Cultural Comparison ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Postclassic Maya ◽  
The City

AbstractOne of the most distinctive features of the Postclassic capital of Mayapan is the immense wall that encloses large portions of the site's settlement zone. This 9.1 km-long feature is the largest example of a walled enclosure known in Mesoamerica. Based on ethnohistoric references, it seems that the construction was well known to Postclassic and Colonial period residents of the Northern lowlands. The most common assertion regarding the enclosures is that the wall had primarily defensive functions. Unfortunately, little solid archaeological evidence or cross-cultural comparison has been offered to support this interpretation. In this paper, I correlate the form of the gates with cross-culturally derived and unambiguously defensive features, finding that the design of the gates strongly suggests that they are indeed defensive. Possible secondary functions of the wall are also explored, such as the control of people and goods entering the city, as ritual barrier, the control of internal populations and its symbolism.

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