Dressed in their green army dress uniforms, Maj. Gen. Tun Tun Naung and his regional commanders took off their shoes and knelt before the bald Buddhist monk in his red-brown robe. Extending their arms and giving the monk dana (gifts and offerings), they listened to him and then praised his wisdom. It was Feb. 4, just three days after the latest military coup consolidated the military’s supreme power in Myanmar, and the junta was paying tribute to one of the most powerful religious figures in the country, Sitagu Sayadaw (also known as Ashin Nyanissara; ashin and sayadaw are both honorifics for Buddhist teachers).
Sitagu Sayadaw’s participation and endorsement in the democratic movement of the late 1980s against the authoritarian Tatmadaw, the Myanmar name for the armed forces, now stands in sharp contrast to his acceptance of military rule during the recent coup.
