Shwegyin Nikaya

{{Short description|Buddhist monastic order in Myanmar}} {{Infobox organization |name = Shwegyin Nikaya |native_name = ရွှေကျင်နိကာယ |native_name_lang = my |image = |image_size = |abbreviation = Shwegyin |formation = 2 July 1860 |headquarters = Myanmar |type = Buddhist monastic order |leader_name = H.H Sitagu Sayadaw Bhaddanta Ñāṇissara, Soḷasama (16th) Shwegyin Thathanabaing |key_people = Shwegyin Sayadaw U Jāgara |num_members = 50,692 (2016) }} [[File:Shwekyin.jpg|thumb|In February 2012, one thousand Buddhist monks and followers gathered for the eighteenth annual Shwekyin Nikaya Conference at the compound of Dhammaduta Zetawon Tawya Monastery in Hmawbi Township, Yangon Region.]] {{Theravada Buddhism|Orders}}

'''Shwegyin Nikāya''' ({{MYname|MY=ရွှေကျင်နိကာယ|MLCTS=Hrwekyang Ni.kaya.}}, {{IPA|my|ʃwèdʑɪ́ɰ̃ nḭkàja̰|IPA}}; also spelt '''Shwekyin Nikāya''') is the second largest monastic order of monks in Burma.<ref name="phi">{{cite web |url=http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/seasia/shwegyin.html |title=Shwegyin Nikaya |accessdate=2009-04-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217115409/http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/seasia/shwegyin.html |archivedate=2008-12-17 }}</ref> It is one of the nine legally sanctioned monastic orders (Pali: ''gaṇa'') in the country, under the 1990 Law Concerning Sangha Organizations.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gutter |first1=Peter |year=2001 |title=Law and Religion in Burma |journal=Legal Issues on Burma Journal |publisher=Burma Legal Council |page=10 |issue=8 |url=http://www.blc-burma.org/pdf/liob/liob8.pdf |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314215506/http://www.blc-burma.org/pdf/liob/liob8.pdf |archivedate=March 14, 2012 }}</ref>

==Statistics== {{Burmese monastic orders 2016}} According to 2016 statistics published by the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, 50,692 monks belonged to this monastic order, representing 9.47% of all monks in the country, making it the second largest order after Sudhammā.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=The Account of Wazo Samgha of All Sect, M.E 1377 (2016) |url=http://www.mahana.org.mm/en/religious-affairs/the-account-of-wazo-samgha-of-all-sect-m-e-1377-2016/ |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=The State Samgha Maha Nayaka Committee |language=en-US}}</ref> With respect to geographic representation, the plurality of Shwegyin monks live in Yangon Region (23.66%), followed by Sagaing Region (17.47%), Bago Region (16.58%), and Mandalay Region (13.98%).<ref name=":0" /> In 2016, the order had 3,608 monasteries, representing 6% of the country's monasteries.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=The Account Monasteries of All-Sect in 1377 (2016) |url=http://www.mahana.org.mm/en/religious-affairs/the-account-monasteries-of-all-sect-in-1377-2016/ |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=The State Samgha Maha Nayaka Committee |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Doctrine== Shwegyin Nikaya is a more orthodox order than Thudhamma Gaing, with respect to adherence to the Vinaya,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Aung-Thwin |first1=Michael |year=2009 |title=Of Monarchs, Monks, and Men: Religion and the State in Myanmar |journal=Working Paper Series No. 127 |publisher=Asia Research Institute |issue=18 |url=http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/docs/wps/wps09_127.pdf }}</ref> and its leadership is more centralised and hierarchical.<ref>{{cite book |title=Burma's mass lay meditation movement |last=Jordt |first=Ingrid |year=2007 |publisher=Ohio University Press |isbn=978-0-89680-255-1 |page=50 }}</ref>

== Leadership == Shwegyin Nikaya is led by a Thathanabaing with the title Shwegyin Thathanabaing<ref name=BBCSKTB/> Shwegyin Nikāyādhipati Ukkaṭṭha Mahā Nāyaka Dhammasenāpati ({{lang|my|ရွှေကျင်သာသနာပိုင် ရွှေကျင်နိကာယာဓိပတိဥက္ကဋ္ဌ မဟာနာယကဓမ္မသေနာပတိ}})<ref name=Stg>{{cite web |url=https://thesitagu.org/index.php/news-info/gazette/1189-2025-08-29-07-10-48 |title=သီတဂူဆရာတော်ကြီးအား သောဠသမ ရွှေကျင်သာသနာပိုင် ဘွဲ့တံဆိပ်တော်များ အဆောင်ယောင်များကို ရွှေကျင်နိကာယဂိုဏ်းလုံးဝန်ဆောင် အကျိုးတော်ဆောင် ဆရာတော်များက လာရောက် ဆက်ကပ်ခြင်း |trans-title=The offering of Soḷasama Shwegyin Thathanabaing title insignias to the Sitagu Sayadawgyi by the Shwegyin Nikāya whole-sect seceretary Sayadaws |accessdate=9 November 2025 |website=Sitagu International Buddhist Missionary Association |date=29 August 2025}}</ref> whose authority on doctrine and religious practice is considered absolute.<ref name="carb">{{cite book|last=Carbine|first=Jason A|title=Sons of the Buddha: Continuities and Ruptures in a Burmese Monastic Tradition|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|date=2011|volume=50|isbn=978-3-11-025409-9}}</ref> Sitagu Sayadaw Ashin Ñānissara is the incumbent Shwegyin Thathanabaing.<ref name=Stg/>

The Thathanabaing is assisted by four Associate Thathanabaings<ref>{{cite web |url=https://elevenmyanmar.com/headline/35733 |title=မှော်ဘီမြို့နယ် အောက်ဝါးနက်ချောင်းကျေးရွာ ဓမ္မဒူတဇေတဝန်တောရ ဆေကိန္ဒာရာမကျောင်းတိုက်တွင် ဇန်နဝါရီ ၃၁ ရက်က ကျင်းပခဲ့သည့်အကြိမ် (၂၀) မြောက် ဗုဒ္ဓသာသနာတော်လုံးဆိုင်ရာ ရွှေကျင်နိကာယသံဃာ့အစည်းအဝေးကို တွေ့ရစဉ် |accessdate=9 November 2025 |website=Eleven Media Group |date=22 November 2018 |lang=my }}</ref> with the title Associate Shwegyin Thathanabaing Shwegyin Nikāya Upa Ukkaṭṭha Mahā Nāyaka ({{lang|my|ရွှေကျင်သာသနာပိုင် ရွှေကျင်နိကာယ ဥပဥက္ကဋ္ဌ မဟာနာယက}})<ref name=DGUMM>{{cite book |author=ဓမ္မဃောသကဦးမောင်မောင် |date= March 1989 |title=နိုင်ငံတော်အသိအမှတ်ပြုသံဃာ့ဂိုဏ်းကြီးကိုးဂိုဏ်းအကြောင်း |url=https://www.kbrl.gov.mm/book/details/002663?categoryId=29 |trans-title=About The State Recognized Nine Major Sects of Saṃghā |language=my |location=Rangoon |publisher=စိန်ပန်းမြိုင်စာပေတိုက် |access-date=29 October 2025}}</ref>{{rp|20}} Currently, the Rector Sayadaw Ashin Nandamālābhivaṁsa is the only surviving one, among the four Associate Shwegyin Thathanabaings appointed in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/burmese/articles/c72rdn444ygo |title=ရွှေကျင်ဂိုဏ်း- တွဲဖက်သာသနာပိုင် စည်ရှင်ဆရာတော်ကြီးပျံလွန်တော်မူ |trans-title=Shwegyin Sect - Associate Thathanabaing Sishin Sayadawgyi has passed away |accessdate=9 November 2025 |website=BBC |date=19 November 2023}}</ref>

==History== The sect was founded in 1860 by Ashin Zagara, a chief abbot monk in the village of Shwegyin (translated into English as Gold or Suvaṇṇa into Pāḷi); hence, its name.<ref name="carb" /> It formally separated from the Thudhamma Gaing during the reign of King Mindon Min, and attempts to reconcile the two sects by the last king of Burma, Thibaw Min, were unsuccessful.<ref name="phi"/>

The Shwegyin sect emerged as a response to King Mindon’s centralised control over the Sangha via the Thudhamma Council.<ref name="james">{{cite book |last=James |first=Helen |title=Governance and civil society in Myanmar: education, health, and environment |date=2005 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-35558-2 |pages=81}}</ref> After clashing with Saṃgha authorities, the Shwegyin Sayadaw secured royal approval to remain independent from the Thathanabaing of Burma and Thudhamma Council.<ref name=":2">{{Citation |last=Schober |first=Juliane |title=Theravada Cultural Hegemony in Precolonial Burma |date=2010-11-30 |work=Modern Buddhist Conjunctures in Myanmar: Cultural Narratives, Colonial Legacies, and Civil Society |pages=0 |editor-last=Schober |editor-first=Juliane |url=https://academic.oup.com/hawaii-scholarship-online/book/16781/chapter-abstract/173930689?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2025-05-11 |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |doi=10.21313/hawaii/9780824833824.003.0002 |isbn=978-0-8248-3382-4|url-access=subscription }}</ref> King Thibaw offered the Shwegyin Sayadaw the title of Thathanabaing<ref name=SKVR>{{cite book |author=Mahāvisuddhārāma Sayadaw |date=2013 |title=ရွှေကျင်ဝံသာနုရက္ခိတကျမ်း |url=https://dhamma-library.cdn.winmetta.org/%E1%81%81%E1%81%80%E1%81%8B%20%E1%80%99%E1%80%BC%E1%80%94%E1%80%BA%E1%80%99%E1%80%AC%E1%80%9B%E1%80%BE%E1%80%AC%E1%80%B8%20%28%E1%81%81%29/%E1%81%82%E1%81%83%E1%81%8B%20%E1%80%A1%E1%80%91%E1%80%BD%E1%80%B1%E1%80%91%E1%80%BD%E1%80%B1/%E1%80%9B%E1%80%BD%E1%80%BE%E1%80%B1%E1%80%80%E1%80%BB%E1%80%84%E1%80%BA%E1%80%9D%E1%80%B6%E1%80%9E%E1%80%AC%E1%80%94%E1%80%AF%E1%80%9B%E1%80%80%E1%80%B9%E1%80%81%20%28%E1%80%9D%E1%80%AD%E1%80%9E%E1%80%AF%E1%80%92%E1%80%B9%E1%80%93%E1%80%AB%E1%80%9B%E1%80%AF%E1%80%B6%E1%80%86%E1%80%9B%E1%80%AC%E1%80%90%E1%80%B1%E1%80%AC%E1%80%BA%29.pdf |trans-title=Shwegyin Vaṃsānurakkhita Treatise |language=my |location=Mandalay |publisher=Shwegyin Nikaya Literature Preservation Group}}</ref>{{rp|86}} in parallel to that of the Thathanabaing of Burma of Thudhamma Gaing. Known for their strict adherence to Vinaya, Shwegyin monks distinguished themselves from the more lenient Thudhamma majority, reflecting broader religious divisions shaped by colonial influence.<ref name=":2" />

Under British colonial rule, the group gradually formalised its structure to preserve its identity amid the loss of monarchical support.<ref name="james2">{{cite book |last=James |first=Helen |title=Governance and civil society in Myanmar: education, health, and environment |date=2005 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-35558-2 |pages=81}}</ref> By 1920, the Shwegyin monks held their first official meeting, asserting their autonomy while still recognising the Thudhamma Council.<ref name="james2" /> They established their own administrative system, court, monk registry, and historical records.<ref name="james2" /> Their leader, the Shwegyin Thathanabaing, functioned similarly to the Thathanabaing of Thudhamma Council, overseeing organisation, discipline, and doctrinal matters, effectively creating an independent, self-governing monastic body.<ref name="james2" />

Monks of the order did not participate in the nationalist and anti-colonial movement in British Burma of the early 1900s. In the 1960s, with the ascent of Ne Win to power, the order gained monastic influence in the country, as Ne Win sought counsel from a monk at the Mahagandayon Monastery, a Shwegyin monastery in Amarapura.<ref>{{cite book|last=Matthews|first=Bruce|author2=Judith A. Nagata |others=Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies|title=Religion, values, and development in Southeast Asia|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies|date=1986|pages=61|isbn=9789971988203}}</ref> During the 2021 Myanmar protests, the order urged Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to immediately cease the assaults on unarmed civilians and to refrain from engaging in theft and property destruction.<ref name="shwegyinposition">{{Cite web |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/criticized-myanmars-influential-monk-close-coup-leader-breaks-silence-killing-protesters.html |title=Criticized, Myanmar's Influential Monk Close to Coup Leader Breaks Silence on Killing Protesters |access-date=6 March 2021 |archive-date=7 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307095017/https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/criticized-myanmars-influential-monk-close-coup-leader-breaks-silence-killing-protesters.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="statevandalism">{{cite web|url=https://www.myanmar-now.org/en/news/from-petty-crimes-to-atrocities-myanmars-junta-rules-through-lawlessness|title=From Petty Crimes to Atrocities, Myanmar's Junta Rules through Lawlessness|website=Myanmar Now|date=2021-04-28}}</ref> Its leading monks reminded the Senior General to be a good Buddhist,<ref name="shwegyinposition" /> which entailed keeping to the Five Precepts required for at least a human rebirth.{{efn|This letter, released in March, gained notoriety for the discrepancies between its signed original draft and its final version, the latter which appears to have legitimized Min Aung Hlaing's rule through a veiled reference to him as king.<ref name=2021shwekyinletterdiscrepancy>{{cite web|url=https://insightmyanmar.org/burmadhammablog/2021/3/16/the-4th-point|website=Insight Myanmar|date=2021-03-16|title=The 4th Point}}</ref> The Burmese word for 'king', ''min'' ({{MYname|MY=မင်း|MLCTS=mang:}}), coincides with the first syllable of the general's name,<ref name=2021shwekyinletterdiscrepancy/> even in the Burmese script.}}

==List of Shwegyin Thathanabaings== The following are the Sayadaws who have served as the '''Shwegyin Thathanabaing'''<ref name=BBCSKTB>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/burmese/institutional-42917902 |title=ရွှေကျင်သာသနာပိုင်များ |trans-title=Shwegyin Thathanabaings |accessdate=10 July 2025 |website=BBC |date=2 February 2018}}</ref> (Shwegyin Gaṇādhipati/ Shwegyin Nikāyādhipati Ukkaṭṭha Mahā Nāyaka) from the time of King Mindon.<ref name=SGH>{{cite book |author=ကထိကရဟန်း (ဥုးမာနိတသိရီဘိဝံသ) |date=2020 |title=ရွှေကျင်ဂိုဏ်းသမိုင်း (အတွဲ ၁ + ၂ + ၃ + ၄) |url=https://www.myanmarbookshop.com/%28X%281%29%29//MyanmarBooks/BookDetails/56247 |trans-title=Shwegyin Sect History (Volume 1 + 2 + 3 + 4)|language=my |location=Mandalay |publisher=Shwegyin Nikaya Literature Preservation Group}}</ref><ref name=DTTH>{{cite book |author=Dr. Than Tun |date=2018 |title=ရွှေကျင်နိကာယသမိုင်း |url=http://www.highlightcomputer.com/%E1%80%9B%E1%80%BD%E1%80%BE%E1%80%B1%E1%80%80%E1%80%BB%E1%80%84%E1%80%BA%E1%80%94%E1%80%AD%E1%80%80%E1%80%AC%E1%80%9A%E1%80%9E%E1%80%99%E1%80%AD%E1%80%AF%E1%80%84%E1%80%BA%E1%80%B8-%E1%80%92%E1%80%B1%E1%80%AB%E1%80%80%E1%80%BA%E1%80%90%E1%80%AC%E1%80%9E%E1%80%94%E1%80%BA%E1%80%B8%E1%80%91%E1%80%BD%E1%80%94%E1%80%BA%E1%80%B8.pdf |trans-title=Shwegyin Nikāya History |language=my |location=Mandalay |publisher=Shwegyin Nikaya Literature Preservation Group}}</ref>{{rp|30}} {| class="wikitable" |+ !Serial number !Title !Popular name !Monk name !Start of duty !End of duty |- |Paṭhama (First) |Shwegyin Thathanabaing, Shwegyin Gaṇasamuṭṭhāpaka |Shwegyin Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Jāgara |1868 |1893 |- |Dutiya (Second) | rowspan="18" |Shwegyin Thathanabaing, Shwegyin Nikāyādhipati Ukkaṭṭha Mahā Nāyaka Dhammasenāpati |Mahāvisuddhārāma Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Visuddhācāra |1894 |1916 |- | rowspan="2" |Tatiya (Third) |Kyaikkasan Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Uttama | rowspan="2" |1916 |1917 |- |Dipeyin Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Ñānavara |1927 |- |Catuttha (Fourth) |Alon Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Tissa |1917 |1928 |- |Pañcama (Fifth) |Chanthagyi Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Jalinda |1929 |1932 |- |Chaṭṭhama (Sixth) |Hladawgyi Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Rājinda {{aka}} Rādha |1933 |1934 |- |Sattama (Seventh) |Kyaiklat Pacchimāyon Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Kolāsa |1934 |1949 |- |Aṭṭhama (Eighth) |Kanni Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Kosalla |1949 |1950 |- |Navama (Nine) |Sangin Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Candābhivaṃsa |1951 |1972 |- |Dasama (Tenth) |Myaungmya Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Ñānābhivaṃsa |1973 |1975 |- |Ekādasama (Eleventh) |Kyemyin Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Jotayābhivaṃsa |1976 |1989 |- |Dvādasama (Twelfth) |Shwehintha Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Panḍitasīri |1990 |1995 |- |Terasama (Thirteenth) |Nyaungshwe Kangyi Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Vimalābhivaṃsa |1996 |2003 |- |Cuddasama (Fourteenth) |Wazo Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Agghiya |2004 |2016 |- |Pannarasama (Fifteenth) |Vijjotāyon Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Vijjota |2017 |2021 |- |Soḷasama (Sixteenth) |Sītagū Sayadaw |Bhaddanta Ñāṇissara |2021 |To this day |}

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Buddhism in Myanmar Category:Theravada Buddhist orders Category:Schools of Buddhism founded in Myanmar