ARI Working Paper Series

The relationship between religion and the state during the pre-colonial period was the most dominant one in Burmese society for at least a thousand years if not more. With the dawn of the colonial period, it saw a hiatus, but revived when nationalism took center stage. After independence in 1948, the relationship once again became important and remains so until today. Whereas their economic relationship was more crucial in the earlier phases of the pre-colonial period, their political relationship increasingly assumed a larger role as time went on, until today it is predominantly political. Throughout this slow transformation, their symbolic relationship remained largely unchanged. This essay is a summary of that historical process beginning with the Pagan period in the mid 11th century until the present.