ABSTRACT
Since Buddhism is practiced by the ethnic majority in Burma, the Burmans, and because both the Tatmadaw and the NLD see Aung San as their spiritual father, over the past decade or more, both parties have constructed their own interpretations of Aung San’s views on and use of Buddhism and Buddhist ideas in order to support their own agendas, and either play down or magnify important elements of his character in their rhetoric. Focusing on the Buddhist rhetoric of the Burmese political elite attempts to address these interpretations of Aung San’s politics and the use, or misuse, of his views by his spiritual and natural descendants. It is also an attempt to understand the Tatmadaw’s recent behavior which, lacking such an investigation, could be considered as rather odd, incomprehensible, and even beyond reason.
