ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that some of the ways in which religion is deployed in Myanmar. Religion is constituted as beliefs, worship, sacred space, entertainment, and even the protection of women. Religious affiliation shows varying degrees of exclusivity and stability. The chapter analyses how the words of persons and public documents both articulate diverse notions of religion and sketches out broad features of Myanmar's religious climate. It argues that currently inflected by discourses that evoke the looming threat of a non-Buddhist minority described in terms that blend religion, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and national belonging. In 2014, Myanmar's Ministry of Immigration and Population and the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) jointly conducted a national census. This survey included assessment of religion. According to the 2008 Myanmar Constitution, the state is a secular institution, meaning religiously neutral. This secularity is theoretically maintained by prohibiting religious discrimination and banning certain forms of political participation by members of the clergy, such as voting.
