ABSTRACT
This chapter re-examines the conditions of the Burmese monastic hierarchies under colonialism with a focus on the thathanabaing's office. It starts with an analysis of existing knowledge on monastic hierarchies and its underlying assumptions. These assumptions are reconsidered in the light of empirical evidence thus providing a new baseline to discuss the influence of colonial transformations on monastic hierarchies. Then the chapter analyzes the activities of the last thathanabaing and his allies and their relevance for centralization of monastic structures in Burma. It compares the case of Upper Burma with some recent studies about the trajectories of Sinhalese and Southeast Asian Buddhism under colonialism. Colonial production of knowledge on monastic structures also might be analyzed as an overlap of interests, for every party that has contributed to the thathanabaing project had a stake in finding centralized authority in Burmese sangha.
