ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the contemporary period will be taken to mean the period of Ne Win's government, from 1962. The religious minorities contributed significantly to events which led to the military take-over on 2 March 1962. Of the various frontier peoples or ethnic minorities in Burma, the Karen have the largest number of Christians in absolute and percentage terms. The fact that only a minority became Christians and that the majority of Karens are Buddhists suggests that it is a minority of Karens among whom such millenarian ideas were held with any vigour. When 'religious minorities' are juxtaposed with the Buddhist majority in Burma, it is easy to make the mistake of assuming that a plurality is being contrasted with a unity. What makes the Shan a Buddhist minority in Burma is the combination of their cultural and political interests in a characteristically Shan stance, over against Burman Buddhists.
