1 chapter 12 A Generation of Monks in the Democratic Transition Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière In September 2007, images of tens of thousands of Burmese monks peacefully demonstrating in the name of a population muzzled by the military regime were shown over and over again on television screens around the world. In July 2013, U Wirathu, a Burmese monk, made the headlines in Time Asia magazine, this time to illustrate a story on religious nationalism in Theravada Buddhism with the heading “The Face of Buddhist Terror”. Such contrasting examples of the involvement of religious members of Burma’s Buddhist monastic order (sangha) in public life have equally impressed and confounded international public opinion that has little understanding of a country about which, for a long time, hardly anything leaked out. The span of time that separates these two episodes highlights the sudden evolution of the political situation that occurred when the army that had ruled since 1962 handed power over to a transitional government. In 2008, a new constitution was adopted through UHIHUHQGXP LQ  WKH ｿUVW QDWLRQDO HOHFWLRQ ZDV KHOG DQG LQ 0DUFK 2011, the military partially withdrew from power to make room for a democratic interim government. This unexpected transformation, ZKLFK DW ｿUVW ZDV PHW ZLWK VFHSWLFLVP E\ PRVW IRUHLJQ REVHUYHUV VWLOO needs to be assessed, especially from the standpoint of the upcoming elections scheduled for 2015. In the meantime, the transformation has had indisputable effects. At the very least, for this country in which 12 Metamorphosis ch12IT-1P.indd 1 28/7/15 2:50 pm