Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some call the Saffron Revolution.
The Saffron Revolution (Burmese: ) was a series of economic and political protests and demonstrations that took place during August, September, and October 2007 in Myanmar. The protests were triggered by the decision of the national military government to remove subsidies on the sales prices of fuel. The national government is the only supplier of fuels and the removal of the price subsidy immediately caused diesel and petrol prices to increase by 66100% and the price of compressed natural gas for buses to increase 500% in less than a week.The various protests were led by students, political activists, including women, and Buddhist monks and took the form of a campaign of nonviolent resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance.In response to the protests, dozens of protesters were arrested or detained. Starting in September 2007 the protests were led by thousands of Buddhist monks, and those protests were allowed to proceed until a renewed government crackdown in late September 2007. Some news reports referred to the protests as the Saffron Revolution, or ([swi w j t l ji]).The exact number of casualties from the 2007 protests is not known, but estimates range from 13 to 31 deaths resulting from either the protests or reprisals by the government. Several hundred people were arrested or detained, many (but not all) of whom were released.
In the event, Senior General Than Shwe remained in power until he retired in 2011 at age 78.
A bhikkhu (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, bhikṣu) is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", bhikkhunī, Sanskrit bhikṣuṇī) are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community).The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the prātimokṣa or pātimokkha. Their lifestyles are shaped to support their spiritual practice: to live a simple and meditative life and attain nirvana.A person under the age of 20 cannot be ordained as a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni but can be ordained as a śrāmaṇera or śrāmaṇērī.