Burma
A country east of India and south of China, and a province of British India, inhabited by an indigenous stock of Indo-Chinese type which originally migrated from Western China, at different periods, and which is now represented by three principal divisions, the Talaings, the Shans, and the Bama, or Burmese proper, although groups of several other allied races are found in the more remote portions of the country. The civilised part of the community, which, roughly speaking, is perhaps one half of the population, recognizes a religion the constituents of which are animism (q.v.) and Indian Brahmanic demonolatry, modified to some extent by Buddhistic influences, and this cult is steadily making progress in the less enlightened and outlying tribes. We have here to do only with that portion of the popular belief which deals with the more directly occult and with superstition, and we shall refrain from any description of Burmese religion proper which presents similar features to those cults from which it takes its origin, and which are fully described elsewhere.
The Burmese believe the soul immaterial and independent of the body, to which it is only bound by special attraction. It can quit and return to the body at will, but can also be captured and kept from returning to it. After death the soul hovers near the corpse as an invisible butterfly, known as leippya. A witch or demon may capture the leippya while it wanders during the hours of sleep, when sickness is sure to result. Offerings are made to the magician or devil to induce him to release the soul. The Kachins of the Northern Hills of Burma believe that persons having the evil eye possess two souls, the secondary soul being the cause of the malign influence.
Belief in Spirits. - Belief in spirits, mostly malign, is very general in Burma, and takes a prominent place in the religious belief of the people. The spirits of rain, wind Burma and the heavenly bodies are in that condition of evolution which usually results in their becoming fuli-fledged deities, with whom placation gives place to worship. But the spirits of the forest are true demons with well-marked animistic characteristics. Thus the nat or seiktha dwells in every tree or grove. His nature is usually malign, but occasionally we find him the tutelar or guardian of a village. In any case he possesses a shrine where he may be propiatiated by gifts of food and drink. Several of these demoniac figures have almost achieved godhead, so widespread have their cults become, and Hmin Nat, Chiton, and Wannein Nat, may be instanced as fiends of power, the dread of which has spread across extensive district. The nats are probably of Indian origin, and although now quite animistic in character may at one time have been members of the Hindu pantheon. Many spirit families such as the Seikkaso, Akathaso, and Bommaso, who inhabit various parts of the jungle trees, are of Indian origin. The fulfilment of every wish depends upon the nats or spirits, who are all powerful as far as man is concerned. They are innumerable. Every house has its complement, who swarm in its several rooms and take up their abode in its hearth, door-posts, verandahs, and corners. The nats also inhabit or inspire wild beasts, and all misfortune is supposed to emanate from them. The Burmans believe that the more materialistic dead haunt the living with a malign purpose. The people have a great dread of their newly deceased ancestors, whom they imagine to haunt the vicinity of their dwellings for the purpose of ambushing them. No dead body may be carried to a cemetery except by the shortest route, even should this necessitate the cutting a hole in the wall of the house. The spirits of those who have died a violent death haunt the scene of their fatality. Like the ancient Mexicans (See Ciupipiltin, the Burmans have a great dread of the ghosts of women who have died in childbed. The Kachins believe such women to turn into vampires (swawmx) who are accompanied by their children when these die with them. The spirits of children are often supposed to inhabit the bodies of cats and dogs. The Burmans are extremely circumspect as to how they speak and act towards the inhabitants of the spirit-world, as they believe that disrespect or mockery will at once bring down upon them misfortune or disease. An infinite number of guardian spirits is included in the Burman demonological system, and these are chiefly supposed to be Brahmanic importations. These dwell in the houses like the evil nats, and are the tutelars of village communities, and even of clans. They are duly propitiated, at which ceremonies rice, beer, and tea-salad are offered to them. Women are employed as exorcists in a case of driving out the evil nats, but at the festivals connected with the guardian nats they are not permitted to officiate.
Necromancy and Occult Medicine. - Necromancy is of general occurrence among the Burmese. The weza or wizards are of two kinds, good and evil, and these are again each subdivided into four classes, according to the materials which they employ, as, for example, magic squares, mercury or iron. The native doctors profess to cure the diseases caused by witchcraft, and often specialise in various ailments. Besides being necromantic, medicine is largely astrological. There is said to be in Lower Burma a town of wizards at Kale Thaungtot on the Chindwin River, and many journey thence to have the effects of bewitchment neutralised by its chief. Sympathetic magic is employed to render an enemy sick. Indian and native alchemy and cheiromancy are exceedingly rife. Noise is the universal method of exorcism, and in cases of illness the patient is often severely beaten, the idea being that the fiend which possesses him is the sufferer.
G Mediums and Exorcists. The tumsa or natsaw are magicians, diviners, or "wise" men and women who practise their arts in a private and not in a hierophantic capacity among the rural Burmans. The wise man physician who works in iron (than weza) is at the head of his profession, and sells amulets which guard the purchasers from injury. female mediums profess to be the spouses of certain nats, and can only retain their supernatural connection with a certain spirit so long as they are wed to him. With the exorcists training is voluntary and even perfunctory. But with the mediums it is severe and prolonged. Among the civilised Burmans a much more exhaustive apprenticeship is demanded. Indeed a thorough and intricate knowledge of some departments of magical and astrological practice is necessary to recognition by the brotherhood, the entire art of which is medico-magical, consisting of the eorcism of evil spirits from human beings and animals. The methods employed are such as usually accompany exorcism among all semi-civilised peoples, that is, dancing, flagellation of the afflicted person, induction of ectasy, oblation to the fiend in possession, and noise.
Prophecy and Divination. - These are purely popular in Burma, and not hierophantic, and in some measure are controlled by the use of the Deitton, an astrological book of Indian origin. The direction in which the blood of a sacrificed animal flows, the knots in torn leaves, the length of a split bamboo pole, and the whiteness or otherwise of a hard-boiled egg, serve among others as methods of augury. But by far the most important mode of divination in use in Burma is that by means of the bones of fowls. It is indeed universal as deciding all the difficulties of Burmese existence. Those wing or thigh bones in which the holes exhibit regularity are chosen. Pieces of bamboo are inserted into these holes, and the resulting slant of the stick defines the augury. If the stick slants outwards it decides in favour of the measure under test. If it slants inwards, the omen is unfavourable. Other methods of divination are by the entrails of animals and by the contents of blown eggs.
Astrology. Burmese astrology derives both from Indian and Chinese sources, and powerfully affects the entire people. Every Burman is fully aware from his private astrologer, of the trend of his horoscope regarding the near future, and while active and enterprising on his lucky days, nothing will induce him to undertake any form of work should the day be pyatthadane or ominous. The Bedinsaya, or astrologers proper, practise a fully developed Hindu astrology, but they are few in number, and are practically neglected for the rural soothsayers, who follow the Chinese system known as Hpewan, almost identical with the Taoist astrological tables of Chinese diviners. From this system are derived horoscopes, fortunes, happy marriages, and prognostications regarding business affairs. But in practice the system is often confounded with the Buddhist calendar and much confusion results. The Buddhist calendar is in popular use, whilst the Hpewan is purely astrological. Therefore the Burman who is ignorant of the latter must perforce consult an astrologer who is able to collate the two regarding his lucky and unlucky days. The chief horoscopic influences are day of birth, day of the week, which is represented by the symbol of a certain animal, and the position of the dragon's mouth to the terminal syllables of the day-names.
Byron by Indian and Buddhist monks, who also draw on native sources to enlarge their own knowledge.
LITERATURE. -Temple, The Thirty-seven Nats, 1906; Scott and Hardiman, Gazeteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, 1900-1901; The Indian Antiquary, Vols.
XVII.-XXXVI.; Fielding Hall, The Soul of a people.