Monasticism Occupied: Thilashin and the Japanese Occupation of Burma (1942-1945)

The Japanese occupation of Burma (1942-1945) is often invoked in Burmese as “khit-pyet,” an “era of disorder.” Histories of this period are primarily shaped by nationalist narratives put forth in the memoirs of Myanmar’s male political elite. Biographical writing by Buddhist female renunciants (thilashin), however, offer new perspectives on this era. This paper takes up narratives of khit-pyet voiced by women like Daw Malayi, whose nunnery was commandeered by the Kempetai, the military police of the Japanese army, and Daw Nyanacari, who welcomed refugees from the fall of Rangoon to her Myanaung nunnery while continuing to train her thilashin students preparing for their monastic exams. I bring these and other biographical accounts together to investigate how thilashin relied on practices of institutional maintenance and mental cultivation to deal with the violence, confusion, and deprivations of the occupation, and how the disorder of “khit-pyet” has shaped representations of Buddhist institutional history.