"Saffron Revolution"
The phrase "Saffron Revolution" connects the protests against Myanmar’s military dictatorship to the saffron-colored robes widely associated with Buddhist monks, who were at the forefront of the demonstrations. However, this nomenclature is misleading as the majority of monks in Burma wear maroon, not saffron-colored robes. While similar phrases had been used previously to describe the process of gradual or peaceful revolution in other nations, this seems to be the first time it has been associated with a particular protest as it is unfolding, and the international press seized upon it in reporting on the Burmese protests. However, the idea that the monkhood is connected to specifically Burmese ideas about revolution has been argued by Gustaaf Houtman, partly in critique of an alternative view held by a political scientist, that Gen. Ne Win's revolution was the only successful revolution in Burma. Burmese concepts of "revolution," however, have a much longer history and are also employed in many but not all monastic ordinations.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Burmese Anti-government Protests
Famous quotes containing the words saffron and/or revolution:
“Masts in the offing wagged their tops;
The swinging waves pealed on the shore;
The saffron beach, all diamond drops
And beads of surge, prolonged the roar.”
—John Davidson (1857–1909)
“An illustrious individual remarks that Mrs. [Elizabeth Cady] Stanton is the salt, Anna Dickinson the pepper, and Miss [Susan B.] Anthony the vinegar of the Female Suffrage movement. The very elements get the “white male” into a nice pickle.”
—Anonymous, U.S. women’s magazine contributor. The Revolution (August 19, 1869)