For many in Myanmar, it remains ambiguous whether the Dawei comprise a distinct ethnic group or are simply a regional people who speak a dialect of the majority Burmese language. This paper investigates what actors recognize the Dawei as an ethnic group in Myanmar and what influence such recognition has on their ethnic sentiment. The Dawei have been officially regarded as a distinct ethnic sub-group of the Burmese according to the ethnic classification systems used in Myanmar during the dynasty periods, the British colonial period, and the post-1990 period. The ethno-nationalistic actions of the Dawei have been comparatively modest, even after Myanmar gained independence and many ethnic groups began armed insurrections. This stands in sharp contrast to the Rakhine, an ethnic group that similarly speaks a language closely related to Burmese but that has actively conducted a nationalistic movement. In the general elections of 2010 ethnicity became electorally politicized, but in 2015 the Dawei political party won no legislative seats, while the Rakhine won the most seats of any ethnic political party. Such a contrast indicates that official recognition of ethnicity does not necessarily stimulate ethno-nationalistic action, an indication which runs counter to existing accounts that overemphasize the importance of official ethnic or other social boundaries created by modern states.

The Theravāda Saṅgha includes exclusive groups of monks called nikāya, or orders, whose members share specific monastic practices or ethnicity. Throughout history, conflicts between different nikāyas have repeatedly arisen and been settled. How have the authority and law of state saṅgha been involved in the onset and resolution of such conflicts? Drawing on the example Dawei monks in Myanmar and Thailand at the turn of the 20th century, this paper examines two incidents: 1) the intervention of the Supreme Patriarch of Myanmar to settle a conflict; and 2) the adoption of the modern Saṅgha Act of 1902 in Thailand, which created a conflict. In the Dawei region, the Gado Nikāya is one of the eight officially recognized “strict orders” of Myanmar and is well known today. When the order’s religious practices were obstructed by non-member monks at the end of 19th century, the Supreme Patriarch of Myanmar played a significant role in settling the conflict by recognizing the independence of the Gado Nikāya. In contrast, in 1913, the Saṅgha Act of Thailand, which strengthened the authority of the abbot of each monastery, resulted in stoking a conflict between Burmese monks at a Dawei monastery (in today’s Bangkok) and its Dawei abbot, although they had previously lived together without problem. These cases from the Dawei Saṅgha provide useful comparative insights into the relations between nikāyas and the hierarchy and governance of the saṅgha in two countries.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanism of coffee agroforestry establishment based on joint forest management (pengelolaan hutan bersama masyarakat, PHBM, in Indonesian / community based forest management, CBFM, in English) in Bandung District, West Java Province, and the effect of introducing coffee cultivation on rural society and state forest management. Promotion of agroforestry is expected to preserve forests and improve the livelihoods of local people, but there is concern that it will increase disparity in the community. A field survey revealed two factors in the establishment of the agroforestry, one institutional and the other economic. The institutional factor is the design of PHBM that allowed only coffee cultivation in state forests and obligated state forest farmers to plant shade trees in their allocated patch. The economic factor is that, in addition to forest village community organizations (LMDH in Indonesian), commercial companies promoted coffee cultivation in the allocated compartments for their own profit. The expanded coffee cultivation benefited only certain farmers, and there was concern about the widening economic disparity within the community. To maintain the fairness of opportunity in the state forest, improvements in the independence of state forest farmers are thus required, such as reducing the burden of the initial investment by distributing shade trees and coffee seedlings. From these results, the introduction of agroforestry based on a crop of high commercial value is expected to promote forest conservation, but there is also concern that a trade-off may occur that deviates from the PHBM principle of improving access to forest resources for local people.