A History of Burma - Maung Htin Aung

240 British Conquest of Burma Phayre that prompted him finally to agree to it. Mindon's tragedy was that he was too honest and trusting. When the British were facing disasters during the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, and he was presented with a chance to regain Lower Burma, he re­ strained the Kanaung prince, \\vho was so eager to invade British territory, saying, \"We must not stab a friend in the back.\" But the British never hesitated to stab him in the back many times over. In spite of his later failures Mindon succeeded in restoring a sense of confidence among his subj ects, as \\vell as a sense of pride in the nation among all the Burmese, whether they lived in his kingdom or under British rule. Before the Burmese people had re­ covered from the shock of the first Attglo-Burmese war, the second war came, and reeling under the fresh blow they felt lost and ashamed. They feared that their centuries-old way of life and their ancient faith of Theravada Buddhism would swiftly disappear un­ der alien rule. Their fears increased when the British government refused to grant patronage to Buddhism and approval to the mo­ nastic schools, which served as the keystone of the Burmese educa­ tion system. In place of th� monastic schools, government schools and Christian missionary schools appeared like mushrooms; in the government schools Burmese kings were belittled, and in the mission schools Burmese religious beliefs were openly ridiculed. Many monks felt that they could not hope to survive in such conditions and migrated to Upper Burma, still under the rule of a Burmese king and as .such the official patron of Buddhism. Those few monks who remained in Lower Burma were neither pious nor learned, and with­ out a central authority to maintain discipline they reverted to loose and immoral living, bringing further discredit to the national re­ ligion. The Burmese were in real danger of losing their national her­ itage, and it was King Mindon who saved them on the brink of disaster. He first obtained the assistance of learned and pious monks in Upper Burma; taking drastiC disciplinary measures, he purified the Buddhist Order in his oWll kingdom. He introduced a system