of eight or nine and learn there reading, writing, and arithmetic.  They also receive religious instruction and moral training.  They commit to memory various works in Pali and Burmese, and are taught the duties which they owe to themselves, society and the state.  Sir.  J.G.  Scott, who is certainly not disposed to exaggerate the influence of Buddhism in Burma, says that “the education of the monasteries far surpasses the instruction of the Anglo-vernacular schools from every point of view except that of immediate success in life and the obtaining of a post under Government."[180] The more studious monks are not merely schoolmasters but can point to a considerable body of literature which they have produced in the past and are still producing.[181] Indeed among the Hinayanist churches that of Burma has in recent centuries held the first place for learning.  The age and continuity of Sinhalese traditions have given the Sangha of Ceylon a correspondingly great prestige but it has more than once been recruited from Burma and in literary output it can hardly rival the Burmese clergy.

Though many disquisitions on the Vinaya have been produced in Burma, and though the Jatakas and portions of the Sutta Pitaka (especially those called Parittam) are known to everybody, yet the favourite study of theologians appears to be the Abhidhamma, concerning which a multitude of hand-books and commentaries have been written, but it is worth mentioning that the Abhidhammattha-sangaha, composed in Ceylon about the twelfth century A.D., is still the standard manual.[182] Yet it would be a mistake to think of the Burmese monks as absorbed in these recondite studies:  they have on the contrary produced a long series of works dealing with the practical things of the world, such as chronicles, law-books, ethical and political treatises, and even poetry, for Silavamsa and Ratthapala whose verses are still learned by the youth of Burma were both of them Bhikkhus.  The Sangha has always shown a laudable reserve in interfering directly with politics, but in former times the king’s private chaplain was a councillor of importance and occasionally matters involving both political and religious questions were submitted to a chapter of the order.  In all cases the influence of the monks in secular matters made for justice and peace:  they sometimes interceded on behalf of the condemned or represented that taxation was too heavy.  In 1886, when the British annexed Burma, the Head of the Sangha forbade monks to take part in the political strife, a prohibition which was all the more remarkable because King Thibaw had issued proclamations saying that the object of the invasion was to destroy Buddhism.