Four Years in Upper Burma by W.R. Winston — Read

The greater part of the inhabitants of Burma are Buddhists. The Burman race are so universally, except in the cases where Christianity has gained a few. It is in Burma that Buddhism is found with the least admixture of any other religion, and where it is followed with a more thoroughgoing devotion perhaps than anywhere else. Even the Burman, however, has never discarded in spirit, or even in form, the indigenous _nat_ worship of his far-off ancestors. It may have little of outward appearance, but it remains side by side with Buddhism to the present day. In their numerous popular stories the nats play a prominent part, the wicked ones performing all manner of mischievous pranks, the good ones appearing at the opportune moment to succour the hero of the story, usually some "_payaloung_," or incipient Buddha, for the moment in peril through the trials that have befallen him.

This hankering after the _nats_ is a significant fact. There is no God in Buddhism, and yet a man must have a deity or deities of some kind. The elaborate philosophy of Buddhism may occupy the intellect, and dominate the religious life, but it cannot satisfy this natural craving in man for God. Hence the worship and the fear of the _nats_, and the many superstitious ceremonies to propitiate them. And hence, too, if we mistake not, the strong tendency to plunge deeply into the occult, and to claim intimacy with the world of spirits, which characterises those Europeans and Americans who have discarded Christianity, and have devised for themselves a system fashioned on the basis of Buddhism, for their light and guidance.