Burma. South-east Asian country now officially known as Myanmar. Buddhism may have been introduced here by one of Aśoka's missions, and it has been present among the native Mons people from the early centuries ce. The Burmese chronicles claim that Buddhaghoṣa visited the country and established a tradition of Pāli scholarship. The Pāli name for the Mon country to the south is Rāmañña, and the Sinhalese chronicles relate that when the Sinhalese ordination lineage died out King Vijayabāhu I (1059-1114) of Sri Lanka sent to Rāmañña (Burma) for monks to re-establish the Saṃgha. From the 5th to the 15th century the dominant power in the region was the Khmer Empire, in which various forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism were popular. King Anawrahtā (1044-77) unified the country by conquering the southern part and gave his allegiance to the Theravāda, although it is likely the Theravāda was dominant even before then. Anawrahtā's capital, Pagān, was sacked by the Mongols in 1287 and the city with its many thousand pagodas and temples was abandoned. The country was not united again until 1752, but soon afterwards was conquered by the British and became part of the British Empire until it was granted independence in 1948 when U Nu became the first Prime Minister. Attempts to develop a form of ‘Buddhist Socialism’ with Buddhism as the state religion ultimately failed when General Ne Win led a coup in 1962 from which time onwards the country has been ruled by a military junta (SLORC). The regime is not hostile to Buddhism, which remains strong, and 85 per cent of the population are Theravāda Buddhists. However, Buddhist pro-democracy advocates, such as Aung Suu Kyi, have been placed under house arrest and human rights abuses are commonplace. The country presently remains isolated from the international community.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)