Burma:Monks and civilians have paid a heavy price since September's demonstrations, writes a Special Correspondent in Mandalay, Burma.
In a sprawling monastery outside Mandalay, a middle-aged monk is tackling one of the many new dilemmas thrown up during Burma's ongoing turmoil. "There will be no bad consequences for you. It is your intention that counts," the preacher tells an attentive audience of around 20 lay Buddhists who are concerned about the moral implications of unwittingly giving alms to "fake" monks.
The senior monk spoke over a microphone in an open-windowed room and so knew that army informers, posing as genuine monks, might well have been listening. But this is the kind of tension that has to be endured in the murky new realities seething beneath the surface in Burma's religion-soaked second largest city, home to some 40,000 monks.
The army's suppression of the Mandalay monks' protest marches in late September was less violent than in Rangoon, but the stand-off between monks and military here is far from over.
Many monks refuse to take alms from the military and many monasteries are missing hundreds of former members.
Fear of surveillance didn't stop one 32-year-old monk from telling us that his monastery of 1,200 members now contains half that number.
Monk leaders are in hiding while others have been sent home or returned to their villages "voluntarily". Contact with the missing monks was impossible, he said. "Of the monastery's 18 phone lines, 17 have been cut and the remaining line is monitored by the army."
Those monks who remained were uncertain about their next steps. "We are talking about what to do. It is not clear. We are thinking of whether we can go out again, and go to jail or be prepared to die - or not."
The monks marched, he said, to speak out for three things: "Our donors, the poor, and the country."
Nuns too were a part of the marches, which in Mandalay were characterised by traditional Buddhist chants calling for loving kindness for all sentient beings and protection from evil and harm.
Some 30 members of a nunnery outside the city joined the protests, according to a senior nun dressed in a crisp traditional pink robe. "We are still waiting to hear about one of us who is missing. She was a flag-carrier during the marches."
In another monastery, a senior monk known for his work on behalf of the poor said some 16 of his junior monks were still "outside".
An elderly professional in the city was bitterly angry at the suppression of the monks and their peaceful protests sparked by Burma's dire economic situation. "The people are starving. Even I hardly eat meat now. I cut my own hair to save money. And I regret to say that I can't afford to feed as many monks as I used to," he said in a conversation that was interrupted when one of Mandalay's regular electricity blackouts plunged the house into darkness.
A man in his thirties was angry as he told of the interruption to his family's previous night's sleep. "At 10.30 we were woken up by a group of around 20 soldiers, police, and township staff to tell us that two family members have to attend a pro-government rally in a few days, or pay a fine of 2,000 kyats (€1.05) per person," he said. "I hate them," he added.
A craftswoman in another part of town said she had been given the same order. Both said they would pay the fine rather than attend the rally.
In recent weeks government newspapers have been filled with photographs and reports of such mass meetings, ostensibly in support of the military government and its long-drawn-out national convention to draw up a new constitution.
The same newspapers rail against "colonialists, axe handles and lackeys" the military government blame for recent unrest.
Foreign broadcast media are blasted for airing a "skyful of lies", and "BBC saboteurs" are warned to "watch your step!" For one middle class, semi-employed man in his forties, a "Buddhist approach" to alcohol has become the solution in recent years to the stagnation and repression he sees no sign of ending.
"Two bottles of the cheapest rum is only 800 kyats a day. But I drink mindfully. I mean, I take lots of water as well. I wait, I read, I talk, and I drink," he said. "What else is there to do here?" he asked rhetorically, waving a hand that shook only a fraction, courtesy of cheap Mandalay rum.