Buddhist monks in Myanmar warned about driving

By Coconuts Yangon May 25, 2016 

Traffic in Yangon in 2015. Photo: Aung Naing Soe / Coconuts Yangon

Senior officials say Buddhist monks in Myanmar will be penalized if caught driving motorcycles or other vehicles. Under the country’s traffic laws, monks are not allowed to drive.

U Myint Zaw Win, the general manager of the Ministry of Religious and Cultural Affairs, said the government would be monitoring the situation 
across the country.  “We will do it on the nationwide level. Respective 
abbots from every township have stated this,” he told the Voice. 
Mandalay’s Regional government also said it would be on the lookout, 
and an abbot in Insein Township praised the stepped-up enforcement.
“Monks should not drive vehicles by themselves,” the abbot, who was 
not identified, said. “I welcome that idea to take action on monks who 
will drive vehicles by themselves.” Under the plan, June will be a kind of warning period, and in July the real enforcement will occur, according to the Voice. It's unclear what triggered this particular crackdown, or what penalties monks could face other than being defrocked.