Besides this, we ought to remember that Buddhism has everything on its side that tends to make a religion powerful and influential. It has a concrete existence, and very much of outward and visible form and appearance; it is in possession; it has numbers, a voluminous literature, a definite and consistent system of philosophy. It has plenty of popular observances and popular enthusiasm. It is cleverly adapted to man’s natural desire to work out his own salvation. It is most powerfully sustained and buttressed in the regard and confidence of the people by its very numerous monastic institutions, which are recruited from all classes of the people, from the prince to the peasant, for every male Burman must be a monk, for a longer or a shorter time, at some period of his life. CHAPTER XII. _BURMESE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AND USAGES._ The Burmans, like most nations of the East, are essentially a religious people, and pay great regard to the religious usages and institutions in which they have been brought up. Chief amongst these is the monastic institution of Buddhism. Buddha was not only a great philosopher and thinker, but a great organiser too, and he provided in the monastic system a social bond of union that knits the entire community together in the Buddhist faith. This is made more obvious by the fact that every male Burman must be a monk at some time in his life, for a longer or shorter period, otherwise the demerit attaching to him would so overbalance his merits, as to render it impossible for him ever to make any improvement in his future existences. His ill deeds would swell the sum of his demerits, but no act of charity or pious devotion would be recorded to his advantage. Hence, in Upper Burma, almost every youth dons the yellow robe and becomes a monk. It may be for a week, a month, or a season or two, or it may be for many years, or it may prove to be lifelong. The longer they stay in the monastery the more sanctity attaches to them. But the Buddhist monk, unlike some other monks, is at liberty to terminate his monastic vows at pleasure, and return to ordinary life. The monks reckon the continuance of their monastic condition by the number of _Wahs_ spent in the monastery, the _Wah_ being the annual recurrence of a kind of Buddhist Lent, extending from July to October.