Religion

Myanmar is primarily a Theravada Buddhist country. Buddhism arrived in Burma around the start of the Christian era, mingling with indigenous Hinduism. The religious tradition that emerged at this time, and which still exists today, is a syncretic blend of 'pure' Buddhism, deep-rooted elements of the original Hindu-animist culture or nat worship, and even strands of Hinduism and the Mahayana tradition of northern India.

Islam arrived in Burma around the same time, but it never established a foothold outside of the geographically isolated seaboard that runs from modern-day Bangladesh southward to the Irrawaddy Delta (modern Rakhine State, formerly Arakan, an independent kingdom until the eighteenth century). During the colonial period, there was a large influx of Muslim Indians into Yangon and other cities, and the majority of Yangon's mosques are the result of these immigrants.

European missionaries brought Christianity to Burma in the 1800s. It was not well received by Buddhists, but it was widely adopted by non-Buddhists such as the Chin, Karen, and Kachin. The largest Christian denominations in Burma are the Roman Catholic Church, the Myanmar Baptist Convention, and the Assemblies of God of Burma. As a result of American missionary work, Burma has the world's second largest population of Baptists, after the United States.