Armies Of The Enlightened.(World Affairs)(Buddhist groups)(Cover story)

Byline: Christian Caryl; With Sudip Mazumdar in New Delhi, Jonathan Adams in Taipei and Wang Zhenru in Beijing

Throughout Asia, Buddhism is growing fast, playing an increasingly political--and, in some spots, militant--role.

In recent years, massive groups of fervent believers have taken to the streets of Asia with angry political demands. They've railed against government corruption, condemned the onslaught of Western values and decried the erosion of traditional morals. Having built an extensive network of grass-roots aid groups, their numbers are exploding. Some have even picked up arms to defend their beliefs. Sound familiar? It should--only the faithful in question aren't Islamic fundamentalists or conservative Christians. They're Buddhists: members of what used to be Asia's quietest religion, one usually associated with pacifism and contemplation.

No more. In this era of religious fervor, an Asia-wide resurgence of Buddhism is spawning activists and increasingly assertive political movements, some of which even act like fundamentalists of other faiths. True, many Buddhist groups, like Taiwan's massive Tzu Chi movement, still practice nonviolence and antimaterialism; indeed, this meditative side is helping Buddhism make inroads among alienated urban professionals in India, China and elsewhere.

But other organizations are now wading straight into the rough-and-tumble of everyday politics, suggesting last year's monk-led protests in Burma weren't an anomaly. In Thailand, an ultraconservative Buddhist faction helped topple Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006. In India, the populist leader of a rapidly expanding Buddhist-supported party is now being touted as a future prime minister. And in the most dramatic cases, some Buddhists have even begun advocating violence--such as Sri Lanka's fiercely nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party--or have started picking up guns themselves, as in southern Thailand.

The rise of this more activist form of Buddhism "is an instance of the wider politicization of religion worldwide," says Jim Holt, a religion professor at Bowdoin College. "I don't like the term 'Buddhist fundamentalism,' but there certainly is a militancy showing up."

Buddhism, which emphasizes detachment from worldly desires and compassion for all living beings, has been around for 2,500 years and has an estimated 350 million followers worldwide. Buddhists have yet to turn to terrorism--perhaps due to the religion's injunctions against violence. Still, many Buddhists are adopting a tough-minded new profile, which can be explained in part by their numbers. The religion is growing fast. Though it's hard to nail down exact figures, scholars say there are now some 100 million Buddhists in China alone. In India, the birthplace of Buddha, there were only 8 million in 2001, but experts now set the total at 35 million. And in Taiwan, the number of Buddhists grew from 5.5 million in 2001 to 8 million in 2006.