The trustees of Shwe San Taw pagoda announced a ban on Muslims vendors to open their shops at the annual pagoda festival. The move by the authorities of the historic pagoda in Twente, near Yangon, follow a call to do so by a group called itself as “ Patriotic Youth Network”. According to the order from the pagoda authorities non-Buddhist vendors will not be allow every year beginning from the festival for this year to be held during Tazaung Mone festival in November. The youth network pointed out that in the chapter 6 paragraph 1 of the rules for the Shwe San Taw Pagoda said that all the vendors to open shop during the pagoda festival should be Buddhists and citizen of Myanmar. The trustees of the pagoda initially insisted to agree on that, as they believe the rule was only for the shop permanently based in the pagoda compound not for the vendors open their shops temporarily during the festivities. The trustees did not agree to the call by the youth group as it could affect the harmony among the different members of race and religion. However, it had to agree on 12 October to ban non-Buddhist vendors at a pressure of the youth group. Similarly, the youth network said it is planning to call for similar ban to be imposed on the non-Buddhist vendors during the festivities to be held at the Zi Nat Maung Aung, 108 Feet and Shwe Oat Gu pagodas in Thakayta. Reference: The social media pages of Naung Taw, Nwe Mar Myint, Tin Lin Hteik