Around 500 Buddhist monks held prayers inside Myanmar?s holiest shrine yesterday after being locked out for two days to prevent them launching a formal religious boycott of the ruling military junta. Braving monsoon rains and the attention of dozens of plainclothes security police, the maroon-robed monks chanted mantras and then went in procession around the guilded stupa of the Shwedagon Pagoda, the former Burma?s religious heart.

Several hundred ordinary people joined in before the crowd dispersed after half an hour.

Protest marches by monks are becoming a daily occurence across the country, a sign of the civilian anger at last month?s shock fuel price rises becoming a more deep-rooted religious movement against the generals and their 45 years of rule. The monk?s formal refusal ? to accept alms from members of the military or their families is taken extremely seriously in the devoutly Buddhist country.