Insight - Anti-Muslim Buddhist group moves toward Myanmar's mainstream

Ashin Tilawkar Biwonsa (top), 77, Ma Ba Tha's founder and chairman, talks during a meeting at Ma Ba Tha's head office in Yangon August 26, 2015. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Swathed in crimson robes, 77-year-old Ashin Tilawkar Biwonsa shuffles through a crowded conference room with the help of an aide, his supporters standing in respect as he takes a seat at the head of a table under a portrait of his own image.

It is from here, at an unremarkable roadside monastery just outside the city of Yangon, that the abbot is propelling the radical Buddhist group he co-founded into the mainstream of Myanmar's politics.