Buddhist monks march at Shwedagon Pagoda during a protest Sunday against the military government in Yangon, Myanmar. About 20,000 Buddhist monks and citizens demonstrated against Myanmar's military junta in the country's largest city Sunday, with many shouting support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, witnesses said.

Yangon, Myanmar ? Buddhist nuns and monks gathered at a golden hilltop pagoda to lead 20,000 people in Myanmar’s biggest anti-government protest in two decades. Plainclothes police trailed behind without intervening.

But when a small crowd of about 400 people split off and headed for the house of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, security forces deployed in force to block them.

The march raised both expectations of possible political change and fear that the military might try to crush the demonstrations with violence, as it did in 1988 when thousands of pro-democracy protesters were killed nationwide.

On Saturday, more than 500 monks and sympathizers were allowed past barricades to walk to the house where Suu Kyi is detained. The Nobel Peace laureate greeted them from her gate in her first public appearance in more than four years – a meeting that symbolically linked the current protests to her struggle for democracy.

But any optimism on the protesters’ part was tempered when security forces thwarted the second march to Suu Kyi’s house. The crowd peacefully abandoned their attempt after being turned back at two different approaches blocked by barbed wire barricades.

“In our country, the monks are the highest moral authority. When the monks take the leading role, the people will follow,” said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma, a coalition of opposition groups based in neighboring Thailand.

Yet people have not forgotten the army’s ferocity in crushing the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. Terror keeps many from considering rebelling again.

The latest protests began on Aug. 19 as a movement against economic hardship after the government sharply raised fuel prices, increasing the overall cost of living. Arrests and intimidation saw the movement begin to falter until last week, when monks – who have long served as the country’s conscience – became the protests’ vanguard.

The march of 20,000 people downtown was led by 10,000 monks who gathered at the famous golden hilltop Shwedagon Pagoda before marching downtown to Sule Pagoda and past the U.S. Embassy among other places, witnesses said. For the first time, at least 100 white-robed nuns joined the demonstration.