Happy first of Nayon!
Tag Archives: myanmar
Thingyan Greetings
Myanmar Buddhist Titles
On 12 March 2017, his 80th birthday, Sītagū Sayadaw U Ñāṇissara was awarded Myanmar’s highest Buddhist title, Abhidhajamahāraṭṭhaguru, for his tireless, selfless work in the promotion of Dhamma through education, health care, and disaster relief. Previously, Sayadaw also received the following titles: Mahādhammakathika Bahujanahitadhara, Aggamahāsaddhammajotikadhaja, Aggamahāpaṇḍita, and Aggamahāganthavācakapaṇḍita. To date, five institutions of higher learning have also conferred honorary PhDs. For a brief bio, see this page (up to 2013).
With that, one may wonder what other religious title are awarded by the Myanmar government. Following is a list of said titles sorted according to the category in which they belong.[ref]After hours of pouring over Myanmar government websites and romanising the titles, I stumbled across this Wikipedia page with the work already done, and made minor spelling corrections. This table is based on that. Thanks to Venerable Ānandajoti for the English renderings.[/ref]
U Goenka’s Final Resting Place
On 29 September 2013, S. N. Goenka passed away at the age of 89. This video documentshis ashes’ journey from Yangon to their final resting place in the Irrawaddy River near Sagaing Hill, about 12km from Mandalay. Included is a Dhamma talk by Sītagū Sayadaw in English (most of it was in Burmese, but only the English is recorded).
The Pāḷi verse that is chanted is[ref]DN 16 Mahāparinibbānasutta – The Discourse about the Great Emancipation[/ref]:
“Aniccā vata saṅkhārā,
uppādavayadhammino;
Uppajjitvā nirujjhanti,
tesaṁ vūpasamo sukho.“Impermanent, indeed, are all processes,
arisen they have the nature to decay,
After arising they come to cessation,
the stilling of them is blissful.”
Video courtesy of BurmaDhamma
Relaxed Buddha
A unique Buddha image from Myanmar showing the Buddha in a relaxed pose. Photo courtesy of U Kumara. 