HlaMin

Blog

  • Association of Engineers in Burma after World War

    by Hla Min, U Tin U & U Ba Than

    Update : Apr 2026

    History of Myanmar Engineering Education

    • There were interviews for the HMEE-2012 project.
    • The account about the Association of Engineers in Burma after World War was told by Saya U Tin U and recorded by Saya U Ba Than.
    • The Association was re-instituted about 1955-56.
    • President : Sayagyi U Ba Hli (Dean of Engineering, University of Rangoon)
    • Honorary Secretary : Saya U Soon Sein (Professor, Mining)
    • Honorary Treasurer : Saya U Tin U (Part time Lecturer, Civil)

    U Tin U

    U Tin U
    • Matriculated from St. John’s Dio in 1946.
    • Attended Rangoon University before going for studies in the USA.
    • Captain & Gold of Rangoon University Boat Club in 1948.
      Represented RUBC in the Independence Day Regatta at Kandawgyi in 1948 along with Dr. Pe Nyun, Dr. Pe Thein and Khin Maung Wint (Bobby).
    • Received BCSE from the University of Oregon and MCSE from Yale University.
    • Upon his return to Burma, he worked in the industry and taught part-time at the Civil Engineering department.
    • Past Captain of Rangoon Golf Club
    • Oldest & Most Senior Past Captain of RUBC
    • Retired as Advisor of PWD Group.

    U Ba Than

    U Ba Than
    • 1947 : Matriculated from St. John’s Dio and won Collegiate Scholarship.
    • 1949 : Gold Medal for scoring highest marks in the Intermediate of Science exam
    • RUBC Full Green
    • Studied Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, London University
    • Joined Faculty of Engineering as Assistant Lecturer
    • As a requirement for promotion, he did his Masters at Imperial College
    • Retired as Professor of Mechanical Engineering
    • Early supporter of HMEE-2012 project. Donated his photo albums. Requested U Thaw Kaung to allow U Soe Paing & team to access the archives of Rangoon University Central Library.
    • Before the pandemic, he invited former colleagues and students to his Birthday Soon Kyaw at Yaw Sayadaw’s Monastery.
    • He donated back all of the Garawa Money to various social and religious associations.
    • He is now GBNF.

    Updates

    • HMEE book was published in December 2012. Copies of the book were donated to Universities’ Central Library and YTU Library.
    • U Tin U lost his spouse Dr. Daw Khin Kyi Nyunt in November 2019, his elder son Dr. Peter Khin Tun in April 2020 and his son-in-law U Tin Tun in May 2030. He will celebrate his 96th birthday on August 3, 2025.
    • U Ba Than passed away after his 94th birthday in 2024.

    Posts

    • Associations
    • HMEE
    • Interviews
    • Sayas

  • 69er Grads Reunion in 1999

    by Tint Lwin & Hla Min

    Update : Apr 2026

    69ers

    • Most 69ers matriculated in 1963
    • Attended last ever I.Sc (A)
    • Admitted to first ever 2nd BE in November 1964
    • Graduated in 1969

    1969

    EE69ers

    EE69ers in 1969

    69ers Reunion in 1999

    30th Anniversary

    The 1969 RIT Graduates Reunion was held in Rangoon/Yangon, Burma/Myanmar on Saturday, 20 February 1999 at Sait-Teng-Kya Restaurant near Kandawgyi lake.

    Idea

    The idea was mooted three years ago when a few of us were having dinner together and thought of having a gathering in 1999. After that most of us have forgotten about the idea until around the end of November 1998 when a group of our friends led by Ko Yee Pinn (Tavoy), Ko Myint Maung (aka “Bu”, RIT Volleyball selected), Ko Shwe, Ko Win Lwin, etc. decided to have a grand re-union in February 1999. They also decided that to be more meaningful we should invite our Sayas to pay them respect as well and, hence, it became the reunion cum Saya-ga-daw-pwe.

    Attendees

    On that very day the guest trickled in starting from about 4.00 p.m at the restaurant. The guests were required to fill in their names and contact numbers. The organizers promised to compile the name list and send to everybody who attended. By 6.00 p.m. about 30 Sayas and about 120 of our graduates were in the restaurant. The master-of-ceremony, Ko Win Lwin, announced the start of the ceremony.

    Speeches

    The programme started off with a few speeches, led by Nyi Hla Nge, representing the graduates in Rangoon, followed by Danny, representing the graduates overseas, Sai Aung Win, representing graduates outside Rangoon and last but not the least, by Saya U Kyin Soe, representing all the Sayas.

    Paying respect

    After that we gave respect to the Sayas. All the Sayas were seated on the stage and all of us sat on the floor. Some gifts were distributed to the Sayas followed by photo taking session and then the sumptuous dinner began.

    Dinner & Entertainment

    About 9 to 10 dishes were served but, most of us were too excited to notice what we were eating. Halfway through the dinner some of us went up the stage and sang some songs for entertainment. Even all the ladies, led by Alice and Naw Mu Mu Aye were on the stage as well. The crowd went wild.

    Vow

    The party ended at about 9.30 p.m. with some of the graduates not so sober. It was indeed a memorable gathering and we all vowed to meet again in December 2000 at place and date to be announced early next year. Three cheers to the organizers and those who have one way or the other help in making this event a great success.

    1969

    Updates

    • How time flies.
    • The Class of 69 celebrated the 30th anniversary reunion in 1999. The correspondence (Ko Daniel Tint Lwin, Ma Alice Saw Yu Tint, …) was partly responsible for the establishment of the “RIT Alumni International Newsletter” and the first ex-RIT web site.
    • 40th Anniversary Reunion in 2009
    2009
    • Golden Jubilee of Admission in 2014
    2014
    • Golden Jubilee of Graduation in 2019
    2019
    • U Aung Min (M69) is Chair of 69er Health Care Fund. He and his team maintain the GBNF list.
    GBNF
    • Several Octogenarians — U Tin Maung, Harry Tin Htut, Uzin Bobby, Uzin Aung Chaw, U Ngwe Tun, U Win Thein Zaw, U Ngwe Soe, Albert Kyaw Min, Mehm Aye Chan, U Kyaw Zin, Robert Win Boh, U Tin Aung Win …

  • Nursery Songs

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    Minthuwun

    Minthuwun
    Nursery Songs
    • Minthuwun (U Wun) is a Laureate Poet.
    • He published a book titled “Maung Khway Boh မောင်ခွေးဘို့ (For Maung Khway)”.

    U Khin Zaw

    U Khin Zaw (“K”)
    • He is Founder / Director of Burma Broadcasting Service.
    • Pen name : “K”
    • He wrote the Preface.
    • He provided music for the poems (kabyars).
    • He also translated the poems (with Professor G H Luce) into English.

    U Ba Nyan

    Book 1
    • Distinguished artist
    • He drew the illustrations.

    Content

    Preface

    Book 2
    Book 3

    Burmese Poem & English Translation

    Book 4

    Nursery Songs

    Book 5
    Book 6
    Book 7
    Book 8
    Book 9
    Book 10
    Book 11

  • Memory is fallible

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    အထင်မှား / အမှတ်မှား

    Short Story by Minthuwun

    Minthuwun

    “ဘကြီးအောင် ညာတယ်” ဝတ္ထု (မြန်မာ နှင့် အင်္ဂလိပ်ဘာသာပြန်) ကို ငယ်စဉ်က ဖတ်ခဲ့ရပါသည်။

    ဆရာ မင်းသုဝဏ် ၏ ကဗျာ / ဝတ္ထု တို့ ကို သူငယ်ချင်း စာပေပညာ ရှင်များ က အင်္ဂလိပ် ဘာသာ ဖြင့် ပြန်ဆိုဂုဏ်ပြုကြပါသည်။

    Dr. Htin Aung is

    NOT Bagyi Aung

    ယနေ့ တိုင် ဘကြီးအောင် ကို ပါမောက္ခချုပ်ဒေါက်တာထင် အောင် ဟု အထင်မှား အမှတ်မှားသူများ ရှိနေပါသည်။

    Prof. U E Maung is

    NOT Bagyi Aung

    blogger တဦးက စိတ်ကူးဖြင့် ဘကြီးအောင် ကို မြန်မာစာပါမောက္ခ ဦးဧမောင် ဟု ရေးသားခဲ့ပါသည်။ ထို blog ကို like/ share လုပ်သော စာ ဖတ်သူများ မနည်းပါ။ Internet တွင် misinformation, disinformation, hoax, unchecked facts များ တွေ့မြင်နေရပါသည်။

    U Nay Oke (St. Paul)’s named the Four Main Characters

    ဦးနေအုပ် (စိန်ပေါလ်) က TEDx talk တွင် ခေတ်စမ်းစာပေ ကဗျာ ဆရာ နှစ်ဦး ၏ မေတ္တာ အကြောင်း ကို ကဗျာများနှင့်အတူ ရှင်းလင်းပြခဲ့ပါသည်။

    U Nay Oke’s Talk about Two Poets

    အဓိကဇာတ်ဆောင် များမှာ

    • ဆရာ မင်းသုဝဏ် Minthuwun
    • ဒေါ်ခင်စောမူ (ဦးနေအုပ်၏မိခင်) Daw Khin Saw Mu (U Nay Oke’s Mother)
    • ICS ဦးတင်ထွဋ် (ဦးနေအုပ်၏ဘကြီး) ICS U Tin Tut (U Nay Oke’s Bagyi)
    • ICSဦးဘတင့် (ဦးနေအုပ်၏ဖခင်) ICS U Ba Tint (U Nay Oke’s Father)

    ICS U Tin Tut

    is Bagyi Aung

    ကာယကံရှင်များ ကွယ်လွန်ကြပြီးဖြစ်သဖြင့် “ဘကြီးအောင်” အဖြစ်မှန်ကို ဦးနေအုပ်က စေတနာဖြင့် တင်ပြခဲ့ပါသည်။

    To err is human

    To minimize or eliminate misinformation is desirable

    Thanks to all those who pointed out inadvertent errors and inconsistencies in my posts / writings

  • Dark Moments

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    July 19, 1947

    Arzanis
    • See Posts

    March 2, 1962

    • The Coup d’etat ended Parliamentary Democracy in the Union of Burma.
    • President Mahn Win Maung, Prime Minister U Nu & cabinet ministers, and Shan Sawbwas were detained.
    U Nu

    7th July 1962

    • It saw indiscriminate shooting at the student protesters.
    • The official death tally was 17.
    • Ko Aung Khin was hit by a stray bullet as he was returning from RUBC to his home in Windermere Road.

    8th July 1962

    • It saw the revered RU Student Union Building demolished.
    • The then No. (1) and No. (2) said that they did not give orders for the two sad events.
    • Some people reported hearing strange sounds and seeing strange images in or near the residence halls (e.g. Mandalay Hall). Some believe that there might be ghosts.

    1963

    • There were pamphlets and Sar Saungs commemorating the anniversary of 7th July.
    • The higher authorities gave ultimatum to the hostel students to leave.
    • All classes except those from the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering were closed.
    • Final exams were held locally (e.g. at State High Schools).
    • The schools were reopened in November 1964 under a new Education System.

    1964

    • The use of Intelligence Level Aggregate (ILA) system and the 3 NRC rule created a Tier System among the Once Equal Disciplines.
    • A sayagyi told his students, “If all of you go to medical and engineering, there will not be talent left to cover other important fields.”
    • There were some exceptions. Dr. Min Oo (in 1963) and Dr. Zaw Win (a few years later) stood Second in the whole of Burma in Matric. They chose to study Maths and received their Doctorates from Germany. Dr. Min Oo retired from McMasters University in Canada. He earlier taught in Germany and in the US as a visiting professor. Dr. Zaw Win is GBNF.

    Mid-1960s

    • Nationalization of Schools took place on April 1, 1965.
    • “Burmese Way to Socialism (Despotism, Nepotism)” created 2nd and 3rd Class Citizens.
    • Shortage of rice (unheard of in the “Rice Bowl of Asia”) caused unease. The problem was redirected to create a riot known as “Tayoke Bama Ah Yay Ah Khinn” တရုပ်ဗမာ အရေးအခင်း

    1974

    U Thant Ah Yay Ah Khin
    • “U Thant Ah Yay Ah Khin” ဦးသန့်အရေးအခင်း can be read in a book with rare photos. Htein Win Sar Pay ထိန်ဝင်းစာပေ has published books about the two Ah Yay Ah Khinn in 1974 and 1988. Ko Khin Maung Zaw mailed me a copy of “U Thant Ah Yay Ah Khinn”. At the 5th ILF (Irrawaddy Literary Festival), Ko Htein Win gave me a copy of the 8-8-88 Ah Yay Ah Khinn.

    Late 1980s

    1988
    • There were several more closure of the schools.
    • Many students lost three precious years of their lives (1988, 1989 and 1990). There were no classes, exams and Convocation for the three years. The 1st BE Intake of 1983 graduated in 1992. Those who failed the 6th BE in 1987 had to repeat again in 1991.
    • Some, who witnessed the events in March and August of 1988, had a long wait before they could freely express their experiences.
    • In August 1988, Dr. Tin Aung (Physics) and U Tun Aung Chain (History) were in the US as members of the Burmese Education Delegation. Dr. Tin Aung was elected in abstentia as a Patron / Nayaka နာယက of the “Sayas and Sayamas from All Universities and Institutes” Ah Phwe အဖွဲ့ supporting the 8-8-88 movement. Upon his return to Burma, Dr. Tin Aung was forced to resign.
      When Dr. Tin Aung’s pacemaker needed replacement, his former students from Myanmar and Overseas donated for his health expenses.
    Dr. Tin Aung

  • Maurice Chee

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    RIT Days

    • Matriculated from MEHS in 1969.
    • During his RIT days, he was known as Hla Myint Thein.
    • Per advice from his paternal uncle Saya U Win Kyaing, he took Mechanical Engineering.
    • Graduated in 1975.

    Singapore & USA

    Worked in Singapore before moving to USA.

    Activities

    • Founding member of RIT Alumni International, which organized the First RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP.
    • Wore multiple hats at SPZP-2000
    • Co-Chair of the Working Committee (with Benny Tan)
    • Financial Controller
    • Logistics Chief
    • Publisher of commemorative issue of RIT Alumni Newsletter
    • Past President of BAPS. During his tenure, he used his culinary skills to host lunch meetings. His ancestors ran a top rated restaurant. He learned the recipe for Dan Bauk from his father, and has improved it. He would use different meat for his Dan Bauk.
    • Founding member & Past VP of NorCal RIT Alumni Association
    • Gave a seminar (e.g. on PE) at Mechanical Engineering Department, YTU
    • Donated books. Helped others (Daw Mu Mu Kin & Victor Wong) to donate books to YTU
    • With the help of some YTU sayas, he helped find eligible recipients for the scholarship offered by Daw Mu Mu Kin.

    Mg Mar Ga wrote:

    တကယ်အားကိုးရတဲ့​ကျောင်း​တော်သားပါ

    Updates

    • Lost his father in September 2015
    • Lost his mother-in-law in September 2019

    Memories

    SF Bay Area Alumni

    • Meetings & Gatherings at Benny’s house
    • Welcome Sayas & Alumni to the SF Bay Area
    SF Bay Area Alumni
    Gathering at Benny’s house
    Gathering 2
    Gathering 3
    Gathering 4

    SPZP-2000

    • Co-Chair, Working Committee
    • Several Subcommittees
    SPZP-2000

    M75

    • Reunion & fundraiser in Yangon
    M75

    Saya U Ba Than

    • Paid respect to Saya at Winner Inn
    With Saya U Ba Than

    Reunion of SPZP Organizers

    • KMZ visiting from Washington State
    • Benny enjoying retirement after three successful careers
    Sea Food Restaurant

    SF Bay Area Soon Kwyay

    • Hayward Kyaung (picture)
    • Also, Half Moon Bay Kyaung (for Maurice’s retirement, Kuto dana for Maurice’s dad)
    Soon Kyway

    Retirees’ Lunch Gathering

    • Selected restaurants & malls

    Posts

    • BAPS
    • NorCal RITAA
    • RIT Alumni International
    • SF Bay Area Alumni
    • SPZP

  • Han Sein

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    Ah Pho Gyi အဖိုးကြီး

    Han Sein 1
    • Graduated with Civil Engineering in 1969
    • Excellent athletic and social skills
    • Prisoner of Conscience
    • Now GBNF

    RIT Selected

    RIT Crosslake Swimmers
    • Swimming
    • Water Polo
    • Diving
    • Basketball

    Tone Kyaw တုံးကျော်

    • When 69ers compiled the Contact List in 1999, he was inadvertently listed as GBNF. The compilers were unaware that he had been sentenced by a Kangaroo Court to 20 years.
    • He was released after 17 years, but he lost his family.

    Did not lose heart စိတ်ဓာတ်မကျ

    • Active in 69er Gatherings as a photographer
    • Happy testing Special Effects on his camera
    Photographer
    • Leader in Latha Township
    Latha Ah Pho Gyi

    Byadi & Marana ဗျာဓိ မရဏ

    • Covid partly caused his demise.

    Condolences

    Tin Aung Win wrote

    We miss you, Mr. Photographer.

    David Myint Thein wrote

    Gone But Not Forgotten, may his soul rest in peace !

  • Pu Zaw Pwe

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    PZP

    Pu Zaw Pwe is a Noble Tradition that is practiced in Burma.

    Thet Kyee PZP is for paying respect to the Elders. The age requirements vary.

    Saya PZP is for paying respect to the sayas and sayamas. Some use the term Acariya PZP.

    Thet Kyee PZP

    In some places, a Senior Day is held. Transportation, Food, Entertainment and Photo-shoot are provided for Old people of all races and creeds.

    Thet Kyee PZP may be held in conjunction with a Festival, e.g Thingyan or Thadinkyut. Buddhists may also pay respect physically to the Elders.

    MES organized Thet Kyee PZP for Senior Engineers and Architects.

    The All-Mechanical Gathering also had a program to pay respect to Thet Kyee Mechanical Engineers.

    Acariya PZP

    Examples :

    Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65

    M72 (and some other Disciplines)

    ICST/UCSY

    Saya PZP

    RIT Alumni International hosted the First RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP in San Francisco, California in October 2000. The term SPZP was chosen over Saya Ga Dawt Pwe so that Alumni of different Faith can pay back the Metta and Cetana of their mentors. I am honored to be a Core Organizer of SPZP-2000. I wrote the poem “SAYA PU ZAW PWE”. It was published in the RIT website and the Commemorative Issue of the RIT Alumni Newsletter for SPZP-2000.

    Singapore hosted SPZP-2002, SPZP-2007 and SPZP-2010. Saya U Moe Aung (Tekkatho Moe War) and team published Commemorative Issue of Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung for the SPZPs. My poem was reprinted on the Back Cover of SDYSS-2002. I wrote a poem “SWE DAW YEIK” for SDYSS-2007. I wrote an article “EE Sayas : A Sad and Short Clip” for SDYSS-2010.

    Yangon hosted SPZP-2004, SPZP-2012 and SPZP-2016. Commemorative Issue of Swel Daw Yeik Magazine was published for SPZP-2012 and SPZP-2016. U Saw Lin (GBNF) was Chief Editor of SDYM-2012. Saya U Moe Aung was Chief Editor of SPZP-2016. Several Distinguished Authors (e.g Ma Sandar, Maung Sein Win — Padeegone, N Jar Thaing, Aw Pi Kye) also served as Editors.

    Due to the pandemic, SPZP-2020 was canceled.

    Some of the Organizers and Volunteers of the SPZPs are GBNF. They include Saya Allen Htay, Ko Saw Lin, Ko Aung Moung, Ko Than Sin Myint and Ko Robin.

    Several Sayas are GBNF. They include U Ba Toke, H Num Kok, U Soe Khaw, U Khin Aung Kyi, U Thit, Dr. Mg Mg Win, S Arya, S Kyaw Aye, U Soe Lwin.

    Sayas U Ba Than, U Aung Khin, Dr. Aung Gyi and U Min Win are 90+ years young. Many of our sayas are 80+ years young.

    We hope to see SPZPs in the not so distant future (after the Calamities have ended).

  • Donors

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    Daw Myint Myint (C69)

    Myint Myint
    • Co-founder of Myit Ma Kha Co. Ltd with spouse U Htein Win (M66, GBNF)
    • Philanthropist : donations in memory of U Htein Win
    • Major Donor of 69er Health Care Fund
    Award from 69ers
    69er HCF
    • YTU Library Modernization
    YTU Library
    • Swel Daw Yeik Foundation
    SDYF
    • Hunger Eradication
    • Selected religious and social organizations

    အလှူ Donation of K 1111

    • ဒေါ်မြင့်မြင့် Daw Myint Myint — K 1000 Lakhs (SDYF)
    • ဒေါ်မြင့်မြင့် Daw Myint Myint — K 100 Lakhs (Starvation Eradication)
    • ဦးတင့်ကြိုင် U Tint Kyaing  — K 10 Lakhs
    • မှော်ဆြာကြီး Hmaw Sayagyi — K 1 Lakh

    ——

    * စုစုပေါင်း Total — K 1111 Lakhs

    သာဓု၊ သာဓု၊ သာဓု၊
    Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu

    Donation for Swel Daw Yeik Foundation

    သိန်း၁၀၀၀အလှု

    Wynn Htain Oo’s post :

    အကိုဦးထိန်၀င်း(Mech66)ရဲ့အသက်၈၁နှစ်ပြည့်တဲ့ဒိီနေ့မှာမွေးနေ့အလှုအဖြစ်ဇနီးဖြစ်သူအမဒေါ်မြင့်မြင့်(civil69)မှစွယ်တော်ရိပ်ဖောင်ဒေးရှင်းသို့သိန်းတစ်ထောင်လှုဒါန်းပါတယ်

    SDYF

    အတိုးများများရမှဆရာ​တွေကိုပိုမိုအကျိုးပြုနိုင်မှာဖြစ်လို့အရင်းတိုးပွားဖို့ဒီ​လောက်ပမာဏလှုတဲ့အမကိုစွယ်​တောိရိပ်ကိုယ်စားအထူး​ကျေးဇူးတင်ရပါတယ်

    ဒိ​နေ့အခန်းအနားကို​မောင်မာဃနဲ့အတူလက်လှမ်းမီရာကိုစိုးမြင့်၊ကိုစန်းကြူ၊ကိုတင့်ကြိုင်၊ကိုတင်ဦး၊နန်းခင်နွဲ့နဲ့ကို​အောင်ခိုင်တို့ကစွယ်တော်ရိပ်ကိုယ်စားလက်ခံယူခဲ့ပါတယ်

    ကိုစိုးမြင့်ကစွယ်​တော်ရိပ်ကိုယ်စား​ကျေးဇူးတင်စကား​ပြောကြားခဲ့ပါတယ်

    အမတို့​စေတနာထက်သန်စွာလှုသလိုထိ​ရောက်စွာသုံးစွဲပါ့မယ်

    အမလဲသက်ရှည်ကျန်းမာလိုရာပြည့်ပါ​စေ

    Donation for Eradication of Starvation

    by Daw Myint Myint

    Myint Myint 8

  • Learning

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Apr 2026

    There are several ways to classify learning.

    Four Pillars of Learning

    • Learning to know — both formal (via schooling) and informal (via senses)
    • Learning to do — both formal (via a mentor or supervisor) and informal
    • Learning to be — e.g. a professional (doctor, engineer, scientist, public speaker)
    • Learning to live — e.g. a happy and fruitful life (with peace and tranquility)

    Types

    There is meta-learning and efficient learning (e.g. Learning how to learn).

    For AI (artificial intelligence), there is Machine Learning (which may be supervised or unsupervised) and Deep Learning (from large sets of data).

    Rote learning is not very effective. An effective technique is to perform repetitions (or revisions) at specified intervals.

    Lifelong Learner