Engineering Schools in Burma
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
Daw Pwint Than (EP71) received a dhamma book as a gift prize from a younger alumni.
She thanks the young energetic “Nyi Ma Nge Myar” for helping organize the memorable get together with the old (former Hall Tutors, classmates) and the new.
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
From our younger days, we learned about paying respect to our parents, mentors and benefactors.
ကျွန်တော် တို့ ငယ်စဉ် ကတည်း က ကျေးဇူးတရား အကြောင်း လေ့လာ မှတ်သား လေ့ကျင့် ခဲ့ ရပါတယ်။
I am following the noble tradition of honoring pioneers and outstanding people. I am trying my best to present their achievements and contributions. I an privileged to have known many seniors, contemporaries and juniors.
Who’s Who, Twentieth Century Impressions of Burma, Five Minute Biographies တွေ ကို နည်းယူပြီး ကျွန်တော် က Old Burma တုန်းက ထူးချွန်သူ တွေ ကို မှတ်တမ်းတင် ဂုဏ်ပြု နေတဲ့ ရှေ့မှီ နောက်မှီ (ဘေးမှီ) သူတယောက်ပါ။
I volunteered as a Docent at the Computer History Museum (CHM) for two years. CHM’s programs include Hardware & Software Artifacts, Exhibits, Oral History, Lectures, Panels and Award Ceremonies.
ကျွန်တော် Computer History Museum ကွန်ပျူတာသမိုင်းပြတိုက် မှာ Docent အဖြစ် နှစ်နှစ် volunteer လုပ်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ Computer Pioneer တွေ ကို မှတ်တမ်းတင်ဂုဏ်ပြု တဲ့ အဖွဲ့အစည်းပါ။ Artifacts, Exhibits, Oral History, Lectures & Panels တွေ စုံလင်ပါတယ်။
The Old Burma Group has posts about History, Notable (Famous as well as Notorious) people. I appreciate the invaluable posts as a reader and contributor.
Old Burma Group ဟာလည်း သမိုင်း နဲ့ ထူးချွန် / ဆိုးသွမ်း (Famous as well as Notorious) ကို မှတ်တမ်း တင် နေ တဲ့ အဖွဲ့ မို့ Contributor တယောက် အနေ နဲ့ ဝမ်းသာ ကြည်နူး မိပါတယ်။
I request the Group Administrator and Moderators to approve my posts.
ကျွန်တော် ရဲ့ posts တွေကို တင်ပြခွင့်ပြုပါ Admin နဲ့ Moderator များ ခင်ဗျာ။
I have posted articles of historical interest.
အဖြစ်နဲ့ သမိုင်းဝင် အကြောင်းအရာ တချို့ကို ပြန်လည်မျှဝေ နေဆဲပါ။
I am glad to receive feedback, information and suggestions from my former teachers, family members of senior alumni, colleagues and friends.
Posts တွေမှာ ပါတဲ့ ဆရာ၊ ဆရာမ၊ Senior Alumni တွေရဲ့ မိသားစုများ၊ အပေါင်းအသင်းများ ရဲ့ Feedback & Information တွေ ဖတ်ရလို့ ဝမ်းသာပါတယ်။
I also learned a lot from the posts by Subject Matter Experts and Group Experts.
SME (Subject Matter Experts), Group Experts … တွေ ရဲ့ posts တွေ ကို ဖတ် ရလို့ ဗဟုသုတ ရပါတယ်။
I have provided Credit for the Photos and References.
တတ်နိုင်သရွေ့ Source, Photos တွေကို Credit ပေးခဲ့ ပါတယ်။
U Myo Myint (Retired Deputy General Manager of Burma Railways) is an accomplished Painter, Cover Designer and Cartoonist. He drew Pon Tu’s of selected RIT Sayas, Sayamas, and colleagues. I am honored to receive his present.
ပန်းချီ မြတ်မျိုးမြင့် ရဲ့ လက်ဆောင် မွန်
Pon Tu gift from Bagyee Myat Myo Myint / U Myo Myint (M)
I was admitted to 2nd BE (Bachelor of Engineering) in November 1964.
The photo was taken at the Gyogone campus.
1964 – 65 ရန်ကုန်စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ် ဒုတိယနှစ် သင်တန်းသား
2nd BE Student at Rangoon Institute of Technology
I was selected as Luyechun (Outstanding Student).
The photo was taken at the Welcome Ceremony by the Head of Shan States.
1965 နွေရာသီ အင်းလေး ခေါင်တိုင် လူရည်ချွန် စခန်း
တက္ကသိုလ် နဲ့ အထက်တန်း လူရည်ချွန်များ
Inlay Khaung Daing Luyechun Camp in the Summer of 1965
Burma hosted the 2nd SEAP Games in 1961, and the 5th SEAP Games in 1969.
The photo shows a page from the Forward Magazine. Maung Thaw Ka (Bohmu Ba Thaw, GBNF) was Chief Editor of the magazine.
Forward မဂ္ဂဇင်း — ဒီဇင်ဘာ 1969
ပဥ္စမ အကြိမ် အရှေ့တောင်အာရှ ကျွန်းဆွယ်ပွဲ အတွက် ကဗျာ စပ်ဆို ခဲ့
Poem about the 5th SEAP Games
The photo was taken with the Teachers and Students of CPC (Computer Programming Course).
Dr. Tin Maung (GBNF) succeeded Dr. Chit Swe (UCC Founder, GBNF) as Director of UCC.
တက္ကသိုလ်များ ကွန်ပျူတာ ဌာန က ပို့ချတဲ့ သင်တန်း တခု
Computer Course at Universities’ Computer Center (UCC), Thamaing College Campus
https://hlamin.com/2024/03/09/rit-alumni-newsletter-for-spzp-2000-2/
SPZP-2000 Organizers
ဆရာတော် ဦးသီလာနန္ဒာဘိဝံသ (ပါချုပ်ဆရာတော်)
အထိမ်းအမှတ် မော်ကွန်းစာစောင်အတွက် အဖွဲ့ဝင် & စာတည်း
Contributing Editor for the Book published in memory of Sayadaw U Silanandabhivamsa
2010 စင်ကာပူ မှာ ကျင်းပတဲ့ စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ် ဆရာပူဇော်ပွဲ အထိမ်း အမှတ် စွယ်တော်ရိပ်စာစောင်
Wrote an article “A Sad and Short Clip: EE Sayas” for the Commemorative Issue
of Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung for SPZP-2010 in Singapore
ပွင့်လင်းခေတ်
2012 မှာ ကျင်းပခဲ့ တဲ့ ရန်ကုန်စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ် ဆရာပူဇော်ပွဲ
SPZP-2012: True Home Coming
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အင်ဂျင်နီယာ ပညာရေး သမိုင်း ပြုစု တဲ့ အဖွဲ့
Member of HMEE (History of Myanmar Engineering Education)
U Ohn Khine (M70) and I compiled the CD Supplement for the HMEE Book published in 2012
Copies of the Book were donated to Libraries
2012 နှစ် မှာ ထုတ်ဝေခဲ့တဲ့ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အင်ဂျင်နီယာပညာရေး သမိုင်း စာအုပ် ရဲ့ နောက်ဆက်တွဲ စီဒီ
CD Supplement for the HMEE Book
Photos and articles (in English) to supplement the articles (in Burmese) in the HMEE Book
2013 — ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ် လှေလှော်အသင်း ရဲ့ နှစ် 90 ပြည့် အထိမ်း အမှတ်စာစောင်
RUBC 90th Anniversary Souvenir Magazine
ရန်ကုန်စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ် ရွှေရတု အထိမ်းအမှတ်စွယ်တော်ရိပ် မဂ္ဂဇင်း (2014)
Wrote an article “Memories of a 69er” for the Commemorative Issue
of Swel Daw Yeik Magazine for Shwe YaDu 2014
RUBC 96th Anniversary & Regatta (2019)
U Tin Myint (GBNF), U Sein Htoon, U Khin Maung Latt, U Hla Min
2019 — 1969 နှစ် ဘွဲ့ရ အင်ဂျင်နီယာများ ရဲ့ ရွှေရတု
မနက်ပိုင်း — ကြို့ကုန်း မှာ ဆရာပူဇော်ပွဲ
2019 — Golden Jubilee of Graduation for RIT 69ers
Reunion and Saya Pu Zaw Pwe at Gyogone Campus
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
Rice is the staple food of Burma. What about Mohinga မုန့်ဟင်းခါး ?
Most people eat Mohinga for breakfast. A few can eat Mohinga any time of the day — breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In 2015, Ivan Lee (M69, New Jersey), Fred Thetgyi (M69, Philadelphia), my spouse and I (from California) visited Windsor, Canada to pay respect to Sayagyi U Aung Khin (Former Professor and Head of Mechanical Engineering at the Rangoon Institute of Technology.
Sayagyi allowed my spouse and I to sleep at his guest room. He got up early to prepare Mohinga and Ah Kyaw အကျော် (Fries) for breakfast for the four of us. He also gave us mementos from Windsor.
During our younger days, plain Mohinga used to cost 15 pyas. With Ah Kyaw, we would pay 25 pyas.
Most vendors cannot match the taste of the Buthee Kyaw ဗူးသီးကျော် using a formula by a cousin aunt to accompany the Mohinga cooked by my beloved father and his assistants.
The best part is that we do not have to pay for the sumptuous “all you can eat” meal.
There are a variety of ways to prepare and cook Mohinga.
Some variables are
There’s a story that is near and dear to me.
My spouse’s maternal grandma အဖွား was oblivious to the political, social & economic changes. Every morning, she would call a grand child. She would open her little purse inside a big purse, and then unwrap two or three layers of paper to get her money. She would dole out ten pyas ဆယ်ပြား to buy Mohinga for her.
One day she could not finish a spoonful of Mohinga. Her breath slowly faded with her head resting on my lap. There was no sigh. She passed away gently.
My spouse belongs to the elite company of Mohinga lovers. She enjoys Mohinga for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I have a fear စိုးရိမ်ပူပန်စိတ် for the day when she might refuse to have Mohinga & follow her grandma.
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
Daw Pwint Than (EP71) received a dhamma book as a gift prize from a younger alumni.
She thanks the young energetic “Nyi Ma Nge Myar” for helping organize the memorable get together with the old (former Hall Tutors, classmates) and the new.
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
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.
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.
Examples :
Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65
M72 (and some other Disciplines)
ICST/UCSY
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).
by Dr. Aung Gyi
Updated : Apr 2026
I matriculated in 1949 and entered the University of Rangoon and stayed in Ava Hall and took the Intermediate of Science (ISc) courses. The courses were: English, Burmese, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics (Pure and Applied Maths). We needed to take these courses for two years in order to go to the engineering studies. I remember having a great time in the first year as we did not have to take the examination at the end of the first year for some unknown reason. But we had to take the examination at the end of the second year for all the subject matters that were taught to us for the whole two years. It was a tough examination at the end of the second year as we had to study a lot. We had physics and chemistry examination papers, two mathematics papers, English and Burmese papers, physics lab practical exam and chemistry lab practical exam within a period of 15 to 20 days in the hot month of March. Only about 60% of the students passed through the first time. The passing grade for each subject was 40%. Fortunately the University authorities in those days were understanding and kind enough to give the failed students what they called compartmental examination again in May/June for the failed subjects. Given a second chance like that, a lot of students passed the examination this time around. The Faculty of Engineering admitted the students, including the students who passed the ISc exam. under the compartmental system, with a passing grade of at least 40% for each of ISc subjects and the average passing grade for all the subjects combined of 50%.
I was quite fortunate to have good teachers in my ISc days. I remember that Saya U Than Tin gave good lectures in physics. Saya U Thein Nyunt was good as well in teaching us chemistry. Needless to say the experiments that I had to do in physics and chemistry labs were interesting as they were all new to me.The maths teachers I remember were Professor U Aung Hla, Sayagyi U Kar, Sayagyi U Ba Toke, two Indian lecturers with the same last name Chowdhury. I forgot their first names. One Chowdhury was bald headed and the other had a lot of hair.They were teaching, I think, under contract with the Rangoon University. These very good teachers, I had to say, gave me a good foundation in mathematics. The English teachers were very good too. They were Saya U Kan Gyi and Sayama E. Kan Gyi. The only Burmese teacher I remember was Saya U Hla Maung who could make a boring topic into an interesting lecture. I owe a lot of gratitude to these wonderful teachers.
I joined the first year engineering class in 1951-1952 academic year, having satisfied the entrance requirements of the Faculty of Engineering mentioned above. The academic year , I think was from June to February with about one month break in October. So far as I know there was a “new course engineering” at the Faculty of engineering right after the World War ll. I do not know what the entrance requirement for this new course was.
I stayed in Prome Hall like most of the other engineering students in those days, as it was situated close to the B.O.C. College of Engineering building where we had classrooms, laboratories, and workshop for our engineering courses. A few engineering students however stayed in Tagaung Hall which was in the same Prome road campus of the Rangoon University as Prome Hall. Both of these hostels were timber buildings and they could easily get burnt down; but I was happy to see that they are still standing there when I visited Yangon in 2010. These two Halls gave accommodations to all engineering students, even to some students from Rangoon at that time, as there were vacancies and as the total engineering student population was not that big. If my guess is correct, I think there were about 350 to 400 students for 4 years of all engineering disciplines, out of which there were about 75 1st year engineering students. The system in place at that time was in such a way that the students had to take common courses in the first 2 years and branched out into different disciplines of choice, starting from 3rd year.
I remember that as first year engineering students, we still had to take mathematics classes from 7:00 am to 9:00 am at the main campus where we had taken the Intermediate of Science courses. I remember getting up early in the morning in Prome Hall ,and taking a walk along the road, what we called as “Padaukpin lane” or “Thaton lane”, and through Thaton Hall and Ava Hall , for the mathematics classes at the main campus. All of us then rushed back to B.O.C. College of Engineering from the main campus after 9:00 am to take theengineering classes, which included lectures, practical laboratory work, workshop practice, and drawing classes, starting from 10:00 am. We normally finished our classes around 4:00 pm. The total contact hours of learning for engineering students were about 30 hours per week. If my memory is correct, it was difficult to get an engineering degree in 6 years after matriculation. Somewhere along the way some of us failed for one reason or the other, and had to repeat a class.The passing grade for each subject, which included workshop training at the Engineering Faculty was 40% and the average passing grade for all the subjects combined was 50%. When I passed my 1st year engineering in April/May 1952 I noticed that about 15% of my classmates were left behind to repeat the 1st year engineering.
I do not remember all of my teachers at that time. I can only recall that Saya Num Kock was in charge of 1st year engineering drawing, Saya Jaidka taught us ” building materials and construction”, Saya Ketrepal gave lectures and practical laboratory training in “heat engines”, Sayagyi U Kyaw Tun / Saya C. Ping Lee taught us “electrotechnology” in the classroom and in the laboratory. In addition to the lectures, laboratory work and drawing, all of us had to take workshop training in carpentry, blacksmith, welding, and in machine shop. The medium of teaching was English. We were also encouraged to take some practical training with some engineering organization during the summer vacation. I am not quite sure , but I think Ko Chit was an assistant at the blacksmith shop, and U Ba Sein was an assistant in the electrical lab. I think Mr P. Davis was the workshop superintendent. The classrooms , laboratory facilities, the workshop facilities that I had attended were good and adequate. The library I visited some time was full of good engineering books, magazines and journals. I could imagine that with its qualified teaching staff and good teaching facilities, the Faculty of Engineering was producing the qualified engineers needed by the country at that time.
I do not know what was the total number of teachers we had at the Faculty of Engineering at that time. I could guess that the student/teaching staff ratio was about 20:1 from the number of teachers and from the number of students I had seen. I noticed that there were few Burmese nationals teaching staff at the Faculty, and most of the teachers were from India and UK. It seems that, right after the World War II, there was shortage of qualified teaching staff from Burma at higher education/University level as a whole. Sayagyi Professor U Ba Hli was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and I believe he received his post graduate degree from a British University. He was quite far-sighted and tried to broaden and improve the engineering education by having some kind of twinning arrangements with not only a British University but also with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (M.I.T). I remember as a student that there was a visiting Professor called Professor Horwood from M.I.T at the Faculty; and I think he gave us lectures on sanitary engineering. Sayagyi U Ba Hli must have planned to increase the number of engineering disciplines that were given at the Faculty from civil, mechanical and electrical engineering to other disciplines as well, such as Mining, Chemical, Metallurgy, Textile engineering and Architecture. I understood this plan came into fruition in 1954/1955. He must have also planned to send the Burmese nationals to UK, USA and as qualified teaching staff at the Faculty at a later date. I therefore take this opportunity to put on record that a big credit is due to the late Sayagyi U Ba Hli for his contribution to the improvement of engineering education in Myanmar.
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
Rangoon University was opened on 1st December 1920 with Rangoon College and Judson College as constitutent colleges. There were only three Faculties: Arts, Science and Law.
The First RU Students’ Strike started on 5th December 1920 to protest the deficiencies of the 1920 RU Act. It led to the opening of National Schools and National College. It also forced amendments to the RU Act (notably in 1923).
In 1924, the inaugural engineering classes were opened.
Details can be found in the HMEE (History of Myanmar Engineering Education) book published in 2012. Saya U Aung Hla Tun (GBNF, National Literary Award winner, former Chief Editor of RIT Annual Magazine) served as Leader and Principal Auhor of the book. U Ohn Khine (M70) and I compiled the CD Supplement for the HMEE book.
Engineering students have to attend
Civil was the earliest Discipline.
Mechanical and Electrical Disciplines were offered next.
In the mid and late 1950s, five more Disciplines were added.
In November 1964, RU was reorganized. Several Faculties became autonomous Institutes.
The Faculty of Engineering (known also as the Burma Institute of Technology) became Rangoon Institute of Technolgy with U Yone Moe (former Dean of BIT) as Rector and U Soe Thein (former Ta-Ka-Tha Leader) as Registrar.
In November 1964, three batches of students were admitted to RIT.
ILA (Intelligence Level Agregate) was used to admit 400+ Matriculates to the 1st BE. ILA was controversial.
300+ students who had passed the I.Sc.(A) examination were admitted to the 2nd BE.
About 200 students who had passed the I.Sc.(B) examination were admitted to the 3rd BE.
In the New Education System, the Classes are called
For Architects, the Classes are called BArch (Bachelor of Architecture).
The Group is jokingly eferred to the Guinea Pigs of the Education Systems.
The members include
(a) those who entered 2nd BE in 1964
(b) those who graduated in 1969
(c) those who studied a year or more with the above
The Group is also known as 69ers, the RIT Class of 69 and the Class of RIT 69++ .
The first formal Reunion of the Group occurred in 1999. It also was instrumental for the development of the RIT Alumni Newsletter, the inaugural ex-rit website, and the First RIT Grand Reunion and Saya Pu Zaw Pwe (SPZP-2000).
In 1999, Ko Tint Lwin (Daniel), Ko Sein Myint, Ko Sein Win (“Nar Yee”), and several 69ers organized the reunion for the “30th Anniversary of Graduation” and also a mini-SPZP. Ko Tint Lwin e-mailed me a report. Ma Saw Yu Tint (Alice) e-mailed me photos.
Saya U Soe Paing e-mailed me about several mini-gatherings in Yangon (e.g. with Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi).
Ko Tint Lwin (M69) wrote :
Thank you very much for your write-up about our 1999 “30th Anniversary of Graduation”. Actually. it all started in 1996 when I visited Burma and had dinner with a few of my close friends, including, Ko Shwe, Ko Win Mg, Ko Ye Pinn, Gabar Ko Myint Thein, etc. During dinner somebody mentioned that in 3 years time it would be 30 years since we graduated. Out of the blues I suggested to have a reunion in 1999. Everybody laughed as it was so far away. When I came back to Singapore and told Ko Sein Myint and Dickie they also laughed and told me that I must be crazy to think about so far away. However, time flies and in either late 1998 or early 1999 at Ko Win Htein’s funeral wake, some of our friends remembered the reunion proposal. They quickly formed a committee and organised the very first reunion at ‘Sait Taing Kya Restaurant. After the event I wrote you a report, Alice sent you a few photos and the rest is history.
The Class of 69 organized the “40th Anniversary of the Graduation” in 2009.
The “Golden Jubilee of the admission to 2nd BE” was celebrated in 2014, because the 69ers were concerned with the declining health of members and that some may not be able to make it to the True Golden Jubilee of graduation in 2019.
The Class of 69 celebrated the true Golden Jubilee (50th Anniversary of Graduation) in December 2019.
Acariya Pu Zwe Pwe was held at the Assembly Hall on Gyogone Campus.
The Reunion Dinner and Entertainment was held at the former Office Compound of Ko Aung Min.
Ma Tin Tin (Anne, EC69) had a “Home Coming” after her graduation.
Many were unaware that the gathering would be a final one for some (especaially those who would succumb to Covid).
The term “Saya Pu Zaw Pwe” was chosen over “Saya Ga Daw Pwe” (which has religious connotation) so that alumni professing various faiths can pay respect to their former sayas / mentors.
I have been an Organizer and/or Facilitator for the SPZPs.
My “SAYA PU ZAW PWE” poem was published in the Commemorative Newsletter for SPZP-2000.
Saya U Moe Aung reprinted the poem as the Back Cover of Commemorative Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung for SPZP-2002.
My poem “SWE DAW YEIK” was published in the Commemorative Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung for SPZP-2007.
My article “A Sad and Short Clip : EE Sayas” was published in the Commemorative Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung for SPZP-2010.
Zau Lai (EP69) wrote :
Thank you, Ko Hla Min, for your writings. If it’s not for you there will be no records and history of RIT. I am reading interestingly all your writings all the time. When we all are gone your writing will live on.
Aung Min (M69) wrote :
So thanks for your recordings.
Appreciations.
At one moment, the Class of 69 had a median age of 69, and the list of GBNF has 69 members.
That symmetry no longer holds. The Class of 69 has a median age of 79, and the list of GBNF has 128!(or so) members. Over 40% have passed away.
In the latter half of 2021, twenty 69ers passed away. 18 were victims of Covid.
The attendees at the mini-gatherings have decreased. Some could not drive, and had to ask their family members to take them to the gatherings. Some had major or minor operations, and need time to recover fully. Some had medical problems for some time (e.g. a year or two).
Most are retired or semi-retired. A few did not retire or did not have the chance to retire.
U Aung Min (M69, Chair), U Shwe (EP69, Secretary) and team are the core volunteers for the 69er HCF. The team sends out monthly, quarterly and annual reports (including Donations, Income, Expenditure, GBNF)
Ivan Lee (U Khin Maung Oo, M69), Daw Myint Myint (C69) and U Sein Myint (K K Wong, EP69) are some of the major donors to HCF.
Most 69ers donate at the 69er Gatherings (e.g. Monthly Breakfast Gathering at Taw Win Hnin Si / Royal Rose Restaurant).
Ko Ivan Lee (M69) wrote :
Dear Classmates,
Recently rather than optimistic good news, we heard spreading pessimistic health concern news mostly.
It clearly indicates that we are aging higher and health is going down lower and lower.
I can imagine 5 years from now how many will be terribly survived.
I am kind of depressed that sooner or later we will be meeting THERE.
At this moment all I can express is to wish our classmates who are in sickness to recover ASAP.
Ivan Lee (M69)
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
၁၉၉၀ မှာကျနော်ကထိကဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ အလုပ်ဝင်ပြီး ၁၇နှစ်အကြာမှာပေါ့။ အဲဒီနှစ်မှာပဲမန္တလေးစက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ်ဖွင့်လှစ်နိုင်ရေးအတွက်တာဝန်ပေးလို့၊မန္တလေးကိုရောက်ရပါတယ်။
မန္တလေးစက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ်ဖွင့်နိုင်ရေးလုံးပမ်းနေစဉ်၊ကျောင်းဆေးခန်းအတွက် ဆေးထည့်ဘီဒို၊ ရန်ကင်းတောင်ခြေ ဘုန်းကြီးကျောင်းဝင်း၊အုတ်တံတိုင်း၊သီလရှင်ကျောင်း၊ပရိယတ္တိအထောက်အ ကူ၊စာရေးကရိယာ များလှုဒါန်းခြင်းစတဲ့ တပိုင်တနိုင်ဒါနပြုနိုင်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ခုဂဏန်း၊ဆယ်ဂဏန်းဒါနအမှုတို့ကားနေ့စဉ်မပြတ်။
ကျနော်တို့တတွေသည်၊ဘုရားပြီးလျှင်သာသနာ့ဝန်ကိုထမ်းရွက်ကြသည့်၊ရဟန်း သံဃာတို့ကိုလှုဒါန်းမှုပြုလေ့ရှိကြပါသည်။ နာမည်ကြီးဆရာတော်နှင့်ဘုန်းကြီးကျောင်းတို့တွင်လှုဒါန်းသူများပေါများကြပါသည်။ သို့ဖြစ်လင့်ကစား၊သာသနာ့ဝန်ထမ်း သီလရှင်များနှင့်သီလရှင်ကျောင်းတိုက်များသို့လှုဒါန်းကြသူနည်းပါးကြသည်။
သံဃာတော်ကို(၁၀၀)ကျပ်တန်လှုသူမရှားသော်လည်း၊သီလရှင်ကို(၁၀) ကျပ် တန်လှု သူရှားပါသည်။ကြုံတုန်းတိုက်တွန်း လိုသည်မှာသာသနာ့ဝန်ထမ်းသီလရှင်များ ကို လှုကြဖို့မမေ့ကြစေလို။
၁၉၉၃ဇန္နဝါရီမှစပြီး၊ကျနော့တွင်လစာငွေနှင့် မလောက်၍ စိုက်စားခဲ့ရသောကိုယ်ပိုင်စုဆောင်းငွေမှာ၊မရှိတော့။ စိုက်ရသည့်ငွေကလည်း ၁နှစ်ထက်၁နှစ်တက်လာသည်။ထိုနှစ်က လစဉ်စိုက်စားသုံးရန်၄ထောင်ခန့်လိုသည်။ ၁၉၉၉ခု စလုံးမထွက်ခင်စိုက်စားသုံး ရန်မှာ၊ ၂သောင်းခန့်ဖြစ်လာသည်။
မှတ်မှတ်ရရ၊ (၆၅)လအထိ၊စိုက်စားရန်လက်ထဲမရှိသောငွေတို့မှာ၊တနည်းမဟုတ်တနည်းဝင်ပါသည်။ အမြောက်အများကြီးလည်းမဟုတ်။ ၅ထောင်စိုက်ရမည့်လမှာ၅ထောင်၊ ၁သောင်းစိုက်ရမည့်လမှာ၁သောင်းခန့်သာ။
အခက်အခဲစကြုံသော 93 Jan မှာပင်၊ကျနော်မည်သု့ထံကမှ ချေးငှါးလှည့်သုံးရန်မရည်ရွယ်။ ချေးငှါးပြီးလျှင်လည်း၊ပြန်ဆပ်နိုင်မည့်လမ်းမမြင်။ ဒီတော့ စိတ်ကိုအေးအေးထားကာ၊
”ကောင်းတာလုပ်လျှင်ကောင်းကျိုးရမည်” ဟုယုံကြည်ပြီး၊ကျနော်တတ်သောပညာဖြင့်၊လုပ်ငန်းရှင်များကို Free consultant လုပ်ပေးပါသည်။
ထိုစဉ်ကကျောင်းဌာနတွင်အမျိုးသားဆရာကထိက အနေဖြင့် ကျနော်တစ်ယောက် သာကျန်သည်။အားလုံးအလုပ်မှထွက်၍ overseas သွားကုန်ကြသည်။အထွက်နှုန်းလျော့ကျသော၊ ထုတ်ကုန်အပျက်အစီးများသော၊ ထုတ်ကုန်အရည်အသွေးမြှင့်လိုသော၊ထုတ်ကုန်အသစ်လုပ်လိုသောလုပ်ငန်းရှင်များနှင့်ထို(၆၅)လမှာဆက်ဆံခဲ့ရသည်။ ကူညီဖြေရှင်းနည်းလမ်းပေးနိုင်ခဲ့သည်။
Free consultant ဆိုသည်မှာ၊ ကျနော် ဖက်ကဘယ်တော့မှ၊ ဥာဏ်ပူဇော်ခ မတောင်း။ဘယ်၍ဘယ်မျှပေးပါဟု လည်းမဆို။ လုပ်ငန်းရှင်ကိုတပည့်လို သဘောထား၍၊ ဘာကြောင့်ဖြစ်တာ၊ ဘယ်လိုလုပ်ရင်ဖြစ်မယ်၊ဘာကြောင့် လုပ်ရတယ်တိုတာတွေကို၊သိရှိအောင်လည်း ရှင်းပြပါသေးသည်။
လောဘမဖက်၊ စေတနာသက်သက်ဖြင့်ကူညီခဲ့ခြင်း အပ်ါအချို့က စာအိပ်လေး ဖြင့်၊ဆရာ့ကိုကန်တော့တာပါဟု ဆိုပြီးကန်တော့လျှင်တော့ကျနော် လက္ခံပါသည်။ ဖေါက်ကြည့်စရာမလို။ စာအိပ်ထဲမှာထိုလအတွက်စိုက်စားရန်လိုသောပမာဏလောက်ပါပါသည်။
(၆၅)လလုံး၊ဒီလတော့အဆင်ပြေသွားပြီ၊နောက်လဘယ်ကရမှာလဲ၊ဒီနှစ်တော့အဆင်ပြေသွားပြီ၊နောက်နှစ်ဘယ်လိုဖြစ်မလဲစသဖြင့်တွေးမပူခဲ့။ မိမိကိုယ်ကိုလည်းအံသြမိသည်။ မရေရာသောဝင်ငွေဖြင့်စိတ်ကိုအေးဆေးစွာထားနိုင်သည်။”ကောင်းတာသာလုပ်၊အဟုတ်အကျိုးပေးမည်”ကိုလက္ခံယုံကြည်ကာနေခဲ့နိုင်ခြင်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။
ထို(၆၅)လအတွင်းတွင်လည်း၊ဝင်သောငွေထဲမှအချို့ကိုလှုခဲ့ပါသည်။ ကျနော်က FOC ဆိုတော့အချို့လုပ်ငန်း ရှင်များကလည်းငွေဖြင့်ကန်တော့လျှင်ရိုင်းရာကျမည်စိုး၍အပြန်တွင်စားသောက်ဆိုင် ကြီးတစ်ခုခုသို့ခေါ်သွားပြီး၊နေ့လည်စာ/ညစာ ကျွေးမွေးကြပါ၏။ ကျနော့လစာဖြင့်မကပ်နိုင်သောထိုစားသောက်ဆိုင်အတော်များများကိုကျနော်ရောက်ဖူးစားခဲ့ဖူးရပါသည်။
စိတ်ပူ၊စိတ်ညစ်ရမည့်ထိုအချိန်များက၊ကျနော်ပျော်၍ပင်နေမိပါသေး၏။ ကိုယ်တတ်ထားသောပညာဖြင့်လိုအပ်သူများကိုမျှဝေကူညီနိုင်ခဲ့သည်မဟုတ်ပါလား။ ၁၉၈၉မှ ၁၉၉၉အထိ၊စလုံးသို့မထွက်ခင် (၁၀) နှစ်အတောအတွင်းကျနော် ကျပ်၃သိန်းကျော်လှုနိုင်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ တွက်၍လွယ်အောင်ကျနော့နောက်ဆုံး ထုတ်လစာ၂ထောင်ဖြင့်၁၀နှစ်ကိုတွက်သော်၊လစာဝင်ငွေစုစုပေါင်းမှာ၊၂သိန်း ၄သောင်းသာ။ ကျနော့်လစာထက်ပင် ပို၍ကျနော်လှုခဲ့နိုင်ပါသည်။
ဤအလှုဒါနတို့၏အကျိုးပေးကား၊နောက်ဆုံးမရည်ရွယ်ပါပဲလျှက်၊စလုံးသို့လွယ်ကူချောမွေ့စွာရောက်ရှိပြီး၊ကိုယ်ကျွမ်းကျင်ဝါသနာပါရာပညာရေးကဏ္ဍမှာပင်ယနေ့တိုင်လုပ်ကိုင်နေရဆဲဖြစ်ပါ၏။
အလှုပေးခြင်းနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍
“ပေး၍မကုန်၊လှု၍မခန်း”ဆိုသော စကားသည်၊ကျနော့ဘဝအတွက်တော့ ၁၉၈၉နှစ်မှသည်၊ယနေ့တိုင်အောင်မှန်ခဲ့ပါသည်…
မှန်နေဆဲပါ….
ဆက်၍လည်း မှန်နေဦးမည်သာ….။
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
by Hla Min
Updated : Apr 2026
HlaMin 