Category: RU

Jubilees and Celebrations

• Silver Jubilee (25 years)
• Golden Jubilee (50 years)
• Diamond Jubilee (75 years)
• Centennial (100 years)
• Sesquicentennial (150 years)
• Bicentennial (200 years)
• Tricentennial (300 years)

Rangoon University Act of 1920 was enacted on December 1, 1920.

The First RU Student Strike to protest the Act took place of December 5, 1920 (two days earlier than planned because the news leaked to the higher authorities).

2020 two Centennials related to RU.

The Burmese Movie Industry also has a Centennial in 2020. Kye Mon ran a series of articles (e.g. interview with U Tin Yu).

Yar Pyay Ah Kyo

• Former EC members of the RU Ka Laung Ah Thinn (1958 – 1962) including Daw Kyu Kyu Thin and Saya U Moe Aung (Tekaktho Moe War) will publish a “Collection of Kabyars” and a commemorative Magazine.
• Yar Pyi Ah Kyo kicked off on December 1, 2019with an opening ceremony at the Convocation Hall.
• There have exhibitions at the Recreation Center and the RU Central Library.
• There were several Fund Raisers for Yar Pyi.
• Several individuals and groups have published books.
• The Main Committee is still collecting manuscripts.

ADMIN and Rectors in the mid 1960s

• Dr. Nyi Nyi (Secretary / Deputy Minister)
• U San Tha Aung (Director General of Higher Education)
• Dr. Maung Maung Kha (Rector, Rangoon Arts and Science University)
  Saya earlier served as Interim Dean of the Faculty of Engineering
• U Hla Shwe (Rector, Mandalay Arts and Science University)
• U Yone Mo (Rector, Rangoon Institute of Technology)
  Saya formerly served as Dean of Burma Institute of Technology
• Dr. Ba Than (Rector, Institute of Medicine (1))
  Saya served as Medical Superintendent of RGH during the War
• Dr. U E (Rector, Institute of Medicine (2) in Mingaladon)
• Dr. Maung Maung Gyi (Rector, Institute of Medicine in Mandalay)
• Dr. Aye Hlaing (Rector, Institute of Economics)
  Later served as Chairman of the Union Bank of Burma
• Lt. Col. San Myint (Rector, Institute of Education)
• Dental : Dr. Aung Than (Rector)
• Vet : U Mya Nyunt (Rector)
• Agri : U Than Tun (Rector)

There have been name changes (e.g. Some Institutes are now known as Universities.)

Principals in the Mid 1960s

• Workers’ : U Kyaw
• Taunggyi : U Khin Maung Tint
• Myitkyina : U San
• Magwe : U Win Maung
  later transferred to DHE
• Mawlamyaing (Moulmein) : Mehm Thet San
  later became Deputy Minister
• Pathein (Bassein) : U Tin Oo Hlaing
  

Photos

• It is important to preserve and share old photos.
• Before the advent of digital cameras and smart phones, it was not simple and cheap to take photos (let alone process them).
• In my younger days, I had a Box Camera, and later Yashica Mat. Unlike my uncle and a cousin brother who are experts in developing films (in a dark room), I had to pay 25 to 50 pyas per print at a Studio (e.g. Ahuja). Later, there emerged professional photographers (e.g. Maung Maung Nhyat and his brothers) and freelance photographers (e.g. Dat Pone San Aung, Dhatu Kyaw Lynn, Maung Maung Soe).
• Only those who won contracts had permission to take official photos at the Convocations. It was not compulsory to take and pay for the photos. Some, who did not order the photos, found their photos being displayed as examples of “Do not walk like this” and similar fun messages.
• In the posts, there are individual photos and group photos (e.g. fresher welcome, farewell, graduation, newspaper clippings). Some have captions and dates. It is sad to note that some photos remind of people that are GBNF (Gone But Not Forgotten).
• In the early days, Color photos had to be sent abroad for processing. Our wedding photos were taken with the color film given to me by my elder brother. They were then sent to a friend who was studying abroad. The color photos faded over time.
• With the advances in technology, even small children can take reasonably good photos. The photos can be edited (e.g. crop, color-adjusted).
• Some unscrupulous people have “doctored” photos and presented them as “evidence” of news. One unethical researcher “duplicated” data to “get favorable results”.

Dr. Thwe Oo (UK)

• Shared her memories of growing up (until she matriculated) in the Main Campus.
• Described the harrowing experience of the “U Thant Ah Yay Ah Khin” (especially the fear for her father’s safety).
• Her father Saya U Khin Maung Nyunt (History, Assistant Registrar under Rector Saya Dr. Maung Maung Kha and Registrar Sayama Daw Sein Sein) was Warden of Sagaing Hall at the time. Per Sayagyi’s request, he and his Hall Tutors tried to persuade the throng of student protesters — some holding sharp objects — marching on to the Convocation Hall, but to no avail. They had to go along with the crowd and try to minimize the crowd inflicting damage on the Campus property.
• She fondly remembers her father play tennis with his close friend Joe Ba Maung (Burma Tennis Champion in Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles).
• She also had good rapport with the Swimming Instructors and friends at the University Swimming Pool.
• Her mother is Sayama Daw Mya Mya Nu (Zoology, fondly known as Mya Lay of the “Lay Sisters”).
  Her aunts are Tin Lay, May Lay and Than Lay.

Dr. Nyan Taw (SPHS63)

• Matriculated in 1963 from St. Paul’s High School.
• RUBC Gold
• Joined the Zoology Department
• Did his graduate studies in Marine Biology in Tasmania, Australia.
• Worked for PPFC (People’s Pearl and Fisheries Corporation)
• Worked overseas on UN and Government projects.
• He is happy to see posts about the simple but heroic act in 1941 (before he was born). His mother Daw Marie Hla Taw helped Bogyoke Aung San escape the net of the Police Commissioner who had placed Five Rupee / Kyat reward on Bogyoke. An actress has been selected to portray his mother in the movie about Bogyoke.

Htein Win

• Took photos of the Ah Yay Ah Khin (mostly from a saya’s house in the Main Campus).
• Gave the photos to some friends and to an organization overseas (for storage).
• With the Pwint Linn era, he was able to get back the archived photos from overseas.
• Managed to get articles from some of the participants in the Ah Yay Ah Khin.
• Ko Khin Maung Zaw bought a book from Myanmar and then mailed it to me.
• In November 2019. I was invited to attend the 5th Irrawaddy Literary Festival in Mandalay. I met Ko Htein Win who had a book stall at the Festival. He gave me an autographed copy of the book about 8-8-88.

Missionary

Andoniram Judson Jr. (1788 – 1850) was the most significant American Baptist Missionary to Burma.

His supervisors told him that it would be a tough task.

There were a few ABMs before him, but they did not stay long.

Judson and his team (which included some former dhamma teachers) compiled the English-Burmese and Burmese-English Dictionaries.

• Judson published the Burmese translation of the Bible.
• He helped found the association for Baptists.
• He is honored by having a church and a college named after him.
  

Judson College

• In 1920, Judson College and Rangoon College became constituent colleges of the newly established University of Rangoon.
• Two buildings for Judson College were donated by the American Baptists.
• The Willington Hall was built in memory of two families — the Vintons and the Johnsons — of the Church of Willington for their missionary work in Burma.
  It was later known as Dagon Hall.
• The Benton Hall was donated by Ms. Benton (Treasurer of the Judson Church and/or Judson College).
  It was later known as Thiri Hall.
• Depending on the period, a Hall may house classrooms or may be used as a hostel.
  There was also a building named North Hall (which later became Shwebo Hall).

• Saya U Thein Han (Zawgyi) and Saya U Wun (Minthuwun) co-founded “Khit San Sar Pay” with ICS U Sein Tin (Theikkpan Maung Wa, first Honors graduate from the Burmese Department).

• Saya Zawgyi’s Kabyars are recited by young children in events (e.g. Literary Talks) all over the world.
• His Beda Lann Kabyars are classic.
• Dr. Lyn Swe Aye and his translation of Beda Lann was featured in a documentary by PBS (Public Broadcasting Service).

• Saya Minthuwun’s “Su, Tu, Pyu” inspired many poets.
• Saya’s friends and colleagues are distinguished writers.
  They translated Saya’s poems and his short story “Bagyi Aung Nyar Dei”) into English, and published the bi-lingual book.
  
• There is a post on “Khit San Kabyar“.
  
• A collection of Kabyars was published by former EC members of RU Ka Laung Ah Thinn to commemorate the RU Centennial.

• Dr. Maung Maung Nyo has written some poems.
• One is about the “empty nest syndrome” of the parents (which can be extended to sayas and sayamas).

*** Financial Aid ငွေ ကြေး အ ထောက် အ ပံ့

** နေရာ ဒေသ အချိန် ပေါ် မူတည်

* Stipend စတိုင်ပင်

1960 ဝန်းကျင် — တလ 75 ကျပ်

ကျောင်းလခ — 15 ကျပ်

အဆောင် နေရင် တောင် ငွေ နည်းနည်း ပို

* Free Tuition

ကျောင်း လခ ငြိမ်း

* Teaching Assistant

စာသင် / Assignment လက်ထောက်

* Research Assistant

သုတေသန လက်ထောက်

* Resident Assistant

အဆောင် လက်ထောက်

* Full / Complete Package

ကျောင်းလခ၊ နေစရိတ်၊ သုံးစရိတ်

* Scholarship

ပြည်တွင်း — Collegiate Scholarship

ပြည်ပ — အစိုးရ ပညာတော်သင်

* Grant

မူတခု အရ ထောက်ပံ့

—-

** ဆက်နွယ်

ဌာန တခု က ပေးတဲ့ ထောက်ပံ့ကြေး

ဖို့ ဖေါင်ဒေးရှင်း Ford Foundation

အာရှဖေါင်ဒေးရှင်း Asia Foundation

ကိုလံဘို စီမံကိန်း Colombo Plan

BCS

• ICS gave way to BCS.
  
• BCS exams were administered by PSC.
  
• Rosie Gyi (Mai Khin Nyunt) posted about her father U Khin Maung Gyi BA, BCS, BL
  
• The comments mentioned two other BCS : U Sein Maung (father of Austin) and U Maung Maung Kyi.

Old (some rare) Photos

• Prome Hall Soccer Team (winner of Inter-Hall tournament for two years in the early 1950s)
  
• Final Year Engineering Students in 1948 and 1949 (taken at their Reunion at Inya Lake)
  
• Soccer teams
  Which played friendly match with a visiting Indian team
  Which won the Merdeka Tournament
  Which won tournaments at various levels
  
• SEAP Games
  RU Athletes who represented Burma in the Second SEAP Games in 1961
  RU Belles who carried the Placards of the competing nations in the Fifth SEAP Games in 1969
  
• RUBC
  Independence Day Regatta at Kandawgyi in 1948
  Four brothers and cousin (who are all Past Captain and Gold)
  ARAE Champions in 1958 and 1960
  
• Some Sayas who are GBNF
  Saya U Pe Maung Tin
  Saya Dr. Maung Maung Kha
  Saya U San Tha Aung
  Saya Mr. Kangyi (English)
  Saya U Kaung Nyunt
  Saya U Wun (Minthuwun)
  …
  see Albums

• Graduation ceremony is known as Convocation.
• Rangoon University holds the ceremony at the Convocation Hall.
• In the early days, the Prime Minister of the Union of Burma serves as Adhipati (Chancellor) of RU, attends the Convocations and also deliver speeches.
• RU has Adhipati Lann (Chancellor Road).

Commencement

• In the USA, the graduation ceremony is known as Commencement.
• In some universities, the Commencement ceremony is held in the open (e.g. Quadrangle).
• Steve Jobs was invited to give his Commencement Speech at Standford University.
  It covered three key events of his life.

Gyogone Campus

• In 1961, the Faculty of Engineering of Rangoon University moved to the Gyogone Campus.
• It was named BIT (Burma Institute of Technology).
• Saya U Yone Moe (Retired Chief Engineer of Burma Railways) succeeded four Interim Deans (Dr. Htin Aung, Dr. Tha Hla, U Po Tha and Dr. Maung Maung Kha).
• When RIT (Rangoon Institute of Technology) was established under the new Education system, Saya U Yone Moe became the Rector.

• The Convocation was held at the “Aw Bar Lann” (known for the thunderous applause).
• Thanks to those who took the photos.