HlaMin

Blog

  • Class of 1959

    Class of 1959

    by Hla Min & U Aye (M62)

    Updated : Dec 2025

    Architecture

    Dr. Lwin Aung (A59)

    • Former Professor of Architecture
    • Retired as Pro-Rector of YTU
    • Became monk after retirement and spent several vassa.
    Dr. Lwin Aung (Center)

    U Bo Gyi (A59, GBNF)

    • Assisted Saya Mr. O Nagler for the design of the RU Recreation Center.
    • Pianist
    • Modeling expert
    • Co-founder of Architects Incorporated.
    • After Nationalization, moved to PWD.
    • Architect of Daw Khin Kyi Mausoleum.
    • Became monk after retirement from PWD.
    U Bo Gyi

    Civil

    U Kyaw Sein (Bran Dev, C59)

    • EE Irrigation (Sedawgyi project).
    • RU team forward. From Mandalay. Prome hall.

    U Htay Aung (C59)

    • Prome hall soccer forward.
      He was transferred from Tagaung hall.

    U Hla Baw (C59)

    • Prome hall S& R President

    Mechanical

    Saya U San Tun (M59, GBNF)

    Mechanical Engineering 1959
    U San Tun 1
    U San Tun 2
    U San Tun 3
    U San Tun 4
    • Saya U San Tun (Sain Fone Wong) graduated with B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rangoon in 1959. He passed with distinctions and won a Gold Medalist. At the convocation, he met Dorothy Tham (a female Gold Medalist from a different faculty). They became friends and later tied the knot.
    • He joined the Mechanical Engineering Department as an Assistant Lecturer.
    • He was awarded a States Scholarship to pursue graduate studies at MIT, USA. He received Masters from MIT, USA in 1962.
    • Upon his return, he taught at BIT and also served as a Hall Tutor.
    • He was promoted to Lecturer in 1964. He headed the Automobile Engineering (Sub-department of the Mechanical Engineering)
    • He relocated to California, USA in 1968.
    • From 1968 – 1974 he worked as a Contract Engineer, Cone Company, Burlingame, California
    • 1974 – 1999 Bechtel Corporation, San Francisco, California (Retired in August 1999 after 25 years service).
    • Saya served as President of BEA. He succeeded Saya U Htin Paw (EE58, GBNF)
    • Saya passed away in California on December 12, 2025 at 10:30 am

    U Tin Hlaing (M59, GBNF)

    U Tin Hlaing
    • Joined the Faculty as Assistant Lecturer
    • MS from Purdue University.
    • Promoted to Lecturer.
    • Head of Agricultural Engineering (Sub-department of Mechanical Engineering)
    • Manager of All Universities and Institutes Hockey Team.
    • Played Tennis and Soccer
    • Passed away untimely since he could not get access to the Dialysis Machines at BMH and also could not get Passport and Visa in time to have medical treatment abroad.

    U Tin Htway (M59)

    • Co-founder of BASES

    U Tin Win (M59, Bei, Bago)

    • Assistant Lecturer
    • Left to run family business

    M. Krishna (M59)

    • Assistant Lecturer
    • Moved to India and later to USA.
    • Attended SPZP-2000.

    U Ohn Khin (M59, GBNF)

    • Lt Col. DI (Retired)
    • MD TC1
    • Tagaung hall.

    U Win Tin (M59, GBNF)

    • BG DI (Retired)
    • Minister for Finance and Revenue
    • Minister for Post and Telecoms
    • Ramanya hall.

    U Hla Aye (M59, GBNF)

    • EE Irrigation
    • Later FAO/UN Project Engineer in Laos.
    • RU football team Captain.
    • Prome hall and Moulmein district volleyball team Captain

    U Hla Thein (M59, GBNF)

    • Air Force
    • Later DyCE EPC

    U Hla Myint (M59, GBNF)

    • Dy CE. Burma Railways

    U Tin Hla (M59)

    • Need info

    U Win Aung (Malcom Beal, M59)

    • Retired Dy CE, Burma Railways

    U Mya Than (M59, GBNF)

    • High Jump (Burma Record Holder)
    • Retired from AMD

    Electrical

    Dr. Ba Lwin (EE59)

    • Senior saya
    Dr. Ba Lwin (Seatef Left)

    U Myo Kyi (EE59)

    U Myo Kyi
    • Senior saya
    • Patron of Alumni Association
    • Provided lists of EE sayas and sayamas

    Dr. Chris Lee (L Tin Htun, USA)

    Dr. Chris Lee (Seated 2nd from Left)
    • Retired from NASA
    • Past President of BASES

    U Soe Aung (EE59)

    • Maj. DI (Retired)
    • Director EPC.
    • He was from Tagaung hall.

    Chemical

    U Khin Maung Lin (Ch59, GBNF)

    • Lt. Col. DI (Retired)
    • MD, Paper and Chemical Corp.
    • U Win Myint (Ch59)
    • U Mg Mg Sein (Ch59)
    • U Khin Zaw (Wong Koon Sha, Ch59)
    • U Mg Than (Jack Min Tham, Ch59) : Distinction
    • U Sein Win (Ch59)
    • Siong Yam (Ch59) : Distinction

    Metallurgy

    U Aung Hla Tun (Met59, GBNF)

    HMEE team
    • Retired as Associate Professor
    • National Literary Awar Winner
    • Chief Editor, RIT Annual Magazines
    • Lead Author, HMEE Book
    Donation to RUCL

    U Khin Mg Thein (Met59, GBNF)

    • Minister for Finance and Planning
    • Minister for Energy
    • He was from Amara hall.

    U Nyunt Thein (Met59)

    • Maj. DI (Retired)

    Mining

    U Khin Mg Aye (Min59)

    • Retired Min of Mines

    U Aung Than (Min59)

    • Hall tutor F Hall (1961 – 62)
    • MD, Mines Corp, Ministry of mines

    U Nyan Lin (Min59)

    • Lecturer, GTI Insein
    • Later MD mines Corp, Min of Mines
    • Tagaung hall soccer Captain & Goalkeeper.

    Public Health

    U Tin Ohn (Public Health ‘59)

    • Need info
  • Kyay Zuu (Talk)

    Kyay Zuu (Talk)

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Dec 2025

    Video Broadcast on January 19, 2021

    • I am indebted to Thin Saya သင်ဆရာ, Myin Saya မြင်ဆရာ and Kyar Saya ကြားဆရာ
    • They taught me all I knew.
    • I would like to thank my mentors who directly or indirectly taught me Communication (Oral and Written) and Languages (English, Burmese, …)
    • Last but not the least, a zillion thanks to my “Let Oo Sayas” (လက်ဦးဆရာ my beloved parents).
    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is parents-1.jpg
    My Parents

    Studying Languages

    Studying English

    I had to read / study

    • Tom Thumb’s Essays
    • A Student’s Companion
    • Oxford English Dictionary (OED — various sizes and editions)
    • Chamber’s Dictionary (used in Scrabble tournaments)
    • Rhyming Dictionary
    • Word Power / Vocabulary in [six weeks, 21 days, …]
    • Idioms (book present from my cousin uncle U “Eric” Than Lwin)
    • They helped me improve my writing and communication skills.
    • Thanks to all the authors, who are my implicit teachers.
    • Still learning (especially during the “Shelter at Home” due to the COVID-19 Pandemic)
    • Listen to the daily offering by Blinkist.com
    • Listen and/or read Merriam Webster’s wotd (word of the day) pod cast

    Miscellaneous

    • See posts on “Myanmar Sar“
    • See posts on “Pali“
    • See posts on “Languages“

    Studying Computers

    Dr. Chit Swe (GBNF)

    Dr. Chit Swe
    • Sayagyi was my mentor at UCC.
    • He invited over renowned computer scientists [led by Professor Harry D. Huskey, Pioneer in Computer Hardware, Software and Teaching] and mathematicians [e.g. Professor Frank Harary, Expert in Graph Theory] to Rangoon to hold seminars and to design courses in computer science and applications.
      Michael Stonebraker (then at UC Berkeley) gave a short course on Ingres (an early Relational Data Base Management System) at UCC. A few years back, he won the prestigious “ACM Turing Award” (which is considered as the equivalent of Nobel Prize in Computing).
    • He taught us to use CPM/PERT (Critical Path Method/Programme Evaluation and Review Technique) for the various projects.
    • Saya asked me to assist in several of his projects.
      To name a few,
      I was a translator/ reviewer for CTK (Children’s Treasury of Knowledge)
      I served as an editor for “High School Mathematics”
      I was a member of TOSS (Team Of System Specialists)
    • Saya passed away in November 2019, but his Legacy as Pioneer for Computer Systems, Application and Education in Burma will last forever.
    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is sydney-2006-1.jpg
    Sydney 2006

    U Soe Paing (EE, UCC)

    U Soe Paing
    • Saya was my mentor at RIT and UCC.
    • Together with Saya U Myo Min and Saya U Ko Ko Lay (GBNF), they taught degree and diploma courses in computer science, and also conducted courses in computer programming, computer orientation, to name a few.
    • The sayas asked me to be their assistant.
    • Saya U Soe Paing also allowed Saya U Aung Zaw and me to co-author texts, guides and manuals used at UCC.

    Publications

    • Guardian
      Thanks to U Soe Myint (Chief Editor)
    • Working People’s Daily (WPD)
      Thanks to U Ko Lay (Chief Editor) and Daw Khin Swe Hla (Editor)
    • Forward magazine
      Thanks to Bohmu Ba Thaw (Maung Thaw Ka, Chief Editor) and U Sein Hla (Editor)
    • Pan magazine
      Burmese publication
    • Veda magazine
      Published by BARB
    • Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung
      Commemorative Issues for SPZP-2002, SPZP-2007 and SPZP-2010 in Singapore
      Thanks to Saya U Moe Aung (Tekkatho Moe War)
    • Swel Daw Yeik Magazine
      Commemorative Issues for SPZP-2012 and Shwe YaDu (2014)
      Thanks to Saya U Moe Aung (Tekkatho Moe War)
    • RUBC magazine
      Commemorate issue for 90th Anniversary of the founding of RUBC
    • BAPS Newsletter
      Contributing Editor
    • Dhammananda Newsletter
      Contributing Editor
    • Paying Homage to Sayadaw U Silananda
      Contributing Editor
    • Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife
      Contributor to the Burmese American section
    • National Foreign Languages Center
      Language Expert for the Burmese Language Project (Reading and Listening Comprehension)
    • RIT Alumni International Newsletter
      Contributing Editor for 21 years
    • hlamin.com
      3000+ articles
    • Facebook
      Owner, Admin or Moderator of selected Facebook Groups
    • Video Broadcasts
      Archived in Facebook and my You Tube Channel

    Volunteering

    I gained experience by volunteering as

    • Several organizations in Myanmar and USA
    • EC, Joint Secretary and Secretary of RIT EE Association
    • Contributing Editor of RIT English Newsletter
    • Treasurer and Vice Captain of RUBC
    • Translator / Interpreter at Meditation Retreats
    • Organizer, SPZP-2000
    • Coordinator, World wide SPZPs in Singapore and Myanmar
    • Docent at the Computer History Museum (at Mountain View, California
    • Contributing Editor of the materials taught at the Summer Dhamma Camp at Dhammananda Vihara (at Half Moon Bay
    • Area Governor, Club Coach, Contest Chair, Test Speaker, Club Ambassador at Toastmasters International
    • Editor of several publications by Sayadaws (e.g. U Jotalankara) and friends (e.g. U Aung Zaw)
    • Language expert at National Language Center
    • Administrator and/or Moderator of selected Facebook Pages
    • Owner and content creator of selected web sites (e.g. hlamin.com)

    Parents and Ancestors

    Last but not the least, my heartfelt thanks to my beloved parents and their philanthropic forebears for instilling me the passion to help humanity in general and to my alma mater. They believed that “Any thing that’s worth doing is worth doing well.”

    Pay Back

    • My beloved spouse told me that I should pay back to my alma mater, mentors and my beloved land.
    • She reminded me that I should take care of my health to enjoy quality time with our Life Savers : Chit Sa Noe ချစ်စနိုး and Po Lone ဖိုးလုံး
    • I had paid back to my alma mater RIT where I studied from 1964 – 1969 by volunteering as Messenger and Organizer for 21 years. e.g. For SPZP-2000, I wrote 64 “Countdown to the Reunion” and 36 “Post_Reunion”.
    • In 2018, I wrote “Memories of UCC” . I wrote a Summary for the magazine to commemorate the 30th anniversary of ICST.
    • To commemorate the 19th anniversary (in April 2018) for “RIT Alumni International Newsletter” and the 45th wedding anniversary (in June 2018), I wrote several hundred posts covering a variety of topics.
    • Since then, I have completed 3000+ posts. I have revised most of them with the feedback provided by my readers (including Dr. Khin Maung U, Dr. Nyunt Wai (Victor), Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw Myint, U Khin Maung Zaw).
    • In April/May 2019, I celebrated 20th Anniversary as Founder-Editor of RIT Alumni International Newsletter
    • In November 2019, I was invited as a Panelist to the 5th ILF (Irrawaddy Literary Festival) held in Mandalay.
    • In December 2019, I attended the SPZP and Reunion Dinner of RIT 69er’s Golden Jubilee of graduation.
    • I was invited to attend the 6th Acariya Pu Zaw Pwe of ICST / UCSY and the Annual mini-gathering of UCC Alumni.
    • In January 2020, I was invited as a Special Guest for the 2020 PSA (Public Speakers’ Association) Tour to six cities in Upper Myanmar.
    • I am adding / revising posts for hlamin.com and share some of them via Facebook pages (e.g. Life Long Learning, RIT Updates, RU Centennial) and my You Tube Channel.
    • I am a Dreamer.
      I believe, “If one can dream, others will fulfill.”
    Youtube

    Posts

    • Garawa
    • Parents
    • Publications
    • RIT
    • SPZP
    • UCC
  • Two (Number)

    Two (Number)

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Dec 2025

    Bicameral Parliament ပါလီမန်

    • US Congress – Senate & House of Representatives
    • UK — House of Lords & House of Common
    • Upper House & Lower House

    Extremes to be avoided ရှောင်ရန် အစွန်းနှစ်သွယ်

    From ဓမ္မစကြာ

    • Sensual pleasures
    • Self mortification

    Meditation

    • Samatha သမထ — Concentration meditation
    • Vipassana ဝိပဿနာ — Insight meditation

    Nama-rupa

    နာမ ရူပ

    • Nama — Mental formations & characteristics
    • Rupa — Physical characteristics

    Number

    • Hindu-Arabic numeral — 2
    • Roman numeral — II
    • နှစ် (Two in Burmese)
    • ဒုတိယ (Second)
    • Duece, Duo, Duet, Duel, Pair

    Reality

    သစ္စာ

    • Sammutti sacca — Pannatti — Apparent reality သမုတိသစ္စာ
    • Paramattha sacca — Paramattha — Ultimate reality ပရမတ္ထသစ္စာ

    Rowing — Coxless Pairs

    ပဲ့နင်းမဲ့ နှစ်တက်လှော်

    • Stroke & Bow
    • ARAE Regatta Trophy — Venables Bowl

    Two tier architecture

    • Front end & Back end
    • Client & Server

    Two valued logic

    • Constants — True & False
    • Truth table — 4 entries : FF, FT, TF, TT
    • Logic Functions — 16

    Worldly and beyond

    • Loki လောကီ — Mundane (Worldly)
    • Lokotra လောကုတ္တရာ — Supramundane (Beyond world)

    Chief Disciples

    အဂ္ဂသာဝက

    • Sariputtra ရှင်သာရိပုတ္တရာ
    • Mogallana ရှင်မဟာမောဂ္ဂလန်

    General

    အထွေထွေ

    • Ascent & Descent
    • Bicycle : cycle with two wheels
    • Binary number system : 0, 1
    • Bifocal : Having two foci
    • Back court & Front court — Basketball
    • Closed & Open — Case; Interval
    • Dilemma
    • Diode : Cathode & Anode
    • Dual & Primal
    • Duality — Principle (e.g Geometry, Logic, Linear Programming)
    • February — 2nd month in the Gregorian Calendar
    • East & West; Eastern & Western
    • First half & Second half
    • First term & Second term
    • Gemini : Heavenly Twins — Castor & Pollux
    • Gemini project : Two astronauts
    • High & Low
    • It takes Two to Tango
    • North & South
    • President & Vice President
    • Prolog & Epilog
    • Sports : Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles
    • Tea for Two — Song
    • TF (True or False) Quiz
    • Two heads are better than one — Proverb
    • Two Phase Commit — Database
    • Up & Down
  • Six Questions (Talk)

    Six Questions (Talk)

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Dec 2025

    Video Broadcast on January 7, 2021

    U Hla Min

    Commonly Asked Questions

    မေးခွန်း ခြောက် ခု

    • Who
    • To whom
    • When
    • Where
    • Why
    • How

    Sixth Buddhist Council

    ဆဌသံဂါယနာ

    • Questions by Mahasi Sayadaw
    • Reply by Mingun Tipitaka Sayadaw

    Miscellaneous အထွေထွေ

    • How and Why I created the Site hlamin.com
    • Rudyard Kipling
    • Guideline for reporters
    • Feasibility studies
    • Plan of operation : Implementation
  • Four (Number)

    Four (Number)

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Dec 2025

    Numeral

    • Hindu-Arablic numeral : 4
    • Roman numeral : IV
    • လေး (Four in Burmese)
    • စတုတ္ထ (Fourth in Burmese)

    Recent Buddhas မြတ်စွာဘုရား

    • Kakusandha ကကုသန်
    • Konagamana ဂေါဏဂုံ
    • Kassapa ကဿပ
    • Gautama ဂေါတမ

    Sacca / Noble Truth သစ္စာ

    • Dukkha ဒုက္ခ
      Unsatisfactoriness / Misery / Suffering
    • Samudiya သမုဒယ
      Cause of suffering
    • Nirodha နိရောဓ
      Cessation of suffering
    • Magga မဂ္ဂ
      The Path / The Middle Way

    Foundation of Mindfulness သတိဇပဌာန်

    • Contemplation of the kaya / body ကာယာနုပဿနာ
    • Contemplation of the vedana / feeling ဝေဒနာနုပဿနာ
    • Contemplation of the citta / mind စိတ္တာနုပဿနာ
    • Contemplation of the dhamma ဓမ္မာနုပဿနာ/ general objects — not covered by the above three

    Brahma Vihara Practice

    ဗြဟ္မာစိုရ်တရား

    • Metta မေတ္တာ
      Loving kindness / Unbounded love
    • Karuna ကရုဏာ
      Compassion
    • Mudita မုဒိတာ
      Sympathetic joy / Altruistic joy
    • Uppekkha ဥပေက္ခာ
      Equanimity

    Guardian deities

    လောကပါလ

    • Dhatarattha (East) ဓတ္တရဌ
    • Virulhaka (South) ဝိရူဠက
    • Virupkkha (West) ဝိရူပက္ခ
    • Kuvera (North) ကုဝေရ

    Mahabhuta

    မဟာဘုတ်

    • Patthavi ပထဝီ
      Earth element
    • Tejo တေဇော
      Fire element
    • Apo အာပေါ
      Water or liquid element
    • Vayo ဝါယော
      Air or wind element

    Undergraduate Classes

    ဘွဲ့ကြို

    • Freshman
    • Sophomore
    • Junior
    • Senior

    Baseball

    • First base
    • Second base
    • Third base
    • Home plate

    Miscellaneous

    အထွေထွေ

    • Four sided figures စတုဂံ
      Rectangle, Square, Parallelogram, Parallepiped, Rhombus
    • Games အားကစားပြိုင်ပွဲ
      Four quarters (e.g. Football, Basketball)
    • Rowing လှေလှော်
      Coxless fours, Coxed fours, Quadruple sculls
    Coxed Fours
    • April ဧပြီလ 4th month of the Gregorian Calendar

    Posts

    • Computation
    • Digital
    • Number Systems
    • Numerals
  • Sayadaws

    Sayadaws

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Dec 2025

    U Lokanatha (ဦးလောကတနာထ) Italian Buddhist Monk

    U Lokanatha
    • Mr. Salvitore was working as a Chemist in the USA.
    • He a book present from his supervisor for Christmas. A chapter was “Dhammapada”.
      After reading it, Samvega (sense of urgency) crept in.
      He quit his job.
    • Left for Burma to be ordained as a Buddhist monk. Became “U Lokanatha”.
    • Wrote “I became a Buddhist. My supervisor remained a Christian.”
    • Was from a devout Catholic family. Elder brother was a Priest.
    • My paternal grand mother offered a monastery for U Lokanatha in Bawdigone (ဗောဓိကုန်း Windermere), Rangoon.
    • Sayadaw practiced Dhutanga (ဓူတင်ဆောင်) .
      Preached & took Dhamma Dhuta (ဓမ္မဒူတ) missions to India and Ceylon.
    • Passed away in Maymyo (မေမြို့) in 1966.

    Ashin Ananda

    (အရှင်အာနန္ဒာ)

    Rev. Friedrich Lustig (Latvian monk)

    Rev Lustig 1
    Rev Lustig 2

    Fled Communist Rule

    • Rev. Friedrich V. Lustig’s mentor was the Buddhist Archbishop of Latvia and Lithuania. When the Communists invaded their country, they sought refuge in Burma. The government provided them a monastery in the “Ah Le Pyit Sa Yan” of Shwe Dagon Pagoda.

    Moke Seit မုတ်ဆိတ်

    • Known as “Moke Seit Phone Gyi” for his beard. Came to our parent’s house in Windermere Road for alms.
    • After his mentor’s demise, he became Buddhist Archbishop of Latvia and Lithuania.

    Ashin Ananda

    • Shaved his beard and was ordained as a Theravada monk with the title “Ashin Ananda”.
    • Laureate Poet and Translator.
      Wrote poems in English.
      Translated selected Burmese poems into English.
    • In July 1969, he gave my poem “Men on the Moon” to Mr. Hall (USIS) to be forwarded to Apollo 11 astronauts. Gave a copy to the Guardian newspaper for publication.
    Men on the Moon (Poem)

    U Thilawuntha

    (ဦးသီလဝန္တ)

    Mon Sayadaw (မွန်ဆရာတော်)

    Dat Poung Zon Sayadaw
    Mon Sayada
    • Dat Paung Zon Aung Min Gaung Sayadaw ဓာတ်ပေါင်းစုံ အောင်မင်းခေါင်ဆရာတော် U Thilawunta (fondly known as “Mon Sayadaw”) built pagodas in Burma/Myanmar, USA, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and several other countries.
    • In the ’50s, Sayadaw visited the United Nations and U Thant (ဦးသန်ု). He built the first Burmese pagoda in the Allegheny mountains near New York.
    • During his visit to California, Sayadaw would spend time with his devotees such as Russell Wolfe (Santa Cruz) and U Aung Myint (Donald, Milpitas).

    Las Vegas Sayadaw U Zeya (ဦးဇေယျ)

    • Las Vegas has some monasteries including Thai monasteries supported by members of the Royal Family.
    • Sayadaw U Zeya resided at a Thai monastery and rose up in the ranks. Gave dhamma talks in Thai, English, and Burmese.
      Several devotees offered him a monastery.
    • In May 2013, several dhamma friends in the Bay Area rented a van to attend “Htee Tin Pwe” of the pagoda inside U Zeya’s monastery compound.
    • Donated for two Nagas at the Las Vegas Monastery in memory of our parents and in-laws.

    Engineers and Architects

    Dr. Lwin Aung (A59) ဒေါက်တာလွင်အောင်

    Uzin Dr. Lwin Aung
    • Entered monk-hood after retirement.
    • Served as Professor of Architecture and as Pro-Rector of YTU.
    • Volunteers as a Consulting Architect for the construction of dhamma buildings
    • Due to health, he left monk-hood.

    U Bo Gyi (A59) ဦးဘိုကြီး

    U Bo Gyi
    • Founded “Architect Incorporated” with U Tin Htoon (A60) and U Aung Kyee Myint (A60)
    • Later joined PWD along with his partners
    • Designed the Mausoleum for Daw Khin Kyi, and was shunned by the higher authorities.
    • Hobbies : music (piano) and modeling (sculpture)
    • He is now GBNF.

    U Han Nyo (Met60) ဦးဟန်ညို

    • He helped conduct meditation retreats in Southern California and Mexico.

    U Myo Tun (A69) ဦးမျိုးထွန်း

    U Myo Tun
    • Ashin Pannagavesaka
    • Won prizes for essays under the name “Errol Than Tun”.
    • Made dhamma duta mission to Vietnam
    • Was Dhamma Librarian for Moulmein Pa Auk Tawya Monastery.
    • Edited some of Pa Auk Sayadaw’s books.
    • Taught English to Dhammacariya Sayadaws

    U Aung Chaw (C69, SPHS63) ဦးအောင်ချော

    U Aung Chaw
    • Ashin Ukkamsa
    • Resided in Sagaing
    • Later moved to the Irrawaddy Delta region
    • Met him in 2018 when he came to Yangon. Attended some breakfast gatherings by the 69ers. Kyaw Win (SPHS63) offered soon to Sayadaw at Shwe Ba Htamin Saing, and also offered Nawakamma.

    U Wara (Win Paing, ChE70, SPHS64) ဦးဝရ / ဦးဝင်းပိုင်

    U Wara
    • Younger brother of Saya U Soe Paing (EE, UCC).
    • Entered monkhood after the Final Year exam.
    • Chief Resident Sayadaw, KabaAye Sun Lun Gu Kyaung
    • Was Taik Oke Sayadaw for Sayadaw U Vinaya.
    • He is now GBNF
    Paing Brothers

    U Jotika (EE73) ဦးဇောတိက

    U Jotika 1
    U Jotika 2
    • Prolific writer and an outstanding Dhamma Lecturer
    • Spent vasa at Taung Pu Lu Kaba Aye monastery in Boulder Creek
    • Revisited US about a decade ago
    • Frequently visited Singapore and other neighboring countries

    Ashin Pannobhasa (M91) ဦးပညောဘာသ

    • Met him in SF Bay Area with his mentor (Sayadaw from Myanmar).
    • He was born in April 1966 Thursday (2nd Waning day of Kason 1328 BE) in Pyapon, Irrawaddy Division.
    • After finishing his Mechanical Engineering degree from Yangon (Rangoon) Institute of Technology he received higher ordination as a Bhikkhu or a monk at the age of 24 in the Ordination Hall, Pyapon Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha under the preceptor of Venerable U Vannita, Pyapon Mahasi Sayadaw, Pyapon Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha on 27th July 1991.
    • Chief Resident Monk at a monastery in Seattle, Washington

    Ashin Kusala (ဦးကုသလ) Saya Beatson (SPHS)

    Passed away in his 90s

    Sayadaw Beatson
  • St. Paul’s High School

    St. Paul’s High School

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Dec 2025

    စိန့်ပေါလ် အထက်တန်းကျောင်း

    1860

    • De La Salle Brothers ရန်ကုန် မှာ ကျောင်းဖွင့် Opened St. Paul’s English High School in Rangoon.

    1885

    • ကျောင်း ကို နေရာသစ် ပြောင်းရွှေ့ Moved the school to a new location

    1960

    * ရာပြည့် Centennial

    1965

    • ပြည်သူပိုင်သိမ်း Nationalized on April 1st; Non-native Brothers left Burma
    • အမည် ပြောင်း — SHS(6) ဗိုလ်တထောင် Renamed as No. 6 Botathaung State High School

    2010

    • နှစ် 150 ပြည့် Sesquicentennial

    မှတ်တမ်း များ

    SPHS Badge နဲ့ Motto

    Badge

    SPHS ရှေ့ ကျောင်းကြို ဖို့ စောင့်နေကြ

    Cars waiting to pick up students

    Yangon Heritage Society — Blue Plaque

    Blue Plaque

    1959 Matriculates / Scholarship Winners

    SPHS59

    1960 Matriculates / Scholarship Winners

    SPHS60

    1951 – 1963 Top Matriculates
    Roll of Honor

    Top Matriculates

    1963 Scholarship Winners

    SPHS63

    SPHS Blazer Coat & Badge

    SPHS Blazer Coat & Badge

    De La Salle Brothers

    De La Salle Brothers in Burma (1955)

    OPA (Old Paulians’ Association) Pu Zaw Pwe Organizers

    OPA

    Gallery

    Mao Toon Siong (SPHS55, Table Tennis)
    Ko Ko Lay (SPHS56, UCC cofounder)
    Charlie Hla Myint (SPHS59, Swimming & Water Polo)
    Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw Myint (SPHS60, Medical Institute Historian)
    SPHS60 Gathering
    Than Htut (SPHS60, Rowing)
    Htun Aung Kyaw & Aung Khin (SPHS61)
    SPHS63

    Updates

    • Old Paulians’ Association opened SPHS Museum on St. Paul’s Day (June 30) in 2025
    • Three of the 1963 Scholarship Winners — Myo San (Freddie), Aung Thu Yein (Brownie) and Maung Maung Kyi — have passed away.
  • Hla Min — Pu Zaw Pwe

    Hla Min — Pu Zaw Pwe

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Dec 2025

    SPZP-2016

    SPZP 1
    SPZP 2
    SPZP 3
    SPZP 4

    SPZP-2000

    Newsletter

    Newsletter

    Kyauk Si Bagyee

    Bagyee

    Organizers

    Organizers

    Sayas & Sayama

    Sayas

    EE Sayas & Alumni

    EE Group

    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).

  • GHall Thu

    GHall Thu

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Dec 2025

    Photos

    Photos by Daw Tin Aye (C73)

    G Hall Thu 1
    G Hall Thu 2
    G Hall Thu 3
    G Hall Thu 4
    G Hall Thu 5

    Photos by Daw Pwint Than (EP71)

    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.

    G Hall Thu 6
    G Hall Thu 7
    G Hall Thu 8
    G Hall Thu 9
  • One (Number)

    One (Number)

    by Hla Min

    Updated : Dec 2025

    Numeral

    • Hindu-Arabic numeral : 1
    • Roman numeral : I
    • တစ် (One)
    • ပထမ (First)

    Miscellaneous

    • Ace — ဖဲချပ်။ လေသူရဲ
    • First day of the month — လ အစ
    • January ဇန္နဝါရီ လ— 1st month of Gregorian Calendar
    • March မတ် လ — 1st month of old Roman Calendar
    • Monocle — မျက်မှန်
    • Monograph — စာတမ်း
    • Monopoly — စျေးကွက် ကို တဦးထည်းကြီးစိုး။ Board Game ကစားနည်း
    • Monarchy — ထီးနန်း
    • Monotheism — Belief in one god or deity
    • Single — တဦီးချင်း။ အိမ်ထောင်မရှိ
    • Singleton — Bridge ဖဲကစားနည်း မှာ Suit တခု မှာ Card တချပ် ဘဲရှိ။
    • Unique, Uniqueness
    • Universe — စကြာဝဠာ
    • Universal
    • Unicycle — စက်ဘီး
    • Union — ပြည်ထောင်စု (စသဖြင့်)
    • Unit — အတိုင်းအတာ
    • Unity — စည်းလုံးမှု
    Poem