Blog

  • Father

    by Hla Min

    Updated : September 2026

    Terms

    • Phay Phay ဖေ ဖေ
    • Pater
    • Pa Pa
    • Father
    • Let Oo Saya
    My Parents

    Morals and Manners

    At SPHS, we had a “Morals and Manners” class for students who are not Catholics. We learned some poems from the book.

    The following is a modernized version of a poem which used “Thou”, “Thee” and “Locks”.

    Poem

    Be kind to your father — for when you were young
    Who loved you as fondly as he
    He caught the first accent that fell from your tongue
    And joined in the heavenly glee.

    Be kind to your father — for now he is old
    His hair intermingled with grey
    His footsteps are feeble, once fearless and bold
    Your father is passing away.

  • Nyunt Htay

    Nyunt Htay

    by Hla Min

    Updated : June 2026

    U Nyunt Htay (Met73)

    Nyunt Htay 1

    High School Luyechun

    • Luyechun (လူရည်ချွန်) for 9th & 10th standards. Present at the first Luyechun Camp was Thinchar Chun (သင်္ချာချွန်) Kyaw Myint (later T72 grad, MARB President)

    Metallurgical Engineering

    Nyunt Htay 2
    • Graduated from RIT in 1973 with Metallurgical Engineering
    • Taught Metallurgical Engineering
    • Retired as Associate Professor
    • Wrote articles about the Department, Sayas & Students

    Passion

    • Poetry, writing & editing
    • Pen name : Maung Nyunt Htay (Ah Htet Min Hla) မောင်ညွန့်ဌေး (အထက်မင်းလှ)
    Nyunt Htay 3
    • Editor, RIT Annual Magazine
    • Chief Editor, Myanmar Mudita Sar Saung
    Myanmar Mudita
    • Contributor, Poetic Art Series
    • Co-author, Collection of Swel Daw Yeik Poems
    Book of Poems

    Family members

    • Two daughters
    • Several “Myee” cats

    Health

    • Had a brush with Covid-19 and received support from the alumni and/or SDYF.
    • Recovered fully
    • Some sayas, sayamas and 9 Metallurgy alumni (including Maung Tun, 69er) succumbed to Covid.

    Memories

    Book Presents

    • Gave me the Myanmar Mudita Sar Saung
    • Gave me an autographed copy of “Swel Daw Kabyar Collection” by him and four RIT Poets : Saya U Moe Aung, Saya U Aung Myaing, U Win Myint (M72) and U Toee Maung.

    2015 RIT Alumni in Los Angeles

    • Attended the gathering with Metallurgy Saya U Win Kyaw (Met71),
    • Other Metallurgy attendees include Saya U Thein Aung (Met72), Sayama Dr. Naing Naing Aung (Met91) & Ko Thiri Nyunt (musician).

    Gathering at iNapa Winery

    At iNapa Winery
    • Metallurgy sayas and Ko Thiri Nyunt attended the Lunch, Dinner & Entertainment at iNapa winery hosted by Gordon Kaung (M83) and Lillian (EC83).
    • The attendees paid respect to Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi. On behalf of Bagyee Myat Myo Myint, U Nyunt Htay presented a Pon Tu to Sayagyi.

    Micro-gathering in 2019

    • During my visit to Yangon in late 2019, U Nyunt Htay hosted a micro gathering at Shwe Bae.
    • U Win Kyaw picked me and Saya U Ye Myint (ChE70) to attend the gathering.
    Micro-gathering

    Kabyar by Saya Moe

    Saya Moe

    ” ကဗျာဆရာ… သို့ “

    လွတ်လပ်ခြင်းဆိုသည့် မြေပေါ်…
    မတော်တဆလား
    ခြေချော်ခဏအလား
    မွေးဖွားလာရခရီးစခဲ့….။

    “ခုနစ်ဆယ့်သုံး…”
    ဝရုန်းသုန်းကား
    ခေတ်ဖဝါးအောက်
    ကျရောက် ရှည်ကြာ
    ဘယ်မှာ ဘယ်တော့
    မော့မော့ ပေါ့ပါး
    ဝန်အား မပိ
    လွှင့်ဘိ ကြယ်တံခွန်
    မိုးစွန်ထိပ်ဖျားတက်နိုင်ငြားအံ့…။

    တပ်လှန့် ခရီးပြင်း
    ဝေးနေရင်း က
    နီးခြင်း မယိမ်းမယိုင်
    ဟော..ဟိုမှာပန်းတိုင်ဟေ့…
    ဆုပ်ကိုင်မိ တစ်ဘဝ
    အလှ သစ္စာတရား
    ဖွားသစ်ရနံ့ သင်းပျံ့လှိုင်…။ ။

    (မောင်ညွန့်ဌေး-အထက်မင်းလှ .. မွေးနေ့သို့)
    တက္ကသိုလ် မိုးဝါ
    ၄ -၁ -၂၀၂၂

  • Dhammapada

    Dhammapada

    by Hla Min

    Updated : September 2026

    Prelude

    • Collection of Pali verses (that refer to Buddha’s teachings).
    • Translated by several Pali Scholars.
    • Some Dhammapada books also cover short stories related to the verses.

    Narada Thera

    Dhammapada by Narada Thera
    • The Dhammapada
    • Subtitle: Pali text & translation with stories & notes
    • Author : Narada Thera
    • Preface

    Chapters

    • The Twin Verses
    • Heedfulness
    • Mind
    • Flowers
    • Fools
    • The Wise
    • The Worthy
    • Thousands
    • Evil
    • The Rod or Punishment
    • Old Age
    • The Self
    • The World
    • The Buddha
    • Happiness
    • Affection
    • Anger
    • Impurities or Taints
    • The Just or Righteous
    • The Way or the Path
    • Miscellaneous
    • Woeful State
    • The Elephant
    • Craving
    • The Bhikkhu or the Mendicant
    • The Brahmana

    Venerable Buddharakhitta

    Dhammapada by Ven. Buddharakkhita

    The following verses are from the book by Venerable Buddharakkhita.

    Verse 182

    Hard it is to be born a man;
    hard is the life of mortals.
    Hard is it to gain the opportunity
    of hearing the Sublime Truth,
    and hard to encounter
    is the arising of the Buddhas.

    Verse 183

    To avoid all evil,
    to cultivate good,
    and to cleanse one’s mind —
    this is the teaching of the Buddhas.

    Verse 184

    Enduring patience
    is the highest austerity.
    “Nibbana is supreme,” says the Buddhas.
    He is not a true monk
    who harms another,
    nor a true renunciate
    who oppresses others.

    Myanmar & English

    Dhammapada in Burmese and English
    • U Thittila’s Translation (in Burmese)
    • Venerable Buddharakkhita’s Translation (in English)

    Frequently Quoted Verse

    • The following Dhammapada verse is frequently quoted by Sayadaws and writers.

    Not to do any evil, to cultivate good, to purify one’s mind, – this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.”

    • It seems simple (at the basic level), but it also has a deeper meaning (at the metaphysical level).
    • The explanations may refer to Abhidhamma to expound what “kusala” (wholesome deeds) and “akusula” (unwholesome deeds) are.
    • References may also be made to the three “Seikhas” : sila (morality), sammadhi (concentration), and panna (wisdom).
    • Bhavana practices such as samatha (tranquility meditation) and vipassana (insight meditation) are needed to calm and purify the mind.

    U Lokanatha – Italian Buddhist Monk (1897-1966)

    U Lokanatha
    • Chemical Analyst in the US
    • Received a book from his supervisor as Christmas present. The book had a chapter on Dhammapada.
      After reading the verses, a deep impulse (which resonated with his scientific inquiring mind) led him to pursue Buddhism & become a Buddhist monk.
    • He was from a devout Catholic family. His elder brother was a Priest.
    • Sayadaw spent considerable time at the Bawdigone monastery (donated by my paternal grandmother) on Windermere Road, Rangoon, Burma.
    • He practiced Dhutanga.
    • He also preached. Sunlun U Vinaya was interpreter for some of the talks.
    • Dhamma Dhuta missions to India and Ceylon
    • His booklet, “Why I became a Buddhist”, had considerable influence on the leader of the “Untouchables” in India.
    • His dhamma duta work can be found in the articles in Wikipedia and some Buddhist web sites.
  • Birthday Party in 2016

    Birthday Party in 2016

    by Hla Min

    Updated : September 2026

    Maurice Chee (M75) organized the party

    Dear Alumni (far and near)

    We are organizing a milestone birthday (soonkway) and appreciation celebration for our alumni icon U Hla Min at Theravada Buddhist Society of America (TBSA), Half Moon Bay on August 20, 2016 from 9:00AM to 3:00 PM.

    I will be sponsoring my signature Indian (Chicken) and Chinese (baby back spare rib ) Dan Pauk, Benny (Mohingar), Saya Maung Maung (samosa), Daw San San Swe (Chin-Paung-Kyaw), Ko Hla Kyi (Bannana Dessert), Ko Gordon Kaung and Lillian Kaung (a tray of desserts).

    You are welcome to sponsor, contribute and volunteer to help with the event.

    To provide adequate foods, please send in your RSVP to mcmauchee@gmail.com by August 7, 2016.

    Please come and join us to celebrate this special day with a mindful and cheerful party and we look forward to seeing you all to show our appreciation to U Hla Min for taking care of RIT newsletter as Chief Editor for the past seventeen years.

    Saya U Tin Htut will be flying in from Los Angeles to attend the RIT mini-gathering. Saya was a member of the Organizing Committee for SPZP-2000. He is a co-founder and Past President of BASES.

    Event address

    Theravada Buddhist Society of America (TBSA)
    17450 S. Cabrillo Highway, CA 94019
    Half Moon Bay
    CA 94019
    U.S.A
    Phone: 650-712-9165

    I have been asked whether they can bring friends and family members to Ko Hla Min’s birthday celebration at TBSA, Half Moon bay, on August 20, 2016. The answer is Yes, per the Myanmar tradition any ah hlu ah tan is open to all well beings (alumni, non-alumni, friends and dhamma friends of Ko Hla Min).

    With metta,
    Maurice Chee, M75

    Appreciation

    From Saya U San Tun (Sain Fone Wong, M59)

    Dear U Hla Min,

    We regret that we will not be able to join the celebration of your birthday at the Theravada Buddhist Society of America on August 20, 2016.

    There is no doubt that the attendance will be large and all the Burmese foods will be mouth-watering and delicious. We are sure all the attendees will have a good time and leave the celebration venue with a fond memory.

    We admire you for all the good deeds and sacrifices you have been doing over the past decade for the benefits to oversea Burmese immigrants not only in the bay area, Southern California, the United States and over various parts of the world. Keep up the good work!

    We expect to meet you at the annual Nor Cal RITAA dinner on September 17,2016. We wish you a happy birthday and our best regards to your beloved Daw Sein Yee.

    Sain Fone & Sylvia

    From Salim Mayet (M67)

    Dear U Hla Min,

    Wish you a very happy birthday. I admire you for all the hard work you have been doing for more than a decade to keep us informed about RIT sayagyis, sayamas and other members. Thank you.

    Salim Mayet (M 67)

    From Daw Mai Khin Nyunt (Rosie, ChE71)

    Dear Ko Hla Min,

    (a) May I wish to your beloved grand daughter “Grace”.

    HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY AND MANY MORE TO COME

    No doubt that she will become a smart little adorable girl. My grandson will be two years in coming Sept. He gives us hope and happiness. Each and every movement is interesting and adorable for us. I’m sure you and Ma Sein feel the same.

    (b) Many Happy Returns of the Day. Wish you could spend your life per your wish with Dhamma, family and friends.

    Have a nice and memorable gathering.

    With Metta,

    Rosie

    From Saya U Khin (Lucien Chen, RIT English, Taipei)

    Dear Hla Min,

    I have been an ardent “fan” of your RIT Newsletter updates ever since you included me in your mailing list at the suggestion of Des Rodgers many many years ago.

    You have made a great contribution to the RIT community by bringing the RIT alumni, sayas and sayamas together through your reports, messages, photos, etc. in the RIT Newsletter and also through your persistent efforts in carrying on the good work against all odds. Who is going to fill your shoes after you retire?

    I spent the best years of my life (1964 ~ 1968) at the RIT and I cherish the good old days I had at the RIT with my former colleagues at the English Department such as Saya Desmond Rodgers, Saya U Win Mra, Saya U Joe Ba Maung, Saya Sao Kangyi (deceased), Saya U Kyaw Lwin Hla, Sayama Daw Yin Yin Mya (Terry), Sayama Daw Charity Sein U, Sayama Daw Khin May Lwin (Muriel), Sayama Daw Tin Tin Oo (Toni), Sayama Daw Khin Saw Tint (Anne), among others; my former colleagues at other engineering departments and non-engineering departments such as Saya U Tin Maung (Civil), Saya U Christopher Maung (Civil), Saya Allen Htay (civil), Saya Dr K.C. Khoo (Chemical), among others; and my former students Tin Tin Myint (Emma), Khin Phyu Latt (Christine), Tin Tin Hla (Su Tin), Sai Kham Sang, Pamela Myo Min, George Lim, among others.

    I hope you will have a great time at the birthday party that will be hosted in your honor on August 20th at Half Moon Bay, California, by your former classmates, colleagues, sayas and sayamas.

    I shall also be wishing you a happy birthday in absentia from this part of the world, and hope you will have many happy and healthy returns of the day in the years to come.

    Sincerely yours,
    Lucian Chen (Saya U Khin)

    From Saya U Tin Htut (M60, Los Angeles)

    Yes, I will be glad to join you all in the celebration.

    Tin Htut

    From Saya U Maung Maung (George, ChE66) and spouse

    Dear Ko Hla Min,

    See you at the Half Moon Bay Monastery this Saturday.

    Thanks for your dedication and untiring effort in keeping us all in touch with alumni all around the world.

    Also wishing you the very best on your Birthday and many more to come.

    Best regards,
    George & Eng Eng Chan

    From Benny Tan (Yu Beng, M70) and Angelina

    Dear Ko Hla Min,

    You’ve spent years sharing your amazing memories and wonderful writing ability with all of us from RIT, YIT, etc.

    I like to thank you for sharing your wonderful RIT spirit and making a positive difference for so many people. Time is the most precious thing and you have generously shared your time and talents with all of us year after amazing year.

    Congratulations and all the best to you on your milestone birthday. May you live long, happy and healthy and may all your dreams and wishes come true.

    All the best,
    Benny and Angelina Tan

    From Gordon Kaung (M83) and Lillian Kaung (EC83)

    Hello Saya Hla Min:

    We wish you the happiest of B-days, and many many more to come!

    We will bring a bottle of premium iNapaWine for you and ama to enjoy at your B-day (we know ama will definitely enjoy our premium wine to stay healthy, and take good care of you).

    With lots of metta,
    Gordon and Lillian Kaung
    Wine Maker

    From Saya Dr. Chris Lee (L Tin Htun, EE59)

    Dear Ko Hla Min:

    From reading the recent emails in your “Update”, tomorrow will be a great “Happy Birthday Bonanza Party” for you. It will surely be a fun, exciting and memorable event for all attendees.

    We wish you a wonderful Happy Birthday and many many more returns.

    Best regards,
    Chris and Pam Lee

    U Myint Soe (M79)

    He emailed me three photos.

    U Soe Thu (C98)

    He e-mailed me the Group Photo taken in front of U Silananda Hall at Dhammananda Vihara, Half Moon Bay.

    U Chan Min, who rowed for the Institute of Economics, became a monk at Dhammananda Vihara after his retirement. His crew members include U Htin Kyaw (Peter) and U Soe Thinn. He also attended the computer classes at UCC in Rangoon.

    From U Tha Aung (M79) & Daw Kinsa Maw-Naing (ChE79)

    Dear Ko Hla Min,

    Happy Birthday and to say thank you for all your efforts in keeping RIT alumni connected globally. Even though we don’t have much to say, we always follow your updates.

    May you have a happy healthy long life and lots of ku-tho.

    With metta from Tha Aung & Kinsa

    Editor’s notes :

    Appreciate your work hosting mini reunions in Canada and for volunteering as SPZP2016 representatives. Sayamagyi Daw Tinsa Maw-Naing was my English teacher in I Sc(A).

    From Saya U Htun Aung Kyaw (ChE67)

    Happy Birthday Ko Hla Min and cutie pie!

    I appreciate all you hard work and dedication to RIT Alumni newsletter.

    Sorry I cannot attend the event.

    Thanks for your appreciation

    Dear Sayas and Colleagues,

    It is truly amazing to be appreciated by sayas and alumni. The following are examples.

    Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi & Daw Emma called from Canada to wish my Cutie Pie and me. They also sponsored “Tohu Thoke တို့ဟူးသုတ်” for the attendees. Sayagyi sent Maurice his congratulatory message for me to be read at the soon kyway gathering. See the following section for details.

    Saya U Tin Htut flew in from Southern California.

    Ko San Lin (M 87, “Maung Lu Pay”) took time off from work to attend the soon kyway.

    Ko Kyaw Myint (M 83) delegated his “Flower shop” to his assistant to attend the soon kyway.

    Ko Myint Soe (M79), who recently had knee surgery, requested Ko Aung Myint Oo (EC 84) to give him and his spouse a ride to the soon kyway.

    Due to tight multiple schedules, Angelina & Benny Tan (M 70) came in separate cars so that Benny can have more time with his sayas and colleagues.

    Saya U Tin Maung Nyunt (M 60) will celebrate his 80th birthday in December. Saya only drive local short distance, so he asked Ko Thein Naing (Patrick) to give him a ride.

    Daw Mu Mu Kin, spouse of Saya Allen Htay, had tears in her eyes. She said that Saya would wish to be at the RIT mini-gatherings. She gave me silk neck ties that were bought (but never worn) by Saya. She shares the birthday on August 18 with my Cutie Pie.

    Maurice ordered a genericcake to celebrate Daw Mu Mu Kin, Ko Myint Swe (EP 74) and other August born.

    Maurice hand crafted a custom “birthday greetings” card with extracts from the birthday greetings from the RIT updates. The messages from Saya Dr. San Hla Aung, Ko Tha Aung & Ma Kinsa Maw-Naing came in too late to be incorporated into the gigantic card.

    Maurice spent countless days organizing the event. Following the tradition of his late father Uncle U Wah Kyu, he also prepared custom birayani (dan bauk ဒန်ပေါက်).

    Charlie Tseng (EC70) and Diana Tseng (ChE71) ordered two large birthday cakes.

    The full list of food donors and sponsors is maintained by Maurice.

    Johnson Lim (cousin of Robert San Lin) needs a human walking “cane” (his beloved spouse). They are regular food donors at most events.

    Daw Kyu Kyu Lin (T75) rarely attends gatherings. She made an exception this time. She brought “Kyee Oh See Kyet ကြေးအိုးဆီချက်”. She also gave a ride to two Textile grads: Ko Than Htay (T75) and Ma Bibsu (T76).

    Sayama Daw Khin Khin Chit Maung rarely attends gatherings. She made an exception this time. She and Saya U Myo Min fetched Saya U Tin Htut (her elder brother) at the air port and also brought him to the Half Moon Bay monastery.

    Gordon Kaung (M 83) and Lillian Kaung (EC 83) drove close to 3 hours from Napa. They also brought a bottle of iNapa Premium wine and desserts.

    Saya U Myat Htoo (C68) spent a decade or so as President of TBSA (Theravada Buddhist Society of America) at Half Moon Bay monastery. Today was a sort of “welcome back” for him and Ma Ku (Daw Hnin Maung Maung).

    Saya U Maung Maung (George, ChE 66) is a Past President of NorCal RIT Alumni Association and a founding member of RIT Alumni International. He and Daw Eng Eng (sister of Saya U Myat Thwin, ChE 66) brought samoosa.

    There were a few young and not so young alumni at the event. They include Ko Soe Thu (C98) and Ma Thandar.

    Saya U Nyo Win (M65) and spouse were caught in the traffic.

    Saya U Thein Aung (Met72) and Sandra (M76) brought their daughter.

    Dr. Myint Thein (M73) talked about his “Htaik Htar ထိပ်ထား” Daw Nyo Nyo Win (T73) and provide examples of “Applied English” (e.g. “air cut” for stroke).

    Award

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 637-a.jpg
    Award

    Received appreciation award for helping the sayas and alumni to get connected via the RIT Alumni International Newsletter and Updates since 1999.

    It was the second award from the RIT Community.

    I received the first award at SPZP-2000 along with Maurice and KMZ.

    Posts

    • Alumni
    • Gatherings
    • Kye Zuu
    • Memories
  • Myanmar Names

    Myanmar Names

    by Hla Min

    Update : September 2026

    Length of name

    • One word : e.g Nu နု၊ Thant သန့်
    U Thant
    • Two words : e.g Khin Khin ခင်ခင်၊ Thein Han သိန်းဟန်
    • Three words : e.g Aung Gyi Shwe အောင်ကြီးရွှေ၊ Kyi Kyi Htay ကြည်ကြည်ဌေး Tun Aung Gyaw ထွန်းအောင်ကျော်
    Aung Gyi Shwe
    • Four words : e.g Khin Maung Maung Than ခင်မောင်မောင်သန်း၊ Tin Maung Maung Than တင်မောင်မောင်
    • Five or more : e.g Khin Maung Thet Cho Oo ခင်မောင်သက်ချိုဦး

    Mixed Names

    J A Maung Gyi
    • J A Maung Gyi (Joseph Augustus, Governor) J A မောင်ကြီး
    • M A Maung Gyi (Master of Arts; Diplomat) M A မောင်ကြီး
    • April
      April Chit Khin (Vocalist) April ချစ်ခင်
      April Khine (Lecturer) April ခိုင်
    • May
      May Saw Lwin (Professor) မေစောလွင်
      May Win Maung (Actor) မေဝင်းမောင်
      Maymyo မေမြို့ (Named after Colonel James May) : Pyin Oo Lwin ပြင်ဦးလွင်
    • June
      June Khine (Two Doctors) June ခိုင်

    Based on Saying

    • ကြံတိုင်းအောင်
    • ဆောင်တိုင်းမြောက်
    • လိုတိုင်းရ
    • တတိုင်းမွှေး
    • ထင်တိုင်းပေါက်

    Based on Astrology ဗေဒင်

    Especially Monk Names

    • Sunday born တနင်္ဂနွေ သား — အ
    • Monday born တနင်္လာ သား — က၊ ခ၊ ဂ၊ ဃ၊ င
    • Tuesday born အင်္ဂါ သား — စ၊ ဆ၊ ဇ၊ စျ၊ ည
    • Wednesday born ဗုဒ္ဓဟူး သား — လ၊ ဝ၊ ယ၊ ရ
    • Thursday born ကြာသာပတေး သား — ပ၊ ဖ၊ ဗ၊ ဘ၊ မ
    • Friday born သောကြာ သား — သ၊ ဟ
    • Saturday born စနေ သား — တ၊ ထ၊ ဒ၊ ဓ၊ န

    Father’s Name ဖခင်ရဲ့အမည်

    at the back နောက်မှာ

    • မျိုးပိုင်၊ စိုးပိုင်၊ ဝင်းပိုင်၊ ကျော်ပိုင် — ဦးပိုင် ရဲ့ သားများ

    at the front

    • မောင်မောင်ကြည်၊ မောင်မောင်ခန့်၊ မောင်မောင်သန့်၊ မောင်မောင်မြင့်၊ မောင်မောင်စန်း — ဦးမောင်မောင် ရဲ့ သားများ

    does not appear

    • in most Burmese names — မ ပါ

    For Further Reading

    • Meaning of names နာမည် ရဲ့ အဓိပ္ပါယ်
    • Naming Conventions နာမည် မှဲ့ ပုံ မှဲ့ နည်း
    • Names of Places
    • Names of Companies and Products
  • 69er Grads Reunion in 1999

    69er Grads Reunion in 1999

    by Tint Lwin & Hla Min

    Update : September 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

    • 13 graduated with EC (Electrical Communications)
    • 30+ graduated with EP (Electrical Power)
    • Several EE sayas and alumni are GBNF
    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 …
  • Heartfelt Night

    Heartfelt Night

    by Nyunt Htay & Hla Min

    Updated : September 2026

    U Nyunt Htay (Met73)

    • Retired Associate Professor, Metallurgical Engineering
    • Author and Poet : Maung Nyunt Htay (Ah Htet Min Hla) မောင် ညွန့်ဌေး (အထက်မင်းလှ)
    • Chief Editor, Myanmar Mudita Sar Saung
    Nyunt Htay 1
    Nyunt Htay 2

    ရင်ထဲကည

    ဝါလကင်းလွတ်
    သီတင်းကျွတ်တည့်
    လပြည့်သည်ည
    တင့်ရွှန်းပမြိုင်
    နိုင်ငံအဝှမ်း
    မြေမဟီနန်းမှာ
    ကပ်ရောဂါဒဏ်
    စစ်ဘေးရန်နှင့်
    အန္တရာယ်ခပ်သိမ်း
    ကင်းလွတ်ငြိမ်း၍
    အောင်ကိန်းကိုပိုင်
    အောင်လံခိုင်မြဲ
    အောင်နိုင်ပွဲတွေ
    ရနိုင်စေ ။ ။

    မောင်ညွန့်ဌေး (အထက်မင်းလှ)
    ၃၁.၁၀.၂၀၂၀
    (ကိုနေမျိုးဇော် လက်ရာ ပန်းချီ ကိုကြည့်ပြီးရေးပါသည်။)

    Heart Felt Night


    End of Vassa , Rainy Season Retreat

    Thadinkyut , Lightening Festival

    The night of the Full Moon

    In glorious splendor

    Throughout the nation

    This Royal Land

    Calamities — pandemic

    battles and war

    countless dangers

    May they fade and disappear

    View Victory signs

    Hoist Victory banner

    May series of Victories be achieved .

    Translated by
    Hla Min ( EC 69)

  • Distinguished  Monks

    Distinguished Monks

    by Hla Min

    Update : September 2026

    U Lokanatha (Italian Buddhist Monk)

    A book changed his life

    U Lokanatha
    • Mr. Salvitore was working as a Chemist in the USA.
    • Received a book as Christmas present from his supervisor. A chapter was “Dhammapada”.
      After reading it, Samvega (sense of urgency) crept in.
    • 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 (Windermere), Rangoon.
    • Practiced Dhutanga. Preached & took Dhamma Dhuta missions to India and Ceylon.
    • Passed away in Maymyo in 1966.

    Ashin Ananda

    (Latvian monk)

    Rev. Lustig
    With his mentor

    Fled Communist Rule

    • Rev. Friedrich V. Lustig’s mentor Rev. Tonison 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

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

    Ashin Ananda

    • Shaved his beard
    • Ordained as a Theravada monk with the title “Ashin Ananda”
    • Laureate Poet & 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

    U Thilawuntha (Mon Sayadaw)

    Built pagodas worldwide

    Dat Poung Zon Sayadaw
    Mon Sayadaw
    • In early 1949, my father and his siblings donated 5 acres and built Dat Paung Zon Aung Min Gaung Pagoda in Windermere Road. My elder brother helped with the construction as a Koyin.
    • Sayadaw U Thilawunta (fondly known as “Mon Sayadaw”) was invited by my father and his dhamma friends to be the Chief Resident Monk of DPZ monastery.
    • He 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. He built the first Burmese pagoda in the Allegheny mountains near New York.
    First pagoda in USA
    • During his visit to California, Sayadaw would spend time with his devotees such as Russell Wolfe (Santa Cruz) and U Aung Myint (Donald, Milpitas).

    Sayadaw U Zeya

    Monastery in Las Vegas

    • Las Vegas is known for its Casinos and Recreation.
    • Las Vegas also has some monasteries including Thai monasteries supported by members of the Royal Family.
    • Sayadaw U Zeya resided at a Thai monastery and rose up the ranks. Gave dhamma talks in Thai, English & 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 & Architects

    Dr. Lwin Aung (A59)

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

    U Bo Gyi (A59)

    U Bo Gyi
    • Founded “Architect Incorporated” with U Tin Htoon (A60) & U Aung Kyee Myint (A60)
    • Later joined PWD along with his partners
    • Designed 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)

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

    U Myo Tun (A69)

    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 Pa Auk Sayadaw’s books
    • Taught English to Dhammacariya Sayadaws

    U Aung Chaw (C69, SPHS63)

    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.
    • He is now GBNF.

    U Wara (Win Paing, ChE70, SPHS64)

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

    U Jotika (EE73)

    • After graduation, ဦးနေဒွန်း became a monk
    • Bilingual author
    • 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)

    • Met him in SF Bay Area with his mentor (Sayadaw from Myanmar).
    • 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
  • GBNF 2015

    GBNF 2015

    by Hla Min

    Updated : September 2026

    Gone But Not Forgotten

    • Sein Sein (T) : 19th Feb 2015
    • Myat Soe (Myint Soe, E) : 22nd Mar 2015
    • Myo Thaw : May 2015
    • Chit Khin (A) : 23rd June, 2015
    • Htike Nyan (E) : 26th Oct 2015

    Nay Win (M69)

    Alumnus of PPBRS, MEHS and RIT

    Taught Maritime Studies at a Polytechnic in Singapore

    Nay Win (Seated Left)

    Win Naing (Dicky, M69)

    Represented RIT in Rowing

    Also played Badminton

    Passed away in Singapore

    Win Naing (Dicky)
  • Kyaw Nyunt — Names

    Kyaw Nyunt — Names

    by Hla Min

    Updated : September 2026

    Kyaw Nyunt (M69)

    He graduated with Mechanical Engineering from RIT in 1969.

    He represented RIT in Tennis along with Than Htay (EP69) and James Than.

    Tennis

    He is Patron of a Retirees Association.

    After retirement, he often visited his son in East Coast and had micro-reunion with Ivan Lee and Fred Thetgyi.

    He had some medical problems (diabetes, skin irritation) and had weekly visits to a hospital for treatment.

    He passed away unexpectedly.

    He was a regular attendee at 69er breakfast gatherings.

    * David Myint Thein wrote :

    Gone But Not Forgotten, dear Kyaw Nyunt. May your soul rest in peace.

    Kyaw Nyunt 2

    Namesake

    • Dr. Kyaw Nyunt : Maths Professor
    • Dr. Kyaw Nyunt : BADA; Doctor
    • U Kyaw Nyunt : Ambassador; Chair of Union Bank