The 1953 travels of Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing

This post presents the translation of an article titled "Finding the 1953 [text] 'World Traveler Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing'", excerpted from the journal Atwe-Amyin, Issue 242, May 2012, p. 61-69.

Translation: 

Finding the 1953 [text] "World Traveler Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing" 

Sein Talone

The great teacher Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing's biography was written by U Thein Pe Myint and frequently reprinted and distributed across the country. It was also translated into many foreign languages. Yet, it was only Thakin Chit Maung who traveled together at the time with with Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing who had the opportunity to write the text "World traveler Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing" about the great teacher Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing. Thakin Chit Maung said that that book was just the first book and that he would continue to write a second book. During the whole trip from Myanmar to Guangdong City in China, from Guangdong in southern China to Peking City in northern China, from Peking City to Moscow in the Soviet Union, and from Moscow on to Budapest in Hungary, the great teacher Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing and Thakin Chit Maung discussed Myanmar's political, economic and religious issues. The things that the great teachers Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing spoke to his close disciple Thakin Chit Maung need to be studied. In that way, what he spoke can be preserved without being lost from generation to generation. It is appropriate to present quotes from the great teacher's sayings. Sayings concerning religion should especially be given priority. The second book should not only be found but also reprinted together with the first book.

The teacher-pupil pair Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing and Thakin Chit Maung along with two translators arrived at the monastery of a Buddhist abbot in Guangdong City in the evening on 31 May 1953. The abbot along with the whole sangha of monks came from the entrance of the monastery and welcomed Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing. The abbot, greeting Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing with the words "Great patron, sir, I am delighted to be honoured now with your third visit to China", embraced him and gave him a tour of all of the rooms in the monastery.

When they entered into one of the great halls Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing knelt down in the presence of an especially sublime gold image of the Buddha and made obeisances with a posture that was full of rapture. In consideration of the time, the abbot was unable to given a tour of all the monastery rooms, and was only able to show five of the rooms. When they entered into one of the rooms they saw statues depicting the 10 main Buddhist Jataka tales. After that they gathered around a table and sat down. The most senior monk greeted Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing, saying "Buddhists in China have always had affection and respect for Buddhists in Myanmar. While having contact with Buddhist countries for religious concerns I hope that there is always goodwill. I am especially glad to have an opportunity like now to have frequent contact and discussions with a wise Myanmar person. I hope that you are successful in carrying out your activities according to the aim of the World Peace Congress and that you return smoothly via China."

Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing listened stoically and with satisfaction drank a cup of green tea and ate an apple slice. While eating the apple Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing and the abbot spoke together asking and answering each others' questions.

"About how many monks reside in this monastery, lord?"

"There are about 50 novices."

"Are your alms sufficient, lord?"

"The male and female patrons make sufficient offerings. There are cooking arrangements in the monastery."

"I have heard that in China there are bhikkunis, lord."

"That is true great patron."

"The bhikkunis have their own monastic compounds, just like the monks."

"Are the bhikkunis' monastic rules of conduct different from those of the monks, lord?"

"Basically they're not different. However, the bhikkunis have a small amount more of monastic rules. Aside from the the four parazigan rules and the major monastic rules of the monks, the monks also have over 150 minor monastic rules. The bhikkunis have have over 200 minor monastic rules, sir."

At that moment, Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing turned to Thakin Chit Maung and said "The statement of [the Myanmar monk] U Adeitsawantha was that bhikkunis cannot be ordained in the Buddhist religion at the present time." After that, while the inquiry was coming to an end and Thakin Chit Maung was untying a packet of betel nut, he had a though about something. [He thought] "I've come to realise that Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing is recalling the occasion when he invited U Adeitsawantha to act as chairman of the pakathaniyakan ceremony.

Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing and the senior monk continued the somewhat informal conversation and then as it became dusk Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing made obeisances to the senior monk and Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing and Thakin Chit Maung left the monastery.

Thakin Chit Maung, World Traveler Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing, p. 88-94.

* * *

On 5 May 1953, at a hotel in Gaungdon City, after finishing dinner, thinking deeply Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing turned to Thakin Maung Chit and started talking.

"Yes, friend... having thought about it in detail this is an amazing country. Throughout history every time we and the Chinese went to war we never lost in our ability and weapons. But we could never endure the human waves they threw at us. There had to be a military reconciliation."

"Yes, it's like that, friend. Since there were no landmines in the era of our kings, they issued the order [for war] from the palace with an overwhelming desire for military victory. A person who has to fight knows and must act based on their own experience. In that era the Chinese military units marched with many [soldiers against Myanmar] four times. They were defeated every time they marched. But, they could get as many [soldiers] as they wanted. Therefore they would continue going forward. As a result, although some of the lower ranking officers did not agree, the Minister of War accepted the offer of gifts for a military peace from China and there was a peace settlement, because [the Minister of War] thought that the repeated advances [by China] with the force of numbers could not be endured.  As a result, the king said angrily to the commanders “You took a bribe and accepted peace even though we could have conquered the whole country [of China]. You have betrayed my royalty.”  With that the king made the officers who took the gifts and their families stand in the intense heat of the sun along the entire length of the palace wall carrying those gifts in order to embarrass them and inflict punishment. As soon as the Maha Thiha Thura ministers heard about that matter, in order to calm the king's rage, they marched off to fight and defeat the countries of Assam, Manipura and Cathay [in eastern India], informed the king about the military victory, apologised, and prostrated in fear. However, the king could not be placated and he sent these ministers into exile. After quite some time the king's rage subsided."

"The kind of people who are like those senior Maha Thiha Thura generals are really praiseworthy, friend. Starting from that time roads of gold and silver were opened between China and Myanmar and the situation became very good with diplomats, messengers and expanded trade. When kings and governments repeatedly make grave errors, the actions of farsighted generals such as those who saved the country are lessons to take from history. It is of course enough to depend on generals who are full of military prowess and wisdom. If there are solely those kinds of military heroes who are made to kill whether right or wrong, then when will there be this kind of response [by generals who do not accept the king’s order], friend? (page 97, 98, 99)

* * *

On 1 June 1953, while on the train from Gaungdon to Peking the railway tracks were blocked, thus stopping the train on the side of a mountain, and the teacher and student Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing and Thaking Chit Maung spoke about Myanmar politics. Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing's face was a little dejected and looking like he was feeling down he started to speak after some time.

"Teacher, I want to say something.  In the Nyaung-yan dynasty the Nyaunn-yan king  plotted to attack Inwa. There were two monks named Bameh and Zawdanarama. Thazinar arrived at the large village called Zidaw to rest and he built a royal shelter in which to relax. That night in their shelter the very delighted and playful fellows were acting disorderly. The shelter went up in flames and ash fell down. This was a bad omen for the king and the soldiers. They were of course dejected that military defeat would come. Because of this the monk Bameh got wind of this situation and gathered the military and the king and in order to motivate them preached that the burning of the tent was an omen indicating that they would quickly march [to battle].  Getting excited with that [statement] the military marched to Inwa and was able to conquer it in two days. And now the stopping of the train is a good omen like a great elephant that is gathering momentum to charge. As for Myanmar, looking at the present situation [of civil war] it is like with the [boxing] orchestra drumming, instead of punching one's opponent one goes home and punches their own mother.

After speaking like that and becoming upset, Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing continued speaking. "Teacher, I want to say one thing. In your era, since your family and friends have money, if you want to make a donation you can of course do so by building a stupa, establishing a monastery, or digging a well. However, as for ordination halls do not consecrate the ground or make a donation. It is the monks to whom an ordination hall is entrusted who should be decide on this. If one errs before giving special consideration to this kind basic subtle difficulty of this great religion, the monks who ordain in this kind of ordination hall ground will not be real monks [due to non-observation of the consecration rules]. It's also doubtful that they'll even be good lay patrons. If one considers further, those kinds of monks who are not even good lay patrons will have problems conducting novice ordinations and monk ordinations. Therefore, King Bago Dhamma Cedi, in order to be a king who revered the Buddhist religion and was knowledgeable of the Buddhist texts, made five hand-picked pure monks leave the monastic life, go to Sri Lanka, and re-ordain as new monks in the Kalyani ordination hall.  When they had been purified, with those monks in the king's assembly, the king handed over the ordination hall and consecrated the ordination ground in line with the law. Therefore, the Bago ordination hall is called the Great Kalyani Ordination Hall in reference to the Sri Lankan ordination hall" (pages 105, 106, 108).

* * *

On 5 June 1953, in the capital Peking, after eating breakfast and before going to the Myanmar embassy, the teacher and student pair discussed politics, economics and defence issues for Myanmar. While Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing was sitting on the sofa telling his rosary beads he thought of something and turned towards Thakin Chit Maung and spoke.

"Hey... please stay friend. How do you [and your generation of political leaders] think about the claim regarding the tooth relic that your brother [Prime Minister] Nu brought from Sri Lanka?"

"I can't say, teacher. It depends on one's personal beliefs, of course. As for my belief, if one wants to donate with goodwill valuable objects like gold, silver and gems, then I would want donations to be made in my own country according to what the Virtuous Lord Buddha said [rather than donations going back to Sri Lanka along with the tooth relic after its tour in Burma]. If I have [money], I would want to donate like that."

"No friend, [your generation of political leaders] can't say that. You don't know. Don't do that. That is very important. There's an actual tooth relic in our country of Burma. It's famous history, friend.

During the time of Bayin Naung, because the Sri Lankan king asked for reinforcements, 2,300 of the best hand-picked soldiers were sent to help fight. Because of that, the Sri Lankan king was exceedingly grateful and he sent [as gifts] a tooth relic, an alms bowl and his daughter.  King Bayin-Naung was a great follower of the dhamma and built a shrine in the throne room of the palace for the tooth relic and worshiped it there. The tooth relic shrine has been there ever since. After this, [Myanmar] came under the rule of five patron kings, and then during the reign of Tha-Lone-Min-Taya according to the instructions of the monk Taung-Phila, the Sagaing Great Meritorious Deed [Pagoda] was built in which [the tooth relic] was enshrined. Therefore, a real tooth relic of the Buddha is enshrined in the Great Meritorious Deed [Pagoda]. It needs to be known like that. When the monk Thuriya built a monastery he wrote down a record of the tooth relic. If you happen to meet [Prime Minister] Nu, tell him about this. It's in the the Great Meritorious Deed [Pagoda]." (page 181)

* * *

On 6 June 1953,while pondering over a cup of tea after eating the lunch that was served by the Myanmar ambassador in Peking U Hla Maung and his wife, Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing turned to the ambassador U Hla Maung and said, "Where did you go yesterday?"

"Just like all us foreign ambassadors. On that day I went to see the drilling of a big reservoir that is quite far away, teacher."

"How was it? Was it really big?"

"It was really big, teacher. It was amazing. Without using modern machines they are working hard doing it with human power. It was teeming as though with ants coming out of an ant hole, teacher."

"Yes, friend... I hear you.  They're really satisfied. There are many people. The leader is good. They're all united."

At the end of the verbal exchange between Thaking Ko Daw Hmaing and the ambassador Thakin Chit Maung said, "Teacher... if we were great like that, there would be no more [need for] human power; we'd rely on the power of machine tools."

"Yes, it would be good if we are able to succeed. Are there great canals in our country of Burma? In that era of မြင်စိုင်းပင်းယ after the Chinese marched here to fight, the Chinese soldiers themselves dug a large canal. There was a lot to be very grateful for in that area. It was the bodies that were able to make up that much human power," Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing responded.

After eating, while talking random chit-chat as he was about to stand back up, how he arrived [at this topic] I don't know, [but] he arrived at the topic of the World Peace Pagoda in Yangon. At that time Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing said "In the royal dynasties in our Burmese history every king has built a pagoda as a meritorious deed according to tradition. If they didn't build [a pagoda], it would be like they weren't a king It was a tradition like they would not be able to show their face in royal history. Every king wanted to obtain the title of a 'patron of the religion'. Now, the construction of the World Peace Pagoda by your [Prime Minister] Nu is not special."

"As for the title of World Peace Pagoda, it's really very good teacher. It's important for true goodwill, for true work, teacher," said Thakin Chit Maung.

"Yes, friend, how good would it be just to be renowned as a builder of a meritorious [pagoda] like Inwa Taraphya the Great. The king Inwa Taraphya the Great [said] 'under my reign [I] will continue [the practice of my ancestors] by building a meritorious pagoda, which will be five cubits in height. The king's counselors replied "That'll be it, if you build a pagoda [that small], that'll be the end." Your World Peace Pagoda in much more splendid than the pagoda of Inwa Taraphya," said Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing at the end of the discussion, and they returned to the hotel. (page 192) 

* * *

On 13 June 1953, at 5:15 in the morning, they started flying from the Moscow airport in the Soviet Union to Budapest, Hungary. Upon boarding the aeroplane Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing and Thakin Chit Maung conversed about this and that.

"Hey, did you see even one pagoda [in the USSR]?"

"That wouldn't be possible, teacher. It would be difficult to see a pagoda in this country, in this kind of place.  I can't say for places where there are Buddhists that border Southern Russia, China and India. I know that there are Buddhists in those places."

"Yes, friend, since we past China I haven't seen even one small pagoda. They have become rare."

"Teacher, if we act with pure goodwill I think that the journey will arrive [Buddhism will develop] in these kinds of countries"

"Yes, indeed, many avenues [for Buddhism] will open. Now, the situation of our religion is like taking frogs out of a bag and knocking them. [The monks] come and go saying charity and morality for the protection of the people. While the great Ledi Sayadaw lived his long life he went on many journeys.
If [Ledi Sayadaw's] text The Light of Buddhism was translated for the European continent it would be a great text that was written clearly and naturally in Burmese. I think that if Westerners studied it like a social science they would find it to their taste. It would be good if world [Buddhist] missionary organisations would translate that kind of text into many languages and distribute it widely."

Before long Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing continued speaking.

"Yes, I will say more. The text Raja Dhamma Thingaha written by U Bo Hlaing, the mayor of the town of Yaw I don't think still has yet been typed up. It's still only on palm leaves. You should read that text, friend. U Bo Hlaing really was a great Burmese scholar. He was a great scholar who spoke and acted the truth. He was not the kind of minister you just nodded and 'Yes, your majesty.' His father who was the mayor of Yindaw in the assembly of King Tharyarwaddy said 'yes' and was executed. In the Thiwali-thaw-dani text [he writes] about the cases in which it is not good for monks to accept donations and with these build pagodas. It is necessary to be careful. It is not good to build a pagoda with property that has been obtained from 25 kinds of theft. The 25 kinds of theft and not valuable, spacious or gentle. Knowing this, if one is really going to conduct missionary activities it is important to do so with purity."

"In this era it would be appropriate to write a book called "The practices of ministers" of the biography of U Bo Hlaing mayor of Yaw, teacher."

 

Thakin Chit Maung responded with words of support...

 

"U Bo Hlaing was very famous. What he wrote was not just that generous text about donations.

He also wrote an important and noble religious book entitled Wimottiyatha. Later some monks criticised this book. In our religion the abbot Maha Withuddayon from the Shwegyin order wrote the great text 'Seittapidanani' in response [to U Bo Hlaing's text]. However, later on U Bo Hlaing's daughters responded [to the monk] and the great Shwegyin [monk] with as much education as he had admitted his error and apologised. Ever since the teacher [U Bo Hlaing] wrote the text 'Galonbyandipanitaga' that Shwegyin monk became famous as 'Lord Dayzawanda' who got in that dispute.

 

Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing then recited four verses he had written down in response.

Thakin Chit Maung felt satisfied and smiled when he heard the old style poem that Thakin Ko Daw Hmaing recited. 

 

* * *

 

We seniors must pass on [these teachings] about the tooth relic, bhikkunis, bakathaniyakan, the construction of pagodas, and the consecration of ordination halls to the next generation of young people so that they are able to learn.

Vocabulary:

အပ် ။ word suffixed to a verb to convey a sense of propriety (equivalent in usage to verbs "be proper" , "be appropriate")
ချီးမြှင့် ။ to award sb.
ဆောင် ။ room, chamber
သပ္ပာယ် ။ sublime
ဆင်းတု ။ image of the Buddha
ရှေ့မှောက် ။ in one's presence
ဒူးထောက် ။ to kneel
အနေအထား ။ posture
ဝတ်ပြု ။ do obeisance
ကြည်နူး ။ enraptured
အတိ ။ replete with
ငဲ့ကွက် ။ to sympathise, be considerate
ရုပ်တု ။ image, statue
ရုပ်လုံး ။ figure or statue in the round
ချစ်ခင် ။ to be fond of
တောင့်တ ။ to wish for
ချောမော ။ smooth; fine; nice
တည်ကြည် ။ be steady in mind and stable in character; (of appearance and behaviour) be staid
လေးနက် ။ worthy of serious consideration; weighty; deep; profound
ဣန္ဒြေ ။ guarded or controlled speech or action; composure; modesty
သာမဏေ ။ novice of the Buddhist Order
သိက္ခါပုဒ် ။ Vinaya; monastic rules of conduct
ပါရဇီကဏ် ။ ?
အမေးအစမ်း ။ inquiry, investigation
သဘာပတိ ။ chairman (of an assembly)
အတန်ငယ်  ။ a little, somewhat
အာလာပသလ္လာပ ။ informal conversation
နေစောင်း ။ (of the sun) dip down towards the horizon
စကေးစကက် ။ ?
မိုးမွှန် ။ to be overwhelmingly great
ဆက်သမှု ။ an offer
တံစိုး ။ bribe
သားမယား ။ wife, family
ကျဲကျဲ ။ bright, intense
ဒဏ်ခတ်  ။ to inflict punishment
အမျက်တော်ရှ ။ (of royalty) be enraged
သံတော်ဦးတင် ။ to address royalty
ဝပ် ။ to prostrate in fear
ပြည်နှင်ဒဏ် ။ exile, banishment, deportation
ချီးကျူး ။ to praise, speak in honour of
တမန် ။ courier; messenger, diplomat
မှောက်မှား ။ err; entertain erroneous sentiment
အမြော်အမြင်ကြီး ။ be farsighted; be visionary 
စစ်သူကြီး ။ commander-in-chief, general
လက်ရုံးရည် ။ martial prowess
နှလုံးရည် ။ mental faculty; wisdom 
တုံ့ပြန် ။ retaliate
မင်းဆက်  ။ dynasty
ရမ်းရမ်း ။ delightedly
ဆော့ ။ play; be up to mischief
ရိပ်မိ ။ to get a hint or inkling; guess.
သိမ်မွေ့ ။ subtle, delicate
သံသယ ။ doubt, suspicion
စင်ကြယ် ။ be free from ; be clean; be pure
ကျောက်သံပတ္တမြား ။ gems, precious stones
ထိတ်ထိတ်ကြဲ ။ best, highest, supreme
ဌာပနာ ။ to enshrine Buddhist relics in pagodas
ကိန်းဝပ် ။ to be enshrined
တည်ခင်း ။ to serve
သုံးဆောင် ။ to use, eat
နှိုက် ။ to think, or go deeper (into a problem)
လှမ်းလှမ်း ။ distance
ရေလှောင်ကန် ။ tank, reservoir