Thittila is said to be the first religious worker among the Burmese monks who left for a foreign country to do Buddhist missionary work.
21 Facts About Thittila
1.
2.
Thittila served as a lecturer on the Buddhist philosophy known as Abhidhamma at the University of Yangon, took part in compiling the Burmese-English dictionary, jointly working with Dr Hla Pe, and wrote books in English and Burmese.
3.
Thittila was the first to translate the Vibhanga, the second part of the Abhidhamma Pitaka, from Pali to English for the first time.
4.
Thittila worked as a librarian at the Adyar Library of Theosophical Society Adyar and the library of the Buddhist Society in London.
5.
Thittila was born in 1896, in Badigon village, Pyawbwe Township in Myanmar, to parents, U Aye and Daw Htwe, who earned their living as farmers.
6.
Thittila succeeded in obtaining the Pathamagyaw title in 1918, after he ranked first in the Pathamagyi examination.
7.
Thittila studied Buddhist scriptures under various scholar monks, both in Mandalay and Yangon.
8.
Thittila travelled to India for the sole purpose of learning Sanskrit and English in 1924.
9.
Thittila then moved to Madras, India around 1934.
10.
In 1964, Thittila translated the second part of Abhidhamma Pitaka, Vibhanga, which was published as "The Book of Analysis'" by the Pali Text Society in 1969.
11.
Again in 1982, at the age of 86 or 87, Thittila returned to England.
12.
Thittila lived at a house in a village near Reading.
13.
Thittila's first talk on Dhamma took place in 1938 at Buddhist Society of London.
14.
At the invitation of the Association for Asian Studies at the University of Michigan, US, Thittila travelled around the United States in 1959 and gave more than one hundred and sixty lectures at numerous universities and other meetings planned for that purpose, over the course of six months.
15.
Thittila travelled to Australia three times after his missionary work in England.
16.
Thittila toured Japan, where he observed Zen Buddhism and meditation techniques and met with Zen masters.
17.
Thittila visited many other Asian countries to do religious work, including Singapore, Hongkong, Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal, and Thailand.
18.
Thittila visited European countries including Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Holland.
19.
Thittila received another Buddhist missionary title, Abhidhajaaggamahasaddhammajotika, from the government in 1993.
20.
Thittila was a trustee monk of the Shwedagon Pagoda, Sule Pagoda, and Kaba Aye Pagoda.
21.
Thittila was the examiner of the Abhidhamma Propagation Society in Yangon.