By Maung Maung Aye
Our bus left home in Kaba Aye at 9 am and halted temporarily at a roadside tea shop, and we got down and had a hasty breakfast. Then, we drove sluggishly through a maze of cars of different sizes, colours and models. When we got to the toll-gate on the Yangon-Nay Pyi Taw Highway, it was well over 10 am. The sun was ablaze overhead.
After the gate, we felt as if we had been away from the bustling city life, and our daily routine duties had been dislodged from our shoulders. The road was lined with green trees of various species and with a row of leafy neem trees and young palms with their fronds brandished in the middle. A few cars were running in a tearing rush along the road. We drove at a normal speed. Often, some villages tucked away amongst the groves of shady trees behind vast rice fields on the roadside were passed. Now and then, we had a glimpse of glistening fishing ponds lying behind wooded lands. After a drive of 20 minutes, a distance of about seven miles and a half mile was covered, and our car turned right into a path flanked by luxuriantly green shrubberies. After a two or three-minute drive, we came to a high arched gate which read ‘Dhamma-Vinaya Centre’. Our car rolled into the gate and followed the winding path, and in no time, ‘Pannabhumi University’ came into sight. On either side of the path leading through it were low-lying stretches of land, some covered with rice plants and some with wild grass and a few vegetable plantations.
When our bus reached the university, I noticed that the precincts of the university occupied the entire top of a hill. The northern part was covered with monastic buildings, which served as a Pariyatti learning centre and the southern part with the monastic buildings, and we dashed towards the university whose imposing buildings caught our attention. O! It was the most beautiful university I have ever seen in Myanmar. It was shining gold in the glare of the overpowering sun, emitting the air of an international university. Air-conditioned, glass-walled and high-ceilinged academic and administrative facilities and amenities were scattered all over the sprawling estate. Across the main building were the imposing library building and a stupa, gilded and covered with vermilion, standing silhouetted in great splendour against the eastern horizon. Some lovely benches sheltered by flowering plants were placed clustered in a space in front of the main building. Some places were landscaped with trimmed lawns, flowering shrubs and potted flowers. Some one-storeyed brick structures with glass windows, lodgings for meditators, were found huddling in the north-western corner of the premises. As the university is situated on a rise, it commands a wide view of fields dotted with small buildings at the base and forested headlands a short way from it.
The university was founded very recently by Dr Nandamālābhivaṁsa, a former rector of the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University, who acquired a great reputation as Rector Sayadaw (ပါချုပ်ဆရာတော်) for his ingenious preaching of the Dhamma. The English rendering for the Pali word ‘Pannabhumi’ is ‘Land of wisdom’. It is said that the university is so called after the Bodhi tree where the Buddha was enlightened. The university aims to keep in custody the discourses delivered by the Buddha and to impose them on the mind of everyone, thereby bringing peace to the world. The university is to confer on its students diplomas, BA degrees, MA degrees and PhD degrees regarding the Dhamma. It is learnt that it is now conducting online classes for the Suddhamma diploma and BA, that tens of thousands of students from all over the world are attending the classes and that only the convocation ceremony, however, is held inside the precincts of the university.
When we had observed the entire university campus, it was already half past nine. So, we hurried to a big Dhamma hall where we were to listen to the Dhamma preached by monastery administrator Sayadaw… This Dhamma hall was one of the monastic buildings covering the northern part of the precincts. Soon after we had taken our seats in the Dhamma hall, the Sayadaw came and preached a short discourse on the benefits of donation (Dana). Then we went to a bigger hall where cooked rice and some curries were made ready for us to offer. At 10 am exactly, over 270 monks and novices who were learning Buddhist scriptures at the Pariyatti learning centre filed into the hall where we were awaiting them. When they came into the hall, we offered them alms meals and curries prepared. Having received the alms-meal from us, the monks and novices seated themselves at the long tables placed lengthwise and partook of the alms-meal. We attended to their every need while they were having alms meals. Only after they had departed from the refectory, we were served with lunch by the staff of the Pariyatti learning centre, and we left the university at about 1 pm.
In brief, it is found that Pannabhumi University was a higher Buddhist academic learning centre which imparted the authentic Buddha’s teachings to the world. So, I had a great reverence for the Rector Sayadaw Dr Nandamālābhvumsa due to his phenomenally great missionary work. At the same time, I felt peace of mind, happiness and satisfaction when I saw the monks and novices from the Pariyatti learning centre in the precincts of Pannabhumi University receive and partake of the alms meals donated by us. Anyhow, it was a rewarding trip because we got a lot of merits and were refreshed by the scenery on the way.
#TheGlobalNewLightOfMyanmar
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