Sir Po Tha: Biographical Sketch (1st Draft)

Sir Po Tha was born in HparGu village, ThanHlyin Township, Hanthawaddy District on the banks of
the Bago River. He was born on Friday 17th April, 1857 or 9th waning day of Tagu 1219 (Myanmar
Era) at 2 am. He is eldest son of U Nyun and Daw Dwe among 6 siblings.

He started in the business of buying and selling rice paddy at the age of 20. Because of his honesty,
intelligence, ability and business acumen, he was succesful in a short time and became one of the
business leaders.

He was religious as well as generous, and built or donated many religious buildings and structures.

The main ones are:

(1) The main North Pavilion (Tazaung) of the Shwedagon Pagoda in 1255 ME or 1893 AD. It is
the only main Tazaung where original building structure, sculptures and Myanmar artistic
works are preserved.

(2) The original Chauk Htat Kyee reclining Buddha in 1286 ME or 1924 AD. The original
Buddha was facing the opposite way and had a more upright reclining position than the
present one.

(3) The Chauk Htat Kyee monastery in 1293 ME or 1931 AD. Sir Po Tha donated the head
monk’s residence buiding and the whole compound which included the reclining Buddha. The
monastery is a teaching monastery where the monks there are taught Buddhist scriputures. It
started out with 80 monks but grew to over 600 monks after the Second World War.

(4) The Norman monastery in 17th June 1888 or 1250 ME. The Norman monastery building was
originally built in 1852 by the British with British architects when they conquered Yangon
after the 2nd Anglo-Burmese war. It was to be used as a school and named Norman School.
However the school moved somewhere and the building was abandoned. Sir Po Tha bought
the building from the government and donated to be used as a monastery.

(5) In 1278 ME or 1916 the head monk moved to Insein. Sir Po Tha bought land over 9 acres
there and built a monastery and accompanying buildings in the compound and donated the
whole compound.

He was also involved in other religious and social activities. The more notable ones are:

(1) In 1927 he took sole responsibility of gold plating the whole Ku Tho Daw Pagoda at
the east base of the Mandalay Hill.

(2) He was a trustee of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda from 1897 onwards. In November 1929,
he led the Shwe Dagon Pagoda Trustees in the negotiations with the on the issues of
Pagoda land and the autonomy from government, military and municipality.

(3) He built and donated the Insein General Hospital.

He was awarded KIH, OBE, CIE, by the British Government and finally awarded Sir Title in 1927 to
become Sir Po Tha. He passed away in 26th August, 1933 at 111 Campbell Road (now Ngadatkyee
Pagoda Road). He had a daughter Daw Oo Yin, and son U Nyun Tha with his wife Lady Tha (Daw
Yee).

Extracted and translated by Soe Paing from the Sir Po Tha’s biographical summary written by Dr.
Myo Paing.