Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Indaka

(Chief monk)

(A Biographical Sketch)

Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Indaka was born in August 11, 1940, in Myaung Mya Township in Burma. He has been a Buddhist monk since childhood. He took his ordination in May, 1960 at the Pajjotarama monastery, Myaung Mya, one of the well-known Pali Institutes in Burma. He studied at the monastery for some years.

Sayadaw passed in higher grades the Elementary, Junior and Senior examination of the Dhammacariya (the teacher of Dhamma) and Paliparagu (the master degree in Pali Language) in 1962-63. They are the highest degrees in Pali and Theravada Buddhism in Burma. After completion of his monastic education, he taught Pali and Buddhism in Burma for some years at Pajjotarama monastery.

In 1966, he moved to Rangoon, the capital city of Burma. He studied English, Burmese Herbal Medicine, and Astrology there for four years. He passed the Burmese Traditional Herbal Medicine Examination held by the Burmese Government in 1969.

In 1970, Sayadaw established his own Buddhist meditation center at Tachileik town in the Eastern Shan State of Burma, and he resided there for twelve years teaching Buddhism theoretically as well as practically.

In 1980, he underwent a long-term meditation retreat at the Mahasi Meditation Center in Rangoon under the most Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, the founder of the Mahasi Meditation Center. After taking the intense meditation training course, he was acknowledged as a meditation instructor by the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw. From that time onwards, he has been teaching Buddhism and Buddhist way of meditation in his own meditation center at Tachileik as well as in other places. From Mahasi Meditation Center, he learned that true peace of mind could be achieve through meditation.

While Sayadaw was in Techileik, he adopted many orphans. He helped them by supporting their education and providing other necessities. He was able to organize other people for this social work successfully and his center at Teachileik grew bigger and bigger within in a few years. The center is now still running successfully in Burma under his disciples. From his experience, he learned that "Helping people is the only way to get true happiness" and "Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance."

In 1982, as a Mahasi meditation missionary, he was sent to the United States of America by the most Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw to teach Vipassana meditation at the Buddhist Temple of Tennessee and to serve the Burmese community in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1983, he moved to New York to serve the Burmese community in the tri-state area as a spiritual leader. Since then, he has lived in the New York by teaching people Buddhism. Supported by the America Burma Buddhist Association (A.B.B.A), sayadaw established the Universal Peace Buddha Temple in New York in 1984 and the Mahasi Satipatthana Meditation Center in New Jersey in 1995.

He is also the Chief Monk of the America Burma Buddhist Association. The purposes of the A.B.B.A. are the following:

(1). To operate exclusively for religious educational and charitable purposes

(2). To hold religious meetings for those interested in Buddhism
(3). To provide for expositions of the cultural heritage of Buddhism
(4). To maintain a Buddhist reading room and provide facilities for the practice of the meditation and other Buddhist disciplines
(5). To collect and disseminate information on Buddhism.

A.B.B.A. is now running successfully under his disciplines. He organized the regular activities of the Buddhist ways of meditation in New York and New Jersey. Religious and national ceremonies and festivals are held periodically and included as follows:
The Buddha Day Ceremony and Burmese New Year Festival in May
The Vassa Ceremony in July
The Kathina Ceremony in November
The New Year Ceremony in January
The Htamanhe Pwe Ceremony in March.
Sayadaw also teaches meditation and Buddhism at colleges, meditation centers, and other places. He regularly teaches meditation in New York Temple at 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM everyday. Buddhists and non-Buddhists are studying meditation and Buddhism with him. They get benefits from his teachings for their spiritual growth. Before he came to New York, there was no Burmese monk.
Although he is quite busy with his temple duties, he has been going to school for his academic education since 1990. He received an A.A. Degree from Kingsborough Community College in 1994. Then, he joined the Hunter College (City University of New York) for his B.A. (Bachelor of Art) Degree in the fall of 1994, and he will be graduated in the fall of 1997. He is now studying in Religion Major, and he enjoys studying both western and eastern religions; such as, Christian, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

Sayadaw has found that the comparative study of religions gives him fully understanding of world religious ideas. He believes that one can understand others beliefs and traditions by studying different religious teachings of the world. This understanding creates interfaith empathy among culturally different peoples and promotes mutual understanding among societies.