Thathanabaing

Thathanabaing (Burmese: သာသနာပိုင်, ALA-LC: Sāsanāpuiṅ‘, lit. 'Keeper of Religion'), is the Burmese term for a head of a religious order.^[1] The title was historically used for the Supreme Patriarch of Buddhist Clergy (Burmese: မဟာသံဃရာဇာ, Pali: Mahāsaṃgharājā)^[2] in Burma until 1938.^[3] It is still used in Myanmar as the title for the heads of sects (Burmese: ဂဏာဓိပတိ, Pali: Gaṇādhipati) in Theravāda Buddhism,^[3] and the episcopal ^[4] ordinaries (archbishops and bishops)^[5] in Anglican Christianity and Catholic Christianity,^{[6] [7]} as well as for the Supreme Patriarch (Pali: Saṅgharāja) of Buddhism from other countries.^[8]

Thathanabaing in Burmese, သာသနာပိုင် (ALA-LC: Sāsanāpuiṅ‘) lit. 'Keeper of the Sāsana ', is the native Burmese rendition of Sangharaja, or formally Mahāsaṃgharājā (မဟာသံဃရာဇာ), which is typically rendered into English as 'Primate', 'Archbishop' or 'Supreme Patriarch.'^[9]

The term "Saṃgharājā" was popularly used from the 1300s to 1400s, but lost currency in subsequent centuries.^[10] By the Konbaung dynasty, Thathanabaing and Thathanapyu (သာသနာပြု) were frequently used.^[10] But both the Samgharaja and Thathanabaing were used in the official title of the supreme patriarch, Mahāsaṃgharājā Thathanabaing Sayadaw (မဟာသံဃရာဇာသာသနာပိုင်ဆရာတော်).^[2]

Nowadays, the term Thathanabaing (သာသနာပိုင်) is still used for the head of a religious order.^[1] Each of the nine legally sanctioned monastic sects has a Thathanabaing^{[11] [3]} who is called a Gaṇādhipati (ဂဏာဓိပတိ)^[12] in Pali. The sects often use their names with the word Thathana (သာသနာ, Pali: Sāsanā)^[3] in Burmese to refer to the whole sect^[13] or regional subordinate bodies.^[14]

Burmese chronicles mention the office of the Sangharaja (Burmese:သင်္ဃရာဇာ, Pali: Saṅgharājā)^[15] as old as the Early Pagan kingdom; the chief queen of King Htun Kyit made the Saṅgharājā from Popa leave the monkhood so that he could be crowned as the King Popa Sawrahan (613-640).^{[15] [16]}

The first monk recorded with the title Thathanabaing (Burmese: သာသနာပိုင်, ALA-LC: Sāsanāpuiṅ) is Shin Panthagu ^[17] who succeeded Shin Arahan as the primate of Pagan kingdom. Burmese Encyclopedia argues that the title might have been used for Shin Arahan before Shin Panthagu.^[18] In the same way, British historians recognize a lineage of primates beginning with Shin Arahan.^[19]

The Mahāsaṃgharājā Thathanabaing Sayadaw (Burmese: မဟာသံဃရာဇာသာသနာပိုင်ဆရာတော်),^[2] served as the head of the Buddhist Saṃghā (order of monks) in Burma until 1938 when the Thathanabaing Taunggwin Sayadaw died and the Thudhamma, the only remaining group under his authority decided not to elect a new one.^[3] The Thathanabaing was responsible for managing the monastic hierarchy and education at monasteries. The Thathanabaing resided in a royal monastery near the kingdom's capital.^[10] However, appointees were usually commoners born in the villages, with no blood relationship with the royal house.^[10] Their appointments were made on the basis of their mastery of Buddhist knowledge and literature.^[10]

The office, in its last incarnation, was established by King Bodawpaya in 1784, after the constitution of the Sudhamma Council, a council of four elder monks (thera), of which the Thathanabaing was its head.^[20] Subsequent monarchs expanded the council, which varied from 8 to 12 members called sadaw.^{[20] [21]} Council members were appointed by the king and styled Dazeitya Sayadaw (တံဆိပ်ရဆရာတော်, 'Teachers Possessing the Seal').^[21]

The Thathanabaing was appointed by the king and granted supreme authority with regard to religious doctrine and ecclesiastical administration.^[21] The Thathanapaing was responsible for the kingdom's religious affairs, including appointment of monastery abbots, monk orders according to the Vinaya, management of breaches of discipline, preparation of an annual report of the order, and administration of Pali examinations.^[20]

The Thathanabaing was charged with managing the functions of two government officials, the Mahadan Wun (မဟာဒါန်ဝန်, Ecclesiastical Censor), who oversaw the king's charitable functions, ensured monk compliance with the Vinaya, and submitted registers of all active novices and monks, and the Wutmye Wun (ဝတ်မြေဝန်), who managed the wuttukan-designated religious properties (ဝတ္ထုကံမြေ), including donated land and pagodas.^{[22] [23]} The Burmese kingdom was divided into ecclesiastical jurisdictions, each of which was overseen by a gaing-gyok. Underneath each gaing-gyok was a number of gaing-ok, who were in turn assisted by a number of gaing-dauk.^[22] Ecclesiastical disputes were settled by the gaing-gyok and decisions for appeal were made by the Sudhamma Council.^[22]

In 1895, soon after the abdication of the country's last king, Thibaw Min, the Taungdaw Sayadaw, then the Thathanapaing of Burma, died.^[24] A subsequent election elected the Pakhan Sayadaw as Thathanabaing-elect, although the British refused to acknowledge or recognize his title.^[24]

In 1903, the lieutenant-governor of British Burma, Hugh Shakespear Barnes, reinstated the title by sanad charter, giving the Thathanapaing nominal authority over internal administration of the Sangha in Upper Burma and over Buddhist ecclesiastical law.^[24] (Lower Burma, which had been annexed in 1852, remained without a religious head.^[25] ) The Taunggwin Sayadaw was appointed, but the position was abolished after his death and no successor was ever appointed.^[26] The authority of Thathanabaing, which had already been limited only on the Thudhamma Gaing, was carried on by the Maha Nayaka Sayadaws.^[3]

The Chairman of the State Samgha Maha Nayaka Committee (Burmese: နိုင်ငံတော်သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖွဲ့ဥက္ကဋ္ဌ , ALA-LC: Nuiṅṅaṃto‘ Saṃgha Mahā Nāyaka Aphvai' Ukkaṭṭha, lit. 'Chairman of the Great Leader Group of Clergy of the State') is the supreme head of Buddhist monks in Myanmar.

On May 24, 1980, the State Saṃgha Mahā Nāyaka Committee was formed as an official agency of the Government of Myanmar, tasked with essentially the same roles and responsibilities as those of the pre-schism Mahāsaṃgharājā Thathanabaing Sayadaw to lead the Saṃgha of all sects and orders. The Chairman of SSMNC also has to serve as the Gaṇādhipati of Thudhamma Gaing.^[12]

1. Shin Arahan
2. Panthagu Sayadaw
3. Shin Uttarajiva
4. Shin Siha Maha Upali

1. Yakhaing Sayadaw
2. Amyint Sayadaw
3. Padugyi Samgharaja

1. Atula Sayadaw
2. Taungdwingyi Sayadaw
3. Sayit Sayadaw
4. Ashin Thapon
5. Hteintabin Sayadaw
6. Manle Sayadaw
7. Min-o Sayadaw
8. Zonta Sayadaw
9. Minywa Sayadaw
10. Maungdaung Sayadaw
11. Salin Sayadaw
12. The-in Sayadaw
13. Maungdaung Sayadaw
14. Bagaya Sayadaw
15. Maungdaung Sayadaw
16. Taungdaw Sayadaw

1. Moda Sayadaw
2. Taunggwin Sayadaw

1. Indācāra (Bago Myoma Sayadaw): 1980-1993
2. Sobhita (Myingyan Sayadaw): 1994-2004
3. Kumara (Magwe Sayadaw): 2004-2010
4. Kumārābhivaṃsa (Banmaw Sayadaw): 2010-2024
5. Candimābhivaṃsa (Thanlyin Mingyaung Sayadaw): 2024–present

The following are the Sayadaws who have served as the Shwegyin Thathanabaing^[11] (Shwegyin Gaṇādhipati/ Shwegyin Nikāyādhipati Ukkaṭṭha Mahā Nāyaka) from the time of King Mindon.^{[27] [28] : 30}

The following are the Sayadaws who have served as Mahādvāra Sect Thathanabaing.^{[3] : 24–27}

The following are the Sayadaws who have served as Mūladvāra Mahā Nāyaka Thathanabaing.^{[3] : 30–31}

The following are the Sayadaws who have served as Nāyaka the head of sect.^{[3] : 35–36}

The following are the Sayadaws who have served as Veḷuvan Sammutti Thathanabaing.^{[3] : 39–40}

The following are the Sayadaws who have served as the Gaṇādhipati of the Catubhummika Mahāsatipaṭṭhān Hngettwin Sect.^{[3] : 46–47}

• Agga Maha Pandita
• Buddhism in Myanmar
• Mahanayaka
• Sangharaja
• Sangha Supreme Council, Thailand
• State Samgha Maha Nayaka Committee
• Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia
• Supreme Patriarch of Thailand
• Burmese Buddhist titles
• Buddhist sects in Myanmar

• Burmese Buddhist monks
• Burmese Buddhist titles

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