Chanmyay Sayadaw

Chanmyay Sayadaw, Ashin Janakābhivaṃsa, was a Burmese monk trained by Mahasi Sayadaw. From the late 1970s he was the head teacher of Chanmyay Yeiktha, a meditation centre in Yangon, and he taught the Mahasi method of noting there and on missions to many countries. Eleven Media reported that he died in Yangon on 19 September 2026.

Early life and ordination

He was born on Tuesday, 24 July 1928, in Pyinma village, Taungdwingyi township. His parents were U Phyu Min and Daw Shwe Yee (Eleven Media; BuddhaNet). At fifteen he became a novice under U Malawuntha, abbot of the Tawya Beikman monastery in Taungdwingyi, with the name Shin Janaka. He took full ordination on 28 October 1947, with Ashin Paduma as his preceptor (Eleven Media).

Study and practice

He studied the Pali scriptures in Mandalay, and in 1952 passed the government's Pali examinations for the title of dhammācariya, teacher of the Dhamma. A later title from a Mandalay scholarly society, abhivaṃsa, gave him the name Janakābhivaṃsa (Eleven Media).

In June 1953 he went to Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha in Yangon and practised insight meditation for four months under Mahasi Sayadaw (Chanmyay Yeiktha). He then helped edit the Pali texts for the Sixth Buddhist Council (Eleven Media; BuddhaNet).

In 1957 he went to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he stayed about six years. He studied English, Sanskrit, Hindi and Sinhala there and passed the London GCE A-level examination (BuddhaNet; Eleven Media). His centre's biography records that a Sri Lankan monk wrote in World Buddhism, a magazine published in Colombo, that the Mahasi method did not agree with the scriptures, and that he wrote replies to the criticism for nearly 15 months (Chanmyay Yeiktha).

He returned to Myanmar in June 1963 and worked on editing Pali texts. At Mahasi Sayadaw's request he wrote a 40-page introduction to Mahasi's word-by-word Burmese translation (nissaya) of the Visuddhimagga Mahāṭīkā, a sub-commentary on the Visuddhimagga (Eleven Media).

Teaching at the Mahasi centre

In 1967 Mahasi Sayadaw appointed him one of the nāyaka (chief) teachers at Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha (Chanmyay Yeiktha; BuddhaNet). Eleven Media says he served as a meditation teacher there for five years, and for about a year and a half at a meditation centre in Mandalay.

Chanmyay Yeiktha

In February 1977, according to Eleven Media, he moved to Chanmyay Yeiktha, a centre on Kaba Aye Pagoda Road in Yangon that his disciples had built and donated. BuddhaNet dates the move to February 1979. He became known by the centre's name. From its first year he taught both Burmese and foreign meditators, and from 1978 to 1980 he also gave Dhamma talks on the radio at the request of the Department of Religious Affairs (Eleven Media).

The centre grew into a network. Eleven Media lists branches in several towns in Myanmar, among them Hmawbi, Hinthada, Pyin Oo Lwin and Taunggyi, and in Singapore and Thailand, with groups under his guidance in North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The land for the Hmawbi centre was donated in April 1995 (BuddhaNet). The main centre is listed as Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Centre.

Missions abroad

In 1979 and 1980 he went with Mahasi Sayadaw on his Dhamma mission to Europe and the United States. Between 1981 and 1985 he led missions on his own to twenty countries (BuddhaNet). The Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts lists Sayadaw U Janaka among the Asian teachers it has hosted. The Myanmar government gave him the titles Mahā-kammaṭṭhānācariya in 1993, Agga-mahā-kammaṭṭhānācariya in 1995 and Aggamahāpaṇḍita in 2009 (Eleven Media).

How he taught

His centre describes him as a teacher of both insight and loving-kindness meditation, and says he taught "the technique that combines both metta and vipassana meditation" at his retreats (Chanmyay Yeiktha). He also gave detailed instructions for walking meditation. In a published series of eight talks he divides each step into as many as six parts, and advises beginners to start by noting simply "left" and "right" for about ten minutes before adding detail (BuddhaSasana). The practices are described in Mahasi noting, Walking meditation and Mettā.

Death

Eleven Media reported that he died at 11:45 am on 19 September 2026 at Grandhantha International Hospital in Yangon. It gave his age as 99 and his years as a monk as 79; by the international count he was 98. Wikipedia's infobox gives the date as 18 September, but its text, like Eleven Media, gives 19 September.