Agga Maha Pandita

Aggamahāpaṇḍita (Burmese: အဂ္ဂမဟာပဏ္ဍိတ, pronounced: [ʔɛʔɡa̰ məhà pàɴdḭta̰]) is an honorific Burmese Buddhist title conferred by the Burmese government to distinguished Theravada Buddhist monks.

Etymology

Aggamahāpandiṭa, meaning "foremost great and wise one," is derived from the following Pali terms:

Qualifications

The title is usually awarded to Buddhist monks who are highly proficient in teaching the Dhamma or those who are believed to be enlightened (arahants). The title is awarded annually in January by the head of the Burmese government, following after rigorous and subtle examination of a monk's wisdom and achievement by the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee.

Recipients must meet the following qualifications:[2]

History

Historically, the Buddha had disciples who held title of Aggasāvaka and Mahāsāvaka who were already enlightened Ariyas and regarded as leaders of the communities of monks known as the Sangha.

From 1915 to 1942, the British colonial government conferred the title Aggamahāpaṇḍita (အဂ္ဂမဟာပဏ္ဍိတ) to 98 monks.[3] From 1951 through 1953, the Burmese government awarded the Aggamahāpaṇḍita title to 15 monks.[3]

List of recipients

References

  1. "Bala-pandita Sutta: The Fool & the Wise Person". www.accesstoinsight.org. Retrieved 2016-11-14.
  2. "ဘွဲ့တံဆိပ် ဂုဏ်အင်္ဂါအရည်အချင်းသတ်မှတ်ချက်". Department of Religious Affairs (in Burmese). Ministry of Religious Affairs. 17 June 2015.
  3. 1 2 "ဘွဲ့တံဆိပ်သမိုင်း". Department of Religious Affairs (in Burmese). Ministry of Religious Affairs.
  4. "Sayadaw U Pannavamsa". Retrieved 2010-04-10.
  5. "Religious and Cultural Relations". Aggamaha Panditha Awardees. Embassy of Myanmar Sri Lanka. Retrieved 15 February 2014.

See also

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.