Oriental Studies | University of Yangon

The History of the Department of Oriental Studies

When Yangon University was established in 1920, U Pe Maung Tin, then Professor in the Pāḷi Department at Rangoon Collage since 1912, moved to being Pāḷi professor in the new Yangon University. The term “the Department of Oriental Studies” has been used since 1972.
Professors and Deans in the Department of Oriental Studies in the University of Yangon over the years have been:
U Pe Maung Tin – Professor (1920 – 1936)
Mr. Kāsin – Professor (1936 – 1941)
U Hla Aung – Professor (1941 – 1951)
U Aung Than – Professor (1951 – 1965)
U Ba Lay – Head (1965)
U Tin Lwin – Head (1965 – 1969)
– Professor (1986 – 1989)
Daw Khin Thein – Head (1969 – 1978)
Dr Zaw Tun – Head (1984 – 1986)
Daw Tin Tin Myint – Head (1984 – 1986)
U Lay Myint – Associate Professor (1989 – 1991)
– Professor (1991 – 1994)
Dr. Daw Khin Thein – Professor/Head (1994 – 2005)
Dr. Kyin Hlaing – Professor/Head (2005)
Dr. Daw Nwe Nwe Yi – Professor/Head (2005 – 2018)
Dr. Mu Mu Myint – Professor/Head (since 2018)

The Department of Oriental Studies is located to the left of the Arts Hall, quite near the Convocation Hall. We offer Bachelor of Arts, Honours and Master of Arts classes every year. A Ph.D course started in 2000. The Diploma class has been open from 2003. A First Year Oriental Studies Outstanding class (in the Arts faculty) was also opened in 2013.
Our students work hard to fulfil the country’s need to become a prosperous democratic country.
Has Buddhism something to teach modern youth? Buddhism is a timeless, universal teaching which everybody should learn how to practise in the pursuit of liberty, peace and happiness. Indeed Buddhism is a universal way of life which is founded on compassion and wisdom. It is not a dogmatic religion. The study of “Oriental Studies” covers the areas outlined in our Mission and Research Fields.
Today, the education sector plays an important role both in national reforms and future progress. Our students observe the religion of Buddhism, its social aspects, thinking, experience and practice and the rules and customs of religious communities. They are encouraged to practise what they learn in their social activities, life, sports, reading and playing.
This department has a small library with some rare books such as Parabaik and Sanskrit Texts.

Vision

That Myanmar’s people, young and old, should better understand the teachings of Buddhism and their relevance to Myanmar’s development. For example, the Buddhist Dhamma teaches that there are no barriers or discrimination in the matter of caste, class, colour or age; no one must be persecuted for creedal differences and all are treated as equal in the pursuit of knowledge, liberty, peace and happiness. This knowledge and practice will help people to become citizens of a prosperous democratic country.

Mission

• to understand the significance of Oriental Studies based on Sanskrit and Pali language & Literature

• to introduce the graduate students with the historical background, cultural heritage and traditional belief of Buddhism

• to promote peace by understanding and practicing the teachings of the Buddha and to conserve Buddhism for the next generations

• to be outstanding students with high quality outcome by realizing the value of ethics, morality and Buddhist philosophy

• to be aware of the importance and benefits of Buddhist Society in Myanmar

Contact

Tel:(951)536288, 09799573051

mumumyint198@gmail.com

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Dr. Win Win Ye

Professor (Head)

Department of Oriental Studies,
University of Yangon,
Pyay Road, Yangon.

Dr. Khin Thandar Oo Associate Professor

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– Sanskrit Language and Literature
– Prakrit Language and Literature
– Pāḷi Language and Literature
– History of Buddhism
– Buddhist Councils
– Buddhist Culture
– Buddhist Philosophy
– Buddhist Ethic
– Buddhist Art and Architecture
– Linguistics
– Pāḷi Philology
– Mahāyāna Buddhism in Southeast Asia
– Theravāda Buddhism in Southeast Asia

1. Language
2. Literature
3. Buddhist Culture
4. Buddhist Philosophy
5. Buddhist Art and Architecture
6. History of Buddhism

• Korean Organization Committee for UN International Day of Peace, South Korea
(KOCUN-IDP)

• India-Myanmar Hindi Literary Society (Indian Embassy)

In 2018 – 2019 Academic year, Ms. Choi Jae Hee @ La Wan Choi is
attending at Ph.D (Prelim), Department of Oriental Studies,
University of Yangon. She is Korean. She got (Master of Buddhism) from Dongguk University. Her M.A Thesis title is “Buddhist Impact on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Polictical Thoughts”.

Curriculum

First Year

Semester I

Elective Courses for Oriental Studies Specialization

မ ၁၀ဝ၃ (၃) မြန်မာဇာတိမာန်စာပေ ၁

မ ၁၀ဝ၄ (၃) မြန်မာစကားပုံနှင့်ဆိုရိုးစကားများ

Hist 1001 (3) Introduction to Myanmar Civilization I
Phil 1001 (3) Logic in Practice
Psy 1003 (3) Public Relations
Geo 1003 (3) Geography of South-east Asian Countries

Elective Courses (for Other Specializations)
OS 1001 (3) Fundamentals of the Pāli Language
OS 1002 (3) Fundamentals of the Sanskrit Language
OS 1003 (3) Buddhist Culture
OS 1004 (3) Buddhist Ethics
* A student can choose any one elective course to fulfil the total of 20 credits.

Semester II

Elective Courses (for Oriental Studies Specialization)

မ ၁၀ဝ၆ (၃) မြန်မာဇာတိမာန်စာပေ ၂

မ ၁၀ဝ၇ (၃) မြန်မာစကားပုံနှင့်ဆိုရိုးစကားများ ၂

Hist 1004 (3) Introduction to Myanmar Civilization II
Phil 1003 (3) Logic in Practice
Psy 1004 (3) Understanding Human Interaction
Geo 1004 (3) Geography of Myanmar
Elective Courses (for Other Specializations)
OS 1005 (3) Pāli Language
OS 1006 (3) Sanskrit Language
OS 1007 (3) Pāli Literature
OS 1008 (3) History of Buddhism
* A student can choose any one elective course to fulfil the total of 20 credits.

Second Year

Semester I

Elective Courses (for Oriental Studies Specialization)

မ ၂၀ဝ၃ (၃) မြန်မာ့ကျေးလက်တေးကဗျာများ(၁)

မ ၂၀ဝ၄ (၃) မြန်မာအမျိုးသမီးစာဆိုများနှင့်၎င်းတို့၏စာများ(၁)

Hist 2002 (3) World History 1900 to the Present I
Eng 2003 (3) Developing Communicative Skills
Phil 2001 (3) History of Western Intellectual Development I
Phil 2003 (3) Aesthetics
OS 2004 (3) Buddhist Councils

Elective Courses (for Other Specializations)
OS 2001 (3) Pāli Language
OS 2002 (3) Buddhadassana
OS 2003 (3) Pāli Literature (Prose)
OS 2004 (3) Buddhist Councils
OS 2005 (3) Pāli Philology
* A student can choose any two elective courses to fulfil the total of 21 credits.

Semester II

Elective Courses (for Oriental Studies Specialization)

မ ၂၀ဝ၇ (၃) မြန်မာ့ကျေးလက်တေးကဗျာများ(၂)

မ ၂၀ဝ၈ (၃) မြန်မာအမျိုးသမီးစာဆိုများနှင့်၎င်းတို့၏စာများ(၂)

Hist 2005 (3) World History to 1500 II
Eng 2005 (3) Developing Communicative Skills
Phil 2006 (3) History of Western Intellectual Development II
Phil 2008 (3) Aesthetics
OS 2010 (3) Buddhist Councils

Elective Courses (for Other Specializations)
OS 2006 (3) Pāli Language
OS 2007 (3) Nīti Literature
OS 2008 (3) Pāli Literature (Poetry)
OS 2009 (3) Buddhadassana
OS 2010 (3) Buddhist Councils
* A student can choose any two elective courses to fulfil total of 21 credits.

Third Year

Semester I

Elective Courses
OS 3105 (3) Pāli Conversation and Composition
OS 3106 (3) History of Buddhism
OS 3107 (3) Linguistics

* A student can choose any one elective course to fulfil total of 22 credits.

Semester II

Elective Courses
OS 3112 (3) History of Buddhism
OS 3113 (3) Abhidhamma
OS 3114 (3) Linguistics

* A student can choose any one elective course to fulfil the total of 22 credits.

Fourth Year

Semester I

Elective Courses (for Oriental Studies Specialization)
OS 4105 (3) History of Pali Literature in Myanmar
OS 4106 (3) Buddhist Ethics
OS 4107 (3) Buddhist Art and Architecture

* A student can choose any one elective course to fulfil total of 22 credits.

Semester II

Elective Courses (for Oriental Studies Specialization)
OS 4112 (3) Buddhist Culture
OS 4113 (3) Buddhist Philosophy
OS 4114 (3) Buddhist Art and Architecture

* A student can choose any one elective course to fulfil the total of 22 credits.