View source for Ledi Sayadaw

{{Short description|Key Figure in the Vipassana Movement}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| name               = Ledi Sayadaw U Ñāṇadhaja
| native_name = {{lang|my|လယ်တီဆရာတော် ဦးဉာဏဓဇ}}
| image              = Ledi Sayadaw portrait.jpg
| caption            = The Venerable Ledi Sayadaw
| birth_name         = Tet Khaung
| alias              = 
| dharma_name        = {{IAST|Ñāṇadhaja}} <br/> {{lang|my|ဉာဏဓဇ}}
| birth_date         = 1 December 1846 (13th waxing of Nadaw 1208 [[Burmese calendar|ME]])
| birth_place        = Saingpyin, [[Dabayin]] <br/> [[Konbaung dynasty|Kingdom of Burma]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1923|06|27|1846|12|1|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Pyinmana]], [[Mandalay Division|Mandalay Province]], [[British Burma]]
| nationality        = Burmese
| religion           = [[Buddhism]]
| school             = [[Theravada]]
| lineage            = Ledi
| title              = [[Sayadaw]]
| location           = Ledi Monastery, [[Monywa]]
| education          = [[Agga Maha Pandita]], D.Litt. (Hons.)
| occupation         = [[bhikkhu|Buddhist monk]]
| teacher            = 
| predecessor        = 
| successor          = 
| students           = [[Anagami]] Thet Gyi, [[Ledi Pandita U Maung Gyi]]
| website            = 
}}

'''Ledi Sayadaw U Ñaṇadhaja''' ({{langx|my|လယ်တီဆရာတော် ဦးဉာဏဓဇ}}, {{IPA|my|lɛ̀dì sʰəjàdɔ̀ ʔú ɲàna̰dəza̰|pron}}; 1 December 1846 – 27 June 1923<ref name="lionsroar">{{cite web|last=Braun|first=Erik|title=The Insight Revolution|url=http://www.lionsroar.com/the-insight-revolution/|publisher=[[Lion's Roar (magazine)|Lion's Roar]]|date=November 12, 2013|access-date=May 27, 2016}}</ref>) was an influential [[Theravada]] [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] [[Bhikkhu|monk]]. He was recognized from a young age as being developed in both the theory ([[Abhidhamma]]) and practice of Buddhism and so was revered as being scholarly.<ref name="insight">{{cite web|last=Braun|first=Erik|title=The Many Lives of Insight: The Abhidhamma and transformations in Theravada meditation|url=https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/the-many-lives-of-insight/|publisher=[[Harvard Divinity School]]|access-date=April 15, 2024}}</ref> He wrote many books on [[Dhamma]] in Burmese and these were accessible even to a serious lay person, hence he was responsible for spreading Dhamma to all levels of society and reviving the traditional practice of [[Vipassanā]] [[Buddhist meditation|meditation]], making it more available for renunciates and lay people alike.<ref name="lionsroar"/>

==Biography==
Sayadaw began his studies at age 20 in [[Mandalay]] at Thanjaun.<ref name="lionsroar"/> While there he was considered to be a bright and ambitious young monk<ref name="lionsroar"/> but his work was scholarly; there is no evidence that Sayadaw engaged in a serious meditation practice during his years in Mandalay.<ref name="lionsroar"/> Leaving Mandalay after a great fire in 1883 caused the loss of his home and his written work to that time, Sayadaw returned to the village of his youth.<ref name="lionsroar"/>

Soon, Sayadaw founded a forest monastery in the "Ledi forest" and began practicing and teaching intensive meditation.<ref name="lionsroar"/> It was from this monastery that he would take his name, Ledi Sayadaw, meaning "respected teacher of the Ledi forest."<ref name="lionsroar"/> In 1885, Ledi Sayadaw wrote the ''Nwa-myitta-sa'' ({{lang|my|နွားမေတ္တာစာ}}), a poetic prose letter that argued that Burmese Buddhists should not kill cattle and eat beef, since Burmese farmers depended on them as beasts of burden to maintain their livelihoods, that the marketing of beef for human consumption threatened the extinction of buffalo and cattle and that the practice was ecologically unsound.<ref name="mc">{{cite book|last=Charney|first=Michael|title=A history of natural resources in Asia: the wealth of nature|url=https://archive.org/details/historynaturalre00bank|url-access=limited|editor=Greg Bankoff, P. Boomgaard|publisher=MacMillan|year=2007|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historynaturalre00bank/page/n252 236]–40|chapter=Demographic Growth, Agricultural Expansion and Livestock in the Lower Chindwin in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries|isbn=978-1-4039-7736-6}}</ref> He subsequently led successful beef boycotts during the colonial era, despite the presence of beef eating among locals and influenced a generation of Burmese nationalists in adopting this stance.<ref name="mc"/>

In 1900, Sayadaw gave up control of the monastery and pursued more focused meditation in the mountain caves near the banks of the [[Chindwin River]].<ref name="lionsroar"/>

At other times he traveled throughout Burma.<ref name="lionsroar"/> Because of his knowledge of ''[[pariyatti]]'' (theory), he was able to write many books on Dhamma in both Pali and Burmese languages such as, ''Paramattha-dipani'' (''Manual of Ultimate Truth''), ''Nirutta-dipani'', a book on Pali grammar and ''The Manuals of Dhamma''. At the same time he kept alive the pure tradition of ''patipatti'' (practice) by teaching the technique of Vipassana to a few people.

==Legacy==
Ledi Sayadaw was one of the foremost Burmese Buddhist figures of his age.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mahasi Sayadaw|author2= Steve Armstrong (editor)|title=Manual of Insight|publisher=[[Wisdom Publications]]|page=xvii|year=2016|ISBN=978-1614292777}}</ref> He was instrumental in reviving the traditional practice of Vipassana, making it more available for renunciates and lay people alike.<ref name="insight"/> Many of his works are still available, including in English through the [[Buddhist Publication Society]].

After Ledi Sayadaw died in 1923, influential teachers, such as [[U Ba Khin]], [[Mother Sayamagyi]], [[SN Goenka]], [[Mahasi Sayadaw]], and many others, spread the teachings to the West.<ref name="insight"/>

==Bibliography==
*''A Manual of Excellent Man''
*''A Manual of Light and The Manual of the Path to Higher Knowledge: Two Expositions of the Buddha’s Teaching''
*''The Requisites of Enlightenment''
*''Manual of Insight'' (Vipassanā Dīpanī)
* ''Manual of Conditional Relations'' (Patthanuddesa Dīpanī)
* ''Manual of Right Views'' (Vipassanā Dīpanī)
* ''Manual of the Four Noble Truths'' (Catusacca Dīpanī)
*''Manual of the Factors of Enlightenment'' (Bodhipakkhiya Dīpanī)
* ''Manual of the Constituents of the Path'' (Magganga Dīpanī)
*''Manual of Mindfulness of Breathing'' (Anapana Dīpanī)
* ''Five Kinds of Light'' (Alin Kyan)
* ''5 Questions on Kamma''; Anattanisamsā
*''Noble Eightfold Path and Its Factors''
*''Buddhist Philosophy of Relations''

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.aimwell.org/ledi.html On-line Collection of Writings of Ven. Ledi Sayadaw]
* {{cite web |url=http://www.vridhamma.org/Teachers-2 |title=Ven Ledi Sayadaw |publisher=Vipassana Research Institute |access-date=23 December 2011}} A longer bio of Ledi Sayadaw
* [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/various/wheel202.html#advantages The Advantages of Realizing the Doctrine of Anattaa]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ledi Sayadaw}}
[[Category:Theravada Buddhist monks]]
[[Category:1846 births]]
[[Category:1923 deaths]]
[[Category:Burmese Buddhist monks]]
[[Category:20th-century Burmese philosophers]]
[[Category:Burmese scholars of Buddhism]]
[[Category:People from Sagaing Region]]
[[Category:Burmese recipients of Agga Maha Pandita]]