"Sayadaw's younger sister, Daw Tin Nyunt, told me about his life when we happened to talk." So saying, Ma Saw Yin Win told the author as much as she could remember. Ma Saw Yin Win looked after Daw Tin Nyunt like her own mother, and Daw Tin Nyunt depended on Ma Saw Yin Win like a daughter. Ma Saw Yin Win wasn't only friendly with Daw Tin Nyunt. She was friendly and intimate with all of Sayadaw's relatives. Whatever help they needed she would provide for them.

When Ma Saw Yin Win talked about Sayadaw's life, the impulse arose to interview Daw Tin Nyunt and write about what she said. So, I was looking forward to the arrival of Daw Tin Nyunt, who lives in the Kyaukyedwin Quarter of North Okkalapa. However, due to poor health, the lady couldn't come immediately, although she wanted to. Only after the month of Thidinkyut did she come. She came to the meditation center by car one evening, along with Ma Hsu Myat Mun, the daughter of the lady's son, Maung Kyaw Naing U Htay Myine having gone to fetch her. During Daw Tin Nyunt's visit with the author, the Venerable U Nanda, Ma Saw Yin Win and U Htay Myine were also present.

Daw Tin Nyunt told us what she remembered of Sayadaw.

"Of ten brothers and sisters I was the youngest. Sayadaw was the ninth. He is three years older than me. When I was just a year old our mother died. She died in Kyaukyedwin Village in the Insein district of Yangon. After Mother's death, we moved to Father's birthplace, Kocheh Village in Pegu Township. When I was seven, Father died. Before he died, Father told Maung Mya Han (Sayadaw-to-be) that he would like to see him become a monk. So Sayadaw became a novice in Kocheh Village when he was twelve years old. This was at the Kocheh Village monastery.

The Kocheh Village Sayadaw's lay name was U Pein, meaning Mr. Thin. He was very fair, short and spare. There were about forty or fifty families in the village. This Sayadaw wielded great influence and his discipline was very good. Before he had become a novice, Maung Mya Han had been a schoolboy under this same Kocheh Village Sayadaw (U Zagara).

About two or three years after becoming a novice, Maung Mya Han returned to lay life. He went to live with his older brother Ko Aung Kyi in the pharmacy of Saya Kywe, on Sule Pagoda Road. The two boys peddled medicines for Saya Kywe. One day when Maung Mya Han was selling his wares, an Indian man with a rickshaw was blocking the road. Maung Mya Han asked the man to make way for him, but the man wouldn't. So they argued. The man got out of hand so Maung Mya Han hit him with a brick and broke his skull. Saya Kywe berated Maung Mya Han for having broken the man's skull and Maung Mya Han quit. His brother quit too and they both returned to Kocheh Village.

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