Ashin Nandamāla was born on 22nd March 1940 at the village of Nyaung-bin in Sint-ku, Mandalay, the Union of Myanmar. His parents were U San Hla and Daw Khin, who were pious Buddhists.
At the age of six, he was sent to the monastic school to learn the three R’s (Elementary reading, writing and arithmetic) in the Myanmar language. He was ordained a novice at the Sagaing Hills when he was ten years old. His preceptor was Sayadaw U Canda, well-known as the “Sankin Sayadaw”, the presiding monk of the prestigious “Vipassanā” monastery. He was given the ecclesiastical name of “Nandamāla”.
Ashin Nandamāla started to learn the Pāḷi language and the basic Buddhist scriptures under the tutelage of his own elder brother, Sayadaw U Nārada.
Ashin Nandamāla is one of the founders of the Buddhist Teaching Centre, Mahā Subodhayon, in Sagaing, where about two hundred monks receive education in Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist literature.
Ashin Nandamāla serves as a religious worker to promote and propagate the Buddha’s teaching, both in Myanmar and abroad. Since 2003 he yearly gives Abhidhamma-courses in Europe.
In 1995, Ashin Nandamāla was conferred the title of the Senior Lecturer, “Aggamahā gantha vācaka paṇḍita” by the Government of Myanmar and in 2000 the title “Aggamahā paṇḍita”. He wrote his ph. D.-thesis about Jainism in Buddhist literature.
He is Rector of the Sītagū International Buddhist Academy (SIBA) in Sagaing and, after being a Visiting Professor at the International Theravāda Buddhist Missionary University (ITBMU) in Yangon since its opening in 1998, in 2005 he was appointed the Rector also of this University.
In 2003 he founded “Dhammavijjālaya - Centre for Buddhist Studies (CBS)” in Sagaing, connected to Mahāsubodhayon monastery.
Ashin Nandamāla is the author of the following books written in Myanmar, Pāḷi and English languages:
- The Biography of the Master (1970)
- The Life and Literature of Shwehintha Sayadaw (1979)
- The 90 Years of Life of Daw Malayee (1975)
- The Hundred Verses on the Life of the Master (1970)
- The Hundred Verses on the Life of the Thera (1985)
- The Exposition of True Meaning (Paramattha dīpanī) with Critical Introduction to the Text (Thesis for the degree of Master of Philosophy)
- Buddhism and Vegetarianism (1990)
- The Three Meritorious Actions in Buddhism (1992)
- Mettā (1994)
- The Fundamental Abhidhamma (including a chapter on the History of Abhidhamma) (1997)
- A Study of Jainism according to Buddhist Literature (Thesis for the degree of Ph.d., 2001)
- Patthann Myat Desana (Discourse on Paṭṭhāna, 2004) 13. The Dhamma mirror (2004)
