Tipitakadharas of Myanmar

Dear members,

I recently came across this webpage on Tipi.takadharas of Myanmar
which I thought might be of interest to you:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/buddhism/tpdkdhra.htm

A Tipi.takadhara is a title given to one who has the whole Tipi.taka
memorized. According to this webpage it has only been given to 11
bhikkhus in Myanmar from 1948 to 2001. In addition, there are other
higher titles given to some of them, ie. Tipi.takakawida, Maha
Tipi.takakawida, and Dhammabha.n.daagaarika.

In 1982, I had the good fortune of meeting a young and brilliant
Burmese bhikkhu (travelling in North America with the Sayadaw U
Thilawunta) who had the whole Tipi.taka memorized except for the
Yamaka and Pa.t.thaana which he still had to do. I'm not sure if he
ever succeeded in getting the title of a Tipi.takadhara. His name is
Ven. Ashin Thitzana which I don't see among the 11 but then he could
be under a Pali name. He was supposed to have come back to Canada to
teach me in particular starting about 1988 but it never came to pass
as the conditions didn't seem right for it at the time and I called it
off. We did have some letter exchanges and on the letterhead of his
letters around 1986-7 is a list of his titles as follows:

"dvipi.takadhara, dvipi.takakovida, saasanadhaja siriipavara
dhammaacariya, paa.lipaaraguu"

Best wishes,
Jim