Biography Myanmar Christian Writers

Bu, U Hla

   (b. Padigon, Myanmar, 21 Apr 1897; d. Yangon, 2 Jan 1970), Professor, philosopher, and administrator in Myanmar.
   A simple, sincere, kind, affable, and soft-spoken Baptist layman and son of U Tha Din and daw Khin Lay, U Hla Bu was a distinguished professor of the University of Yangon and the first national to become principal of Judson College, a constituent of the university, where he had earned his bachelor of arts degree with honors in 1919. U Hla Bu received his M.A from the University of Calcutta in 1920 and a Ph.D from the University of London in 1934.

   Highly respected, U Hla Bu won many prizes and awards in his lifetime. He represented the Student Christian Association of India, Burma (Myanmar), and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at the first ecumenical conference of the World's Student Christian Federation in Peking (Beijing) in 1922 (see Ecumenical Movement). A lay ecumenical pioneer in Myanmar, he was elected president of the national council of Churches, the national Young Mens' Christian Association, the national Student Christian Movement, and other church-related organizations. After World War II, he served as vice-reactor of the university and professor of philosophy. He was honorary counselor to the officers' testing team of the Burma Defense Force.

   When he retired from academic life in 1958, the government of Myanmar honored U Hla Bu withthe title Sithu. He was approached by the Revolutionary Council that came into power in 1962 to serve as minister of education, but he declined, citing age as his reason. He visited Institutions of higher learning in the United States, Europe, India and China with the aim of upgrading the University of Rangoon. He was a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1959-60. When foreign missionaries had to leave Myanmar, U Hla Bu served as a nonorary pastor of the Judson Church on the university campus, and later as its moderator until his death. His motto in life was "Nothing is impossible with God".

Bibiography
U Hla Bu, The Automatisation of Voluntary Movements (194); Practical Psychology (1948); Psychoanalysis: A Critical Appraisal (1938). Thet Tun, "My Three Sayas," The Guardian (Jul 1970)..

KYAW NYUNT

A Dictionary of ASIAN Christianity
Scott W. Sunquist, editor
David Wu Chu Sing and John Chew Hiang Chea, associate editors.
@2001 Wm, B Berdmans Publishing Co. Michigan, USA