25 August 2007
Yangon

Sitagu International Buddhist Academy (SIBA), established by its current Chancellor, the Most Ven. Dr. Ashin Nyanissara, Chairman of the ATBU, has opened a branch in Yangon (Rangoon), the former Capital, on Saturday 25 August 2007. SIAB has its main campus in Sagaing, in the Upper Myanmar. This is the first branch outside Sagaing since its founding in 2000.

The most senior members of the Myanmar Sangha, scores of dignitaries led by the First Lady, foreign diplomats and Sitagu patrons, devotees and supporters.

The Yangon campus, with its new magnificent multi-storey complex, has two special features: it will be the foreign missionary centre of SIBA; it will also offer special courses in Theravada Abhidhamma up to a doctoral level. The Abhidhamma courses will be supervised by one of the best known Abhidhamma scholars in the country, the Ven. Prof. Dr. Nandamalabhivamsa, who is also Rector of International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University. SIBA and ITBMU co-hosted the first conference of all Theravada Buddhist Universities which resulted in the formation of the ATBU.

Immediately after the opening ceremony, Sitagu International Buddhist Academy (Yangon Campus) begins its a diploma course in Abhidhamma with eighty freshers. All the courses are conducted in the English medium.