Yangon: Myanmar’s prominent Buddhist leader and founder of the Sitagu Buddhist Academy, Ashin Nyanissara, donated $ 10,000 to the emergency relief fund set up by Francis Pope to help the sick. The donation was handed over to Archbishop Marco Tin, President of the Mandalay Archdiocese of Myanmar, at the Sacred Heart Cathedral. Ashin Naniyasara said the aid would be extended as a token of compassion to all religious people at this time of crisis and that united and charitable acts could also be accomplished.
Archbishop Marco Tin Wynn described the intervention of the Buddha as “an act of fostering religious harmony.” He also gave the Archbishop a set of food kits containing rice, onion, oil and beans to make it available to the Archdiocese. Ashin Nyanissara is a close friend of Cardinal Charles Boe, Archbishop of Yangon and chairman of the Asian Bishops’ Council, and Archbishop Marco Tinwin. In 2011, he met Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the Vatican and with Pope Francis on a tour of Myanmar.
