Moe Kyoe

Looking for The King of punches, Moe Kyoe

by Sayar Zin Linn Htun (Danu Phyu)

Originally published in Kyemone on December 10, 2017

Powerful

Even though the name Moe Kyoe is still powerful to this day, there is almost no one who has seen Moe Kyoe in person nowadays. No one knows where he is living, how he is living and even if he is still living or not. There were some rumors that the first-class champion who only appears for battles in Kayin state and then disappears after, is now a monk in Kayin state. However, there were no certain facts about where he was exactly located. The author also couldn’t collect any information about him, since the purpose of the trips to Kayin state were to obtain information about the fights only, and hence the author could only visit the fights and focus on that.

As such, 4 years later, there were some rumors that the monk U Moe Kyoe again moved to another location. So, while going to the 62^nd Kayin traditional festival, author made a wish to find him and decided to look for him starting from November this year (2017).

Maybe because of that wish my big friend director An Htaw Hni who was in Pha An at that moment, helped me investigate somehow and finally came to know about one of the previous first class traditional boxing champions: U Yoe Yoe Lay, who was originally from Myaing Ka Lay village which is on the other side of Thanlwin river from Pha An, and about how he started loving Boxing.

(Long ago) When U Moe Kyoe came to Pha An for the battle, Yoe Yoe Lay was there as an audience member and that was the time when he started loving boxing and started his journey of (becoming) a first-class champion. So he is quite close with U Moe Kyoe personally. He said that U Moe Kyoe is now working as a boxing trainer at Suvarna Myay Si U Min Zaw’s Shwe Bar Lar traditional boxing club originally from Myaing Ka Lay. So, with the plan of director An Htaw Ni, we took a car to Pa Me mountain to visit Suvarna Myay Si U Min Zaw together with U Yoe Yoe Lay. Pa Me mountain seems close to Phar Pu Mountain if we look at it from the Pha An side. Since the roads are still under construction, we had to stop the car near the top and walk. To meet the Sayadaw (U Moe Kyoe) we walked a lot till we were out of breath, but it was all wasted when we reached the top.

Even though the monk Moe Kyoe used to stay on top of that mountain, when we arrived, the other monks told us that it has been a while since, and that the monk Moe Kyoe moved to the back of the forest which is located near Myaing Ka Lay cement factory (1) and has been staying there alone.

Passionate to meet him

After paying respects to the pagoda that is on top of that mountain, we requested our driver to continue the journey together with director Ann Htaw Hni and Yoe Yoe Lay. Since our driver is also a traditional boxing lover originally from Hinthada, all of us were eager to meet the monk Moe Kyoe. We had to drive along the cement factories in Myaing Ka Lay and whenever we saw a single small living space along the journey near that area, we had to go there and ask for information about monk Moe Kyoe and the directions to his place.

According to their directions, after we drove more than 3 miles, we found a split-end road with a tree on the right side that has a very old and color-faded religious flag hanging on it. We understood the sign somehow so we made a turn on that side and found the big green forest together with a small monastery. That monastery is where the monk Moe Kyoe , who was once the most famous Myanmar traditional boxer, resided. We could also see a pagoda near that monastery and the name of that pagoda: Aung Taw Mu Larba Mu Ni Saytitaw. It was written on the wall with stone letters and we also came to know that the monk name of Moe Kyoe is U Pyinnyar Sar Ya by reading the stone words on that wall.

With a fresh and charming peaceful smile on his face, the monk Moe Kyoe welcomed us. His fresh skin and peaceful look makes him look so much younger than his actual age and by seeing him like this, I realized that without other people introducing me to him, there is no possible way to have recognized him as the once strong and powerful boxing champion who was always rough like a lion on stage. Yoe Yoe Lay greeted him very warmly and introduced both me and the director Ann Htaw Hni to him. In this way, we came to collect his biography and his life story starting from the days of one of the most famous Myanmar traditional first-class boxing champions Moe Kyoe to the days he is spending peacefully as a monk.

Even though he had to rush the interview a little bit (due to time constraints since Yoe Yoe Lay’s students had boxing battles in Pha An township Thiri stadium and he needed to be there for them), we are very thankful that he approved our request. In this article, I recreated the interview conversation in the the Monk’s own words.

Fifth

I was born in 1309 Tazaungmone La Sote 9^th day, Thursday (Nov.6 1947). My father is U Ngwe Thaung and my mother is Daw Ngwe Yin. I have 7 siblings; I am the fifth one after one brother and 3 sisters. Two younger siblings are male. You can consider that I have boxer relatives. My father used to do boxing during the English colonial period and so did my uncle U Sein Nyunt and my Brother Ko Maung Aye. My younger brothers Kyaw Thein and Moe Lay were also boxers. Kyaw Tein got second class flags and Moe Lay also received a second class flag. My brother Ko Maung Aye was the one who taught me.

I have a lot of teachers who I watched and from who I learnt. That is the way you can learn as much as you can. Our origin actually lies in Kayin state. I was born in Kyon Paik village which is located in the west sector of the Thanlwin river (Across from Hpa-an city). There were villages called Moke Ka Di, Kyal Pait, Khal Tauk. In my childhood, the traditional boxing events were held in many festivals such us pagoda festivals, donation festival, monk’s funeral and even at people’s funerals. I followed my brother to wherever he went, and I joined the kids boxing battles. The rewards were like 0.5-kyat, 1 kyat or 2 kyats.

When I did boxing in my childhood, I used my childhood nickname Mya Shein and sometimes I used the name Maw Tot. When I was at the age of 10, I could not stay in my village anymore. The situation at that time was very bad, a lot of killings were happening around us so we could not stay there and had to run over to Tha Htone (to the west). We had our uncles and aunties with us but my father was left in Pha An and died. When in Tha Htone, we stayed at Koe Na Win near the Bin Hlaing area (state border). At that time, Tha Htone had a lot of boxing events. Every pagoda festival has boxing events. Every monk’s funeral too, so I started entering the battles there with the name Mot Htot. I started learning and practicing a lot because I am too much in love with boxing and it is my happiness to do that. I went to Kyait Hto and Sit Taung for battles too.

At the age of 17, 18 there was a monk’s funeral in Kyait Hto and in that event, even the circus of U Maung Maung and Arzarni San San was included. On the same event ground, the circus was at night while the boxing event was in the daytime, so the members of the circus team came to watch us boxing. The judges name was U Sein Tin Maung and when Arzarni San San saw my moves which were strong and fast, she said “oh such a strong and fast punch, are you a thunderbolt (Moe Kyoe)?”. When the judge U Sein Tin Maung heard it, he said that starting from the next battle your name will be Moe Kyoe. He started calling me Moe Kyoe. Everyone started calling me Moe Kyoe. That was how I became Moe Kyoe.

I married at age 20 but continued to do boxing. At the age of 25, I already collected all the first-class flags. Before that I used to battle with Thai competitors at the age of 18, 19 in Myawaddy. I beat 3 competitors on the same day. They were not happy when I beat the first one, so they started challenging me and I beat them all. After 3 of them were defeated by me, nobody dared to come to me anymore. At that time, my level was just like 3^rd class. I also had to battle with Phyu Gyi, Phyu Lay, Hla Shwe, Tin Shwe, Hnit Char Mel Gyi, Daw Na Phyu Gyi and Wai Dollar.

19 years of being a monk

(The original article appeared on December 10^th 2017)

At the age of 31 (~1979), I had no competitors and there were almost no battles. I started importing goods illegally for about 5 or 6 years. I brought in goods such as bicycle tires, car tires and cloth from Me Tha Wall, Me Tha Lay and Wem Kha gates. It took about 5 days for each round-trip. Sometimes the profits were around 5000 kyats and sometimes about 10.000kyats.

My life as a boxer has two sections. Another section as a boxer started after the years of illegal work. I had to battle with Tha Mann Kyar, Ba Hnit and Mg Ko Gyi. When I battled with Shwe War Htun for the last time, I was already 45 years of age. At the age of 52 I started my life as a monk and now it has been 19 years. It is good being a vegetarian as I do not have an aching body anymore.

While speaking with the former first-class Myanmar traditional boxer Moe Kyoe (monk name U Pyinnyar Sar Ya), we heard the noise of goats groaning from the back of Aung Taw Mu Lar Ba Mu Ni Pagoda. It seems like the goat families are staying under the peaceful influence of the monk Moe Kyoe.

We intended to come back to this monastery one more time with the aim to pay respect to him as well as to collect some more information about the traditional boxing and his life story. With all that hope, we returned to Pha An where the Kayin national day festivals are celebrating.

Conclusion*

(Online addendum by Ko Zaw (Yadanar Myay) which was not included in the original writing in the Kyemone newspaper)

I really appreciate the good deed of Sayar Zin Linn Htun for collecting all this information about the king of Myanmar traditional boxing U Moe Kyoe with the aim of recording and leaving a biography of a hero in history for the next generation.

There was no one other than U Moe Kyoe from Tha Htone who was respected even by the competitors and hence started being named as a king of boxing or king of punches. It is heartbreaking that he is not included in the official list of Myanmar Champions. (I am) not sure how the specifications were set for it. However, even though he wasn’t officially recognized as a champion, still he was recognized as a king in the traditional boxing field.

Not only did he beat everyone without fear as a boxer, now he is also trying to beat humanity’s trouble by being a monk and trying so hard to escape from Samsara.