Gratitude and Thanks

"...So, today we feel very thankful and grateful to Tapussa and Bhallika, who brought these relics to this country [of Burma]. And [who] later on they went back to India, learned Dhamma from him and brought Dhamma also to this country. And then, we remember arahant Gavampati. Who, just seven years after the parinibbana of the Enlightened One, came to this country to meet his brother of previous lives. Who was ruling, by the name of Tiha Singha, Singharaja. And who had established the capital of Sudhammapuri, which is now called Thahton.

And this king, Singharaja was a very powerful king. He had established this city of Sudhammapura. And the whole country of Suvanna Bhumi. He was ruling the entire country of Suvanna Bhumi. This Suvanna Bhumi was not only limited to today's Myanmar. A great portion of Thailand was in it. The entire peninsula of Malaysia was in it, down to the tip. And it is not wrong to say that this Singharaja established the city of Singapore. We don't remember him just for his political powers. We remember him, that he helped Dhamma to spread in all this area. With, of course, the help of arahant Gavampati..."

-- Excerpt from a 2004 speech that Saygyi U Goenka made to the Burmese Sangha in Yangon, Myanmar