Friedrich Lustig
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Friedrich Voldemar Lustig also known as Ashin Ananda (born 26 April 1912 in Narva, Estonia; died 4 April 1989 in Rangoon, Myanmar) was an Estonian Buddhist, a Latvian Buddhist archbishop and Sangharja for Estonia and Lithuania.
"Born in Narva, Estonia in 1912, Lustig became Tennisons' principal disciple and, after his death, inherited his mentor's grandiose titles of Buddhist Archbishop of Latvia, Sangharaja [Senior Buddhist] of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. His biography of Tennisons is a massive typescript running to nearly a thousand pages; it contains a mass of information, some of it bearing on aspects of Agvan Dorzhiev's career not covered elsewhere. Though much of the biography, including a few fine details, is verifiably correct, parts of it contain small errors, exaggerations and that kind of romantic exuberance that is often impatient of the constraints of accuracy. One hopes one is not doing the late Revd Lustig a grave injustice, but the ineluctable conclusion after reading his text and comparing it with others is that what we have is an attempt to magnify the importance of Karlis Tennisons, and that in this enterprise Lustig was probably faithfully following the example of his preceptor."[citation needed]
As a poet, monk and political exile, Friedrich Lustig—known in Burma as Ashin Ananda—acquired a unique understanding of his adoptive homeland.
[edit] Life
At a young age he became regarded as a child prodigy because of his talent as a pianist—he could play difficult pieces by famous composers such as Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff. He earned money to pay for his education by playing the piano at the best cinema in his hometown, Narva. These were the days of silent movies, and he had to decide quickly which tune was suitable for each scene on the silver screen. "In later years I realized that period of my life was very useful for me, for it enriched my imagination and encouraged me to compose good poetry," he wrote in his "Brief Sketch of My Life."
He became a devout Buddhist and took the Burmese or monastic name of Ashin Ananda. He was especially effective in publicizing Burmese poetry and traditional music among English-speaking audiences.He entered Burma from Thailand on September 8, 1949, and was granted asylum by U Nu. Before that, he had stayed in Thailand for over a decade, during which his native country, Estonia, was annexed by the Soviet Union and his passport became invalid. A strong anti-communist, he preferred to be a man without a country rather than to carry a Soviet passport.
![His mentor and teacher Karl Tönisson [1], 1912.](../../../../images/local/thumb/b/bc/Karl-Tönisson-postkaart.gif/150px-Karl-Tönisson-postkaart.gif)
When Ne Win’s military dictatorship came to power, and foreigners were forced to leave, Ashin Ananda got permission to stay because of this peculiar situation. Ne Win appreciated his anti-communist stance and asked him to write articles denouncing communists in The Working People’s Daily and The Guardian — which Ananda happily did for ten years. This even earned him a military pass allowing travel anywhere in the country, including such off-limits areas as the Naga Hills. "I am not sorry for what I did. I wrote everything with a clear conscience," he said later to a foreign journalist. Considering the fate of his tiny Baltic country, Estonia, which was engulfed by the communists in 1940, resulting in 25 percent of the one million Estonians being persecuted — either killed, sent to Russia’s prison camps or forced to escape abroad — Lustig probably wrote those anti-communist pieces with satisfaction, if not with pleasure[citation needed].
It seems that he did indeed find a sanctuary in Burma, not only because he was allowed to stay, but also because he became sincerely attached to the land and its beauty. Although he followed the teachings of Lord Buddha devoutly, his real passion was Burmese poetry, and he himself expressed his love for Burma best in poetry. He received the title of US Lilac Laureate poet in 1968.
"I came to like his poems because he was always expressing great love for Burma and Burmese culture… His poems are written in the classical style, his rhythmic and metric scheme is faultless. His writings were always meant for the betterment of people, to make them more compassionate, gentle and thoughtful," wrote Khin Soe, a former civil servant, in his foreword to Fifty Selected Poems, a collection of Ananda’s poems published over years in The Working People’s Daily, The Guardian Daily and in the Guardian Magazine.
"If you go to the Shwedagon and ask anybody about Friedrich Lustig, they will know him".[citation needed] Such is the popularity of this extraordinary foreign monk who spent forty years in Burma, and was allowed to live at the Shwedagon Pagoda by Ne Win.
Ashin Ananda did not get to see his native country free again. He died a year before Estonia regained independence. Possibly, he was the only Estonian who held a genuine Estonian passport for all the fifty years of Soviet occupation, and never gave it up for any other passport.[citation needed] He died in 1989 in Rangoon, Myanmar.
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