A sayadaw (Burmese: ဆရာတော်, IPA: [sʰəjàdɔ̀]; lit. royal teacher and alternatively spelt hsayadaw, sayado, sayāḍo or sayāḍaw) is the senior monk or abbot of a monastery. Some distinguished sayadaws would often referred to as a sayadawgyi (ဆရာတော်ကြီး, as a sign of reverence. The terms "sayadaw" and "sayadawgyi" originally corresponded to the senior monks who taught the former Burmese kings. These sayadaws may be influential teachers of the Buddhist Dhamma and also important meditation practitioners. They usually are abbots of monasteries or monastery networks with a large number of resident monks and a lay following. However, sayadaw is used interchangeably with the term "U".

In Burmese Buddhism, several honorific terms exist for Buddhist monks, reflecting their achievements and number of Vassa spent. The most frequently used terms include "Bhaddanta", "Ashin", "Shin", "U", "Upazin", "Sayadaw" and "Sayadawgyi". These names are used as prefixes to the Pali proper names of the Burmese, Theravada tradition monks.

The Venerable Mingun Sayadaw U Vicittasarabivamsa (Burmese: မင်းကွန်းဆရာတော် ဦးဝိစိတ္တသာရာဘိဝံသ, pronounced: [mɪ́ɴɡʊ́ɴ sʰəjàdɔ̀ ʔú wḭseiʔda̰ θàɹà bḭwʊ̀ɴθa̰]; 1 November 1911 – 9 February 1993) was a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk, best known for his memory skills and his role in the Sixth Buddhist Council.

Ven. Mingun Sayadaw was born Maung Khin to U Sone and Daw Sin in 1911 in Kyipin Village in Myingyan Township, Mandalay Province, British Burma. His father died when Maung Khin was only 4 years old. During his youth, he was noted for being reserved and his cleanliness.

At the age of 5, he was sent to the village monastery according to Burmese Buddhist tradition, to get a basic monastic education. The presiding sayadaw was U Sasana who had been educated at the Nan Oo Monastery, a prominent monastery in Mandalay.

His grandfather, U Chai taught him Buddhist prayers and recitations. It was for these that he would gain great following and fame as the Mingun Sayadaw. At the age of 7, he was temporarily noviciated as per Theravada tradition, at the Min Kyaung Taik in Myingyan, with U Sobhita as preceptor. Since that age, Maung Khin displayed great memorising ability. He also read a wide array of journals, novels, magazines and books.

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The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw U Sobhana (Burmese: မဟာစည်ဆရာတော် ဦးသောဘန, pronounced: [məhàsì sʰəjàdɔ̀ ʔú θɔ́bəna̰]; 29 July 1904 – 14 August 1982) was a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk and meditation master who had a significant impact on the teaching of Vipassana (Insight) meditation in the West and throughout Asia. In his style of practice, the meditator anchors their attention on the sensations of the rising and falling of the abdomen during breathing, observing carefully any other sensations or thoughts.

Mahāsi Sayādaw was born in 1904 in Seikkhun village in Upper Burma. He became a novice at age twelve, and was ordained at the age of twenty with the name Sobhana. Over the course of decades of study, he passed the rigorous series of government examinations in the Theravāda Buddhist texts, gaining the newly-introduced Dhammācariya (dhamma teacher) degree in 1941.

In 1931, U Sobhana took leave from teaching scriptural studies in Moulmein, South Burma, and went to nearby Thaton to practice intensive Vipassana meditation under Mingun Jetawun Sayādaw (also rendered Mingun Jetavana Sayādaw), also known as U Nārada. This teacher had practiced in the remote Sagaing Hills of Upper Burma, under the guidance of Aletawya Sayādaw, a student of the forest meditation master Thelon Sayādaw.^{[citation needed]} U Sobhāna first taught Vipassana meditation in his home village in 1938, at a monastery named for its massive drum 'Mahāsi'. He became known in the region as Mahāsi Sayādaw. In 1947, the Prime Minister of Burma, U Nu, invited Mahāsi Sayādaw to be resident teacher at a newly established meditation center in Yangon, which came to be called the Mahāsi Sāsana Yeiktha.

U Pinnyasiha (ပညာသီဟ), commonly known as the Shwe Nya Wa Sayadaw (Burmese: ရွှေညဝါဆရာတော် ဦးပညာသီဟ, pronounced: [ʃwèɲa̰wà sʰəjàdɔ̀]), is a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk, best known for teaching at Yangon Buddhist University in Kyimyindaing Township in Yangon. In December 2011, he met with Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, along with other civil society delegates.

He was born in 1965 to U Htun Yin and Daw Hla Tot, in Phayagon village, Mandalay Division.

In February 2012, Shwenyawa Sayadaw, the abbot of the Sadhu Pariyatti Monastery, was evicted from his monastery by the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee for alleged disobedience, by holding a sermon at the Mandalay office of the National League for Democracy in September, where he had publicly called for the release of political prisoners and the end of ongoing civil wars, despite sending the Committee an apology where had asked for a repeal.