Monday, May 11, 2026

The Chainsaw-Wielding Monk of Texas


Wandering ascetic in the USA
Sitagu Buddha Vihara, Austin, Texas: Dhamma. 🪷 Behind every great story there’s a chainsaw-wielding Buddhist monk.

Which is to say, what I actually mean is each reporting process is populated by vibrant hidden figures like American Theravada Buddhist monk Bhante Nalaka (born Steven Waite).

He walked me and my family around Sitagu Buddha Vihara in West Austin. I was at the Burmese Theravada Buddhist monastery hunting for a painting by exiled Burmese artist and activist Sitt Nyein Aye, but more on him in a moment.
Htein Lin | Mi Let To, the Crocodile Maiden (2017) | Art & Prints | Artsy
 
American Ven. Nalaka received us at the end of a meditation retreat, his voice starting as a whisper and rising throughout our chat.

Born in Massachusetts, he grew up an “Army brat” and has flowed in and out of monastic life since 1981. Ven. Nalaka has spent about three years as a caretaker of the monastery’s 16-acre property, which is crowned by a golden pagoda, the largest in the United States.


Profile: Htein Lin, Arts Educator Pitstop
The Buddhist complex has 40 buildings in all, including a treehouse. Ven. Nalaka is eager to discuss his humble inheritance: endless maintenance issues.

“My first year was scraping all these walls” to remove bubbling paint from leaks and humidity damage, he said. In 2023, he chainsawed 13 acres of felled tree limbs after an ice storm. “I had burn piles going everywhere,” he claimed.

Last year, the monks repainted the pagoda’s exterior using a 135-foot crane and “at least 20 gallons” of imported paint. If suffering is the path to liberation, Ven. Nalaka is making progress—and the monastery is looking sharp.

EXILED ART OF MYANMAR IN TEXAS

Artists are artists and will let you know it.
The one feature of the property that Ven. Nalaka didn’t seem to know about was Sitt Nyein Aye’s artwork, a fact that had my nerves running throughout our interview. But after a bit of wandering,

I spotted Sitt’s idiosyncratic line work in a multi-panel painting in the dining hall. This visit closes out my story on Sitt (Exiled artist Sitt Nyein Aye stoked faraway fight for democracy), which can be read about in @swcontemporary (southwestcontemporary.com) today (link in bio).

Idiosyncratic line work on panel at Sitagu, TX
It starts with his tragic death in Colorado and weaves backwards through his revolutionary work in Burma (Myanmar), exile in the Southwest, and late-career artistic projects.

I sought to examine Sitt’s legacy as a member of a “hyperlocal diaspora” -- Burmese artists, including @chaweithein (Ms. Chaw Ei Thein, profile, art blog) and @artisthteinlin (RIP, Artsy), who’ve found refuge in America and craft vivid portals back home.
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AUTHOR: obscuratorial (37w) 📷 PHOTOS: 1-3 are by my dad, Mark Eddy. The rest are by me, of Sitt Nyein Aye's untitled 2012 painting at Sitagu Buddha Vihara. The piece depicts some revered Buddhist temples in India. Source
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