The gong sounded: Ka-rung!

The sun had not yet risen above Newport Avenue Market when U Myint Thar, dressed in white, banged his gong inside the store and began chanting verse in his native Pali language.

It sounded like: “Ei zay a twin mar / Myar thu ngar / Chan thar ko sate myaé par say / Oo pa yan bay kinn sin way / Nyein aye kya bar say.”

Thar banged the gong again: Ka-rung!

Known as Morris, the bespectacled man stood in front of platters of sushi, spring rolls and teriyaki chicken bowls and blessed them — and then the rest of the store — for the customers who would trickle in at 7 a.m.

Thar, 68, has operated the sushi bar at the supermarket since 2002, when it was a narrow 3-foot-wide display with a tight preparation area by the bakery section. Thar has combined his love of people with a sharp business acumen that’s earned him record-breaking sales — and 6 more lateral feet in display space.

Yet now that his youngest son, Tun Tun Naing — or Nicky — 30, has relocated with his wife from Seattle to Bend to take over Newport Avenue Market’s sushi bar, Thar is preparing to transition from his Bend life to that of an ordained Buddhist monk. He wants to spend the remainder of his life at Chaiya Meditation Monastery in Las Vegas, beginning late 2018 — or, more precisely, 9/9/18, a date replete with the sacred number nine after the one and eight are combined.

Whistle while you work

Thar has fun at his job.

Dressed in an Oregon jersey and hat, the Yangon, Myanmar, native celebrated the basketball team’s recent advancement to the Sweet 16.

His fist in the air, Thar led a mother and child in making the team’s victory call: “Ooooo!” For the game, Thar planned to sell spicy tuna platters centered with avocado as the green and yellow “O” for Oregon.

When Betsy Warriner, 76, entered the supermarket, she ran into Thar.

“Hi! Would you like some sushi?” he asked. Warriner wasn’t planning on buying any, but then again, some spring rolls couldn’t hurt.

“He’s so kind you want to be kind in return. He’s also a good salesperson,” she said.

On holidays, he matches his sushi platters with his costumes. For Christmas, he is the Sushi Santa, doling out samples. Sometimes he wears a gorilla costume just because. Last Valentine’s Day, Thar greeted customers: “Love is not in the air. Love is in my display case!” He sold out of the 27 heart-shaped red and pink sashimi platters his workers had prepared. The thoughtful presentation won him a regional award from Advanced Fresh Concepts, the sushi company from which Thar franchises.

“Morris does pretty good,” said Hajime Takahashi, the AFC Northwest manager. Takahashi estimated that among approximately 300 AFC franchisees in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, Thar’s weekly sales average $12,600, placing him among AFC’s top-10 sushi sellers. Thar’s weekly sales have increased fivefold since his first year, which had already trumped those of his predecessor.

Takahashi attributes Thar’s success to his hard work and the independent and employee-owned Newport Avenue Market’s flexibility when it comes to the unorthodox. AFC occasionally asks Thar to test run new menu items. The crunchy teriyaki beef roll tanked, but the chicken teriyaki bowls struck a chord. Thar also pitches ideas of his own. When he lobbied AFC for fresh crab claw meat to replace imitation crab, the company acquiesced; ditto for orchids Thar uses to garnish his rolls — a suggestion he received from the Newport Avenue Market floral counter.

On his store countertop, Thar keeps three Buddha statues of varying color and size. Gifts from a co-worker, the statues symbolize the Mahayana branch of Buddhism and not Theravada — the one to which he is dedicated. But it doesn’t matter to Thar.

“Buddha is Buddha — the loving Buddha,” he said with a laugh.

Randy Yochum, the Newport Avenue Market manager of perishables and Thar’s point person, also sees the bigger picture.

“(Thar) does an amazing job going to battle for his customers,” Yochum said. “I call him the Walt Disney of Burma — he’s a fantastic salesman. He’s honest and true. He puts people before profit. He absorbs the cost for the betterment of customers.”

His generosity is not limited to the store. Each morning he provides servings of day-old — perfectly good — sushi to local charities. Michael O’Grady picks up the donated sushi six days per week at 9 a.m. to divvy between The Shepard’s House of Central Oregon and Pacific Northwest Adult & Teen Challenge — both Christian substance-abuse programs. On Fridays, the sushi goes to Westside Church.

“(Thar) has a beautiful heart,” O’Grady said.

Heaven’s bank

“Where is my money? Where is my big house and car?” Thar asked rhetorically with a grin as he sat inside the tidy duplex apartment he rents a few blocks from the Newport Avenue Market. Pilot Butte is visible from his kitchen window, which he decorates with photos of monks he has befriended.

He divides his walls between an American side, where he hangs photos of his family wearing Western clothing, and the Myanmar side, where they wear traditional garb. In 2007, Thar’s wife immigrated with their son Nicky from Yangon to Bend, and Thar taught them to roll sushi. Their business was, for the moment, family-run.

In 2010, Thar’s wife died. When he chants, he thinks of her. If, in the afterlife, she has been converted into a goddess, she will hear his blessings and receive his merits, along with other nearby spirits. Before his meals, which he eats before his shrine to Buddha, Thar prays for his customers, without whom he would go hungry.

The modest wealth his sushi counter has provided him has been spent “in the bank of heaven,” he said.

A few doors down from his apartment live three men from Myanmar who work for him — and whose rent Thar pays. He also buys them their favorite foods. For the workers who want to learn English or earn a driver’s license, he pays for classes.

Thar said his workers were freedom fighters; Myanmar’s military government drove them to refugee camps in neighboring Thailand. They send money home to their families, who are either still in Myanmar or in nearby camps.

Thar himself left an increasingly hostile Myanmar in 1989, 20 years after he earned a psychology degree from the University of Rangoon. Traveling the world, Thar has since worked with the U.N., World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Program on various humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and East Timor.

Changing hands

Having spent several years operating two sushi counters in Eugene and another in Seattle, Nicky Naing is ready to take over his father’s role — and rolls — at Newport Avenue Market. He and his wife like living in Bend, and they’re friendly with several local Burmese families.

On 9/9/18, Thar will no longer be here, but he will still come back to visit.

The Pali blessing, which he wrote down phonetically, is what he’s bestowed to Newport Avenue Market the past 14 years. The translation: May all the shoppers be peaceful and happy.

Ka-rung!

—Reporter: 541-617-7816, pmadsen@gmail.com