He is a master of the pat waing, a traditional Burmese drum-circle instrument; the player sits in the middle of a horseshoe-shaped shell made of elaborately carved wood and decorated with gold leaf.
[1] Naing was born c. 1964 to Sein Chit Tee, the director of the Burmese national hsaing orchestra, and Aye Kyi, a dance instructor.
He remembers that, at the age of four years, he would sit and watch his older brother struggle to play during a lesson.
From then on, his father decided that Naing would study the pat waing and patala, and his brother would specialize in vocals.
[2][1] In 1999, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) invited Naing to give a performance.
[2][8] The New York Times called his music "an exhilarating tease, defying expectations of symmetry or steady tempo.
[3] In Burma, the hsaing waing percussion/gong ensemble for centuries, has been central to musical and dramatic arts in Burmese culture.
The most famous pat waing musician/composer was Sein Beda (1882-1942) who traveled to Ratanagiri, India to perform for King Thibaw - deposed by the British in 1885 - lived.