Colombo Dhamma Friends Of Mahamevnawa

About Colombo Dhamma Friends History of Colombo Dhamma Friends of Mahamevnawa For many years the founder of Mahamevnawa—Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero—has wanted to share the Supreme Buddha’s Dhamma with the innocent children living in Colombo attending international schools. He wisely understood that as they became more and more dedicated to English learning, they would need to also learn the true Buddha’s teachings in English. To those ends, monks were instructed to begin doing regular Dhamma programs in Colombo in English medium. Starting in September of 2016 there have been monthly sil programs and meditation programs conducted in English under the name Colombo Dhamma Friends. Since that time not only children but also adults and foreigners have had the chance to learn and practice the authentic teachings of Gautama Buddha. Our Founder Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero The Most Venerable Kiribathgoda Gnānānanda Thero is the founder of Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery. The Venerable Thero was born into a Catholic family, and at the age of six months, his whole family embraced Buddhism. At the age of seventeen, he was ordained at Seruwila Mangala Raja Maha Vihara under the preceptorship of the Most Venerable Dambagasare Sumedhankara Mahā Thero who was the Chief of Sri Kalyaniwansa Nikāya and the Abbot of Seruwila Mangala Raja Maha Vihara at the time. After a traditional Sri Lankan monastic education, while studying for the Sinhala Honours Degree at Sri Jayawardhanapura University, he had an unexpected opportunity to read the Buddha’s discourses in the Pāli Canon; because of this, he abandoned temple life and began to frequent forest monasteries and hermitages, offering his life to the Dhamma with a great desire to practice it. Thereafter, having acquired a profound knowledge of the Dhamma by studying the Pāli Canon for a further ten years, the Venerable Thero collected myriad experiences in his life while living in the Himalayas in India and the jungle of Sri Pada in Sri Lanka.