Warakagoda Gnanarathana Thero (born 18 March 1942) is a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n Buddhist monk who is the present

Mahanayaka Mahanayaka (also spelled as Maha Nayaka, Maha Nayake) theros are high-ranking Buddhist monks who oversee and regulate the Buddhist clergy in Theravada Buddhist countries. The title ''Maha Nayaka'' translates to English as 'Great Leader' and it is c ...

Thero ''Thero'' (commonly appearing in the masculine and feminine forms ''thera'' and ''therī'' respectively) is an honorific term in Pali for senior bhikkhus and bhikkhunis (Buddhist monks and nuns) in the Buddhist monastic order. The word literally ...

of the

Asgiriya chapter Asgiri Maha Viharaya (also called Asgiriya temple, Asgiriya Gedige) is a Buddhist monastery located in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is the headquarters of the Asgiriya chapter of Siyam Nikaya, one of the two Buddhist monasteries that holds the custodian ...

Siam Nikaya The Siam (also Siyamopali and Siyam) Nikaya is a monastic order within Sri Lankan Buddhism, founded by Upali Thera and located predominantly around the city of Kandy. It is so named because it originated within Thailand (formerly known in Sri Lan ...

. He was appointed as the 22nd Mahanayake Thera of the Asgiriya Chapter on 7 April 2016, by the ''Karaka Sangha Sabha'' of Asgiriya chapter, after the demise of Most Ven. Galagama Sri Aththadassi Mahanayaka Thera. Gnanarathana thero is known for voicing his right-wing political proclivities in public. In 2017, he issued a statement condoning the views of the hard-line nationalist monk

Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero ( si, පූජ්‍ය ගලගොඩඅත්තේ ඥානසාර හිමි) is the Secretary General of Bodu Bala Sena, a Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist organisation. He was born in Galagodaaththa in the ...

. At a public event in 2019, Gnanarathana thero endorsed the views of those who called for the stoning of a Muslim doctor accused of sterilization of Sinhala women as well as the boycotting of Muslim businesses, stating that Muslims are sterilizing Sinhalese through food sold in their shops. At the same event, he endorsed the purported presidential candidacy of

Chamal Rajapaksa Chamal Jayantha Rajapaksa ( Sinhala: චමල් රාජපක්ෂ; Tamil: சமல் ராஜபக்ஷ; born 30 October 1942) is a Sri Lankan politician who was Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from 2010 to 2015. Previously he ...

. The ensuing public backlash forced Gnanarathana thero to deny his previous statements.

References

1942 births Living people Theravada Buddhist monks Sri Lankan Buddhist monks Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhists Sinhalese monks 20th-century Buddhist monks 21st-century Buddhist monks {{SriLanka-reli-bio-stub

See also

References