Narada Mahathera ( si, නාරද මහා ස්ථවිරයන් වහන්සේ), born Sumanapala Perera (14 July 1898 – 2 October 1983) was a

Theravada ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

Buddhist monk, scholar, translator, educator and Buddhist missionary who was for many years the Superior of Vajiraramaya in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...

, Sri Lanka. He was a popular figure in his native country, Sri Lanka, and beyond.

Biography

He was born in

Kotahena Kotahena is a suburb part of Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is an area known as ''Colombo 13'' Places of worship Kotahena is the location of some places of worship: *Dipaduttamarama, where in 1885 for the first time the Buddhist flag was shown and where ...

to a middle-class family, educated at St. Benedict's College and

Ceylon University College Ceylon University College was a public university college in Ceylon. Established in 1921, it was Ceylon's first attempt at university education. The college didn't award degrees under its own name but prepared students to sit the University of Lo ...

, and ordained at the age of eighteen. In 1929 he represented Sri Lanka at the opening ceremony for the new Mulagandhakuti vihara at

Sarnath Sarnath (Hindustani pronunciation: aːɾnaːtʰ also referred to as Sarangnath, Isipatana, Rishipattana, Migadaya, or Mrigadava) is a place located northeast of Varanasi, near the confluence of the Ganges and the Varuna rivers in Uttar Pr ...

, India, and in 1934 he visited

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, the first Theravadan monk to do so in more than 450 years. During this opportunity he planted and blessed a bodhi tree in southeastern side of

Borobudur Borobudur, also transcribed Barabudur ( id, Candi Borobudur, jv, ꦕꦤ꧀ꦝꦶꦧꦫꦧꦸꦝꦸꦂ, Candhi Barabudhur) is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, not far from the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indone ...

on 10 March 1934, and some Upasakas were ordained as monks. From that point on he travelled to many countries to conduct missionary work: Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, South Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, Nepal, and Australia. In 1956, he visited the United Kingdom and the United States, and addressed a huge crowd at the

Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and th ...

. On 2 November 1960, Narada Maha Thera brought a bodhi tree to the South Vietnamese temple Thích Ca Phật Đài, and made many visits to the country during the 1960s. Along with others (such as Piyadassi Maha Thera) he contributed to the popularization of the ''bana'' style

Dhamma talk A Dharma talk (Sanskrit) or Dhamma talk (Pali) or Dharma sermon (''Japanese'': , ''Chinese'': ) is a public discourse on Buddhism by a Buddhist teacher. In Theravāda Buddhism, the study of Buddhist texts and listening to Dhamma talks by monks o ...

in the 1960s and brought the Buddhist teachings "to the day-to-day lives of the Westernized middle class in Sri Lanka."

Bibliography

*
The Buddha and his Teachings
' Fourth Edition: Buddhist Missionary Society, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1988. *
Buddhism in a Nutshell
' *''The Buddhist Doctrine of Kamma and Rebirth'' *
Kandaraka Sutta; Potaliya Sutta: Discourses from the Majjhima Nikaya
' *
Apannaka Sutta, Cula Malunkya Sutta, Upali Sutta: Discourses from the Majjhima Nikaya
' *
Manual of Abhidhamma
' *
An Elementary Pali Course
' *''Life of Venerable Sariputta'' *
Everyman’s Ethics
' *''Facts of Life'' *''Dhammapada, Pali text and translation'' *''The Way to Nibbana'' *
The Mirror of the Dhamma: a manual of Buddhist recitations and devotional texts
' *''An Outline of Buddhism'' *''The Life of Buddha, in his own words''

References

External links

by ''Narada Mahathera'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Narada Maha Thera Sri Lankan Buddhist monks 1898 births 1983 deaths Sri Lankan Buddhist missionaries Alumni of the Ceylon University College Sinhalese monks 20th-century Buddhist monks