Narada Maha Thera

Narada Mahathera
නාරද මහා ස්ථවිරයන් වහන්සේ
Religion	Buddhism
School	Theravada
Lineage	Amarapura Nikaya
Education	St. Benedict's College, Colombo
Dharma names	Narada
Personal
Nationality	Sri Lankan
Born	July 14, 1898 Kotahena, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Died	October 2, 1983 (aged 85)
Senior posting
Title	Mahathera

Narada Mahathera (Sinhalese: නාරද මහා ස්ථවිරයන් වහන්සේ), born Sumanapala Perera (14 July 1898 – 2 October 1983) was a Theravadan Buddhist monk and translator, the Superior of Vajiraramaya in Colombo. He was a popular figure in his native country, Sri Lanka, and beyond.

He was born in Kotahena, Colombo to a middle-class family, educated at St. Benedict's College and Ceylon University College, and ordained at the age of eighteen.

In 1929 he represented Sri Lanka at the opening ceremony for the new Mulagandhakuti vihara at Sarnath, India, and in 1934 he visited Indonesia, the first Theravadan monk to do so in more than 450 years.^[1] During this opportunity he planted and blessed a bodhi tree in Southeastern side of Borobudur on 10 March 1934, and some Upasakas were ordained as monks.^[2] 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. 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 dharma talk in the 1960s and brought the Buddhist teachings "to the day-to-day lives of the Westernized middle class in Sri Lanka."^[3]

Works

• The Buddha and his Teachings
• Buddhism in a Nutshell
• The Buddhist Doctrine of Kamma and Rebirth
• A 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

1. Martin Ramstedt. Hinduism in modern Indonesia: a minority religion between local, national, and global interests. Routledge, 2004. Pages 49ff.
2. "Buddhism in Indonesia". Buddhanet. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
3. Wickremeratne, Swarna. 2006. Buddha in Sri Lanka: Remembered Yesterdays State University of New York Press. Albany New York. (p. 97)

External links

• A Manual of Abhidhamma by Narada Mahathera
• Biography by Gunaseela Vihanage
• Pali course
• The Buddha and His Teachings