Our Founder

Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero is the founder of Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery. He was ordained on 26 March 1979 at the age of 17, under Dambagssare Sumedhankara Thero and Dikwelle Pannananda Thero at Seruwavila. He received a traditional Buddhist academic education and entered the University of Sri Jayawardenepura. Having understood the inability to achieve what he wanted in a university, he quit and started visiting meditation centres and hermitages.

His deep practices of meditation and the understanding of Buddhist philosophy later, led him to start up his own Buddhist monastery, Mahamevnawa in 1999 under the guidance of Kotapola Amarakitti Thero, in Waduwava, Polgahawela.