{"id":90481,"date":"2019-06-17T14:50:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T21:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90481"},"modified":"2019-06-17T14:50:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T21:50:06","slug":"who-is-venerable-dodanwela-dhammaratna-thero%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/17\/who-is-venerable-dodanwela-dhammaratna-thero%ef%bb%bf\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO IS VENERABLE DODANWELA DHAMMARATNA, THERO?\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sri Dhammaratana Buddhist Training Centre,<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I am a\nTheravada Buddhist monk who lives and works among the poor and needy villagers\nof my area in Sri Lanka. I was ordained on November 5th<\/sup>. 1975.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nreceived the higher ordination called \u2018Upasampada\u2019 in July 1981 and was\nadmitted into the Amarapura Niyake Sasanodaya Maha Sangha Sabha Sect and now I\nam an Annunayake, or a leader of the sect in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\n\u2013 a Much Impoverished Population<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have\ndevoted much of my time since becoming a monk, to doing social work for poor\nfamilies, including taking in small monks and giving them an education in\nBuddhism as well as instruction by the State school system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we\nwrite about our need for help to do our activism<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have\ntwo centres: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSri Dhammarathna Bhikshu Training Centre, Hantana<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am\nproud to say I have trained about 100 students using two temples we call\nViharas: the first and oldest is based at Hantana, Kandy <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSri Dhammarathna Thapuwana International, Haragama<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haragama\nis near Kandy. This centre can be likened to an early learning centre or\npre-school center but for young monks in training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npresent facilities at the Thapuwana consist of a meditation Centre where\nordained Monks and Nuns can practice the Dhamma and meditation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would\nlike to expand the facilities of this centre and there are eight acres\navailable for this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\npresent we have one Chinese person who has recently ordained and a Korean Lady\nwho is now a Nun. Several other Sri Lanka monks and nuns are also living there\nand practicing the Dhamma and Meditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need\nhelp in a broad range of areas:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nRe-Launch <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theravada\nBuddhism <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the\nAbandoned Villages<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It must\nbe said that many villagers all over the country are living in abject poverty.\nIn Sri Lanka there are many temples closed and without a monk, therefore\nvillagers are leaderless. I myself, have re-opened about 38 temples and placed\nmy senior monks in them to bring them back into operation again in villages.\nFor this we need finance for renovation and building work<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I\nfeel it is important to find donors to give scholarships for the needy,\nneglected children of our adopted villages: for them to go to school and get\nsome education. That seems to me to be so important. It also keeps them\nout of jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would\nlike these 38 temples to operate also as Social Working Centres.  These\ncentres would be open to villagers to enroll as students of the centres and\nlearn about what is useful to them and, of course, Buddhism in theory and\npractice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong> that we\nare strong on the requirement to put Buddhist principles into practice as much\nas possible as the practice of Buddhism is noticeably lacking these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In truth,\nnow I see the great need to re-launch Theravada Buddhism in a much enhanced way\nto the whole country. I would like help to start at the Haragama Thapuwana\npremises, Sri Dhammarathna Thapuwana International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Need for\nSocial Workers and Volunteers from Overseas.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are\nour plans. I am one monk working with a few other monks and Sri Lankans who\nagree to help me, But we need a whole team of workers in the field, and these\nwill need living allowances to feed themselves and also, bus fares to travel\naround to the various villages. It would be really helpful if volunteers from\noverseas would come and help. We also need teachers to teach useful subjects\nsuch as English, and other subjects to both monks and villagers with the\ninterest to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we get\nadvanced notification we can meet foreign volunteers arriving at the airport\nand we can provide transport to our campus. We can then arrange visas as\nrequired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Request\nfor Donations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do all\nthis good work requires donations to support our mission. Please come to our\nHantana Training Centre and discuss how you can help. We ask everyone to help.\nAll donations, large and small are welcome at :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People\u2019s\nBank – Dalada Veedia, Kandy. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\/C 003.\n2001 3119 7811  <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours in\nthe Buddha Dhamma,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Signed)\n\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venerable\nDodamwela Dhammaratana, Anunayake Thero,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nDhammaratana Buddhist Training Centre, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hantane,\nKandy.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sri Dhammaratana Buddhist Training Centre, I am a Theravada Buddhist monk who lives and works among the poor and needy villagers of my area in Sri Lanka. I was ordained on November 5th. 1975. I received the higher ordination called \u2018Upasampada\u2019 in July 1981 and was admitted into the Amarapura Niyake Sasanodaya Maha Sangha Sabha […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}