Passing of Venerable Dr. Krinde
Dhammananda
Lanka Web Reports
VOID CREATED BY THE
LATE VENERABLE DR. KIRINDE DHAMMANANDA CANNOT BE EASILY FILLED
SAYS ADMIRER OF HIS 50 YEARS OF WORK
By Walter Jayawardhana
The void created by the passing away of the Venerable Dr. Kirinde
Sri Dhammanda , the Chief Sangha Nayaka of Malaysia and Singapore of
the Siyam Maha Nikaya cannot be easily filled said Venerable Witiyala
Seewalie Mahathera Abbot and President of the Minnesota Buddhist
Vihara.
Venerable Seewalie issuing a message of condolence on behalf of the
congregation said few thousands of big volumes as well as shorter
tracts written by reputed scholars like Venerable Walpole Rahula’s
What the Buddha Taught, published by the late Venerable Kirinde
Dhammananda have been distributed by his temple to public libraries,
university libraries and schools and private individuals through the
generosity of the publication units run by him.
Venerable Seewalie said those publications amounting to few hundred
written by him and others have been distributed all over the world
through varied institutions of different Buddhist denominations. He
said a memorial service for him would be held September 2 at the
Minnesota Buddhist temple.
Dr. Kirinde Sri Dhammananda passed away at the age of 87, August
31.The institution he guided over more than half a century the Maha
Vihara of Kula Lumpur said in a statement that the funeral services
will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday September 3 at the temple, also known as
the Bricksfield, Buddhist Temple.
The cortege will leave for Nirvana Memorial Park Semenyih, Selangor
at 3 p.m.Having received his early secular education in the Kirinda
government school near Matara, he was ordained as a novice monk at the
age of 12 and he received his higher ordination at Kotawila Sri
Sunandaramaya Temple at the age of 22.
Following his higher education at Vidyalankara Pirivena he later
entered the Benares Hindu University in India. One of his famed
teachers Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan later became the President of
the Republic of India. In 1952 he was selected to go to Malaya by the
head of the Vidyalankara Pirivena on an invitation extended by the
Sasana Abiwurdhi Wardhana Society of Malaya. Sir Gerad Templer, the
Governor of Malaya invited Venerable Dhammananda for a discussion and
inquired whether Buddhism was similar to Communism since the Chinese
who were traditionally regarded as Buddhists were the ones who were
fighting for the Communist insurgency that was raging Malaya in the
1950’s.
Venerable Dhammananda told the Governor that both isms were
different from each other and Buddhism preached non-violence. The
Governor then invited the monk to visit the new Chinese villages to
spread his dharma and win the hearts and minds of the people. So,
Venerable Dhammananda got a new opportunity to visit the new villages
and introduce true Buddhism to the Chinese people.
Venerable Dhammananda is credited of having taught the Malayan
Chinese that Buddhism was no superstitious religion as was taught by
tradition and it was a religion compatible with modern science.
The Budddhist Maha Vihara, which he guided was founded by the
Sinhalese community living in Kula Lumpur and surrounding areas in
1894. Most of the founding fathers of the temple were traders,
artisans and skilled administrators brought from Ceylon by the British
to develop a Malayan Civil Service.
The present development of the Maha Vihara is also attributed to
the late Venerable Dhammananda . The three storied air-conditioned
dhamma school that teaches Buddhism to 1300 students in Mandarin and
English, a lending modern library that has all Buddhist books
published in the world, a well stocked Buddhist book shop and a
Buddhist correspondence course provided by the temple tell the success
story of the temple. Two units of Buddhist publications run by the
temple send books all over the world. All that was made possible by
the hard working monk, the most Venerable the late Dr. kirinde
Dhammananda.
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