Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery

The Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery (MBM) is an organization of Buddhist monasteries of Sri Lankan origin established under the teachings of Gautama Buddha. Its main monastery is in Polgahawela, Sri Lanka.

The MBM maintains over 70 branches in Sri Lanka and operates several branches overseas in Canada, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Dubai, South Korea, India, Italy, Japan, Germany, and many others. The Mahamevnawa is home to over 1000 Buddhist monks.

The founder and chief Buddhist monk in charge of these monasteries is Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero, who is engaged in spreading Buddhism to both local and international communities, and in highlighting the aim of Buddhism: putting an end to Dukkha (suffering) or attaining Nibbana.

Mahamevnawa Anagarika Monastery
Mahamevnawa monastery for Buddhist Nuns is called Mahamevnawa Anagarika Monastery. Currently, there are 6 Anagarika Monasteries of Mahamevnawa. About 100 Buddhists Nuns reside and practice Dhamma there.

Practicing Dhamma
Mahamevnawa claims to promote the teaching, discussion, and practice of Dhamma in its unaltered form, and thar the first step the towards cessation of suffering is knowing the Buddha's teachings. Mahamevnawa also facilitates the practice of meditation for improving concentration and wisdom through cultivating mindfulness (Sati) as a component of the path to Nibbāna. A key point that Mahmevnawa highlights is that the Dhamma not only says that life is suffering, but shows a proven path to the cessation of suffering. Mahamevnawa has been criticized because none of its monks have completed the required Pariven education in Sri Lanka. The founder has bypassed that established tradition to rapidly expand the monk capacity in the monastery.

Spreading Dhamma
Both lay and clergy associated with Mahamevnawa adhere to this. The way of preaching and teaching Dhamma adopted by the clergy at Mahamevnawa is what Buddha advocated.

Mahamevnawa makes available recorded sermons and Dhamma texts, based on the original teachings of Buddha, that reveal the truth in life and emphasize the urge of cession of suffering. Most of these publications are in Sinhalese, due to the initial Sri Lankan context, but English translations are also available.

To widen its Dhamma Service, Mahamevnawa monastery started a Buddhist television channel named Shraddha TV in 2012. Later Mahamevnawa started a radio channel named Shraddha Radio too.