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Late
Tripitakacarya Sri Saddharma Vagisvara Upaddhyaya M M
Mahaweera Maha Nayaka Thero was born on the 16th January
1913 in Maliduwa village in Matara district and was given
the name of Upasena de Silva Liyana Gunawardhana. After
finishing his primary school education at 12 years of age,
he was ordained as a samanera (junior monk) under Venerable
Paragoda Sumanasara and was given an ordination name of
Maliduwa Mahanama Mahaweera, which, in Pali, means: Great
Name, Great Hero.
He did his
religious studies under Venerable Paragoda until 1926. In
1929, our founder sailed to the Federation of Malaya. With
Brickfields Temple as his base, he set about propagating the
Dhamma among the lay people in Malaya and Singapore. He had
intended to travel to Thailand for his meditation training
but this was not to be as there was a growing demand for his
religious services in Singapore. He finally managed to
travel to Thailand at the age of 21 for his upasampada
(higher ordination).
Our founder
set up his first temple in 1934 at Spottiswoode Park Road
and later shifted to Outram Road. With the expanding Sri
Lankan expatriate's population in Singapore, our founder was
instrumental in the founding and construction of the Sri
Lankaramaya Temple.
In 1960,
our founder built Mangala Vihara on a piece of land donated
by the late Mdm. Chew Quee Neo in Jalan Eunos. With our late
founder's foresight on the benefits on education, he set up
the Sunday Dhamma School in 1940. The SDS used the syllabi
set by the Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA) of
Colombo, Sri Lanka. Our late founder was himself the Dhamma
School's first teacher. In 1982, a 3-storey annex was built
to cater the rapidly expanding Sunday Dhamma School.
After
re-building the Main Shrine Hall, our founder realized his
dhammaduta dream of setting up the Buddhist and Pali College
in 1993 with Venerable Dr. P Gnanarama its principal.
In the last
few years of his great life, our founder, with his failing
health, needed an assistant monk to assist him with the
religious duties. Our founder celebrated his last Vesak day
in Mangala Vihara before passing away on the 12 June 2002.
May he attain his noble
aspiration of Nibbana!
Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu |
