Ven. Shravasti Dhammika Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society http://www.bdms.org.sg/

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Venerable Shravasti Dhammika is a distinguished lecturer and Buddhist monk from Australia. He has spoken on Buddhism and Asian religions in universities and on television and radio in Australia and throughout Asia.

He was born in Australia in 1951 into a Christian family, and converted to Buddhism at the age of eighteen. In 1973 he went to Thailand with the intention of becoming a monk but was unimpressed by what he saw in the monasteries there. He then went to Laos, Burma and finally to India. For the next three years, he traveled around India learning yoga and meditation, and finally ordaining as a monk under Venerable Matiwella Sangharatna, the last disciple of Anagarika Dharmapala.

In 1976 he went to Sri Lanka where he studied Pali at Sri Lanka Vidyalaya, and later became one of the co-founders and a teacher, of Nilambe Meditation Centre in Kandy. Since then, he has spent most of his time in Sri Lanka and Singapore.

Bhante Dhammika, as he is known to his students and friends had written over twenty-five books and scores of articles on Buddhism and related subjects. He is also well-known for his public talks and represented Theravada Buddhism at the European Buddhist Millennium Conference in Berlin in 2000.

Apart from Buddhist philosophy and meditation, Bhante Dhammika has a deep interest in the historical topography of Buddhism and the phenomenon of pilgrimage and has traveled widely in India and other Buddhist lands. His others interests include Indian history, art and botany.