Nyanaponika thera biography

Nyanaponika Thera (Siegmund Feniger) was born on 21 July in Hanau, Germany.

Nyanaponika Thera or Nyanaponika Mahathera July 21, — 19 October was a German-born Sri-Lanka-ordained Theravada monk, co-founder of the Buddhist Publication Society [1] [archive] , contemporary author of numerous seminal Theravada books, and teacher of contemporary Western Buddhist leaders such as Bhikkhu Bodhi. In , he moved with his parents to Berlin , where he met with German Buddhists and also had access to Buddhist literature in the German language.

Nyanatiloka Thera — , the former German violin virtuoso Anton Gueth, which had already been published in Germany. Nyanatiloka Thera had established a monastery for Western monks on an island lagoon opposite the Railway station Polgasduwa, Dodanduwa named Island Hermitage. This news stirred his conscience to go to Asia and become a Buddhist monk.

However, circumstances prevented him from acting on this plan for quite some time. In his father died, and he did not wish to leave his widowed mother in the lurch. Then, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. In November he and his mother left Germany and moved to Vienna , where they had relatives. Having arranged for his mother to stay in Vienna, in early he finally was able to leave Europe for Sri Lanka, where he joined Ven.

After several months of studies, in June he was ordained as a novice and was given the name Nyanaponika. In , after the Nazis invaded Poland , Ven. Nyanaponika Thera arranged for his mother and other relatives to move to Sri Lanka.

Nyanaponika Thera or Nyanaponika Mahathera (July 21, – 19 October ) was a.

Through the influence of her son and the generous hosts, she embraced Buddha Dhamma and became a devoted Buddhist. She died in Colombo in When World War II broke out in , the British Government had all German males resident in their colonies consigned to internment camps, suspecting them to be German spies. Despite these traumatic experiences as a prisoner of war, during this period Ven.