10 Facts About Hammalawa Saddhatissa

Hammalawa Saddhatissa Maha Thera was an ordained Buddhist monk, missionary and author from Sri Lanka, educated in Varanasi, London, and Edinburgh.

Hammalawa Saddhatissa was a contemporary of Walpola Rahula, of Sri Lanka.

Hammalawa Saddhatissa ordained as a samanera at the age of twelve in 1926.

Hammalawa Saddhatissa received his early education at the Sastrodaya Pirivena at Sandalankawa and continued his higher studies at Vidyodaya Pirivena, Colombo, where he passed the final examinations with honours.

The Maha Bodhi Society invited Saddhatissa to become a missionary monk in India like his contemporary Henepola Gunaratana.

Hammalawa Saddhatissa obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and held academic appointments at a number of universities.

Hammalawa Saddhatissa was a visiting lecturer in Buddhist studies at Oxford University; a lecturer in Sinhala at the University of London; and Professor of Pali and Buddhism at the University of Toronto.

Hammalawa Saddhatissa was a Buddhist Chaplain at the London University and a vice president of the Pali Text Society.

Hammalawa Saddhatissa was posthumously honored in 2005 by Sri Lanka with a postage stamp bearing his image.

Hammalawa Saddhatissa thus developed his thought, specifically in Buddhist ethics, with both traditional training and Western thought in mind.