1. Nyanaponika Thera or Nyanaponika Mahathera was a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk and scholar who, after ordaining in Sri Lanka, later became the co-founder of the Buddhist Publication Society and author of numerous seminal books and articles on Theravada Buddhism.
Nyanaponika Thera mentored and taught a whole generation of Western Buddhist leaders such as Bhikkhu Bodhi.
Nyanaponika Thera was born in Hanau, Germany on July 21,1901, as Siegmund Feniger, the only child of a Jewish family.
Nyanatiloka Nyanaponika Thera had established a monastery for Western monks in Sri Lanka, on an island lagoon Polgasduwa, Dodanduwa named Island Hermitage.
Nyanaponika Thera arranged for his mother and other relatives to move to Sri Lanka.
Nyanaponika Thera completed German translations of the Sutta Nipata, the Dhammasangani, and its commentary.
Nyanaponika Thera compiled an anthology of texts on Satipatthana Meditation.
In 1952, both Venerable Nyanatiloka Mahathera and Nyanaponika Thera were invited by the Burmese Government to be consultants to the Sixth Buddhist Council, to be convened in 1954 to re-edit and reprint the entire Pali Canon and its commentaries.
Nyanaponika Thera stayed in Burma for a period of training in Vipassana under the meditation teacher Ven.
Nyanaponika Thera went to Burma alone, as his teacher Nyanatiloka Mahathera was indisposed at that time.
Nyanaponika Thera's ashes were enshrined at the Polgasduwa Island Hermitage, Dodanduwa, and a tombstone was built to perpetuate his memory.
Nyanaponika Thera was to be launched in a new direction, a permanent contribution to the spread of Buddhism worldwide.