Hammalawa Saddhatissa Maha Thera (1914–1990) was an ordained Buddhist monk, missionary and author from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, educated in

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

, London, and Edinburgh. He was a contemporary of

Walpola Rahula Walpola Rahula Thero (1907–1997) was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, scholar and writer. In 1964, he became the Professor of History and Religions at Northwestern University, thus becoming the first bhikkhu to hold a professorial chair in the Weste ...

, also of Sri Lanka.

Early life

Saddhatissa was born in 1914 Hammalawa, a hamlet in the northwest of Sri Lanka. He ordained as a sāmaṇera (novice monk) at the age of twelve in 1926. He received his early education at the Sastrodaya Pirivena at Sandalankawa and continued his higher studies at

Vidyodaya Pirivena The Vidyodaya Pirivena was one of the prominent '' piriven'' (a monastic college, similar to a seminary, for the education of Buddhist monks) in Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1873 by Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera and later in 1959, the pirivena ...

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

, where he passed the final examinations with honours.

Missionary work in India

The

Maha Bodhi Society The Maha Bodhi Society is a South Asian Buddhist society presently based in Kolkata, India. Founded by the Sri Lankan Buddhist leader Anagarika Dharmapala and the British journalist and poet Sir Edwin Arnold, its first office was in Bodh Gaya. Th ...

invited Saddhatissa to become a missionary (''dharmaduta'') monk in India like his contemporary

Henepola Gunaratana Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk. He is affectionately known as Bhante G. Bhante Gunaratana is currently the abbot of the Bhavana Society, a monastery and meditation retreat center that he founded in High Vie ...

. In order to teach to Indians he learnt Indian languages such as

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

. While in India, he came to know B. R. Ambedkar, who reportedly obtained advice from him on how to draft the Indian constitution along the lines of the

vinaya The Vinaya (Pali & Sanskrit: विनय) is the division of the Buddhist canon ('' Tripitaka'') containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist Sangha (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). Three parallel Vinaya traditions rema ...

. He also obtained an M.A. Degree from the

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...

and then became a lecturer there.

Stay in the West

In 1957 he traveled to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

at the request of the Maha Bodhi Society and lived the rest of his life in the West. He obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and held academic appointments at a number of universities. He 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. He was a Buddhist Chaplain at the London University and a vice president of the

Pali Text Society The Pali Text Society is a text publication society founded in 1881 by Thomas William Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pāli texts". Pāli is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism are preserved. The ...

. At the time of his death he was the head of the

London Buddhist Vihara The London Buddhist Vihara ( Sinhala:ලන්ඩන් බෞද්ධ විහාරය ''Landan Bauddha Viharaya'') is one of the main Theravada Buddhist temples in the United Kingdom. The Vihara was the first Sri Lankan Buddhist monastery to ...

and the Head of the Sangha (Sanghanayaka) of the United Kingdom and Europe of the Siam Nikaya of Sri Lanka." He was posthumously honored in 2005 by

with a postage stamp bearing his image.

Philosophy

Due to spending years at

SOAS, University of London SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

, Saddhatissa developed a sensitivity to Western philosophical discourse. He thus developed his thought, specifically in Buddhist ethics, with both traditional training and Western thought in mind. His primary Western influence (in ''Buddhist Ethics'' at least) appears to be

Fyodor Shcherbatskoy Fyodor Ippolitovich Shcherbatskoy or Stcherbatsky (Фёдор Ипполи́тович Щербатско́й) (11 September (N.S.) 1866 – 18 March 1942), often referred to in the literature as F. Th. Stcherbatsky, was a Russian Indologist who, ...

, followed by the French philologist

Louis de La Vallée-Poussin Louis Étienne Joseph Marie de La Vallée-Poussin (1 January 1869 – 18 February 1938) was a Belgian Indologist and scholar of Buddhist Studies. Biography La Vallée-Poussin was born in Liège, where he received his early education. He studi ...

.''Buddhist Ethics'' see notes His main interest was in staying close to the 'lived expression' of Buddhism as opposed to abstract academic theorizing.

Published works

Books

* ''The Buddha's Way'' (1971) (Paperbound) (Hardbound) * ''Before He Was Buddha: The Life of Siddhartha'' with Jack Kornfield (2000) * ''Buddhist Ethics'' (1970) (1987) and (1997 & 2003) * ''The Sutta Nipata'' trans. (1985)
Wisdom Books
* ''A Buddhist's Manual'' (1976) ASIN: B000YH9HP8 *
Facets of Buddhism
' (2016),

Buddhist Publication Society The Buddhist Publication Society (BPS) is a publishing house with charitable status whose objective is to disseminate the teaching of Gautama Buddha. It was founded in Kandy, Sri Lanka in 1958 by two Sri Lankan lay Buddhists, A.S. Karunaratna and ...

Articles

*
Dependent Origination (.pdf)
' (1989)

Reviews

* ''Buddhist Ethics'', reviewed by Bhikkhu Bodhi, ''Buddhist Publication Society Newsletter'', No. 11, Winter 1989, 3–

* ''Buddhist Ethics'', reviewed by Koller, John M. ''Philosophy East and West'' Vol. 50, No. 2 (April 2000) pp. 294–29

References

External links

The Research Institute for Pali Literature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saddhatissa, Hammalawa 1914 births 1990 deaths Sri Lankan scholars of Buddhism Buddhist writers Sri Lankan Buddhist monks Sinhalese monks 20th-century Buddhist monks