Venerable Hanthane Dhammagavesi Thera has been appointed Anunayake of the Amarapura Sri Sambuddha Sasanodaya Sangha Sabha of Sri Lanka, receiving the credentials of office from Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya at a ceremony in Colombo on Tuesday.
The ceremony was held at the Lotus Hall of the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) on 27 October, under the patronage of Most Venerable Dr. Waskaduwe Mahindawansa Thero, Mahanayake of the Sasanodaya Sangha Sabha of the Sri Lanka Amarapura Maha Nikaya, with members of the Maha Sangha present, the Daily Mirror reported at 7.24 p.m.
The Prime Minister presented the document confirming the appointment. Deputy Minister of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Gamagedara Disanayake conferred the Vijinipatha — the ceremonial fan that accompanies the title.
The new Anunayake Thera holds the titles of Rajakiya Pandita (Royal Pandita) and Master of Arts.
The institutions he is associated with
The Daily Mirror describes Ven. Dhammagavesi Thera as the founder of several Buddhist institutions:
- the Morawaka Arati Spiritual Sena
- the Biyagama Dhamma Vihara Centre
- the Kotigala Dhammaniketana Buddhist Centre in Kegalle
- the Siri Dhammarathana Dharma Paryeshana Bhikkhu Training Centre in Sinharagama
Attending were the Myanmar Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Daw Malar Than Hteik, MP Sagarika Athauda, donors and invited guests.
An unresolved difference over his role
Ada Derana also filed on the ceremony (news ID 250666) and its account differs on one point. It describes him as the founder of the Arati spiritual hermitage at Morawaka but as the chief incumbent — not the founder — of the three other institutions, which it lists in the same order. The Daily Mirror’s phrasing attributes the founding of all four to him.
Ada Derana is not cited here: its pages have returned a CloudFront error to this desk for 46 consecutive days and its publish date cannot be verified, which under this site’s freshness rule bars it from the source list. Its news ID is consistent with Tuesday’s filing sequence. The distinction between founding an institution and holding its chief incumbency is a real one in this context, and this desk has not resolved it — readers should treat the Daily Mirror’s “founder of several” as that outlet’s characterisation.
Ada Derana also gives the credentials document its Sinhala name, Akthapathra, and places the Sangha Sabha within the Maha Vihara tradition.
A similarly named body that this is not
Searches for this appointment also return Island coverage of new appointments to the Upcountry Amarapura Samagri Sangha Sabha. That is a different body within the same Nikaya, and the two should not be merged. The appointment reported here is to the Amarapura Sri Sambuddha Sasanodaya Sangha Sabha.
Not reported
Neither filing says whether the post was vacant or who held it previously, how many Anunayake positions the Sasanodaya Sangha Sabha maintains, or what process led to the selection. Neither gives the new Anunayake’s age, ordination details or temple of residence, and neither reports any remarks by him, by the Mahanayake Thera, or by the Prime Minister at the ceremony. Nothing is said about why the Myanmar ambassador attended, though the Amarapura Nikaya’s historical ordination lineage traces to Burma.
This article is carried on a single verified source. The Hiru News homepage rail and the Daily Mirror breaking-news listing were both fetched live after the ceremony; only the Daily Mirror had filed a datable account. News.lk’s news index was reachable but serving a stale listing of July and August items, so it could not be checked for this date.