Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya is a monastery in the strict forest tradition in Sri Lanka. It is considered as one of Sri Lanka's most respected meditation monasteries and was founded in 1967 by Asoka Weeraratna (the founder of the German Dharmaduta Society and the Berlin Buddhist Vihara in Germany). He equipped the monastery with all the facilities conducive to the meditative life, found an accomplished meditation master, Ven. Matara Sri Nanarama Mahathera (author of 'Seven stages of Purifications' and 'Seven Contemplations', both published by the BPS), to direct the meditation training, and then, his mission accomplished, he himself entered the Buddhist order in 1972 under the name Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi.




Venerable Ņanarama Maha Thero (left) and Venerable Mitirigala Dhammanissanthi Thero (right)
in a hospital room in Colombo in 1974