VENERABLE WATTEGAMA DHAMMAWASA NAYAKA THERO
Venerable Wattegama Dhammawasa Nayaka Thero is the director and chief monk of Sri Subodharama Buddhist Center. He is also the chief monk and the president of Sri Lankarama Maha Viharaya in Ellen Grove, Brisbane and is the Chief Sangha Nayaka of Australia. As an acknowladgement for his eminent services to the Buddha Sasana in Sri lanka and beyond its borders the 'Maha Sanga Sabha' of the Udarata Amarapura sector has elevated him to the rank of cardinal monk (Chief Sanga Nayaka) of Centrel province. Also he has ordained many monks in to the maha sangha (great brotherhood of monks) and worked tirelessly towards the spiritual, intellectual, social, emotional and physical improvement of the people served by him.
BUDDHISM
As a collective faith, Buddhism first developed in northeastern India 2600 years ago with its founder the Sakyamuni Gautama Buddha and with his followers, who formed a community of monks and laypersons. Since then, Lord Buddhas teachings has deeply influenced the character and evolution of not only Asia but globally as a civilization.
The historical Buddha-to-be, Siddhartha Gautama, who lived around the fifth century B.C.E at Kapilavastu; a kindom which stood in the foothills of the Himalayas near the present day Nepalese-Indian border; renounced his princly life at the age of 29 and set out on a quest for truth, to confront human suffering and the continuous cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (samsara).
The Buddha sought to find an end to human suffering. He proposed a middle way between extreme austerity and extreme indulgence as the unmistakable path to wisdom and freedom from suffering. As a result of his attainment of enlightenmen at Bodh Gaya in the contemporary state of Bihar, prince Siddhartha Gautama was now truly the Buddha, the Enlightened One. He was also commonly referred to as Shakyamuni, the sage of the Shakya clan.