Preah Maha Ghosananda
| Maha Ghosananda | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Maha Ghosananda May 23, 1913 Treang, Takéo, Cambodia |
| Died | March 12, 2007 (aged 93) Northampton, Massachusetts, United States |
| Occupation | Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia (1988–2007) |
| Years active | 1934–2007 |
Maha Ghosananda (full title Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda - សម្ដចព្រះមហាឃោសានន្ទ) (May 23, 1929 – March 12, 2007) was a highly revered Cambodian Buddhist monk in the Theravada tradition, who served as the Patriarch (Sangharaja) of Cambodian Buddhism during the Khmer Rouge period and post-communist transition period of Cambodian history. His Pali monastic name, 'Mahā Ghosānanda', means "great joyful proclaimer". He was well known in Cambodia for his annual peace marches.
He was born in Takéo Province, Cambodia in 1913 to a farming family in the Mekong Delta plains. From an early age he showed great interest in religion, and began to serve as a temple boy at age eight. He greatly impressed the monks with whom he served, and at age fourteen received novice ordination. He studied Pali scriptures in the local temple high school, then went on to complete his higher education at the monastic universities in Phnom Penh and Battambang, before going to India to pursue a doctorate in Pali at Nalanda University in Bihar, at that time an institute known under the name of Nava Nālandā Mahāvihāra.
Maha Ghosananda trained under some of the most highly influential Buddhist masters of his time, including the Japanese monk Nichidatsu Fujii, and the Cambodian Patriarch Samdech Preah Sangharaja Chuon Nath.
In 1965, Maha Ghosananda left India to study meditation under Ajahn Dhammadaro, of Wat Chai Na forest temple near Nakorn Sri Dhammaraj in Southern Thailand, a famous meditation master of the Thai Forest Tradition. Four years later, while he was still studying at Dhammadaro's forest monastery, the United States began bombing Cambodia as part of their attempt to shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and end the Vietnam War. Cambodia became engulfed in civil war and social disintegration.
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