Nyanaponika Thera

Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk and scholar

Nyanaponika Thera or Nyanaponika Mahathera (July 21, 1901 – 19 October 1994) was a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk and scholar who, after ordaining in Sri Lanka, later became the co founder of the Buddhist Publication Society and author of numerous seminal books and articles on Theravada Buddhism. He mentored and taught a whole generation of Western Buddhist leaders such as Bhikkhu Bodhi.

Nyanaponika Thera was born in Hanau, Germany on July 21, 1901, as Siegmund Feniger, the only child of a Jewish family. In 1921, he moved with his parents to Berlin, where he met with German Buddhists and had access to Buddhist literature in the German language. He came across the writings of Ven. Nyanatiloka Mahathera (1878–1957), the former German violin virtuoso Anton Gueth. Young Siegmund had learned that Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera had established a monastery for Western monks in Sri Lanka, on an island lagoon (opposite the Railway station) Polgasduwa, Dodanduwa named Island Hermitage. This news stirred his conscience to go to Asia and become a Buddhist monk. However, circumstances prevented him from acting on this plan for quite some time. In 1932 his father died, and he did not wish to leave his widowed mother in the lurch. Then, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. In November 1935 he and his mother left Germany and moved to Vienna, where they had relatives.

Having arranged for his mother to stay in Vienna, in early 1936 he finally was able to leave Europe for Sri Lanka, where he joined Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera at the Island Hermitage. After several months of studies, in June 1936 he was ordained as a novice and was given the name Nyanaponika.