Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery is an organization of Buddhist monasteries of Sri Lankan origin established for the spiritual advancement of the people using the teachings of Gautama Buddha. Its main monastery is located in Polgahawela, Sri Lanka, and resides in 40 branches of the Sri Lanka Organization. It has overseas branches in Canada, the USA, Australia, UK, Dubai, South Korea, India, Italy, and Germany. Mahamevnawa is home to over 700 monks.
The founder and chief Buddhist monk of these monasteries were Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero, who was instrumental in spreading Buddhism to the local and foreign communities and in highlighting the purpose of Buddhism. Mahamevnawa Polgahawela is a large active Theravada Buddhist monastery about 2.5 hours from Colombo. More than 100 monks live here. Visitors have a lot to see and do. There are monks who speak English for travel or answer questions about meditation.
If you use a car to travel to this place you can follow these instructions for that. Take the A1 Colombo-Kandy road to Ambepussa. Then take the A6 Kurunegala road to the Yangalmodara Junction (at the railway crossing) right before Polgahawela Town. Turn left through the huge gateway across Narammala road. You will reach the monastery, on the left, in about 4km. It is open every Tuesday to Friday from 8 am to 9 pm and also Saturday & Sunday from 6 am to 9 pm. Buddha Mansion closed Mondays for cleaning. Evening Puja is started at 5:30 pm.
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There are several stalls with snacks on the road outside the monastery. If you need drinking water free drinking water is available on the site. It also makes it easier for you to wear shoes that can be easily removed. There are several flower stalls on the road outside the monastery.
When you come to this place you can see the following.
- See the sacred Gautama Buddha Mandir.
- See Dhammachakkha Stupa
- Sacred Bodhi Tree Complex
- Check out the bookstore with a large selection of English Dhamma books
- Take a guided or self-guided tour in English
- Talk to a monk in English about Buddhism or meditation
- Sacrifice in shrines
- Help the monks to offer food at 10:45
- Join in the evening chanting at 6 p.m.
- Get a blessing thread from the monks
