Abstract

Venerable Dr. Gangodawila Chandima, a Canadian Buddhist monk, is Resident Buddhist Monk at Ottawa Theravada Buddhist Vihara in Ottawa, Canada.

In 2015 he earned a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka with his work, “An Annotated Translation Into English Of Ratnamālāvadāna With A Critical Introduction”. Majoring in Sanskrit and minoring in both Pali and Buddhist Philosophy, he earned a BA with First-Class Honours in 2008, receiving the Sri Soratha Gold Medal as the student with the highest marks in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Recipient of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Arts Research Grant (2016-2017), Ven. Dr. Chandima has lectured in Sanskrit at the University of Victoria, British Columbia (BC); the University of Sri Jayewardenepura; and the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka. He served as Resident Buddhist monk at the Alberta Buddhist Vihara Association (2016-2017) and at the Buddhist Vihara Society in BC (2011-2016), where he was also Principal of the Dhamma School. From 2012 to 2016, he served as Theravada Buddhist Chaplain at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and in 2016 was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society of the University of Victoria, BC. He also collaborated at the Nagaoka National College of Technology in Nagaoka, Japan.

At his YouTube channel, “Authentic Buddhism”, he presents a fluent and articulate rendition of the original Pali Suttas, carefully striving to avoid anything that would blur or distort the words of the Buddha.