Bhante Dharmawara

Samdach Vira Dharmawara Bellong Mahathera (February 12, 1889 – June 26, 1999), also known simply as Bhante Dharmawara, was a Cambodian-born Theravada monk and teacher who died at the age of 110.

Biography

Dharmawara was born Bellong Mahathera on February 12, 1889, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to a wealthy family. Dharmawara became a forest monk of the Theravada tradition in his 40s. He was known for his travels throughout Cambodia to India and Sri Lanka using walking as a form of meditation.

He first visited the U.S. in late 1955 and early 1956 when he was invited by the US Information Agency to attend a conference on education. In California, the yoga teacher Indra Devi introduced him to wine critic Robert Lawrence Balzer, who was already interested in Asian religions. With Dharmawara's invitation, Balzer traveled to Cambodia and sojourned for two weeks in the temple where Dharmawara was staying, later writing about it in the book Beyond Conflict.

ln 1964, he guided Billy Meier on Buddhist teachings and meditation methods at the "Ashoka Ashram" run by the Indian Buddhist organization "Asoka Mission"

An extended meditation course he taught at the Asoka Mission from October 1974 to March 1975 is described in the book Leaving Lucifer.

In 1989, following a shooting in which five schoolchildren were killed at a Stockton school, there was national press coverage when he went to the school to perform a ritual cleansing of the site.

Dharmawara was a vegetarian and in his later life preferred fresh fruit and vegetable juices.

Death He died on June 26, 1999, aged 110.