Nandisena

Bhikkhu Nandisena (born Ángel Oscar Valentinuzzi, 21 August 1954) is an Argentine Theravada Buddhist monk, the founder and abbot of Dhamma Vihāra monastery in Veracruz, Mexico, and a translator of Pali texts into Spanish. Dhamma Vihāra, founded in 1999, is considered the first Theravada monastery in the Spanish-speaking world. He is known for his Spanish translations of the Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha and of the Dhammapada with Buddhaghosa's commentary (2008). In 2005 he co-authored with U Sīlānanda a study of the Pali verbal roots of the Saddanīti compared with the Pāṇinīya-Dhātupāṭha, and he was a collaborator in the edition of Sīlānanda's The Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Yangon, 2009).

Dhamma Vihāra and Mexico

Since 1998 Nandisena has lived in Mexico. In 2008 he published, with Dhammodaya Ediciones, a translation of the Dhammapada made directly from the Pali, a 1,111-page volume containing the 423 verses together with the ancient commentary attributed to Buddhaghosa, rendered into Spanish for the first time. He has also completed the Spanish translation of the Abhidhammāvatāra, the first Abhidhamma compendium, attributed to Ācariya Buddhadatta (5th century), and has translated the classical Pali grammar Kaccāyana into English. He was a founding member of the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), established in 2011 with headquarters in New Delhi, and since 2017 he has been a member of its Presidium, as well as a representative of Mexico to the World Buddhist Council (Kobe, Japan). He has given lectures on the application of Buddhist ethics to contemporary problems and has taken part in international gatherings, including the United Nations Vesak celebrations in Thailand (2011 and 2015) and an interfaith peace conference at the Sitagu International Buddhist Academy in Yangon (2017). He holds an authority record in the Library of Congress of the United States and an ISNI identifier.

Works

Compendio del Abhidhamma. El Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha de Ācariya Anuruddha (translation). Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 1999. ISBN 968-12-0878-1. Dhammapada. Traducción del pali al español incluyendo el antiguo comentario (translation). Dhammodaya Ediciones, 2008. ISBN 978-970-95974-0-0.