Preah Maha Ghosananda

Maha Ghosananda (full title Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda - ; ; May 23, 1913 or, more likely, around 1924 – March 12, 2007) was a highly revered Cambodian Buddhist monk in the Theravada tradition, who served as the Patriarch (Sangharaja) of Cambodian Buddhism during the Khmer Rouge period and post-communist transition period of Cambodian history. He was well known in Cambodia for his annual peace marches. From an early age he showed great interest in religion, and began to serve as a temple boy at the age of eight years old. He was greatly impressed by the monks with whom he served, and at age fourteen received novice ordination. While in India, he studied under the Japanese monk Nichidatsu Fujii, founder of the Japanese peace-oriented sect Nipponzan Myohoji and a former associate of Mahatma Gandhi. The regime murdered or drove into exile, nearly all monks and religious figures and destroyed most temples and libraries. Ghosananda was troubled and returned to Cambodia. Dhammadaro counseled him that maintaining inner peace amid Cambodia's chaos would be the true road to mastering himself. This is was a verse familiar to the refugees, many of whom joined the chant.

When the Khmer Rouge regime collapsed in 1979, Maha Ghosananda was one of only 3,000 Cambodian Buddhist monks alive, out of more than 60,000 at the start of the reign of terror in 1976. Throughout 1979 Maha Ghosananda established wats in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border, ordaining monks against the orders of the Thai military. He also founded more than 50 temples for Cambodian refugees living in Canada and the United States. Thai officials viewed this as crossing a line and barred him from entering the camps, which is what brought him to the United States.

In 1988, Maha Ghosananda was elected as sanghreach (sangharaja) by a small gathering of exiled monks in Paris. He agreed to accept the position provisionally, until a complete, independent monastic hierarchy could be established in Cambodia.

Fellow monks elected him a Supreme Cambodian Buddhist Patriarch 1988. In 1989, he returned full-time to Cambodia, taking up residence at Wat Sampeou Meas in Phnom Penh.

Dhammayietra In 1992, during the first year of the United Nations sponsored peace agreement, Maha Ghosananda led the first nationwide Dhammayietra,

The 16-day, 125-mile peace walk passed through territory still littered with landmines from the Khmer Rouge. The initial walk consisted of approximately 350 monks, nuns, and lay Buddhists who escorted around 100 Cambodians from refugee camps to their villages in Cambodia.

He had been called "the Gandhi of Cambodia." and was a leading figure in engaged Buddhism.

Books Maha Ghosananda Step By Step