Skip to content

Dharma Documentaries

Buddhism and Its Cultures

Menu
  • Dharma
  • Culture
  • Ecology
  • Archives
  • About
Menu

Ñāṇavīra Hamuduru

Posted on February 3, 2012May 23, 2023 by Dharma Documentaries
This is a short documentary about the influential English monk Ven. Ñāṇavīra,

Nanavira-Hamuduru

This is a short documentary about the influential English monk, Ven. Ñāṇavīra, previously Harold Edward Musson, who along with Osbert Moore (who became Ven. Ñāṇamoli), left England for Sri Lanka in 1949. It only really touches the surface, and doesn’t go into his philosophy too much, concentrating on his life story, but it might be enough to inspire those who are interested to look a bit deeper into his teachings.

After ordaining Ñāṇavīra Thera inclined to a solitary life and after a few years at the Island Hermitage he went to a remote section of southeast Ceylon, where he lived alone for the rest of his life in a one-room, brick-and-plaster kuti (hut) with a tile roof, not far from the village of Bundala, on the edge of a large bird sanctuary.

Not long after arriving in Ceylon, he contracted a severe case of amoebiasis which continued to plague him for the next fifteen years. The tropical climate and the local food must have been taxing for the physically ailing Westerner. Bhikkhus only accept food which is offered to them by laypeople, and this custom often leaves them with few options concerning their diet.

He died on 5 July 1965, by his own hand and deliberate decision. Ña?avira Thera wrote extensively and carefully on the question of suicide, which arose in him because of the severity of the amoebiasis and satyriasis.

(drawn mainly from the Wikipedia page on Ven. Ñāṇavīra)

The main interview is with Ven. Nyanaramita, who himself arrived at Island Hermitage in 1964, and met with Ven. Ñāṇavīra on a number of occasions, and there are also interviews with Bogoda Premaratne, Asanga Tilakarathne and some of the supporters of the hermitage in Bundala where Ven. Ñāṇavīra spent his final years.

 

if the video does not appear on the page, try reloading the page; and if that doesn’t work, leave a comment so I can update the page (the comment is not published)

 

TAGS:
Dharma, Monastics, Sri Lanka, Theravada

1 thought on “Ñāṇavīra Hamuduru”

  1. Mike Cross says:
    February 8, 2012 at 6:35 am

    Fascinating life story.

    “Don’t think about good and bad. Don’t consider right and wrong,” Dogen advized in his instructions for sitting-meditation.

    In similar vein, FM Alexander cautioned his student teachers “You all fix.”

    I certainly do, tend to fix, tend to worry about good and bad.

    Is suicide good or bad? I don’t know. But I know fixing, when I see it — especially in others!

    I know what trying to be right is — mistake no. 1 for strivers everywhere.

    Those Sri Lankan elders who took the picture down are not so venerable in my eyes — it seems to me that they wanted to be on the right side of the argument, which is not the same as being in the middle.

    Well, watching the video stimulated me thus to express a view and opinion — not the same as dropping off all views and opinions, as recommended by the Buddha.

    So am I just criticizing in those others a tendency, or a fault, that I don’t wish to see in myself? Inevitably. For some reason, the idea that “I” can be “right” persists.

    As FM Alexander noted, “The most difficult things to get rid of are the ones that don’t exist.”

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments do not appear straight away, but are moderated before publication

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Subscriptions

Follow our Facebook Page Follow our Tweets Subscribe to our Feed

Subscribe by Email

Email


Shortlink and QR

https://dharma-documentaries.net/b/1fH

Donations

This site has taken more than fifteen years and 1,000s of hours to build, and has more than a thousand documentaries on it. If you would like to help, you can do so here. Even small amounts make a difference.

Copyright

If anyone has any copyright claims please contact me at dharmadocus@gmail.com and the posts and films will be immediately removed.

Top Ten Tags

Theravada
Mahayana
Vajrayana

India
Silk Road
China
Tibet

Arts
Lectures
Women

Sponsorship

 hosting sponsored by exabytes.my 

Random Posts

  • Kitaro: Theme from The Silk Road
  • Lost Oasis on the Silk Road, Parts 1-3
  • The Silk Road Series 2/16: A Thousand Kilometres Beyond The Yellow River
  • The Land of Dolpo
  • Pakistan Unveiled
  • Arithmetic, Population and Energy
  • Thus Have I Heard 03, Up to Devadatta and Ajātasattu
  • Bodhi Gaya, The Sacred Land of Buddhahood
  • The Making of a Novice Monk (Wat Ban Khun)
  • The Story of Sudhana, Gallery 2, 33-64

Recent Posts

  • Mongolian Thangka
  • Painting in Time
  • Allon, Buddhism in Ancient Gandhāra
  • Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan
  • Overview of the Tibetan Book of the Dead
  • Yungang Grottoes 06, Guarding Eternal Beauty
  • Yungang Grottoes 05, Wuzhou Grottoes
  • Yungang Grottoes 04, Reforms by Two Saints
  • Yungang Grottoes 03, The Twin Caves
  • Yungang Grottoes 02, The Holy Realm

Related Posts:

  • Cave in the Snow, the Life of Tenzin Palmo
  • Sit (Zen and Everyday Life)
  • The Boy Who Lived Before
  • How a Prince Became the Buddha
  • Confucius: Words of Wisdom
  • A Monk’s Life
  • Walk with the Master, the Story of the Sites of The Buddha
  • The Life of Gautama Buddha in Animation
  • Believe it or Not: Buddhist Monk
  • The Freedom of being a Buddhist Nun
© 2025 Dharma Documentaries | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme