Dhammaruwan Story

Dhammaruwan Story

Dhammaruwan was born in a small village near Kandy, Sri Lanka in November, 1968. From the age of about two, before he could read or write, he spontaneously started to chant the ancient Buddhist scriptures in the original pali language, known only to a few scholar monks.

Each day, somewhere around two o』clock in the morning, after sitting in meditation with his adopted and devoted Buddhist foster father for about twenty to forty minutes, he would spontaneously start to chant pali suttas. On the Poya or lunar Observance day, he would sometimes chant for two hours.

Dhammaruwan』s foster father started making amateur recording of the chanting and invited prominent scholar monk to listen. The monk verified that it was indeed the ancient pali language and the boy were chanting it in an ancient style which no longer existed in world.

At the age of three in "Kelston" Kandy he started to chant a certain verse of "Dammacca Sutta" ("Chakkukarani Nayanakarani...."). Ever since that day he has been chanting suttas from the tripitaka (Pali Canon) with little or no mistakes.

The chanting style of these suttas are his own and nowhere else to be found or trace back to. As the child grew in age and was able to speak more, he related where he learnt this particular style of chanting the suttas and how he was able to chant such deep and profound suttas, which even an adult find difficult to chant precisely. He has said that in 6th century A.C. he together with few monks accompanied the scholar Monk, Bhadanthachariya Buddhagosa to Sri Lanka. He has said that including him (Mudithagosa) the others were monks who had learnt by-heart the tripitaka or part of it. He says it is from this memory that he chants the suttas by recollecting that life. Until the age of 10 he was able to chant the suttas. The earliest recorded chanting was at the age of three.

By Bhante Henepola Gunaratana