Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera

Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera
Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Nayaka Thera
Title	Thripitaka Vaagishwaracharya[1] Chief of Siyam Nikaya[1] Chief Monk of Sri Pada[2] Chief Monk of Colombo Nawa Korale Chief Monk of Galle District
Personal
Born	Nicholas Gunawardhana (1827-01-20)20 January 1827 Hikkaduwa
Died	29 April 1911(1911-04-29) (aged 84)
Religion	Buddhism
Nationality	Sri Lankan
Parent(s)	Mr. Don Johannes Abeweera Gunawardhana (father) Mrs. Dandangoda Gamage Christina (mother)
School	Theravada
Lineage	Siyam Nikaya
Education	Parama Dhamma Chetiya Pirivena, Ratmalana
Senior posting
Teacher	Walane Sri Siddhartha Maha Thera
Students Anagarika Dharmapala

Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera (Sinhala: හික්කඩුවේ ශ්‍රි සුමංගල නාහිමි; 20 January 1827 – 29 April 1911) was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, who was one of the pioneers of Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist movement in the 19th century.^[3] He did a great service to improve the Buddhist Education in the country and was the founder of Vidyodaya Pirivena, Maligakanda in 1873, which was granted the university status later in 1959 by the Government of Sri Lanka.^[3] A veteran author and a fiery orator, he was a major figure in the Panadurawadaya, a religious debate held between Christian missionaries and Buddhist monks in 1873 at Panadura, Sri Lanka.^[4] He was well versed in Sinhala, Pali, Sanskrit, English, Buddhism, history, arithmetic, and archaeology and was one of the primary sources of information on Buddhism for the success of the Panadura debate.^[5]