Island Hermitage

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Island Hermitage
පොල්ගස්දූව ආරණ්‍ය සේනාසනය
Religion
Affiliation	Theravada
Location
Location	Island Hermitage, Katudampe, Ratgama 80260
Country	Sri Lanka
Geographic coordinates	6°06′29″N 80°08′18″E / 6.108174°N 80.138224°E / 6.108174; 80.138224
Architecture
Founder	Venerable Nyanatiloka Mahathera
Completed	July 9, 1911

Island Hermitage on (Polgasduwa) Dodanduwa Island, Galle District, Sri Lanka is a famous Buddhist forest monastery founded by Ven Nyanatiloka Mahathera in 1911. It is a secluded place for Buddhist monks to study and meditate in the Buddhist tradition, and it contains an English and German library.

The Island Hermitage was the first centre of Theravāda Buddhist study and practice set up by and for Westerners. Its residents, monks and laymen, studied Theravada Buddhism and the Pali language, made translations of Pali scriptures, wrote books on Theravada Buddhism and practiced meditation. The Island Hermitage formed an essential link with Theravāda Buddhism in the West, a link which endures to the present day.

In 1951 Nyanatiloka moved to the Forest Hermitage in Kandy, then joined by Nyanaponika. Since 2003, the hermitage has been run by a group of young Sri Lankan monks.