as one of Sri Lanka's most respected meditation monasteries and was founded in 1967 by Asoka Weeraratna (the founder of the German Dharmaduta Society and the Berlin Buddhist Vihara in Germany).
Matara Sri Nanarama Mahathera (author of Seven stages of Purification and Seven Contemplations, both published by the BPS), who directed the meditation training, and after his mission was accomplished, he entered the Buddhist order under the name Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi.
On his passing away in 1992, a senior pupil, Venerable Panaduwa Khemananda, succeeded Nanarama and served the monastery for 15 years.
Katukurunde Nanananda Thera (famous for his books Concept and Reality, Nibbana-The Mind Stilled and his series of 33 sermons on Nibbana) left the monastery due to its shifting away from the meditation training established by Ven.
Panaduwa Khemananda died in July 2006; the new senior meditation teacher became Venerable Uda-Iriyagama Dhammajeewa Thera.
One is the Dharmayatana, a place for Tipitaka studies which was later turned into a Vipassana meditation facility for monks to follow Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw's system of instructions.