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Walpola Rahula

Walpola Rahula

1907 CE–1997 CE · Modern · Walpola, Galle district

1907–1997 CE

Walpola Rahula (1907–1997 CE) was a Sri Lankan scholar-monk whose concise book 'What the Buddha Taught' became one of the most widely read modern introductions to Buddhism. Born in the Galle district of southern Sri Lanka, he combined traditional monastic learning with university study at Calcutta and at the Sorbonne in Paris, and in 1964 became professor at Northwestern University—the first bhikkhu to hold a Western professorial chair. He also wrote a noted history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and argued, in his own context, for an engaged public role for monks. He is well documented and treated aniconically.

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Did you know?

  • The first Buddhist monk to hold a Western university chair

    In 1964 the Sri Lankan monk Walpola Rahula became a professor at Northwestern University in Illinois — described as the first Buddhist monk to hold a full professorial chair in the Western world. He was 57, and his book "What the Buddha Taught" had appeared five years earlier.

    How we know

    Walpola Rahula Thera (9 May 1907 – 18 September 1997): appointed Professor of History and Literature of Religions at Northwestern University in 1964, first bhikkhu to hold a professorial chair in the West; "What the Buddha Taught" published 1959. (Wikipedia; Encyclopedia of Buddhism)

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Stop 1 of 4Born

Walpola, Galle district

What they did here

DOCUMENTED: born in 1907 in a village of the southern Galle district; entered the Sangha at thirteen and trained in Pali, Sanskrit, and Buddhist scholarship.

About Walpola, Galle district

Walpola is a village in the Galle district of southern Sri Lanka. It was the birthplace, in 1907, of Walpola Rahula, the scholar-monk and author of the widely read introduction 'What the Buddha Taught,' who took his monastic and family name from his home village.

See other sages who lived in Walpola, Galle district→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Walpola Rahula’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

In the same tradition

Dipa Ma, Alan Watts

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Walpola Rahula’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(1)