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Asoka Weeraratna

Sri Lankan Buddhist missionary (1918-1999)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ18354712 ↗
Source-derived summary

Asoka Weeraratna (December 12, 1918 – July 2, 1999) was a Sri Lankan (Sinhala) Buddhist missionary, who founded the German Dharmaduta Society in 1952. He is also the founder of the Berlin Buddhist Vihara, one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Europe and Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya, a famous meditation monastery in the Western Province, Sri Lanka. Asoka Weeraratna later entered the Order of Buddhist monks in 1972 as Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi Thera and spent his later life as a forest monk at the Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya for a period of 27 years.

References

External links

Asoka Weeraratna

Life sketch of Ven.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Asoka Weeraratna” as sri Lankan Buddhist missionary (1918-1999). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Asoka, Weeraratna and Lankan.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1918, 1999, 1952, 1972—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1918-12-12. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Asoka, Weeraratna and Lankan providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Asoka Weeraratna”, the useful work is to connect “sri Lankan Buddhist missionary (1918-1999)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18354712. VIAF identifies the subject as 5813162844767473240009. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1999, 1952 and 1972.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Asoka Weeraratna”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Asoka Weeraratna primary sources, Asoka Weeraratna archive and Asoka research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Asoka Weeraratna” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.