Qualla: Island Hermitage

Island Hermitage: Introduction

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Venerable Sumedhaloka, CC BY-SA 4.0. A German man in monk's robes arrived on a small island in a salt-water lagoon near Dodanduwa, Sri Lanka, in 1911. Nyanatiloka Mahathera had come to establish something that did not yet exist in the world: a place where Westerners could study and practice Theravada Buddhism on its own terms, in its own landscape, rather than through translations filtered through European academic frameworks. The Island Hermitage he founded on Polgasduwa became the first center of Theravada Buddhist study and practice created by and for Westerners. That it survived two world wars, colonial internment, tropical decay, and its own obscurity makes its persistence as remarkable as its founding.

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Image: Venerable Sumedhaloka | CC BY-SA 4.0

Island Hermitage: An Island Between Worlds

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jan Benda, CC BY-SA 3.0. The hermitage occupies two islands, Polgasduwa and Metiduwa, in Ratgama Lake, a brackish lagoon connected to the Indian Ocean near Dodanduwa, south of Colombo and north of Galle. The terrain is mostly flat, the highest point barely above sea level. On Metiduwa, scrub and cinnamon...

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Image: Jan Benda | CC BY-SA 3.0

Island Hermitage: Built, Ruined, Built Again

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. The early years were lean. Lay supporters from Dodanduwa brought alms-food by boat each morning, and a refectory was built in 1913. The island did not legally belong to the monastic community until 1914, when Nyanatiloka's Swiss supporter, Monsieur Bergier, purchased and donated ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.0

Island Hermitage: The Scholars of Polgasduwa

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. The hermitage's influence on Western Buddhism far exceeded its modest physical presence. Nyanaponika, a German monk and Nyanatiloka's closest disciple, wrote Heart of Buddhist Meditation and established the Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy. The English monk Nanamoli produced...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.0

Island Hermitage: Still an Island, Still a Hermitage

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Venerable Sumedhaloka, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1951, Nyanatiloka moved to the Forest Hermitage in Kandy, and the Island Hermitage passed through a succession of abbots. Since 2003, a group of young Sri Lankan monks has managed the monastery. The daily rhythm has not changed much from the early years. Monks walk for alms ea...

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Image: Venerable Sumedhaloka | CC BY-SA 4.0