British Buddhist teacher and writer, Sangharakshita, Died at 93

  Educator, Writer

Sangharakshita was born Dennis Philip Edward Lingwood, on August 26, 1925, and died on October 30, 2018.

He was a British Buddhist teacher and writer.

He was the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Community, which was known until 2010 as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, or FWBO.

Sangharakshita was one of a handful of westerners to be ordained as Theravadin Bhikkhus in the period following World War II, and spent over 20 years in Asia, where he had a number of Tibetan Buddhist teachers.

In India, Sangharakshita was active in the conversion movement of Dalits—so-called “Untouchables”—initiated in 1956 by B. R. Ambedkar.

Sangharakshita was a writer of over 60 books, including problems of his talks, and was described as “one of the most prolific and influential Buddhists of our era,” “a skilled innovator in his efforts to translate Buddhism to the West,” and as “the founding father of Western Buddhism” for his role in setting up what is now the Triratna Buddhist Community, but he was also criticized for having had sexual relations with Order members.

Sangharakshita retired formally in 1995 and in 2000 stepped down from the movement’s ostensive leadership, but he remained its dominant figure and lived at its headquarters in Coddington, Herefordshire.

The Triratna Order Office announced the death of Sangharakshita after a short illness on October 30, 2018.

Sangharakshita was regularly regarded as a controversial teacher.

Dennis Philip Edward Lingwood passed away at 93 years old.

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