Athuraliye Rathana Thero
Ven. Athuraliye Rathana is a Sri Lankan politician and a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Ranjith Welikanda was born on 10 October 1962 in Athuraliya in the Matara District, the son of Peirishamy Welikanda and Ceciliyana Halgamuwa. Athuraliya was also the birth place of S. A. Wickremasinghe, the founder of the Communist Party. The village was under significant influence by left-wing. On 11 May 1976, at the age of fourteen, he became a Buddhist monk, taking on the name, Athuraliye Rathana. He was ordained to the Saddhammawansa Nikaya, a pioneer of the Amarapura Nikaya, along with 55 other children at Vevurukannala Buduraja Maha Vehera. Ven. Sumangala Nayaka Thero and Ven. Royal Panditha Thero Was, like, two years, Beliatta an̆gulmaḍuva base narayan monastery Sumangala Thera under the Pali and Sanskrit languages and learned about Buddhism and the Ambalangoda Randombe rules IPM received basic education.
Rathana received his education at Randombe Sangaraja Piriwena, Ambalangoda, Pinwatta Piriwena, Panadura, before going onto to attend the University of Peradeniya, where he obtained a Masters in Philosophy.
Rathana was a founding member of the Jathika Hela Urumaya in February 2004, a Sinhala Buddhist nationalist party in Sri Lanka. Rathana and the JHU played a major role in defeating Mahinda Rajapaksa and making Maithripala Sirisena President. In the 2015 general election Rathana was a national list nominee of the United People’s Freedom Alliance. Rathana was appointed to the parliament after United National Party won the election.
