Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero is the founder of Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery. He was ordained on 26 March 1979 at the age of 17, under Dambagssare Sumedhankara Thero and Dikwelle Pannananda Thero at Seruwavila. He received a traditional Buddhist academic education and entered the University of Sri Jayawardenepura. Having understood the inability to achieve what he wanted in a university, he quit and started visiting meditation centres and hermitages.

His deep practices of meditation and the understanding of Buddhist philosophy later, led him to start up his own Buddhist monastery, Mahamevnawa in 1999 under the guidance of Kotapola Amarakitti Thero, in Waduwava, Polgahawela.

Ven Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero has translated the sacred Pali Canon to a comprehensible style in Sinhala, a local language of many Sri Lankans. In addition, he has written many books about the discourses of the Supreme Buddha; about ninety books have been published to date. There are also hundreds of audio CDs of talks. In addition Mahamegha Dhamma magizine and Shraddha TV take the message of Dhamma in to the homes of thousands of lay followers around the world.