Members of the local, national and international Sri Lankan and Buddhist communities gathered in West Deer Sunday to celebrate the appointment of the chief abbot of the Pittsburgh Buddhist Center as the chief monk of his order for the United States.
Bhante Soorakkulame Pemaratana was named chief monk of the Ramanna Monastic Order in the United States.
In this new position that did not previously exist, Pemaratana oversees the well-being of monastics and the operation of the order’s temples across the country, making him the spiritual leader of an entire monastic tradition on American soil…