Guruma Ven. Bhikkhunī Gunawati (Guṇavātī) Mahātherī from Myanmar, who lived the very many past years in Nepal after having co-founded Dharmakirti Vihara in Kathmandu with Ven Dhammawati Guruma, has passed away.
Guruma Gunawati was one of the attendees to the very first Sakyadhita Conference in 1987, together with Guruma Dhammawati. And she joined for the 1988 ordination together at Hsi Lai, the first woman monastic of Theravada traditions from Burma/Myanmar to undertake bhikkhuni ordination in the 20th century. She was already highly educated in Buddhism, an accomplished Vipassana meditator, and a famed nun leader at that time. She ordained as a bhikkhuni together with two others anagarika/thilashin/nuns with such fame: Guruma Dhammawati and Sujātā Guruma from Nepal.
She was 95 years old, and had lived in monastic life for the last 65 years when she passed away on 28 March 2019 12:30pm. Guruma Gunawati died in her country of birth at the Nepal-Burma Vihara she founded in Rangoon in 1996, after living for 45 years in Nepal and contributing very greatly to the Nepali Buddha Sasana.
