The Siyane Vipassana Meditation Centre at Kanduboda came in to being in 1956, when the Buddhist world was commemorating the 2500-year of the coming of the Buddha in to this world. The center was opened shortly thereafter on January 8,1956 under the sponsorship of the late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, a most venerated meditation master from Burma (Myanmar)..
The citizens of the world are welcome to come and discover the fountain of wisdom within themselves through Vipassana (Insight) and that without any charges whatsoever!.
The center offers Vipassana meditation instruction in the style of Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. The meditation centre can accommodate up to 70 meditators at a time. Accommodation, meals and services are offered free of charge, the centre being funded by donations. Programs are designed for meditators to stay for a number of weeks or months.
The society with the help from the government, made a formal request to the main meditation center in Burma the Thathana Yeiktha meditation center to send teachers to Sri Lanka to begin meditation courses for laypersons and monks. The chief in charge of this meditation center the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw U Sobhana accepted the request after having long discussions with Venerable Kahatapitiya Sumathipala who was in Burma when the request came. Soon after this Ven. Sumathipala returned to Sri Lanka and organized the arrangements here. With his help the lay society acquired land for the first meditation center and laid other plans for promoting vipassana meditation. .
On 28th July of 1955, a Burmese delegation of four theros led by U Sajata, a close assistant to Mahasi Sayadaw, arrived in Sri Lanka. Under their guidance and with very much help from locals a complete meditation center was built in about six months at Kanduboda, a serene suburb 25kms from Colombo. On 8th January of 1956 the Kanduboda Siyane meditation center was officially declared open. Ven Kahatapitiye Sumathipala thero was elected as the chief instructor and in-charge of the meditation center as an honor to his immense commitment to the creation of the meditation center.