W. S. Karunaratne

Who was W. S. Karunaratne?

Wijesinghe Sugathadasa Karunaratne was a well known Buddhist scholar and a fiercely independent thinker. He was affectionately known by the Sri Lankan masses as "W.S." and as "The Don" by the academia. W.S. was born on December 24, 1928 in Katugastota, a small village in the Kandy district, Sri Lanka. Many of those who came in contact with W.S. for the first time felt immediately that they were in the presence of a great mind. He seemed to radiate energy and to awaken heightened feelings. Many have stated that hearing W.S. speak, they "fell in love with him." Even critics attested to the power of his presence. Academicians unanimously agree that he was a brilliant lecturer, with a spellbinding effect on his audiences regardless of the subject. Some have expressed their experience of meeting him face to face for the first time that there was far more than words passing between them and noting that W.S. appeared to fit with Max Weber’s classical image of the charismatic figure.