Venerable Bandarawela Seelaviveka (Bhante Vivek) is the founder of the Shakayamuni Buddhist Meditation Monastery.  He was born in Sri Lanka in 1988. Ven. Seelaviveka joined the monastic life when he was 14 years old and got his Buddhist high school diploma from both Sri Sudharmodaya, in Bandarawela and Paramadhammachethiya in Rathmalana, Sri Lanka. After graduation as a novice monk he started to practice the Forest Tradition of Theravada Buddhism under the most venerable Kiribathgoda Ganananada. In 2010 he came to the United States and worked as the abbot monk of the Mahamevnwa Monastery in California and Washington, DC. In 2019,  he stared the Shakayamuni Buddhist Meditation Monastery in Virginia Beach, with the help of the monks from Dong Hung Temple in Virginia Beach, and the American and Sri Lankan communities. Now he works as the abbot monk and president of this monastery.