A Tamil-speaking Sufi teacher of Sri Lankan (Jaffna) origin. He arrived in the United States in 1971 and founded the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship in Philadelphia, attracting a wide following including from African-American communities. He died on 8 December 1986. His followers built a mazar (mausoleum) in 1987 on the roughly 100-acre Fellowship Farm in Chester County (near Coatesville / East Fallowfield), about 40 miles west of Philadelphia; it is regarded as the first Sufi shrine in the United States. Documented in Yale's MAVCOR project and academic scholarship, the shrine remains a pilgrimage destination open to visitors from around the world.