Heir to billions but now a monk, Ananda Krishnan’s son returns to Malaysia for last goodbye

Educated in the UK, Ven AJahn Sripanyo renounced his share of a US$5 billion inheritance more than 20 years ago

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Ananda Krishnan is credited with bringing satellite television into millions of Malaysian homes. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:48am, 5 Dec 2024

The son of Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan, who renounced his immense inheritance to pursue an ascetic life as a Buddhist monk in a monastery on the Thai-Myanmar border, has flown to Kuala Lumpur to attend the funeral of his father, who brought satellite television into millions of Malaysian homes.

The country marked the passing of the reclusive tycoon Ananda - commonly known by his initials AK - who died last Thursday aged 86 after a prolonged battle with lung disease.

His son, Ven AJahn Sripanyo, reportedly arrived on Tuesday for the memorial service in Kuala Lumpur’s ethnic Indian enclave of Brickfields, where Ananda was born in 1938.

Sripanyo maintained a low profile on his arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, but local media ran pictures of him walking alone through the airport, dressed in orange monk robes and carrying a duffel bag.

He was later seen at his father’s wake, with a short video circulating on Malaysian social media showing him giving blessings to a few people who had lined up to pay their respects.

The wake itself was low-key even as hundreds of people turned up, befitting the profile of a tycoon who was among the country’s richest men at his death yet shunned the limelight despite his influence over modern Malaysia.