Sri Lanka President inaugurates International Buddhist Conference

ColomboPage News Desk, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
March 20, 2011

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa this morning inaugurated the International Buddhist Conference organized by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) at the International Buddhist center in Pallekele, Kandy as a part of the joint commemoration by India and Sri Lanka of the 2600th Sambuddathwa Jayanthi anniversary of the attainment of enlightenment by Lord Buddha.

The Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Buddhasasna and Religious Affairs of Sri Lanka, together with the Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy and the University of Peradeniya were the Partner Institutes for the Conference under the theme "Cultural Interface between India and Sri Lanka based on Buddhist History, Art, Literature and Philosophy".

According to a press release issued today by the High Commission of India in Colombo, scholars from Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam are participating in the Conference. The papers presented at the two-day Conference will be published in the form of a volume.

Speaking at the occasion, the High Commissioner of India, Ashok Kantha said the cultural interaction between India and Sri Lanka had been marked by constant cross fertilization in the spheres of art, literature and philosophy and the journey of the Holy Tree from India to Sri Lanka demonstrated this amply.

High Commissioner also highlighted the other activities being undertaken by India to commemorate the Sambuddathwa Jayanthi including an exposition of the Kapilvastu Relics in Sri Lanka later this year.

Setting up of an Indian gallery at the International Buddhist Museum in Kandy, and installation of a specially crafted Buddha statue in Sarnath style from the Gupta period at the entrance of the International Buddhist Museum complex in Sri Dalada Maligawa are also planned, the release said.

Kantha also announced that Indian Railways was planning to launch a special Buddhist Train Damba Diwa Vandana later this year from Chennai catering to Sri Lankan pilgrims, adding that all these initiatives were reflective of India's desire to strengthen her cultural and people-to-people linkages with Sri Lanka, with which India shared deep historical bonds.

President Rajapaksa also viewed an exhibition organized by the Indian High Commission to showcase various Buddha statues and frescos unearthed from several states in India.

Sri Lanka Minister of External Affairs, Prof. G. L. Peiris, addressing the gathering, highlighted the foundation of many modern-day precepts in Buddhist thought and philosophy.

The Diyawadana Nilame (Custodian) of Sri Dalada Maligawa presented the first issue of the academic journal of SIBA, "Sri Lanka International Journal of Buddhist Studies", to President Rajapaksa at the occasion.

The academic sessions of the conference will be held today and tomorrow and the valedictory session will be held on 21st March.

The Conference being organized in Kandy is the third such conference on Buddhism sponsored by ICCR, following similar events in Singapore and Cambodia. More international conferences on Buddhism are on the anvil for Nepal and Vietnam.

Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, Minister Susil Premajayantha, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Governor of Central Province Tikiri Kobbekaduwa, Attorney General Mohan Peiris, Secretary to Ministry of Buddha Sasana and Regional Affairs Casian Herath, Deputy Indian High Commissioner Vikram Misri, Director General of Indian Council for Cultural Relations Suresh K Goel, also participated in the ceremony.


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Sri Lanka President invokes blessings for Japanese tsunami victims

ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Mar 28, Colombo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa Sunday evening held a special Buddhist ritual at the Temple Trees to offer merit to the Japanese people who lost their lives in the recent earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan.

Head of the Vidyalankara Pirivena, Most Venerable Welimitiyawe Kusaladhamma Nayaka Thera conducted the Buddha Pooja to invoke merits with the participation of a large gathering of Buddhist monks.

Sri Lanka has launched a series of Buddhist rituals to bless the victims of the earthquake and the tsunami.

The Japanese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Kunio Takahashi, Minister Bandula Gunawardena, Deputy Minister Geethanjana Gunawardena, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, and many Japanese citizens in Sri Lanka, as well as a large number of foreign nationals and Sri Lankans were also present at this religious event.

 

Sri Lanka offered a cash contribution of USD one million and USD 65,000 worth tea to help the tsunami victims and sent several medical teams to assist recovery efforts.

Japan's Hour of Need .. Let us Run to Help this Great and Good Nation!

By Ananda-USA
March 13, 2011

Japan has suffered a great natural diaster ... a 9.0 Richter scale earthquake that spawned a train of giant tsunami waves exceeding 10m in height. Well prepared for earthquakes though seismicity resitant design of buildings and public preparedness, Japan weathered the earthquake well with modest damage and loss of life, but suffered grievously from the tsunami that soon followed in the wake of the earthquake.

The tsunami devastated villages, towns and cities along the coast of North-Eastern Japan centered around the city of Sendai .. home to over a million people. It destroyed sea ports, air ports, homes and commercial buildings, machinery, vehicles, trains, businesses, farms, ships and fishing boats in an awesome display of nature's hidden strength. The surging water swept across bays, harbors, and fields, created vortices in which ships whirled helplessly, channeled along canals, spilled over seawalls, surmounted earthen embankments, mocking man's pitiful attempts to control nature in its fury.

As everyone watched with bated breath, and hoped that Japan's efforts at tsunami preparedness would help minimize casualties, it was not to be. The casualties first reported in the tens, jumped to hundreds, to thousands .. and now seem poised to run into the tens of thousands. Three nuclear reactors at oceanside nuclear power plants lost their ability to cool the reactor cores. They suffered partial core meltdowns, and two reactor buildings exploded due to hydrogen gas buildup. This compounded the already massive difficulties created by the tsunami with a threat of  radioactive fallout, and deprived Japan's electrical grid of the power from as many as five nuclear reactors that were needed to produce electricity to power disaster rescue and rehabilitation.

Sri Lankans, who until recently had no familiarity at all with tsunamis, except in the dim memory of a legendary ocean flood  in the days of Vihara Maya Devi, Kelani Tissa and Kavan Tissa over two millenia ago, acquired our own first hand experience in 2004 of the price that tsunamis generated by seismic events far away, across thousands of miles ocean, can exact in lost and destroyed lives and livelihoods, and levelled villages, towns, and cities. We, as a people,  know this pain well.

When Sri Lanka cried in agony at the death and destruction that the Sumatran earthquake and tsunami spawned, the Japanese people rallied to Sri Lanka's aid with food, medicine, rescue teams, helicopters, electric generators, and everything else we urgently needed. They opened their hearts and their coffers to us as few others did. It is a rare Sri Lankan family that was untouched by that disaster of Armageddon proportions.

Today, the great and good people of Japan, our allies in times both good and bad, have suffered the same fate and need help. Let us rush to their help and give generously in every possible way.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already dispatched Sri Lankan rescue teams to Japan (see below) and has offered whatever aid we can summon as a Nation.

That, however, is not sufficient. Let each and every one of us Sri Lankans contribute to the fullest extent to help the Japanese people in their hour of need, as if they were our own citizens of Sri Lanka. Let us do so, NOW!

Sri Lanka offers aid to devastated Japan, dispatches rescue teams


ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
March 13, 2011

Colombo:  Sri Lanka government announced Sunday that it will donate one million US dollars to tsunami hit Japan and send a tri-forces rescue team to assist the devastated country in its recovery efforts.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa today instructed the Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundara to take steps to release the money at the earliest through the Sri Lankan mission in Japan, the government media unit said.

A group of specially trained tri- forces rescue team will also be dispatched immediately along with a special medical team of doctors and nurses to Japan to provide medical assistance to the tsunami affected people.

Sri Lanka, having dealt with its own devastation in 2004 by the Boxing Day Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 35,000 people in the island, has the necessary experience in such rescue and relief measures.

The President has directed the Sri Lankan Envoy in Japan to coordinate all possible assistance as a friendly country to Japan.

According to Japanese officials, more than 1,400 people were killed by the Friday's magnitude 8.9 ocean earthquake that hit the eastern coast of Japan and the tsunami that followed.

The 23-foot tsunami triggered by the earthquake in the sea 80 miles off Sendai killed hundreds of people and swept away ships, planes, homes, boats and cars.

The officials however, estimate the death toll to rise over 10,000 as rescue efforts are continuing.

Japan is the single largest donor to Sri Lanka providing about two-thirds of the total donor contribution.