Features

Comparative study of Boeing and Airbus – Part III

Published

10 months ago

2025/07/7

Thilina Walpola

The Flight Management System (FMS) Display and Input Keys, the Human/Machine Interphase in modern times.

Aircraft automation

In 1914, an American, Lawrence Sperry, demonstrated gyroscope-stabilised, straight-and-level flight in Paris. This was the beginning of the automatic pilot. As years passed and flight distances got longer, automatic pilots for aircraft were introduced to carry out the mundane task of physical flying, and to free the pilot’s mind to navigate, communicate and manage the flight. Not all Airline people were happy when autopilots were introduced.

“I pay those guys to fly, so let them fly. I’ll be damned if I’ll pay them to just sit there.”

Eddie Rickenbacker

WWI Veteran and Chairman of Eastern Airlines, USA

Those early autopilots were ‘dumb and dutiful.’ Pilots referred to the autopilot as ‘George’. With the advent of digital computers and satellite technology, even the other two functions (navigation and communication) were taken over by automatics, and a Flight Management system (FMS) was introduced. Once the route was programmed, the FMS even tuned the required radio frequencies automatically in the vicinity, for navigation.

The Flight Management System (FMS) Display and Input Keys, the Human/Machine Interphase in modern times.

Airbus flight instructors used to say that if the Inertial Reference Systems were the brain of the aircraft the FMS was the heart. In addition, a host of parameters, from the operating condition of the engines to what movies are watched by passengers, can be monitored through telemetry from the ground in real time.

HUMAN FACTORS

A psychologist named David Beaty, formerly a World War II RAF pilot (for which he was awarded the DFC with bar) and BOAC Captain, propounded that there are many ‘Human Factors’ behind aircraft accidents. Beaty was born in Hatton, Ceylon in 1919 to a Methodist minister and his wife, both on a missionary posting from Britain, and received his early education at Kingswood College, Kandy. When Beaty first mooted his ‘human factors in aircraft accidents’ concept in 1967 it was regarded as controversial. After all, aviators were supposed to be supermen, not normal human beings.

As an extension of his passion for aircraft accident investigation, Beaty became a prolific and celebrated writer of novels, almost all with an air accident theme. Perhaps the best-known novel by Beaty is Cone of Silence, which was later adapted for the movie of the same name (renamed ‘Trouble in the Sky’ for US audiences). Another is The Temple Tree, the (fictional) story of a ‘plane crash at Colombo Airport, Katunayake.

It gradually dawned on accident investigators that what Beaty was saying was true, and indeed the human condition was the weakest link. As such, something needed to be done to improve that aspect of aviation safety. Two landmark accidents, both in the USA, provided added impetus: the crashes of an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 TriStar in 1972, and a United Airlines DC-8 (1978). In both instances the pilots were distracted from the task at hand by mundane, peripheral matters and lost the ‘big picture’.

Many human factors experts realised that pilots must be taught to (1) know themselves, (2) know their crew, (3) know their aircraft and equipment, (4) know their priorities and, above all (5) constantly evaluate the risks. Thus, a new classroom subject called ‘Crew Resource Management’ (CRM) was born. Although, at first, it was thought by some that CRM was a case of ‘too many cooks’ and no one ‘minding the shop’.

the situation further, some aircraft manufacturers attempted to automate more pilot functions and design the human out of the system. The first crewmember to be dispensed with was the Radio Officer. Then came the job of Navigator, and lastly the Flight Engineer. Airline managements welcomed the new cockpit complement as high crew salaries were a part of the companies’ fixed costs, so the absence of those now-redundant jobs was a great saving. From the air safety point of view, the flight deck lost extra pairs of eyes with only a Captain and First Officer at the ‘pointy end’. Meanwhile, accident rates remained unacceptably high. There are suggestions now to have only a single pilot in large airliners purely to save money!

In reality, the reduction of errors on the flight deck was an impossibility, as humans still designed, built, operated, maintained, managed and regulated aircraft operating systems. ‘Threats and Errors’ could exist anywhere. Automation was meant to support the crew in a certain set of given conditions, not replace them. It was incapable of judgement. An oft-repeated story is that of a computer that was asked: ‘if there were two clocks, one of which had stopped, the other running one second slow, which would give the more accurate time?’ In its high-tech ‘wisdom’ and logic, the computer deduced that it was the clock that had stopped, as it gives the correct time twice a day, while the other never gave the accurate time!

FLY BY WIRE AIRCRAFT

In the 1980s, when Airbus designed the A320 aircraft, they said that the flight control computers (seven in all) were so advanced, software would have taken 800 man-years to check them. The manufacturer took the next best option of getting two different vendors to write the software for redundant systems so that one system could monitor the other.

Interestingly, as stated before, some of the algorithms for the ‘fly by wire’ computers were developed by a young Sri Lankan scientist/engineer named Gemunu Silva (1943-2021), who in the 1970s was given use of the only hybrid computer in France. His work at Toulouse eventually became the property of the French government.

Because of economic pressures, no aircraft is a mature product when it is introduced to the line. Modifications are done on the go, after introduction. Sometimes, blood needs to be spilt for positive changes to happen. That is a sad fact in aviation. The world’s pilots were still unprepared to accept the A320’s new level of automation.

Initially, Indian Airlines pilots went on strike and refused to fly the A320. It was called the ‘Scare Bus’. After three fatal crashes the A320 was also dubbed the ‘John Wayne of the Skies’, because it crashed through forests (Basel, Switzerland; 1988), ‘climbed’ mountains (Strasbourg, France; 1992), and killed Indians (Bangalore; 1990). Many meetings were held by the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) to address the A320’s human factors problems. Thankfully, we humans adapted to the new technology, and today the A320 and its numerous derivatives are the world’s safest and most popular aircraft.

In modern ‘glass cockpit’ aircraft, pilots are expected to disregard their feel to a large extent and fly by what they see on their electronic instruments displayed in colour-coded cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and LED (light-emitting diode) screens. The early A320 accidents, following the type’s introduction, were mostly the result of pilots’ misinterpretation of these instruments. This was the man-machine interface.

But automation brought a host of other problems for human operators who now had to spend more time on monitoring duties, which in turn caused complacency and boredom. However improbable, automatics tend to fail at the most critical time. Because of this, during critical phases such as automatic landings, aircraft have either two or three autopilots monitoring each other.

The differences in basic autopilot philosophies of the two main big-jet manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, are that while Boeing strived to have the automatics ‘human-centred’ with flight control feedback to give an indication to the pilots as to what the autopilots are doing, Airbus airplanes’ controls didn’t move at all, with pilots having to constantly update their situational awareness by asking “What is it doing now?”

Situational awareness is knowing what is going on around you. To know whether the engines were spooling (powering) up or down, in the early days of the A320 – as incredible as it sounds – pilots kept their feet flat on the flight deck floor; unlike in Boeing aircraft, the Airbus engine throttles didn’t move in keeping with engine power, so an immediate underfloor (engine) vibration, or lack of it, gave a good indication of what the engines were doing.

Another basic difference was that the warning systems in the older Boeings told pilots what was wrong. Calling for the relevant checklist was left to the pilots’ judgement.

Later Boeings such as the 777 and the 787 Dreamliner have fallen in line with Airbus practice by prioritising checklists. In both types of aircraft, a statement commonly made by the pilots is: “I have never seen that happen before.” Both manufacturers absolve themselves by saying, “If unsure, fly manually or at an acceptable level of automation”. However, in all ‘fly by wire’ aircraft there is no real manual mode. (i.e.) No cables and pulleys. What the pilots do is to program the autopilot computers through their flight controls. Even the engines are controlled by an electronic ‘FADEC’ (Full Authority Digital Engine Control).

Besides, all this high technology in the flight deck has introduced more than 15 audio warnings in the form of synthetic voices, bells, and whistles which the pilots have to identify by memory, differentiate, and carry out a split-second rectification action. Identifying the warnings incorrectly could be a matter of life and death.

Such was the case in the Helios Airways Boeing 737 crash in August 2005. During routine pre-flight maintenance, automatic cabin pressurisation had been switched off by maintenance engineers in order to run a test; but the disabled system had been overlooked by the pilots when carrying out their pre-flight checks. On the climb-out, when the Cabin High Altitude audio warning horn sounded, the pilots identified it as the Take-off Configuration Warning horn and did nothing as they were climbing out safely and not in the take-off phase. Consequently, everyone on board was starved of oxygen at high altitude, becoming unconscious or dying before the aircraft, flying on autopilot, crashed when its fuel supply eventually ran out.

In another incident, an Air France Airbus A330 aircraft operating from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed in the Atlantic Ocean (June 2009) after encountering a heavy thunderstorm. The synthetic voice and an attention-getting bell sounded no less than 75 times, alerting the crew that they were falling out of the sky, before the aircraft descended to its watery doom. Why did the crew not react? Was there the ‘startle factor’? Was it a matter of inexperience and inadequate training? It all happened in the space of six vital minutes. The human factors element involved in that crash is the subject of an entire book.

INTO THE FUTURE

The Pilot/Aircraft interaction is through the Flight Management System (FMS) in the long term and directly to the Autopilot in the short term. According to many experts, the aircraft automation of today, while being quite smart, cannot be called ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI).

The systems still rely on data that has been defined by fallible human beings (the old computing adage: “Garbage in, garbage out)”.

Pilots are taught to operate modern aircraft on a ‘need to know’ basis due to economic pressures. Keeping a pilot in a classroom for a comprehensive ‘nuts and bolts’ program or simulator session is a loss of productivity.

While on the subject of automation, one of the ‘coolest’ devices the writer found in the Boeing 747 aircraft was a warning light and an audio ‘ping’ that come on if no switch activation has taken place in the flight deck for a specific period of time, with the accompanying message saying, “Pilot Input required”. Cancelling the warning is itself a pilot action which silences the electronic ‘watchdog’ for a while. This effectively relieves boredom on long flight sectors while ensuring that pilots stay awake.

Many experts believe that to achieve ‘AI’ status in automation, as many possible scenarios to specific problems as possible could be fed into the on-board computers, which then will select the most appropriate solution in the case of an emergency. But more refinements to this need to be done. Without a confusing horn, could a voice warning such as “Cabin Pressure” have saved the Helios Airways crew and their passengers? Conversely, in the Air France crash the voice warning also urging the appropriate corrective action, e.g. “Stall. Stall. Get Nose Down”, would have helped.

In the present context, the performance of ‘Stone Age’ human operators are still limited by hunger, humidity, lack of sleep, vibration, stress, fatigue, jetlag, optical illusions and spatial disorientation. There is a long way to go in addressing all of these factors. Airline managements, which are often ‘bottom line only’-orientated, still indulge in ‘penny pinching’ and ‘pilot pushing’, thereby contributing additional mental and physical stresses to crewmembers.

Quick turnarounds, minimum rest, inadequate time to unwind among friends and relatives, inappropriate financial inducement to fly on days off which are planned for the specific purpose of reducing cumulative fatigue, are some of the challenges that the airline industry faces today. The chances of making mistakes are greater in such environments.

Each individual is different, and therefore the lowest common denominator may have to be considered by the regulators. Human intelligence and the ability to make mistakes are two sides of the same coin. According to many experts, a ‘zero error’ target in air operations is impossible to achieve. What should be in place is an ‘error tolerant’ system, where human errors are detected, trapped and mitigated. The ICAO recommends that rather than being reactive, the industry should be proactive, predictive and preventive. Understanding the cause behind the cause of incidents and accidents, in terms of human factors is the Final Frontier.

In the more advanced Airbus airplanes not only did the warning tell you what was wrong but followed the pilot through a series of tasks to bring the unserviceable system back to an acceptable level of serviceability.

(The writer is a retired Airline Captain. He was a Human Factors and CRM facilitator for a Far Eastern airline, and has flown Lockheed L-1011, Boeings 737, 707 & 747, and Airbus A320, A330 & A340.aircraft.

Former member of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAASL) Accident Investigation Team. The incumbent OPA representative for ‘Aviation’.)

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Features

Concept of living wage and cost of living

Published

14 hours ago

2026/04/29

Sahan Weerasooriya

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) now defines a living wage as the wage level necessary for workers and their families to afford a decent standard of living, given national circumstances, for normal hours of work. This standard of living is operationalised through the cost of essential goods and services, typically including food, housing, healthcare, education, transport, and a modest allowance for contingencies and social participation.

In contrast, “cost of living” in economics is a broader price index concept that tracks the overall prices of a representative consumption basket but is not inherently normative about what constitutes decency or dignity.

Living wage methodologies effectively translate a cost-of-living basket, specified for a given family size and living standard, into a monthly income requirement for workers, thereby linking real wages to human development objectives rather than only to market productivity.

Methodologies for computing a living wage

Most contemporary living wage estimates follow a structured “cost of a basic but decent life” approach built around three steps: defining a reference family, costing a normative consumption basket, and converting that cost into a wage per worker.

The Anker methodology, widely used in global supply chains and in Sri Lanka, is a leading example: it defines a model family (e.g., 2 adults and approximately 2–3 children), estimates the cost of a low-cost nutritious diet, adequate housing, and non-food essentials, and then allocates that cost over expected number of full-time workers per family.

Within the Anker framework, the food component is based on locally appropriate diets meeting caloric and nutritional norms, priced using local market surveys and adjusted for waste and home preparation.

Housing costs are derived from standards for minimally acceptable housing (e.g., durable materials, sufficient space, basic services), using rents or imputed rental values from empirical fieldwork. Other essential expenditures, health, education, transport, clothing, and a small margin for unexpected events, are typically estimated as a percentage mark-up over food and housing costs, derived from national household survey data.

Finally, the methodology sets a reference number of workers per family, divides total family living costs by this number to get a net living wage, and then adjusts to a gross living wage by adding payroll taxes and mandatory deductions. Periodic updates are made using consumer price indices (CPIs) to reflect inflation or deflation and, where necessary, new field surveys to capture structural shifts in prices and consumption patterns.

Sri Lanka’s living wage estimates and their link to cost of living (Anker Methodology)

Sri Lanka has been the subject of several living wage studies, notably for the tea estate sector and for urban and rural areas, using the Anker methodology.

In the tea estate sector, an updated 2024 Anker report estimates the cost of a “basic but decent” standard of living for a typical family at about LKR 78,067 per month (approximately USD 260), implying a gross living wage of LKR 48,584 per month (USD 160) and a net, take-home living wage of LKR 44,357.

For urban Sri Lanka, the Anker Living Wage Reference Value was originally set at LKR 84,231 per month in April 2022, corresponding to a net living wage of LKR 77,492 plus social security contributions. After cumulative inflation of about 36.9 percent between April 2022 and June 2025, the updated gross urban living wage is estimated at approximately LKR 115,291 per month (around USD 385), consisting of a net living wage of LKR 106,068 and social security contributions of LKR 9,223

These Sri Lankan figures are explicitly derived from cost-of-living calculations: they incorporate the cost of food, housing, utilities, health, education, and other essentials at local prices and then convert these into wages per adult worker, assuming roughly 1.7–1.8 full-time earners per family. Because living wage estimates are indexed to actual price dynamics, periods of high inflation, as Sri Lanka experienced in 2022–2023, translate almost mechanically into sharp upward revisions in living wages, underlining the tight coupling between living wage levels and the evolving cost of living.

Comparative living wages: Sri Lanka and other countries

Cross-country comparisons require careful normalisation because living wages reflect local prices, family structures, and social norms, but several datasets provide a structured basis for comparison. [asia.floorwage](https://asia.floorwage.org/living-wage/calculating-a-living-wage/)

The Asia Floor Wage Alliance, for example, publishes a regional living wage benchmark expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, with a 2024 benchmark of 1,750.54 PPP dollars per month converted into local currencies using country-specific PPP exchange rates.

Using this PPP-based approach, the 2024 living wage equivalent for Sri Lanka is estimated at around LKR 158,353 per month, assuming a PPP exchange rate of about 90.5 Sri Lankan rupees per PPP dollar.

This PPP-normalised figure is substantially higher than the Anker 2024–2025 estate-sector and urban living wage estimates in nominal rupees, partly because the Asia Floor Wage benchmark is set to ensure a more harmonised standard across Asian garment-producing economies and uses a single PPP wage target.

These figures indicate that, within this PPP-based framework, Sri Lanka’s living wage in local currency is relatively high compared to countries such as India and Bangladesh, but the comparison reflects both different PPP exchange rates and domestic price structures.

From a cost-of-living perspective, this pattern is consistent with Sri Lanka being a lower-middle-income country with relatively higher prices for some essentials compared with low-income South Asian economies, especially after recent macroeconomic and inflationary shocks.

Global patterns and high-income economies

Global datasets covering more than 200 countries show that typical-family living wage levels, whether calculated in PPP or nominal terms, tend to correlate positively with national income levels, with North America, Western Europe, and Australia displaying the highest living wage values.

In this global distribution, living wages in middle- and low-income regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America are lower in absolute terms, though the ratio of living wage to median wages or statutory minimum wages can be high, underscoring the gap between decent-work standards and prevailing labour market outcomes.

Interestingly, some studies note that rural living wage estimates can be relatively high in poorer countries because limited infrastructure and service availability raise the cost of accessing a given standard of living, such as safe water, transport, and education.

For Sri Lanka, rural Anker living wage benchmarks similarly reveal the importance of non-food costs, such as transportation to schools, health facilities, and workplaces, in shaping the total family budget, despite lower nominal rents in many rural areas.

Living wage, social policy, and Sri Lanka’s development trajectory

The emerging international consensus around a living wage is rooted in the human rights-based notion of a “decent life” rather than a subsistence minimum or an arbitrarily set statutory floor.

From a social science perspective, incorporating living wage benchmarks into wage-setting institutions, collective bargaining, and social dialogue reorients labour markets toward social reproduction, intergenerational mobility, and social cohesion, rather than merely cost competitiveness.

For Sri Lanka, where recent crises have eroded real wages and increased household vulnerability, living wage estimates such as the Anker urban and estate-sector benchmarks provide an analytically rigorous yardstick for evaluating whether current wage policies and social transfers are adequate relative to the actual cost of a basic but decent life.

Comparisons with regional PPP-based benchmarks like the Asia Floor Wage suggest that, while Sri Lanka’s living wage requirement in local currency is relatively high, the country also faces significant affordability challenges, especially for low-paid workers in export sectors and informal employment, whose earnings often fall short of these normative thresholds.

In policy terms, the living wage framework highlights the need for coordinated approaches that combine wage-setting reforms, inflation-sensitive social protection, and productivity-enhancing investments, so that rising living-cost-consistent wages do not simply translate into inflationary spirals or employment losses.

For empirical research in Sri Lanka, these benchmarks open avenues for micro-level analysis of wage gaps, household coping strategies, gendered labour outcomes, and the distributional effects of macroeconomic adjustment, all anchored to a transparent and internationally recognised living wage methodology.

(The writer, a senior Chartered Accountant and professional banker, is Professor at SLIIT, Malabe. The views and opinions expressed in this article are personal.)

Features

Buddhist philosophy and the path to lasting peace

Published

14 hours ago

2026/04/29

Sahan Weerasooriya

Echoes of ‘The Walk for Peace’

The international Walk for Peace’ reaching Colombo, joined by a large number of monks and devotees, led by spiritual leader Ven Bhikku Pannakara, with the peace dog ‘Aloka,’ completing the 161 km journey.The walk commenced in Dambulla on April 22 following the main ceremony at the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura.Pic by Nishan S.Priyantha

by Ven. Dr. Kirinde Assaji Nayaka Thero
Chief Incumbent, Gangaramaya Temple, Hunupitiya, Colombo

Throughout human history, one of the greatest and most complex challenges has been the establishment of lasting peace and the maintenance of harmonious coexistence. While peace is often understood simply as the absence of war or armed conflict, a deeper, spiritual perspective reveals it as a profound state of social and mental harmony. It is an ideal that must be cultivated within individuals as well as across societies.

Buddhism offers one of the most practical and timeless philosophies of peace. The teachings of the Buddha are rooted in non-violence and the four sublime virtues—loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Central to this philosophy is the idea that true peace in the world begins with inner peace within the individual. Conflict, the Buddha taught, arises not on battlefields but within the human mind, driven by greed, hatred, and delusion. Without overcoming these negative forces, lasting peace in the external world remains unattainable.

In today’s world, marked by geopolitical tensions, economic competition, and social unrest—this inward approach to peace is more relevant than ever. Despite technological advancement, humanity continues to grapple with violence and division. The Buddha’s teaching points instead to an internal struggle: a battle against anger, jealousy, and ignorance. Rather than weapons of destruction, Buddhism promotes wisdom, compassion, patience, and discipline as the tools to overcome conflict.

The path to peace begins with understanding its causes. Just as muddy water becomes clear when left undisturbed, the human mind achieves clarity and calm when negative emotions are subdued. This principle is reflected in the Buddha’s intervention during a historic dispute between the Sakya and Koliya clans over water, where he reminded them of the greater value of human life, thereby preventing bloodshed.

In a world increasingly threatened by conflict over limited resources and political power, such lessons remain highly relevant. The Buddha also emphasised the principle of moral causation—actions have consequences.

Yadisaṃ vapate bijaṃ tadisaṃ harate phalaṃ
Kalyaāṇakariī kalyaṃ papakariī ca papakaṃ
Pavutthaṃ tata te bijaṃ phalaṃ paccanubhossasiti

“As one sows the seed, so does one reap the fruit.

The doer of good receives good results, and the doer of evil receives evil results.

Dear one, whatever seed you have planted, you will experience the corresponding fruit of it.”

At the heart of Buddhist ethics is respect for life. All beings fear harm and seek happiness, and therefore, violence against others cannot lead to true well-being. This message is particularly significant in an era where the race for power and advanced weaponry continues to overshadow compassion and humanity.

The fundamental moral discipline in Buddhism is respect for life and opposition to harming living beings. The Buddha taught that all beings desire happiness, and fear suffering, and that harming others will not lead to happiness.

Sabbe tasanti dandassa
sabbe bhayanti maccuno
attanam upamam katva
na haneyya na ghataye.

“All tremble at violence; all fear death. Comparing others with oneself, one should neither kill nor cause others to kill.”

Despite technological advancement, the world appears to be moving backwards in terms of compassion and peace. Power-driven politics and the race for advanced weaponry cannot provide lasting solutions. Global leaders, diplomats, and policymakers must urgently recognise the importance of the tolerant, balanced, and non-violent approach taught in Buddhism. Protecting the right to life of all beings, and acting with compassion beyond divisions of race, religion, or politics, is the only true foundation for world peace.

Sri Lanka, as a nation nourished by the essence of Buddhism, has long upheld this principle. The Sri Lankan tradition, rooted in boundless loving-kindness and compassion, strives to uphold human values even amidst the harsh realities of global politics. From the respect shown by King Dutugemunu towards King Elara, to Sri Lanka’s stance at the 1951 San Francisco Peace Conference invoking the words “Hatred is never appeased by hatred,” to recent humanitarian acts in rescuing sailors in distress—these all reflect a single philosophy: valuing human life above all divisions.

The presentation of a “Joint Declaration for Peace” by the Mahanayake Theros at Gangaramaya Temple recently reaffirmed Sri Lanka’s commitment to global peace. Despite global power struggles, Sri Lanka continues to stand as a symbol of compassion and peace, reminding the world that human kindness is more powerful than weapons.

Institutions such as the Gangaramaya Temple have played a vital role in fostering social harmony. Through charitable, educational, and cultural programmes, the temple has encouraged unity across religious and ethnic lines, while also promoting interfaith dialogue and cooperation.

The annual Navam Maha Perahera, organised by the temple, stands as a powerful symbol of national unity, bringing together people from diverse backgrounds in a shared celebration. Similarly, vocational training and educational initiatives have helped empower young people from all communities, strengthening social cohesion.

A recent “Walk for Peace,” led by Venerable Pannakara Thero and supported by the monastic community, further underscored this commitment. More than a physical journey, it represented a spiritual effort to cultivate peace within the human heart and spread a message of compassion to the wider world.

One of the most touching aspects of the event was the participation of a dog named “Aloka,” which accompanied the monks throughout the journey. This simple yet powerful image reflected the Buddhist teaching that all living beings value life and deserve compassion, highlighting the universal nature of peace.

Ultimately, the Buddha’s message remains clear: peace cannot be achieved through hatred or violence. True peace arises from self-discipline, moral conduct, and the cultivation of a pure mind. As the teaching states, avoiding evil, doing good, and purifying one’s mind is the path laid down by the Buddha.

Let us plant the seeds of peace within our hearts and nurture them with loving-kindness. (“Sabba papassa akarananṃ – kusalassa upasampadā – sacitta pariyodapanaṃ – etaṃ Buddhana sasanaṃ”)

In a time when global tensions continue to rise, this timeless message serves as a powerful reminder that lasting peace begins within each individual—and that compassion remains humanity’s greatest strength.

“Devo vassatu kalena – sassa sampatti hetu ca
Pito bhavatu loko ca – rajaā bhavatu dhammiko”

(“May the rains fall at the right time, bringing about abundant harvests.

May the world be joyful and prosperous.

May the ruler be righteous and just.”)

Features

Peace march and promise of reconciliation

Published

2 days ago

2026/04/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Peace walk in progress

The ongoing peace march by a group of international Buddhist monks has captured the sentiment of Sri Lankans in a manner that few public events have done in recent times. It is led by the Vietnamese monk Venerable Thich Pannakara who is associated with a mindfulness movement that has roots in Vietnamese Buddhist practice and actively promoted among diaspora communities in the United States. The peace march by the monks, accompanied by their mascot, the dog Aloka, has generated affection and goodwill within the Buddhist and larger community. It follows earlier peace walks in the United States where monks carried a similar message of mindfulness and compassion across communities but without any government or even media patronage as in Sri Lanka.

This initiative has the potential to unfold into an effort to nurture a culture of peace in Sri Lanka. Such a culture is necessary if the country as the country prepares to move beyond its history of conflict towards a more longlasting reconciliation and a political solution to its ethnic and religious divisions. The government’s support for the peace march can be seen as part of a broader attempt to shape such a culture. The Clean Sri Lanka programme, promoted by the government as a civic responsibility campaign focused on environmental cleanliness, ethical conduct and social discipline, provides a useful framework within which such initiatives can be situated. Its emphasis on collective responsibility and shared public space makes it sit well with the values that peacebuilding requires.

government’s previous plan to promote a culture of peace was on the occasion of “Sri Lanka Day” celebrations which were scheduled to take place on December 12-14 last year but was disrupted by Cyclone Ditwah. The Sri Lanka Day celebrations were to include those talented individuals from each and every community at the district level who had excelled in some field or the other, such as science, business or arts and culture and selected by the District Secretariats in each of the 25 districts. They were to gather in Colombo to engage in cultural performances and community-focused exhibitions. The government’s intention was to build up a discourse around the ideas of unity in diversity as a precursor to addressing the more contentious topics of human rights violations during the war period, and issues of accountability and reparations for wrongs suffered during that dark period.

Positive Response

The invitation to the international monks appears to have emerged from within Buddhist religious networks in Sri Lanka that have long maintained links with the larger international Buddhist community. The strong support extended by leading temples and clergy within the country, including the Buddhists Mahanayakes indicates that this was not an isolated effort but one that resonated with the mainstream Buddhist establishment. Indeed, the involvement of senior Buddhist leaders has been particularly noteworthy. A Joint Declaration for Peace in the world, drawing on Sri Lanka’s own experience, and by the Mahanayakes of all Buddhist Chapters took place in the context of the ongoing peace march at the Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo, with participation from the diplomatic community. The declaration, calling for compassion, dialogue and sustainable peace, reflects an effort by religious leadership to assert a moral voice in favour of coexistence.

The popular response to the peace march has also been striking. Large numbers of people have been gathering along the route, offering flowers, water and support to the monks. Schoolchildren have been lining the roads, and communities from different religious backgrounds extend hospitality. On the way, the monks were hosted by both a Hindu temple and a mosque, where food and refreshments were provided. These acts, though simple, carry a message about the possibility of harmony among Sri Lanka’s diverse communities. It helps to counter the perception that the Buddhist community in Sri Lanka is inherently nationalist and resistant to minority concerns that was shaped during the decades of war and reinforced by political mobilisation that too often exploited ethnic identity.

By way of contrast, the peace march offers a different image. It shows a readiness among ordinary people to embrace values of compassion and coexistence that are deeply embedded in Buddhist teaching. The Metta Sutta, one of the most well-known discourses in Buddhism, calls for boundless goodwill towards all beings. It states that one should cultivate a mind that is “boundless towards all beings, free from hatred and ill will.” This emphasis on universal compassion provides a moral foundation for peace that extends beyond national or ethnic boundaries. The monks themselves emphasised this point repeatedly during the walk. Venerable Thich Pannakara reminded those who gathered that while acts of generosity are commendable, mindfulness in everyday life is even more important. He warned that as people become unmindful, they are more prone to react with anger and hatred, thereby contributing to conflict.

More Initiatives

The presence of political leaders at key moments of the march has emphasised the significance that the government attaches to the event. Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya paid her respects to the peace march monks in Kandy, while President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is expected to do so at the conclusion of the march in Colombo. Such gestures signal an alignment between political authority and moral aspiration, even if the translation of that aspiration into policy remains a work in progress. At the same time, the peace march has not been without its shortcomings. The walk did not engage with the Northern and Eastern parts of the country, regions that were most affected by the war and where the need for reconciliation is most acute. A more inclusive geographic reach would have strengthened the symbolic impact of the initiative.

In addition, the positive impact of the peace march could have been increased if more effort had been taken to coordinate better with other civic and religious groups and include them in the event. Many civil society and religious harmony groups who would have liked to participate in the peace march found themselves unable to do so. There was no place in the programme for them to join. Even government institutions tasked with promoting social cohesion and reconciliation found themselves outside the loop. The Clean Sri Lanka Task Force that organised the peace march may have felt that involving other groups would have made it more complicated to organise the events which have proceeded without problems.

The hope is that the positive energy and goodwill generated by this peace march will not dissipate but will instead inspire further initiatives with the requisite coordination and leadership. The march has generated public discussion, drawn attention to the values of mindfulness and compassion, and created a space in which people can imagine a different future. It has been a special initiative among the many that are needed to build a culture of peace. A culture of peace cannot be imposed from above nor can it emerge overnight. It needs to be nurtured through multiple efforts across society, including education, religious engagement, civic initiatives and political reform. It is within such a culture that the more difficult questions of power sharing, justice and reconciliation can be addressed in a constructive manner.

by Jehan Perera