Features
Felicitation of an internationally reputed Buddhist Scholar
By Ven. Siri Vajiraramaye Ñānasīha
On February 2nd 2025, many academics, researchers and well-wishers of all faiths will be gathering at the Jasmine Committee Room of the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall to felicitate a renowned, internationally reputed Buddhist scholar of recent times. He is Emeritus Professor Asanga Tilakaratne, in the lineage of eminent scholars of recent times commencing with late Professors G.P. Malalasekera, O.H. de A. Wijesekera, K.N. Jayatilake, Jotiya Dhirasekera (later Venerable Prof. Dhammavihari) followed by Professor Y. Karunadasa, Professor David J. Kalupahana, Professor P.D. Premasiri to name only a few. I am privileged to have associated with all of them during my university days at Peradeniya in late 1950s and later.
It was late Professor Jotiya Dhirasekera, serving then as the Chief Editor of the Buddhist Encyclopedia, who introduced a very bright spark who had joined the editorial staff as his Research Assistant. That was young Asanga Tilakaratne, soft spoken, much loved with a sharp mind bent on research. His later academic achievements, surpassing those of his own teachers, were more than adequate to justify the remarks made. To his credit are articles on Kamma, Kathāvatthu, Logic, Mysticism, Nihilism, Pragmatism and Sacca appearing in the monumental Buddhist Encyclopedia of which the first Chief Editor was late Professor G.P. Malalsekera. Since 2021, he holds the post of Chief Editor of the Buddhist Encyclopedia.
Emeritus Professor Asanga Tilakaratne comes from the deep South. Born in 1952, he had his secondary education at the H/Debarawewa Central College, close to his parental home in Tissamaharamaya. He received monastic education at Mallikaramaya, Ratmalana, and at Siri Vajirañāṇa Dharmayatanaya, Maharagama, ending with the Prācīna Pandit degree. For further studies, he entered the Buddha Sravaka Dharma Pīṭhaya, Anuradhapura (known today as Sri Lanka Bhikkhu University) as a first batch student. He completed his four-year Tripiṭakavedī course of studies with a First Class. Soon after, he entered the University of Peradeniya and on completing his studies there, he received the East-West Center Graduate Fellowship from the University of Hawai, where he studied Western Philosophy. The thesis for his doctoral degree in comparable philosophy is now printed with title, ‘Nirvana and Ineffability: A Study of the Buddhist Theory of Reality and Language’. That was in 1992 when he was 40 years of age, the beginning of the paññā dasaka, the wise decade, according to the Visuddhimagga classification of life of a person in decades.
In Professor Asanga’s voyage of academic life, he himself being very learned (bahussuto), it was the beginning of a career with the learned. In 2000, he was at the Oxford University as a Commonwealth Fellow and a visiting scholar at Wolfson College. In 2012 he received the Research Excellence Award in Arts and Humanities Division of the University of Colombo, and two years later the Council of Vice-Chancellors and Directors Sri Lanka (CVCD), awarded Professor Tilakaratne the Excellence Award as most outstanding Senior Researcher in the Field of Humanities, Aesthetics and Social Sciences.
In the academic world he will always be remembered for his achievement in getting the Buddhist Studies Unit of the University of Colombo developed to a full-fledged department of the University. With the shifting of the University of Ceylon, which was the only university in Sri Lanka then, to Peradeniya in 1952, and the beginning of the university obsession in the 1960s with universities mushrooming to 17, the newly established University of Colombo lost the Department of Pali to the University of Kelaniya. A seed was planted by Professor Y. Karunadasa, when he spent his sabbatical at the University of Colombo by starting a Buddhist Studies Unit. To the credit of Professor Asanga Tilakaratne it has developed to the current high standard academically. He was the Senior Chair Professor of that department at the time he retired from university service in 2018.
He is recognised world-wide as a Buddhist scholar of repute and has been Visiting Professor of many foreign Universities. During the academic year 2007-2008, he was Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology, Yonsei University, Korea; and in 2015, he was Visiting Professor at the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Otago, New Zealand. In 2017, he was the Khyentse Visiting Professor at Department of Pali, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Maharashtra, India. More recently, during 2018/2019 he was at Sitagu International Buddhist Academy, Sagaing and in 2020 at Nalanda University, Rajgir, India.
Nearly 200 papers have been presented by him at seminars and conferences worldwide. These include keynote addresses, position papers, memorial lectures and orations, inter-religious dialogues etc. mainly at Universities and Research Institutes in India, Myanmar, Thailand, Japan, Spain, Italy, Norway, Germany, Korea and Indonesia. Very distinctive was his participation as the Invited Buddhist Guest at the International Conference on Religious Dialogue held in October, 2000, in the Vatican City, Rome, to mark the 2000 Millennium.
Thanks to the efforts of some of his colleagues and pupils, much of the writings of Professor Asanga Tilakaratne are available in print. The Editorial Committee has done an excellent job by grouping them under specific disciplines before printing. There are 69 articles published in Sinhala in three volumes of 300 pages each and grouped under Bauddha Darśanaya hā Ācāravidyāva, Bauddha Sāhitya hā Saṅskrutiya, and Bauddha Nūtanatva Adyayanaya. The articles in English are published in five volumes. Volume I relates to Buddhist Philosophy (400 pgs.), Volume II to Buddhist Ethics (343 pgs.), Volume III to Theravāda Studies (204 pgs), Volume IV to Buddhism and Modernity (361 pgs.) and Volume V to Inter-Religious Understanding (171 pgs.). Articles in English printed thus total 103. Both Sinhala and English volumes include references to primary and secondary sources; subject and proper name indexes, thereby increasing their value to future researchers. The Editorial Note has this to say: “Although Professor Tilakaratne had his professional academic training in the Buddhist philosophy of language and philosophy of religion, his wide range of interests and the needs of the Buddhist academic field in the country have made him venture into many aspects of Buddhist studies as this multi-volume collection would testify.”
A true scholar has no retiring age. One may retire from a job on reaching the age specified, but it is not a retirement from one’s academic pursuits. I find that Professor Tilakaratne is engaged in academic work more than when in university service. He has converted his retirement to his advantage. As Visiting Scholar of Infosys (a global leader in next generation digital services and consulting) at Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, he completed a study on the Kathāvatthu, which has been published and will be introduced at the felicitation function. At Pune University he delivered ten lectures on the Milindapaṇha and is being prepared as a book. In 2023, India Sahitya Academy granted him the Ananda Coomaraswamy Fellowship under which he delivered lectures at universities in different parts of India. Most recently he was appointed Dean of Graduate Studies, at Nāgānanda University, Manelwatta, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
Professor Tilakeratne is the founder and now chairman of a unique organisation he started in 2003: Damrivi Foundation, Isipatana Mawatha, Colombo 05. I asked him what made him conceptualise such an organisation. His reply: “Two things: one was that many Buddhist organizations do only some types of social work while they duplicate what monks do and are more concerned about positions, not trying to use Buddhist teaching/insights for daily life. The other is that professionals and academics are hesitant to identify with Buddhism.”
Prof. Tilakeratne has succeeded in his endeavours and today Damrivi Foundation is undoubtedly recognised for its work as ‘an effort to create by making use of the teachings of the Buddha, a society of people with inner stability, compassion and wisdom.’ It offers a range of services including Studies in the Dhamma; counselling with Buddhist insight; guided meditation; academic programmes and Buddhist tours in Sri Lanka, India, and elsewhere. It is a not-for-profit organisation that is operated by a Board of Trustees who serve totally voluntarily, assisted by paid staff and volunteers. Its services are available to all irrespective of religious, ethnic or cultural differences. I would say that the vision and mission of Professor Asanga Tilakaratne has become the vision and mission of Damrivi Foundation, a boon to this country.
Emeritus Professor Asanga Tilakaratne, a rare personality with rare qualities, will be felicitated at the BMICH Jasmine Committee Room, on February 2nd. A special event will be the conferring of an honorific title by the Rāmañña Maha Nikāya. He is still young at 72 and has 18 more years to equal my age. May I wish him long life, good health and peace of mind to continue with his good work for the welfare and benefit of all, including himself, and the perpetuation of the Buddhasāsana. He is both a kalyanamitta and a sappurisa in the definition of the Buddha.
The most urgent need for the South Asian region right now, in the wake of the cold-blooded killing by gunmen of nearly 30 local tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir two days back, is the initiation of measures that could ensure regional stability and peace. The state actors that matter most in this situation are India and Pakistan and it would be in the best interests of the region for both countries to stringently refrain from succumbing to knee-jerk reactions in the face of any perceived provocations arising from the bloodshed.
The consequences for the countries concerned and the region could be grave if the terror incident leads to stepped-up friction and hostility between India and Pakistan. Some hardline elements in India, for instance, are on record in the international media as calling on the Indian state to initiate tough military action against Pakistan for the Kashmiri terror in question and a positive response to such urgings could even lead to a new India-Pakistan war.
Those wishing South Asia well are likely to advocate maximum restraint by both states and call for negotiations by them to avert any military stand-offs and conflicts that could prove counter-productive for all quarters concerned. This columnist lends his pen to such advocacy.
Right now in Sri Lanka, nationalistic elements in the country’s South in particular are splitting hairs over an MoU relating to security cooperation Sri Lanka has signed with India. Essentially, the main line of speculation among these sections is that Sri Lanka is coming under the suzerainty of India, so to speak, in the security sphere and would be under its dictates in the handling of its security interests. In the process, these nationalistic sections are giving fresh life to the deep-seated anti-India phobia among sections of the Sri Lankan public. The eventual result will be heightened, irrational hostility towards India among vulnerable, unenlightened Sri Lankans.
Nothing new will be said if the point is made that such irrational fears with respect to India are particularly marked among India’s smaller neighbouring states and their publics. Needless to say, collective fears of this kind only lead to perpetually strained relations between India and her neighbours, resulting in regional disunity, which, of course would not be in South Asia’s best interests.
SAARC is seen as ‘dead’ by some sections in South Asia and its present dysfunctional nature seems to give credence to this belief. Continued friction between India and Pakistan is seen as playing a major role in such inner paralysis and this is, no doubt, the main causative factor in SARRC’s current seeming ineffectiveness.
However, the widespread anti-India phobia referred to needs to be factored in as playing a role in SAARC’s lack of dynamism and ‘life’ as well. If democratic governments go some distance in exorcising such anti-Indianism from their people’s psyches, some progress could be made in restoring SAARC to ‘life’ and the latter could then play a constructive role in defusing India-Pakistan tensions.
It does not follow that if SAARC was ‘alive and well’, security related incidents of the kind that were witnessed in India-administered Kashmir recently would not occur. This is far from being the case, but if SAARC was fully operational, the states concerned would be in possession of the means and channels of resolving the issues that flow from such crises with greater amicability and mutual accommodation.
Accordingly, the South Asian Eight would be acting in their interests by seeking to restore SAARC back to ‘life’. An essential task in this process is the elimination of mutual fear and suspicion among the Eight and the states concerned need to do all that they could to eliminate any fixations and phobias that the countries have in relation to each other.
It does not follow from the foregoing that the SAARC Eight should not broad base their relations and pull back from fostering beneficial ties with extra-regional countries and groupings that have a bearing on their best interests. On the contrary, each SAARC country’s ties need to be wide-ranging and based on the principle that each such state would be a friend to all countries and an enemy of none as long as the latter are well-meaning.
The foregoing sharp focus on SAARC and its fortunes is necessitated by the consideration that the developmental issues in particular facing the region are best resolved by the region itself on the basis of its multiple material and intellectual resources. The grouping should not only be revived but a revisit should also be made to its past programs; particularly those which related to intra-regional conflict resolution. Thus, talking to each other under a new visionary commitment to SAARC collective wellbeing is crucially needed.
On the question of ties with India, it should be perceived by the latter’s smaller neighbours that there is no getting away from the need to foster increasingly closer relations with India, today a number one global power.
This should not amount to these smaller neighbours surrendering their rights and sovereignty to India. Far from it. On the contrary these smaller states should seek to craft mutually beneficial ties with India. It is a question of these small states following a truly Non-aligned foreign policy and using their best diplomatic and political skills to structure their ties with India in a way that would be mutually beneficial. It is up to these neighbours to cultivate the skills needed to meet these major challenges.
Going ahead, it will be in South Asia’s best interests to get SAARC back on its feet once again. If this aim is pursued with visionary zeal and if SAARC amity is sealed once and for all intra-regional friction and enmities could be put to rest. What smaller states should avoid scrupulously is the pitting of extra-regional powers against India and Pakistan in their squabbles with either of the latter. This practice has been pivotal in bringing strife and contention into South Asia and in dividing the region against itself.
Accordingly, the principal challenge facing South Asia is to be imbued once again with the SAARC spirit. The latter spirit’s healing powers need to be made real and enduring. Thus will we have a region truly united in brotherhood and peace.
The British School in Colombo celebrated the 2025 Sinhala and Tamil New Year with the traditional rites and rituals and customs unique to the island nation, during a special Avurudu Assembly held at the school premises.
Students from all over the world, who are part of The British School in Colombo, gathered to celebrate this joyous event.
The special assembly featured traditional song and dance items from talented performers of both the Junior and Senior Schools.
On this particular day, the teachers and students were invited to attend school in Sri Lankan national costume and, among the traditional rituals celebrated, was the boiling of the milk and the tradition of Ganu-Denu.
Boiling of
the milk
In the meanwhile, a group of swimmers from Lyceum International School, Wattala, visited Australia to participate in the Global-ISE International Swimming Training Programme in Melbourne.
Over the course of 10 days, the swimmers followed an advanced training schedule and attended sessions at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC), Victoria’s Nunawading Swimming Club, and Camberwell Grammar School.
In addition to their training, the group also explored Melbourne, with visits to key landmarks, such as the Parliament House and the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), along with city tours and cultural experiences.
Traditional dance item
Tug-of-war contest
On arrival in Melbourne, Lyceum International School, Wattala, with Sri Lankan officials
Got a few more beauty tips to give you … for a perfect complexion, or, let’s say, a healthy skin.
* Honey Face Mask:
Take a tablespoon of raw honey and then warm it up by rubbing it with your fingertips. Apply the warm honey all over your face. Let this natural mask stand for about 10 minutes and then wash it off gently with warm water.
* Coconut Milk Face Mask:
You need to squeeze coconut milk out of a grated raw coconut and apply this milk all over your face, including your lips.
(This will help you gain a glowing skin. It is one of the best natural tips for skin care)
* Orange, Lemon, and Yoghurt Moisturiser:
To prepare this moisturiser, you need a tablespoon of orange juice, a tablespoon of lemon juice and a cup of plain yoghurt.
Mix them together and apply the paste all over your face, leaving it as a mask for 10 to 15 minutes. Next, take a damp handkerchief and use it to clean your face.
(This moisturiser brightens the complexion of your skin)
* Cucumber and Lemon:
Apply equal parts of cucumber and lemon juice on your face before taking a bath. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes before rinsing it off. This natural face beauty tip will brighten your skin tone and lighten blemishes if used on a regular basis. The best aspect is that it is appropriate for all skin types!
* Healthy Diet:
Aside from the effective home remedies, there are certain other factors to consider for skin care – and the first of them is your diet. Without the right nutrients, your skin cannot reverse the damage it suffers every day.
Eat fruits that are high in vitamin C because they contain antioxidants.
Adjust your diet to get the right amount of protein and unsaturated fats, as well as fresh green vegetables. All of this provides the right amount of nutrients so your skin can heal and improve itself naturally.
* Sun Protection and Care:
Another thing to keep in mind is not to step out of your home without sunscreen, especially with this awful heat we are experiencing at the moment. The hard rays of the sun can do you more damage than you could ever imagine.
By the way, you can prepare your own sunscreen lotion with glycerin, cucumber juice and rose water. You can also keep this lotion in the fridge.
“School Nutrition Programme’’to continue, without interruption
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