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.