Features

W. S. Senior (1866-1938) – Ceylon owes him much

Published

2 years ago

2024/03/3

(Excerpted from Selected Journalism by HAJ Hulugalle)

The centenary of the birth of W. S. Senior falls on Friday, May 10. Some of my younger readers may well ask, who he was and why any notice should be taken of his hundredth birthday. Walter Stanley Senior came to Ceylon in 1906 and, when I first met him in 1910, he was Vice-Principal of Trinity College, Kandy. He was a fine classical scholar, a great teacher, a social worker and, although a Yorkshireman, Sri Lanka’s best poet.

In his writings he used “Lanka” for Ceylon long before our nationalists thought seriously of doing so. Here is a verse from Senior’s poem entitled The Call of Lanka:

I offer a voice, O Lanka,
I, child of an alien isle,
For my heart has heard thee, and kindled,
Mine eyes have seen thee, and smile;
Take, Foster-Mother, and use it;
Tis but for a little while.

He loved Ceylon with a greater love than anything we have bestowed upon her. Wherever he went, he yearned to come back to Lanka. He had a special place in his heart for the hills and streams around Kandy:

Yea, fair as Light is the Kandyan Land Yea, fair as Love her Youth,
The lads and maids of the golden glades; But yet more fair is Truth

Truth of the tongue, Truth of the hand, Truth of the Shrine and Mart;
Let Truth be King of the Kandyan Land, Lord of the Lion heart.

Senior had high hopes of the future, and believed that Lanka would find a poet

“of thine own children, born of thy womb.”

But most shall he sing of Lanka
In the brave new days that come.
When the races all have blended
And the voice of strife is dumb;
When we leap to a single bugle,
March to a single drum.

We cherish Senior’s poems because they were born of love for Ceylon and her people. One of them begins:

I am tormented with an holy torment,
In that I know not all the lore of Lanka,
Land of heart’s longing, leaving her forever,
I have not dreamed by every bay and headland
Where the bland Ocean, emerald and turquoise,
Pours to the palms white worship of the billows.

He proceeds to deplore his ignorance of the local languages:

Skill-less alas! Of either liquid language,
Tongues of deep music, Sinhalese and Tamil.
Little know I of the pulses of a People;

Know not the ancient Soul that built the cities,
Still-living Soul slow-seeping from the ruins;
I am tormented with an holy torment

After Trinity, Senior served as Lecturer in Western Classics at the Ceylon University College and Vicar of Christ Church, Galle Face. For health and family reasons he left for Europe when he was already an old man, and worked in Geneva and Kent in England. A poem called “Goodbye” began:

“So you’ve had enough of the tropics, and the back is
growing bent,
And the heart is not so buoyant and it’s time you packed and went.”

He recalls his favourite spots in Lanka when “the English climate’s chilly, and the English clouds are grey;” he remembers faces and concludes: “my soul, you will break with longing – it can never be Goodbye.”

Robert Crossette Thambiah and I, devoted old pupils of his, published these short poems in a slim volume called “Vita Magistra.” This pleased Senior greatly. In a letter dated March 2, 1937, he said:

“I am more than delighted with the book, that is its make-up and appearance. It shows infinite care, and beautiful taste. Let me congratulate as well as thank, which I do most sincerely and heartily. You have shown me a very unusual and exceptional kindness, which I cannot repay.”

What we had done, with the help of that brilliant Lake House Printer, the late Bernard de Silva, pleased him. But it was less than a hundredth part of what we and many others owed him in making our own lives happy and purposeful in the best sense of those words. He was more than a father to me at critical periods of my life. In the letter from which I have quoted, he proceeds:

“Do you know, for some unexplained reason my mind, as I sit here typing, flies back to that never-to-be-forgotten day when you and I sat together for some hours if I remember right, on a high rock above Kurunegala Rest-house, and talked over everything in heaven and earth. How many years ago was that ? And now you are what you are, and I am here, and you two have shown me loving kindness for which I thank God ….I am greatly interested in the additions you have made to your pleasant country house. One of the happiest and most vivid recollections of my visit a year ago, was the day I spent with you there I remember that the first sensation which came to me as the Maha Mudaliyar drove me from the Jetty to the Maligawa a year ago was the entire satisfaction given by the quality of the light and of the colours. I leaned back in the car and gave myself up to it.”

Senior’s wife was the daughter of a Bishop. While he was something of a genius and a restless character, she was one of the gentlest and kindest women anyone could meet. She was more than a second mother to many who knew her at Trinity. I have a sheaf of letters from her during the period 1932 to 1965. Their four children Hugh, Gerard, Margaret and Stella were delightful people.

Senior came to Trinity College, Kandy, as one of a brilliant team brought to the school by A. G. Fraser, after he became Principal. Fraser himself was a born leader and had he taken to politics, would have been a Cabinet Minister. He was the son of Sir Andrew Fraser, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. The others brought to Trinity included N. P. Campbell – an outstanding scientist – who gave first place in his life to social service, K. J. Saunders, a profound student of Buddhism, J. P. S. R. Gibson and A. M. Walmsley.

Fraser was a different type from Senior. He knew me and my family and I got on well with him but for a single caning. But he could ride roughshod and did not have the understanding of youth and compassion which Senior brought to his mission. He was however a dynamic force and Fraser of Trinity will be remembered as long as Arnold of Rugby.

The high quality of the men and women drawn to the Christian missions in Ceylon of every denomination, made a massive contribution to the formulation of leadership which was able to take over from the British twenty five years ago without mishap. The missionaries themselves felt that it was their duty to lift up subject people. A large proportion of these missionaries were armed with first classes from Oxford, Cambridge and other universities. Their names are familiar to my generation, Highfield of Wesley, Small of Richmond, Le Goc of St. Joseph’s, Miller and Stone of St. Thomas’ and McLeod Campbell and Stopford of Trinity of a later vintage than Senior’s.

One can go further back to the Kotte Institution which was founded before the Royal College or the Colombo Academy, as it was first called. The students turned out by the CMS College at Kotte included Sir Richard Morgan, James de Alwis, James Dunuwille, Deputy Queen’s Advocate, Mr. Dehigama, Kandyan representative in the Legislative Council, Maha Mudaliyar Louis de Zoysa, Anagarika Dharmapala and in some ways, the most famous of them all, Sir Muttu Coomaraswamy, the friend of Palmerston and Disraeli.

(This article was first published in April 1976)

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Features

Proactive peacemaking becomes a paramount need

Published

9 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Wasting wars: Some war-displaced people in Lebanon. BBC

It may be some time before the full impact of food inflation is felt in the West. Until such time the world would continue to keep itself in suspense over whether the Trump administration is in earnest when it seeks to convey the impression that it is backing a negotiated solution in West Asia.

As is usually the case, consumer stress would be one of the final determinants of political change. To the degree to which the average US consumer somehow ‘muddles through’ and puts the food on the table, to the same extent would the Republican sections of the US public in particular be tolerant of the Trump administration’s inconsistent handling of the West Asian war and the main issues stemming from it. That is, there would be no grave popular disaffection and a demand for political change in the short term.

However, the indications are that the Trump administration’s support base is suffering some erosion in the wake of the current economic crisis. While reports indicate that Democratic sections are firming-up their opposition to the political centre, Republican support for Trump is also showing signs of waning, we are given to understand.

The above developments are probably why Trump is on record as having given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘dressing down’ recently on his seeming intransigence on the question of giving negotiations a chance in West Asia. The show of displeasure could be really aimed by Trump at containing the impatience of the American public.

However, the current ground situation in the Middle East, particularly the uncontained bloodshed, is likely to impress on the thinking sections of the world that more than temporary political change is needed in West Asia and the US.

A well thought out political solution that addresses all the contentious issues at the heart of the Middle East conflict is what enlightened opinion would demand, and very rightly. Right now, the ‘peace efforts’ initiated by the Trump administration give the impression of being piecemeal solutions at best.

There have been, of course, numerous initiatives in the past aimed at bringing permanent peace to the Middle East. These failed mainly because they did not address in full the root causes of the conflict.

At bottom the Middle East conflict is mainly about race and religious hate bred by socio-economic and material inequalities. For instance, if the Palestinian people were not displaced and deprived of land occupied by them at the time of the founding of the Israeli state, ethnic enmities would not have grown to the current unmanageable proportions.

When addressing the above questions, though, it must be remembered that the Israelis too were a displaced people who were entitled to land and a state of their own in the Middle East. Basically, out of these seemingly irreconcilable and conflicting demands have grown the Middle East imbroglio.

Middle East peace is considerably about reconciling these demands and arriving at a solution that would ensure the creation of two states that would opt for peaceful co-existence thereafter.

As long as the US does not see the need for a non-partisan solution that addresses the needs of both ethnicities and religions and goes all-out, as it were, to have it implemented, the Middle East would continue to bleed.

However, staunching the blood flow through the creation of two states would be only half the job done, though a very important part of it. More pernicious, pervasive and difficult to remedy are the inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatreds that have been unleashed over the decades.

However, if substantial, long-lasting peace is to be fostered in the region the latter ‘demons’ would need to be exorcised from the hearts and minds of the communities concerned. No doubt an uphill task but one that must be undertaken by those who wish the region well.

The UN would need to put its ‘best foot forward’ in such undertakings but it is time that it dawned on the international community and other caring quarters that Middle East peace, and all other such uphill challenges, require proactive peacemaking on the part of all civilized sections for their effective management. That is, public involvement in peacemaking too is a must.

Since hatreds are harboured in the human consciousness the enmities embedded in the latter need to be managed and defused judiciously alongside other undertakings in a peace process. In the case of West Asia, such enmities could be even spread globe-wide besides being multi-dimensional. For instance, it ought to be thought-provoking that Iran is insistent on a peace initiative that would also include Lebanon.

Besides security considerations it is also ethnic and religious affiliations that account for Iran making this demand. For instance, the Shias are a numerically important religious community in Lebanon and they provide a significant number of Hizbollah fighters, who are in a vital sense carrying out a ‘proxy war’ for Iran. It also needs to be factored in that Iran is a Shia-majority country.

Thus trans-border religious affiliations could add to the complexities and enormity of ethno-religious conflicts. However, the task of managing centuries-long enmities needs to be launched and prodded on with by peacemakers since a downing of arms alone would not guarantee substantive peace.

It is not realized sufficiently that the process of ending hatreds begins with mutual apologies by antagonists to a conflict for the harm inflicted on each other. This would be anathema in some ears but there is no getting away from the requirement. It is the vital first step to permanent peace anywhere.

In fact there could be no reconciliation worth speaking of without such mutual apologies. It is a point worth re-iterating in these times when even the government of Sri Lanka is voicing the need for national reconciliation. Well, without the words, ‘I am sorry’, there could be no permanent end to enmities – they would do well to remember.

The above requirements may not go down very well with governments, but they resonate in the hearts and minds of most people, since they are inheritors of religious traditions of some kind.

This is a principal reason why peacemaking works well when publics too are involved in them. The effectiveness of such campaigns increases several fold when they have a Mahatma Gandhi or a Jawaharlal Nehru at their helm. A strong proactive involvement by the public in peace could lead to the emergence of such leaders at some point in these campaigns.

Features

Dialog Brings Sri Lanka’s Largest Digital Vesak Experience to Matara

Published

9 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

From left to right: Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, and Lasantha Theverapperuma experience the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered VR tours.

Official Digital Partner of the 2026 ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone

Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s #1 connectivity provider, collaborated with the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs to bring one of Sri Lanka’s largest and most technologically advanced Vesak experiences to the ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone. The three-day celebration, in Matara attracted more than hundred thousand visitors, who engaged with a series of innovative digital activities powered by Dialog 5G Ultra, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, digital pandols and a Data Dansala. The opening ceremony was attended by Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development and Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Minister of Women and Child Affairs, along with distinguished guests and Dialog’s senior management.

One of the key attractions at the venue was the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered Virtual Reality (VR) experience, which attracted more than 35,000 participants. The activation enabled devotees to virtually visit and pay homage to sacred Buddhist sites, including the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in India and the Atamasthana in Anuradhapura, directly from the Vesak zone in Matara.

Visitors receive complimentary mobile data through Dialog’s QR-powered Data Dansala.

Dialog also conducted an AI Digital Vesak Greeting Card Competition from 21 May to 01 June 2026, attracting numerous entries from across the country. The shortlisted designs were showcased across 20 large LED screens throughout the venue and across Matara City, and were also made available for download via mobile devices. Further, through the use of AI, traditional Jathaka Katha were reimagined in a digital format, demonstrating how technology can be used to preserve and enhance cultural and religious heritage. Together, these initiatives blended traditional Vesak celebrations with emerging technologies, offering visitors a unique and immersive way to engage with Vesak traditions.

Extending the spirit of Vesak through connectivity, Dialog conducted a special Data Dansala powered by its QR Reload platform, enabling visitors to receive complimentary mobile data by scanning QR codes placed across the venue. In addition to the Matara National Vesak Zone, similar Data Dansala activations were also conducted at the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones in Colombo.Visitors also had the opportunity to create personalised Vesak-themed digital photos through an AI Photo Booth, generating AI-enhanced portraits using their own photographs and adding a contemporary digital element to the Vesak celebrations.

Visitors watch AI-generated Jathaka Katha

Commenting on the initiative, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, said, “The 2026 Dakshina Prabha Vesak Festival marked the first time AI-powered digital innovations were incorporated into a National Vesak Festival in Sri Lanka. Presenting Buddhist stories and teachings through technology created a new and engaging way for visitors to connect with these traditions. We thank Dialog for supporting this initiative and for working closely with us to bring our vision to life. Their contribution played an important role in making this first-of-its-kind event a reality.”

Lasantha Theverapperuma, Group Chief Marketing Officer of Dialog Axiata PLC said, “We thank the Government of Sri Lanka for the opportunity to support the 2026 Dakshina Prabha National Vesak Festival and for embracing technology as part of this year’s celebrations. As the Official Digital Partner, we were privileged to contribute through our Dialog 5G Ultra and AI capabilities, creating new ways for visitors to engage with Vesak traditions while preserving their cultural significance for future generations.”

Beyond supporting the National Vesak Zone in Matara, Dialog also enhanced the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones through a range of digital activations during the Vesak season. The company additionally continued its sustainability initiatives, including the Thirasara Aloka Poojawa, which illuminated rural places of worship through solar-powered lighting solutions.

Features

Beauty, elegance and talent…for women

Published

9 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Universal Woman is an international pageant focused on “beauty, elegance, and talent” for women, positioning itself as a platform to shape global ambassadors. The 2026 edition will be held in Cambodia, and Sri Lanka will be there, as well.

According to reports coming my way, contestants, at the international event, will work with industry trailblazers, under international standards.

Sri Lankan supermodel, runway and pageant trainer Chulpadmendra Kumarapathirana, is the National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026.

With over two decades in the industry, Chula was crowned Miss Sri Lanka 2006, and has since shaped the next generation of titleholders through her Colombo-based Chulpadmendra Catwalk Studio, widely regarded as one of the country’s leading modelling academies.

The team behind Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026

A former host of Derana Miss Sri Lanka for Miss World 2008 and a judge for Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2025, Chula now serves as National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026, leading the franchise’s search for Sri Lanka’s delegate to the international final in Cambodia.

Applications for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 are being taken, via WhatsApp: 077 659 4994, says Chula.

The judging panel for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 includes Senaka De Silva, Pageant Aesthetic Advisor & Chairperson of the Judging Panel, Angela Seneviratne, Caroline Jurie, Rozelle Plunkett, and Suraj Mapa.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 officially began its journey with a first round of auditions, held in Colombo, marking the start of an exciting new chapter in Sri Lanka’s pageant industry.

Launching the first round of auditions

The platform aims to empower women while selecting an intelligent, confident, and inspiring representative to compete at the Universal Woman International Pageant 2026 in Cambodia, this September.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka now moves forward with the vision of creating one of the country’s most prestigious and empowering pageants while preparing to crown a queen who will proudly represent Sri Lanka on the international stage.