Vesak Celebrations in Wellington New Zealand
Posted on May 17th, 2014
Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM DGMC Committee.
Over two hundred and fifty Wellington residents of Sri Lankan origingathered on the night of Saturday the 17th May,for the last of a series of events to celebrate Vesak, at Wellington’s Sri Lankan Buddhist monastery, The Dhamma Gavesi Meditation Centre at 115a Coast Rd, in the Wellington suburb of Wainuoimata, established over five years ago under the leadership of Venerable Welimada Jinalankara Thero, .
The celebrations started with a day’s Ata Sil program on Saturday the 10th for adult devotees with about 30 participating. Resident Sri Lankan monk Ven Sugathavanso conducted the days proceedings ending the day with a sermon extolling the virtues of tolerance.
A week later, Saturday the 17th was the turn for a half day Ata sil program for students of Wellington’s Sri Lankan Sunday Dhamma school,organised under the leadership of Lalith de Silva & Chaminda Abeydeera .
The afternoon was spent by devotees setting up traditional Vesak lanterns and displays in the premises of the DGMC, which included a display of the “Sath Sathiya”.The organisation of this was under the leadership of Thusitha Rathnayake & Suranjit Aponsu.
In the evening, Ven Sugathawansa led the over two hundred and fifty devotees gathered, through an Ata-Visi Buddha Pooja, ·to commemorate 28 previous Lord Buddhas who served the world.The preparation for this event was led by resident monk Ven Samathaseela ,Daya Dayathileka & Lalith De Silva On completion of this special Buddha Pooja, the devotees partook of a Wesak Dansala organised by a team led by Suranjith Aponsu.
It was a pleasing conclusion for both organisers and participants, several of whom had travelled ,from as far afield as Australia.
May 17th, 2014 at 2:53 pm
How wonderful that the Buddhist traditions of Sri Lanka are now celebrated in other nations. I am sure a user name called “klpillai” would not have attended that program. He claims to be a Sri Lankan Tamil, but only appears on any article on Sri Lanka in the Times of India to pour out his diatribe of hate speech on Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese people, the Sri Lankan army, Sri Lankan Buddhism, and the Sri Lankan government in a litany of abusive words.
May 17th, 2014 at 3:02 pm
Pillai ? Few came and gone. Velu, Navaneehtam and this “KL” now ?
“win hatred by not hating” – Buddha said. This little pillai should note that.
May 18th, 2014 at 4:09 am
And while expatriates are commemorating their culture religion and sacrifices of war heroes. following is how are the state of affairs in their mother land according to a NZ paper:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1405/S00174/sri-lanka-man-thrown-into-a-barrel-with-a-cobra.htm