LOS ANGELES CONSUL GENERAL’S OFFICE INTRODUCES AN AMBITOUS PLAN FOR THE DEVELOPMENT FOR COMING YEAR

By Walter Jayawardhana

For thousands of years since the advent of civilization in Sri Lanka, the people celebrated the coming of a new year by performing meritorious deeds. Even in these modern times is there any better way of celebrating a new year asked Jaliya Wickramasuriya addressing the first ever Sri Lankan New Year celebration held in the Ventura Country in California at An Lac Mission Temple in the city of Ventura. The celebration held with also the participation of Vietnamese Buddhists in this temple was presided over by the resident Sri Lanka monk Venerable Thapovaneye Suthadhara Nayaka Thero.

The Sri Lankan New Year celebration was started with a Buddha Pooja and ended with a traditional meal with Sri Lankan sweet meats like Kevum and Kokis , a lunch, traditional Sri Lankan new year games for adults and children and Sri Lankan customs like respecting the elders.
The new Consul General chose the event to announce the new program he is is going to perform for the rest of the year.

Jaliya Wickramasuriya said, “We are an ancient nation, one of the most ancient civilizations on this planet earth. When our ancestors immigrated to Sri Lanka more than 2550 years ago or may be little earlier than that, they not only brought a language, an alphabet, a culture but also a technology that built our nation. The marvels of this civilization in the form of great dagabos and Sigiriya,and huge irrigation tanks and canals which are called wonders of engineering in the ancient world are seen even today.

The tradition of a new year celebration was one of the good things they brought from India. It was surely connected with the ancient calendar they used. The calendar was based on the rotation of the sun, as thought about at that time. According to this astrological calendar the sun left the constellation of Pises , and entered the constellation of Aries on the new year day. With that started the new year and the happy celebration of it,” he said.

After the exit and before the entry from and to the constellations there was the transit period. We called it the period of Sankranthi. During that period we did meritorious deeds or good things. So, as civilized men and women of a nation we always started the new year by doing good meritorious things. Is there a better way to start a new year even in these modern ages. During that period we cared for the elderly and our clergy. We meditated on leading our lives without committing the basic sins. We became friendly with our old enemies by showing kindness and forgiving them. We offered flowers to the Buddha and meditated on the impermanence of our lives. We were truly a civilized nation, he said.

He said the festival came simultaneously with the prosperous harvesting period in the country. Therefore that’s also the period of sumptuous food, delicious fruits, aromatic sweet meats like kevum and kokis , vadai and dodol ,singing nightingales on the trees with blooming red flowers of Erabadu. It was also the period when all kids clad in colorful new clothes who ran to their swings or village damsels started playing their rabanas or ladies sat down for an indoor game of panchi keliya forgetting all their worries and anxieties. He said the festival in Ventura took them back to their happy childhood , in that paradise on earth like beautiful island of Sri Lanka.

Making some New year wishes for the community the consul general said that he wanted to build a community center that also could be used as a cultural center in the greater Los Angeles area like other Asian communities like the Japanese or the Thais. He said he wanted suggestions from the community before making any plans.

He said the Los Angeles Consul General’s office has reserved Wednesday as the Public Day for the expatriate community living in this area. “Not that other days are not open for you but every Wednesday we will cancel all other engagements with the US government and other business houses especially to attend to matters concerning the expatriate community“, he said.

“We have already made arrangements to hold a trade show entitled , Focus Sri Lanka, on May 28 and 29 to promote trade investment and Sri Lanka culture in this part of the United States. I invite you to go to www.focussrilanka.com to see details of this show which is being arranged now. We have already invited Sarala the great child artist who showed her inborn talents in the award winning film Water which had been filmed in the salubrious environment in Sri Lanka.

We will bring award winning cultural troops to perform with the talented ones here in this community. We will give an opportunity for the talented young ladies who are also good looking at the Tea Queen contest. You will watch a great chef perform by cooking with Ceylon tea at this show. So, please keep these dates free to take part in this great show. I want to give Sri Lankan expatriates an opportunity to buy Sri Lanka produce at this show. I also want to introduce Sri Lankan producers to the US traders on one to one basis so future deals could be arranged at the show.”

In the coming months, he said he was making arrangements, to make Sri Lanka the focus country at the ASAP apparel show where Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers will sit down with US wholesale buyers to sell products of our country at Las Vegas. Manufactured clothes are becoming the main foreign exchange earner of our nation. To hit the jackpot we must catch the greatest market on earth, I.e. the United States. Certainly, being complying quality producers Sri Lanka deserved it, he said.

Jaliya Wickramasuriya said thereafter those buyers would travel in a subsidized trip to visit our factories ,make friends, stay in our country as tourists and come back with good memories and solid business deals with Sri lanka.

The Consul General’s office is increasingly becoming very ambitious in these projects. In coming June it is organizing a World Tea Expo in Atlanta, Georgia, he said.

In June, he said, he wanted to have a gem and jeweleery show with 10 Sri Lankan companies taking part.

At the end of July, he said an investment promotion forum for venture capitalists at San Jose, in the Silicone Valley will be held. “There we intend to tell why US companies should have their IT investments in Sri Lanka at a workshop and seminar“, he further said.

“I need your cooperation for all that. These projects are good for you me and the rest of the country- and that’s why we spend millions for our foreign missions. If we could increase our national wealth through foreign missions that fulfills the hopes of our people to improve their lot,” he said.