Government of China must not fund renovation costs of Thewatta Roman Catholic Church, Ragama
Posted on October 28th, 2015
Shenali D Waduge
Several local newspapers announced in July 2015 that the Government of China planned to allocate as aid a sum of Rs.300m to renovate the Basilica at Thewatta, Ragama following a request by the former Minister of Law & Order and Christian Affairs. When the wealth of the Vatican runs into accountable and unaccountable billions it is unfortunate that China is coming forward to fund a renovation of a Christian Church plagued in controversy over diabolical attempts to re- write Sri Lanka’s Buddhist history.
We cannot ignore the subtle attempts being made to distort and erase the Buddhist history of Sri Lanka. Buddhist nomenclature is now being used by Christians & Islam alike, copying of Buddhist architecture, writers being paid to promote commonalities between these two faiths and Buddhism, Buddhist cultures, events, pageants all being followed with the long term plan to show people that there is no difference in what Buddhism has to offer and what they are offering – thus the rise in conversions.
Nevertheless, what cannot be overlooked is that Sri Lanka (originally known in pre-colonial history as ‘Sinhale’) was held together within a Buddhist cultural fold where the Kings followed the dasa raja dhamma and the populace too lived following the tenets of Buddhism. It was these Buddhist principles that helped defend the nation while it was the Christian colonial conquistadors and their accomplices i.e. Christian missionaries, that strove to break the Buddhist hold on the nation by slowly introducing elements that would divide and destroy the Sinhala Buddhists and their ability to defend their nation.
Evil designs of Colonial countries
Christianity did not enter as a religion of peace to Sri Lanka. Christianity came hand in hand with colonial conquistadors who held a Bible in one hand and gun in the other. Their goal was to destroy Buddhism and replace Buddhism with Christianity. This was why the education offered was to people who converted, who gave up living as per Buddhist values and adopted western living, western cultures and Christianity. This was the objective of the Missionary educators and not much different from the western government funded Christian NGOs posing as charities and humanitarian aid workers. What the missionaries did during colonial rule the NGOs are now doing instead.
Historian Dr. Tennakoon Wimalananda says They were all united in the effort to completely destroy Buddhism in our country. As the Portuguese were in possession of the sea coast of Ceylon, the Buddhists could not communicate with any sympathetic power outside Ceylon for help at that hour. Thus, the Roman Catholic Church embarked upon a campaign of destruction and bloodshed unopposed by any political power”. While another historian P E Peiris says the missionary could see in Buddhism nothing but the abhorrent creation of the devil; he did not stop to inquire what were the principles which were taught by the sages, nor what the ideals after which its lofty philosophy struggled. ……..Buddhism was not Christianity………. Buddhism must be wiped out of existence”.
The Portuguese ransacked and burnt Buddhist temples, Hindu kovils and Muslim mosques. The reason why there are no temples more than 150 years old in coastal areas is because the Portuguese destroyed them. Examples of Buddhist and Hindu temples destroyed by the Portuguese include : ‘thousand pillar’ temple in Devundara, Trincomalee, Saman Devale in Ratnapura, Sunethra Devi Pirivena in Kotte, Vidagama Pirivena in Raigama and Wijebahu pirivena near Hikkaduwa. Temples at Nawagamuwa, Kelaniya, Mapitigama and Wattala were all plundered.
This hardly boasts of Christian humanity to non-Christians and shows that the converted Christian is being used as a battering ram for imperial expansion. It was part of this policy after destroying the Buddhist temples to use the material to build churches on top of these very sites adding insult to the injury. The Roman Catholic churches in Kalutara, Thotagamuwa, Keragala, Wattala etc were all formerly Buddhist temples. Evidence is provided by Portuguese historian Queyroz in his book The Temporal & Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon’ which actually lists all the Roman Catholic churches built by the Portuguese on top of sites of destroyed Buddhist viharas and monasteries.
What would world reaction have been if Buddhists or Hindus had done such to Christian or Islamic places of religious worship?
If it was a Western Christian colonial policy to systematically destroy the nerve centre of the natives and replace with Christian religious symbols what difference is it when the same Western nations are today indirectly funding NGOs to build the foundation to do the same and the interim period is being camouflaged by the notions of ‘multiculturalism’ & ‘inter – faith’ which have underlying overtones of Christian hegemony.
The Thewatta Church
Before distortions end up as facts it is important to place the facts in perspective. Firstly the Basilica is not a historical monument. It is a church built in 1950 and opened in 1974. This Church has copied architectural features of the stupa in Kushinagar, India where the Buddha attained Parinirvana.
The most alarming feature of the Basilica are the murals displayed all over the walls in this building. It represents a total distortion of the history of this country. It endeavours to re-write Lanka’s history by creating a bogus story that Christianity existed for around 2000 years in the island. This is not supported by credible historical evidence. The view of the reputed scholars is that Christianity was first brought by the Portuguese and then imposed on the people of Sri Lanka beginning in 1505. Various scholars and learned writers have written extensively refuting the idea that there was a prior existence of Christianity before the entry of the Portuguese.
The other deceitful piece is the Museum adjoining the Basilica which has an architectural design resembling a traditional Buddhist temple. All this is being done to deceive the gullible that there is no real difference between Buddhism and Christianity and therefore Buddhists should embrace Christianity. The Government of China should not be a party to such a well – manipulated scheme.
China must not help the Catholic Church to deliberately and calculatingly twist the well established national history of Sri Lanka. It will produce ramifications that will far outweigh any benefits that China is seeking to gather from such an unwise move. It will hurt immensely the feelings of the Sinhala Buddhist public of Sri Lanka and cause irreparable damage to the good relations between the two countries.
It is in the light of these realities that the Buddhists of Sri Lanka are questioning China’s motives in collaborating to fund a renovation that can easily be done via the Vatican or the Christian West.
China’s Buddhist links with Sri Lanka
China’s Buddhist links with Sri Lanka cannot be forgotten. We have dealt with China for 2 millennia before even the birth of Christianity. Our nuns established the order of Bhikkunies in China. Chinese monk Fa Hsien arrived in Sri Lanka in the 5th century AD and took back valuable texts on Buddhism. Therefore, when Sri Lanka’s last defense lines are being ruptured using every means of Western imperial pressure possible it is an affront particularly to the Sinhala Buddhist people of this country which comprise 70% of this country’s population to have a traditional friend like China agreeing to fund and renovate a church that is engaged in a diabolical plan to distort the well established Buddhist history of Sri Lanka.
When China is guarding itself against Western imperialism and has controls in place upon the Chinese Christians with clear instructions that while Christianity can be practiced the allegiance of the Chinese Christians must be foremost to the Chinese sovereign and not the sovereign in the State of Vatican, we are more than puzzled at the decision of the Chinese government to fund this particular church in Thewatta which is known for attempting to re-write history and build a fictitious notion that if allowed to go without protest in future there is more than likelihood for people to say Sri Lanka was a Christian country eliminating the Buddhist history in toto.
People cannot rule out this belief as imaginary for the same occurred in Maldives following the Islamic takeover and the current history of Maldives omits reference to the Buddhist civilization that existed. Similarly, South Korea whose population was 90% Buddhist in the 1950s today stands at less than 30% having converted Buddhists to Christianity and South Korea today is one of Vatican’s proud show pieces. Korean Christian missionaries are now being used by the Vatican to convert Buddhists in Mongolia to Christianity.
The Buddhist world will always be closer to China because of long standing historical religious and cultural links. The same cannot be said of the Christian world which saw China as a target for invasion, plunder and colonial occupation in the past.
Sri Lanka’s Buddhists are very concerned to see that the same fate that befell Buddhism in South Korea not happen to Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The Government of China must therefore discontinue this ill-advised move to renovate a building of a Catholic Church that has conspiratorial designs to subvert and undermine the historical status of Buddhism as the foremost religion in this country.
October 28th, 2015 at 11:55 am
What ever money we get from China must be used to develop the country. Not the Tewattte Church. Unfortunately the whole cabinet is Catholic including the Prime Minister. The Parliament must bring this up in Parliament and make sure the protest is logged in the Hansard. The Vatican is the richest religious organization in the world. Why do they need a paltry sum from China when Pope can send Millions of $ for the Church from Rome.
October 28th, 2015 at 1:14 pm
What Chinese govt. does is their problem. We cannot influence them. In 10 years China will be a Christian country. Already it has worlds 5th largest Christian population. We cannot influence that.
Truth to be told!
October 28th, 2015 at 5:05 pm
උත්තේජක පෙති ඩබල් අරන් කොටුවක් පැන අලි අමාරුවක වැටුනු ඇමති ජෝන්ද?
ගැටිස්සියක් සමඟ හෝටල් කාමරයක තනිවූ ඇමතිවරයෙක් උත්තේජක පෙති මාත්රාව වැඩිවී රෝහල් ප්රතිකාර ලැබීමට සිදුවූ පුවතක් සමහර පුවත්පත් සහ වෙබ් අඩවි වාර්තා කර තිබූ අතර නම සඳහන් නොකළ එම පුවතෙහි ඇමතිවරයා ජෝන් අමරතුංග බවට ඇතැමුන් අනුමාන කර තිබේ.
එම පුවත පහත දැක්වේ.
වෙලාව රූ 12.30යි එතුමාට දෙයියො සිහිවුණා..
මුන්නැහේ දියවන්නා කවුන්සිලේ ඉන්න සීනියර්ම පොරක්… දිස්තිරික්කෙ කොළඹට අල්ලපු එකක්… දරන පට්ටම මහ සයිස්…. වයස ගත්තොත් තරැණයි කියන්න බැහැ. ඇත්තටම සීය කෙනෙක්….
වයසෙන් සීය වුණාට වැඩ නම් තරැණයි. අව්වට සන්ග්ලාස් දාලා ඇඳලා පැළඳලා ඉන්නකොට හැන්ඩ්සම් වගේ පේනව. මෙතුමගෙ විනෝදාංසෙ තරැණ සුන්දර ගෑනු දරැවො ආශ්රය කිරීමලු…. පහුගිය දවසක මුන්නැහේට මාර වැඩක් වුණා… මාර වැඩක් කියන්නෙ ඇත්තටම ඒක නම් මළ කෙළියක්… මේ වෙච්ච දේ හරියට ලියන්න ගියොත් අසභ්ය වාර්තාවක් වෙනව…. ඒ හින්ද පුළුවන් විදියට ලියන්නම්….
පසුගිය සති අන්තෙක මේ සීය සුන්දර ලලනාවක් එක්ක කොළඹ කිට්ටුව නිදහස් තැනකට ගියා… ආරස්සාව එහෙමත් නැතුව. ඒ ලලනාවයි මෙයයි විතරයි හිටියෙ…. ඉතින් අනේ මේ නහින දෙහින කාලෙ ඕවට ඕනෑ වන උන්නැහේ නිතර පාවිච්චි කරන ඉංගිරිසි බේතක් ළඟ තිබුණ… ඒක බිව්වම නිදාගෙන ඉන්න කුම්භකර්ණය වුණත් අවදි වෙනව….
ඔන්න ඉතින් දෙයියනේ කියල බෙහෙත බලෙන් ඕන කරන දේවල් කරල හමාර කරගත්තයි කියමුකො… ඊළඟට ගෙදර යන්නයි ඕනෑ වුණේ… ඒ වුණාට අනේ සිද්ධ වුණේ වනේ වන හතුරෙකුටවත් වෙන්න හොඳ නැති මාර අකරතැබ්බයක්. තිබිච්ච හදිස්සිය නිසා මුන්නැහේ මේ කටයුතුවලට පාවිච්චි කරන බේත් වඩියට වැඩියෙන් පෙවිල අපි අර මුලින් කිව්ව කුම්භකර්ණය යථා තත්ත්වෙට එන්නෙම නැතිලු…. පැයක් හිටිය… දෙකක් හිටිය කෝ හරියන්නෙ නැහැ… බෙහෙත වැඩිවෙලා කුම්භකර්ණයත් මෙයත් එක්ක නොනිදම ඉන්නව…. වෙලාව රූ 12.30යි. මෙතුමාට දෙයියො සිහිවුණා. ඊළඟට මෙතුමා එක්ක හිටපු ලලනාව කිව්ව දැන් මේක හරියන්නෙ නැහැ ඉස්පිරිතාලෙටවත් යමු කියල.
‘දෙයියනේ මම කොහොමද මේ විදියට රෙද්දක් ඇඳන් ඉස්පිරිතාලෙ යන්නෙ’… එතුමා ඇඬුවෙ නැතුව විතරයි…’බයවෙන්න එපා මම එක්ක යන්නම්…” නෝන ගට්ස් අරන් කිව්ව… ඊළඟට මෙතුමා ඇඳන් හිටපු කලිසම ගලවල සරමට බැස්ස…. නෝන කලිසම අතට ගත්ත. නෝනගෙ වාහනෙන්ම නාරාහේන්පිට පැත්තෙ සුපිරි රෝහලකට සම්ප්රාප්ත වුණා….
නෝනම කාමරයක් වෙන්කළා… මෙතුමා හොරෙන්ම කාමරේට රිංගුව. ඊළඟට තරැණ දොස්තර මහත්තයෙක් ආව…. උන්නැහේට මෙතුමා ඇත්තම කතාව කීව… ‘පුතා හරි වැඩේ…. කාටවත් දැනගන්න නොතිය මේක හොඳ කරන්න… කවුරැ හරි දැනගත්තොත් මං සුං පුතා…’ උන්නැහේ අසරණව කෙඳිරි ගෑව. ඊටපස්සෙ දොස්තර තරැණය බේතක් විද්ද. විදල පැයක් බැලුව…. කෝ විදපු බේතට වැඩිය කලින් බීපු අවුසදේ සැරයි. කුම්භකර්ණය එහෙමමයි… වැඩේ හරියන්නෙ නැති තැන දොස්තර තරැණය පළපුරැදු දොස්තර කෙනෙක් ගෙනාව… උන්නැහේගෙ උපදෙස් මත ලොකු සිරින්ජරේකින් ලේ ටිකක් ඇදල අයින් කළාලු. ඊට පස්සෙ හෙමින් හෙමින් අසනීපකාරයට සනීප වුණා. එතුමාට මාර සන්තෝසයි…. පටස් ගාල සරම ගලවල කලිසම ඇඳගත්ත. ටක් ගාල බිලත් ගෙව්ව….
වටපිට බලනකොට එතුමා එක්ක ආව නෝන අතුරැදන් වෙලා හිටිය…. ඊට පස්සෙ වහාම උන්නැහේගෙ ආරක්ෂක භටයො ගෙන්නුව… ඊළඟට බරපතළ රාජකාරියක් ඉවර කරල හොඳටම මහන්සිවෙලා ගෙදර යනව වගේ දඩි බිඩි ගාල ආරක්ෂා සහිතව තමංගෙ බංගලාවට සේන්දු වුණා. ඒත් උන්නැහේ එනකොට ඇඳන් ආපු සරම ගෙනියන්න අමතක වුණා. ඒක තවම ඉස්පිරිතාලෙලු….
October 28th, 2015 at 5:36 pm
මුන්නැහේ දියවන්නා කවුන්සිලේ ඉන්න සීනියර්ම පොරක් – I know who he is but cannot write here.
October 28th, 2015 at 6:13 pm
Religion, temples and churches that go with it is big business. So Chinese knows where to invest their money and I hope the will also put a wine bar on the side to meet our own spiritual requirements.
October 28th, 2015 at 11:37 pm
when the whole cabinet is Catholic including the PM what to do.
Lets be watchful that they will get China to build a similarly large Church in Anuradapura or Kandy.
This is Yama-palanaya… so anything can happen.
President Sira is only doing a Gramaswvaka job. For some reason Nimal Siripala woke up and removed the paddy storage from Mattala Airport. He could have seen Mahasona in a dream and got a warning.
October 28th, 2015 at 11:39 pm
Thank you Shenali for the important article. Lone warrior is still at work!!
October 28th, 2015 at 11:41 pm
Shenali keeps beating the Anti Catholic drum, and even saw crosses on Dagoba’s – whilst living in Canada and enjoying Christian welfare. Why not set an example and launch this tirade from one of the homes of Buddhism ie Sri Lanka.
October 29th, 2015 at 2:01 am
Even the Chinese have realised that Sri Lanka is ruled by catholics.
Pol pot ponil
John mara
karupaiya karunkanayagam
arjun mahendran
army chief (appointed by pol pot ponil soon after he became pm)
All the big wigs are catholics. Then you have toothless Buddhist ministers like karu(me) j, pongal samare etc etc.
Maru sira got no pathalayin. So he got no muscle. Pol pot got enough pathalayin to silence any opposition. Sad irony is
most of these pathalayin are Buddhists.
Alugosu jr had gonawila sunil
alugosu lk premadasa had sotthi upali
pol pot got myriad of pathalayin.
Pol pot ponil knows he is untouchable. After what he has done (millennium city massacre, batalande torture and killing,
cb robbery. All proven beyond anybody’s doubt. But nobody even suggest he should be punished. That’s how powerful he is. He fools a lot of Buddhists with his lies. Look at malwatte chief, asgiriye chief. Arden supporters of this catholic run
UNPatriotic party. Maybe we should appoint Sinhalese Buddhists for those highly important roles next time.
Catholic-run UNPatriotic party killed jvpers without mercy sine they were all Buddhists. But reluctant to kill ltte (catholic
tigers of tamil dreelam aka cttd) since they were mostly catholics. Apart from that ltte (cttd) was killing Buddhists and hindus. An added bonus! No wonder catholic-run UNPatriotic party didn’t want to stop the war.
We have to thank the traitor Sinhalese (Sivallu) who support this murderous, Buddhist-killing, Buddhism destroying
UNPatriotic party. Now you see why they are after MR’s blood because he is a Buddhist!
All proven b
October 29th, 2015 at 3:05 am
Ancient you are right.
Our people are foolish and selfish than the worst uneducated nation in the world, I don’t know where… may be some tribal land in Africa.
They still can not see the danger around he corner.
October 29th, 2015 at 3:53 am
Thanks Hiranthe. Those Sivallu (Unpatriotic party supporting Sinhalese) aren’t foolish. They are selfish and Unpatriotic. Don’t give a damn
about the country, Sinhalese race or Buddhism. They think it is fashionable to be supporters of
Unpatriotic party. Their line of thinking is UPFA is for people in the villages etc. Absurd and pathetic
bunch of clowns those sivallun!
October 29th, 2015 at 10:30 am
Thank god no more Thamil problem, too boring ….
October 29th, 2015 at 10:57 am
Cold War times : The Cath church folk were everywhere – they hunted with the hounds and ran with the hares. As I said before, they sometimes hunt with the hares and run with the hounds too. It is an Empire without borders.
Cold War politics : Why did the LTTE kill Lalith A., Gamini D., Premadasa and a number of able Sinhala Buddhist leaders ALL FROM THE UNP ?
Now we are left with only the rump UNP with RW as leader.
There is a game on now to divide Lanka. Will Hindu India allow it ?
October 29th, 2015 at 12:18 pm
China has about 5% Christian population.
In today’s world, has religion become a Club of some sort to gain jobs, opportunites for business, education, upward social mobility, etc and very little to do with the original Teachings of the Master/Teacher/Guru ?
October 29th, 2015 at 2:16 pm
Come on L Perera are you really making a joke here ‘living in Canada & enjoying Christian Welfare’!
What sort of gullible fools are people, please do ask the Canadian indigenous people, mass destruction & genocide practised by the Christians! We could have been no different at all if not for the Sinhala Buddhists who fought tooth & nail against the Christian benevolence! People would not have migrated if such invasions had not occurred & colonised our country. Don’t be daft to say Christian welfare!!!
October 29th, 2015 at 2:59 pm
This is a truly “COMPASSIONATE” government. Even Kondaya has become Jesus Christ !
We shouldn’t be anti-Christian, because China is fast becoming Christian. Without China we are gone !
October 29th, 2015 at 3:59 pm
Catholic Church wants funds to train more pedophiles. This is, as if the dirty rich Catholic Church which is the highest real estate owner has suddenly become poor. Catholic faithful question what the Catholic Church is doing with all the ill-gotten money from the poor + money laundering + people smuggling + white slavery etc etc
This is what a gay priest recently told the Pope.
In a letter to Pope Francis this month, Krzysztof Charamsa accused the Church of making the lives of millions of gay Catholics globally “a hell”. He criticised what he called the Vatican’s hypocrisy in banning gay priests, even though he said the clergy was “full of homosexuals”.
Want more pedophiles and gays – help Ragama – Thewatte Catholic Church!
October 29th, 2015 at 4:42 pm
CHINA IS PLAYING POLITICS. THEY KNOW THAT THE ENTIRE PARLIAMENT SOTHTHI CABOODLE IS CATHOLIC. SO GIVE THEM A CHURCH, AND THEY GET THEIR BUSINESS BACK. BACK TO WORK EH ????
LP… KEEP PLAYING THE CATHOLIC DRUM. THIS IS THE SEASON.
RATNAPALA !! VATICAN HAD SOME TROUBLE WITH GAY PRIESTS. SO AS A FRONT AND FACE SAVER, THEY SAID, **NO GAYS** LIFE GOES ON.
charithsls !!! Fully agree with you.
October 29th, 2015 at 11:42 pm
SW,
I think you are right when you say ‘China is playing politics’ in this instance. This was my reaction as well when I read about this ‘gift’ from China towards the cost of renovations of the Tewatte church. And I was thinking this in relation to the new Colombo Port development programme, some of the worst effects of which will be felt along the North-West coast, the so-called ‘Catholic belt’. So, this seems a sneaky way on the part of the Chinese to win over those who will be affected.
How ironic is it that the Chinese who at home are busy suppressing Christianity and pulling down church buildings, should be paying for expensive renovations of the Tewatte church? And, not just ironic but how hypocritical?
I feel that many Catholics will be very disappointed that the Catholic Church authorities should have seen fit to accept this ‘gift’ from the Chinese. The whole thing does not show them or the politicians who arranged for it in anything but poor light. The building of the church in Tewatte took a long time to complete and many ordinary Catholics contributed towards the cost by way of modest but regular donations. If the church is now in need of major, costly renovations, why cannot the funds be obtained in the same way as was done for the original construction? In the meantime the Church is surely in good enough standing to obtain the necessary bank credit for repayment over time. I believe also that many Catholics will feel that, if that is not practicable or feasible, it would be better for the Church to let the Tewatte church buildings go to rack and ruin than for the Church to sell out its soul for material benefit, to the Chinese whose motives are clearly not altruistic nor an expression of admiration for the Christian faith.
October 30th, 2015 at 2:28 am
Shenali,
You might get an offer of a honorary PhD abroad (possibly in Russia). Turned it down straightaway.
October 30th, 2015 at 7:35 am
One day, far in the future, when for one reason or another only a few human beings are probably alive on planet Earth, they will realise that there is only ONE “religion”, that is the religion of Life, Survival and the Laws of Nature, common to EVERYONE.
Right now, various Belief systems exist, particularly regarding ‘sin’ and the ‘after life’. The truth is that the SAME LAWS apply to all, irrespective of belief systems. We are born the same way (visible to the eye) and so what happens after death is the same too (invisible to the eye, except for the dead body).
Someone said ‘religion is the opium of the masses ….’
We ought to get together to solve the common day to day problems of our society, whatver their ‘religion’.
China is merely going along with the signs of the times, i.e. the Churches virtually rules Lanka on behalf of the powers tha be ? !
November 1st, 2015 at 7:35 am
My knowledge and perspective of this is different.
China is a country which underwent many violent upheavals for over two centuries – a land torn apart by various warring factions and Western colonial aggression. China’s Boxer uprising in 1900 was against European Christian missionaries among others. Eventually after World War II it was Communists who managed to unify the country for the first time and have been ruling that State since 1949.
We cannot liken the historical evolution of China to that of Sri Lanka’s although the two countries have had ties since the time of Sinhala Kings. After the liberalization policies former Chinese leader Deng Ziao Ping introduced in 1979 China has experienced a revival of Buddhism (to some extent with Government support), Taoism and Christianity. But Beijing is officially secular and its primary goal has been the projection of its economic and military power.
Within China the Government is wary of foreign-funded Christian evangelists groups which are considered Trojan horses. Their activities and those of Islamic groups with foreign links are closely monitored more than those of Buddhists or Taoists or Confucianists.
However when it comes to foreign policy Beijing will seize any opportunity to project its power and influence in another country it will seize any opportunity to do so no matter whether it is offered by Catholic, Islamic, Hindu or any other group. This is what has happened in case of the Tewatte Church. And whose fault is this? There is no point in blaming China. The blame lies squarely on our leading Buddhist Organisations including the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) which never take the initiative in these matters. Their main interest is in ‘Perahera Buddhism’ and social service projects.
They have never taken the trouble to build a network with other predominantly Buddhist countries (irrespective of whether they are Theravada or Mahayana) and develop strong contacts in contrast to the Catholic Church and other Christian Organisations which have been developing strong contacts with similar groups in all the major countries during the past several decades.
Over a month ago I attended in Colombo a musical extravaganza the Vietnam Embassy had organized to mark the establishment Sri Lanka-Vietnam diplomatic relations. As we are aware Vietnam is a predominantly Buddhist country and as far as I know the ambassador herself is a Buddhist. The event however was in aid not of any Buddhist cause but of a housing project with which the Catholic Church was prominently associated with. Why? Because it the church had approached the embassy at the right time. I doubt the ACBC or other Buddhists or the Maha Sangha even knew this event.
Earlier at Vietnam’s National Day celebrations in Colombo the ambassador spoke of Buddhist ties between the two countries. But the only religious figure I saw among the crowd was a Catholic priest.
It is really frustrating to talk about the apathy and ignorance of our Buddhist organisations. We have been discussing this for donkey’s years but to no avail.
November 7th, 2015 at 7:11 pm
I thought Miss Waduge’s poison pen ran out of ink. Looks like she got new ballpoint pens from Ganasara Thero. What a shame wasting your time writing hate messages. What China does is their problem. Maybe they are compensating for the atrocities communists committed on Christians in the past. When did you become an expert on China’s foreign policy? Are you a journalist or a politician? To me you look like a rabid canine waiting to bite any passerby. Did not we had enough with a 30yr war with the Tamils? It is about time we Sri Lankans live peacefully with all ethnicities and religions for the betterment of the country. We blame the colonials for their atrocities, but what have we done to remedy the past. We got independence from the British in 1948, that was 67 years ago. We are still raving and ranting about how the Europeans destroyed our Sinhalese and Buddhist culture, but have we done anything to improve Sri Lanka economiclly and socially. All we had were bad politicians and extremists ruining our nation. Sorry, Sri Lanka does not need anymore social and religious spoilers.