Author Archive for Rohana R. Wasala

The sting is more in the title than in the tale!

Wednesday, October 25th, 2023

by Rohana R. Wasala I was saddened by the unexpectedly rude sarcasm of the apparently perfunctory memorial feature The Jackson of all trades: A tribute to Jackson Anthony” (The Island/October 20, 2023) penned by Uditha Devapriya about the recently deceased celebrity. In my opinion, the article is hardly worthy of the dead icon, or of […]

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In memory of Jackson Anthony

Tuesday, October 17th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Aba – the mega Sinhala movie  Aba, the mega Sinhala movie directed by the versatile filmmaker Jackson Anthony, constitutes an impressive cinematic adventure for both its creators and its audiences. The film is a historical epic based on an independent and informed reconstruction of the Pandukabhaya story found in  The Great […]

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Scourge of global religious fundamentalism: An expression of ‘amazement – and perhaps a little hope’

Tuesday, October 10th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used. This is an expanded and updated version of an article that I wrote in 2020 under the above title, which nevertheless has remained unpublished […]

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Cultural Genocide during a Carnival of  Buffoons: Thoughts of a dry brain

Thursday, September 14th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala It would be obvious to the correctly informed impartial observer that Sri Lanka’s age-old Buddhist religious cultural establishment is under unprovoked attack both within the country and outside of it. The current controversy about Channel 4’s latest film on Sri Lanka concerning the Easter Sunday suicide bombings carried out by Islamic […]

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The truth about Sinhalese ambassadors to the court of Roman emperor Claudius in the first century BCE

Friday, July 7th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala  At the conclusion of a thoughtful feature article under the title ‘A new identity for Sri Lanka’ in the Sunday Island of June 25, 2023, Uditha Devapriya, a young journalist that I admire for the quality of his writing, refers to what he calls a minority view that he shares about […]

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Sneak attacks on Buddha Sasana

Sunday, July 2nd, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala The article under the title ‘Timely action must be taken to preserve Buddhism in Sri Lanka’ by a virtually anonymous writer, signing as R.W.W., published in the Sunday Island/June 11, 2023 provided the cue for the following. I sincerely thank him or her for expressing those factually unsupported ideas about the issue […]

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On first reading Sir Edwin Arnold’s THE LIGHT OF ASIA – II

Sunday, June 18th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island  Edwin Arnold’s purpose in composing the epic The Light of Asia, then, was to give readers an unbiased idea about  the exalted personality of prince Siddhartha and the general substance of his teaching. But he was not addressing this task in a religious cultural vacuum. He had to take […]

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On first reading Sir Edwin Arnold’s THE LIGHT OF ASIA

Friday, June 9th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island  Here endeth what I write Who love the Master for his love of us. A little knowing, little have I told Touching the Teacher and the Ways of Peace Forty-five rains thereafter showed he those In many lands and many tongues, and gave Our Asia Light, that still […]

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Please, take charge of the Poson celebrations: A respectful proposal to the Mahanayake Theras

Tuesday, May 30th, 2023

Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island The following is a public proposal respectfully offered, for what it is worth, by a senior Sri Lankan to the Most Venerable Mahanayake Theras of all Nikayas on behalf of all Sri Lankans of like mind:  I believe that the Mahanayake Theras have been alive to the events of […]

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Jerome Fernando and his profane gimmicks – II

Thursday, May 25th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala  Courtesy The Island Some well meaning, erudite, but very naive and innocent,  young bhikkhus are challenging the pastor to a debate over his deprecatory remarks about Buddhism, which I think is ridiculously ingenuous and unnecessary, because that is giving this mocker of the sacred a measure of dignity that he doesn’t […]

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Jerome Fernando and his profane gimmicks 

Wednesday, May 24th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island The Jerome Fernando escapade, if rightly handled, will provide a golden opportunity to neutralise external threats to the prevailing peaceful religious coexistence in the Sinhalese Buddhist majority Sri Lanka. I hope that the fair minded reader will not immediately condemn me as a Sinhalese racist and a Buddhist […]

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The first Global Buddhist Summit and the Dalai Lama

Saturday, May 6th, 2023

by Rohana R. Wasala His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, based in Dharamsala in the state of Himachal Pradesh in India, flew to New Delhi to attend the two-day Global Buddhist Summit held in Hotel Ashok there on April 20 and 21, 2023.  The event was the first of its kind. This inaugural Global Buddhist […]

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TRUE HISTORY OF SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

Wednesday, March 8th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala I concluded a previous article published in Lankaweb on January 28, 2023 (Is recolonisation the final solution II) touching on the deplorable situation that innocent Sri Lankans have been plunged into not only by the current economic crisis but also by the so-called Tamil ethnic problem, both aggravated by unjust direct […]

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MAY THE MOST VENERABLE MAHANAYAKES ADMONISH MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA AS WELL

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Is former prime minister and president, Mahinda Rajapaksa still bluffing? The Most Venerable Mahanayake theras of the Three Nikayas (Siyam, Amarapura and Ramanna) wrote to president Ranil Wickremasinghe admonishing him not to fully implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution two weeks ago, on February 2, as reported in The Island […]

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An open letter to the NPP/JVP:“Don’t saw off the branch you are sitting on!”

Wednesday, February 8th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Two stalwarts of the JVP-led National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, Dr Harini Amarasuriya MP and Mr Tilvin Silva, JVP General Secretary, as reported in the media early February 2023, have made more or less clear the alliance’s stand on the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (suggested by […]

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Cynical irony of consecrating the full implementation of the controversial 13A with a special Sacred Tooth Relic exposition

Thursday, February 2nd, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Tamil National Alliance (TNA) spokesman and Jaffna District MP M.A. Sumanthiran says that his party has decided to boycott the independence day celebrations this year, as reported in The Island of January 31, 2023. Instead, they will declare it a Black Day and commence a movement towards achieving what they call […]

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Is recolonisation the final solution?- II

Saturday, January 28th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Continued from January 26, 2023 To assert, as Mr Sirimanne does, that From ancient times the Northern region in the island was a kingdom occupied by Tamils due to its closeness to South India…….. during the reign of King Elara, a Tamil, there was a war between the Sinhalese and Tamil […]

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Is recolonisation the final solution?

Wednesday, January 25th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island First of all, let me express my sincere respects to Mr D.L. Sirimanne, the writer of the interesting article entitled ‘Celebrating 75th Anniversary of Independence’ (The Island/Opinion/January 18, 2023). He struck me as a venerable old man, who, at 103 years of age, still thinks about the welfare […]

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What does Ranil Wickremasinghe have up his sleeve? 

Friday, January 13th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Whatever it is, equipped with his education, native intelligence and acquired political wisdom, he will be able to hold the country whole until it passes lawfully into the hands of the uncorrupt patriotic young generation that is  waiting in the wings in patient silence (not into those of the ignorant noisy […]

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Rectifying history to vandalize it: Pujya K. Ariyamagga’s pain

Friday, January 6th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala A Youtube video (uploaded December 27, 2022) with the alarmist caption බුදුන් ඉපදුණු මේ ලංකාවට සිදු වු අපරාදෙ අපිත් දැන ගනිමුද  (Let’s be aware of the enormity of the injustice perpetrated on Sri Lanka where the Buddha was born) captured my attention this morning (January 1, 2023), both because of the […]

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CLOSURE OF THE MODERN DAY ARHANT CASE? 

Sunday, December 18th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala Consequent to Siridhamma Thera’s insulting comments on the Dalada and his critical outbursts against the (in his opinion) foolish relic worshiping lay Buddhists, and  against the Ven. Mahanayakes, the Karaka Sangha Sabha of the Malwatte Chapter to which he belongs wrote to him ordering him to tender a formal apology for […]

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THE ENTERPRISING CASE OF A MODERN DAY ARHANT –  IV

Saturday, December 17th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala In almost all the videos I watched on the internet, Ven. Samanthabhadra refers to Buddhists he judges to lack the level of intellect that he thinks a rational thinking Buddhist should have, using  very derogatory terms such as fools, donkeys, animals, etc. He has no empathy  for people with perceived weaknesses. […]

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THE ENTERPRISING CASE OF A MODERN DAY ARHANT – III

Friday, December 16th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala Incidentally, disparagement or what appears to be attempted desacralization of the Tooth Relic by various individuals is not new. The famous Colonel Olcott (1832-1907), who greatly contributed to the revival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and who initiated a school system for the education of the children of Sinhalese Buddhists (something […]

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THE ENTERPRISING CASE OF A MODERN-DAY ARHANT – II

Thursday, December 15th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala Ven. Samanthabhadra Thera used to be a very popular preacher in the past as Pitiduwe Siridhamma Himi. He has been claiming for a few years now that he has attained Arahanthood which is the highest stage of spiritual attainment in Buddhism and it is identical to the attainment of the ultimate […]

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THE ENTERPRISING CASE OF A MODERN DAY ARHANT REVISITED 

Wednesday, December 14th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala I wrote a long feature article (entitled ‘Case of a modern day arhant’) in September/October 2017 about a controversial Buddhist monk named Pitiduwe Siridhamma. This person (b. 1975) became a bhikkhu in his mid-twenties, as he claims, on leaving the university with a bachelor’s degree in science. In the course of […]

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Towards a future free from fears of Islamism

Friday, January 7th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala Gravitas News (wionews, World is One News) web portal reported Tuesday December 21, 2021: Riyadh holds 4-day EDM carnival”. Commenting on the electronic dance music extravaganza, unprecedented in Saudi Arabia,  the young news anchor  said, The defacto leader of the Islamic World, the Guardian of the two holiest sites in Islam, […]

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COOL debacle in the hands of fools: He laughs best who laughs last!

Friday, December 24th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala (An opinion offered for critical examination) Addressing a gathering of jurists in Sinhala at a function in Colombo, justice minister Ali Sabry said (December 12): To me as minister for justice, and to us all as citizens of this country, people are the most important factor. It is because of them […]

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Down with the 225 who have failed to agree on united response to the Sialkot barbarism!

Wednesday, December 15th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala The lesson taught by the failure of our parliament to register a prompt united response of unqualified condemnation against the occurrence of the Sialkot savagery committed in the name of religion should never be forgotten by all patriotic Sri Lankans. My hunch is that ordinary Sri Lankans whose hearts bled for […]

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Gotabaya’s soliloquy before Mare Crisium: Some home truths and simple hints

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? Hamlet in Shakespeare’s Hamlet The initial two year period of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidential term has been largely […]

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End monkey business now and get serious for once!

Friday, November 5th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala  (Continuation of ‘Don’t forget people who elected you, Mr President!’/November 2, 2021) My gut feeling is that the Presidential Task Force, if it is what I think it is, i.e., a brilliantly thought out ploy with an ulterior motive, is meant to abort the new constitution making project. It was probably […]

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