Senaka Weeraratna The Portuguese landed in Colombo in 1505. Within a few years of their arrival they were able to establish permanent trading settlements and then indulge in a game of intrigue and blackmail with the various rulers and minor chiefs of the country. They harassed Bhuvenakabahu (King of Kotte from 1521 ?1551) to a […]

Senaka Weeraratna    Professor A.D.T.E. Perera, renowned Buddhist Scholar, with a Ph. D. from the Australian National University, passed away on September 17, 2023 at the age of 87 years of age.  Professor A.D.T.E. Perera was formerly an Associate Editor, Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Government of Sri Lanka, publication, Research Associate and Professor, Department of Philosophy, University […]

Senaka Weeraratna Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke new ground at the opening Day of the G20 Conference in Delhi yesterday when he greeted world leaders with a ‘Namaste’ and shook hands with them in front of a giant-sized Dharmachakra (also called Asoka Chakra) at the newly opened Bharat Mandapam. It was a huge boost for […]

Senaka Weeraratna Whenever the Europeans entered a non-European country it spelled doom for the indigenous people. This is the history of the world beginning with Christopher Columbus.  On June 7, 1494, Pope Alexander VI published a Bull ‘ inter caetera’ to divide the New World between Spain and Portugal. Tordesillas – How the Pope divided the […]

Senaka Weeraratna When the Indian Rocket ‘ Chandrahayan’ 3 landed on the Moon on August 23, 2023, it created a stunning moment that comes but rarely in history, when an age of dreaming ends and a new one begins.  The moon landing has shaken not only the soul of a single nation but that of […]

Senaka Weeraratna  A Book entitled ‘ A Comparative Study – Animal Welfare Bill Proposed by the Law Commission (2006) and the Animal Welfare Bill as Amended (2022) by Senaka Weeraratna,  Attorney-at-Law, was launched at the Public Library, Colombo on Monday, August 07, 2023 A picture of the participants at the Press Conference conducted by the Coalition for a Pro Animal […]

Senaka Weeraratna, the inventor of DRS, has revolutionized the game of Cricket. India under Narendra Modi can play a bigger role in the Cricket world wherever there is racism, sexism, and the like in ICC-administered cricket. The recently released damning Report on racism in English cricket is equally true of similar types of racism and […]

Senaka Weeraratna I refer to the article by Nicholas Dias Abeyesinghe in Lankaweb on the Beira Lake I checked the meaning of the word ‘Beira’ in Portuguese using Google. The answer given by Google is that it means ‘  Border ‘.  The Portuguese word for Lake is  ‘ Lago ‘  Using the word ‘ Beira’ for […]

Senaka Weeraratna Attorney at Law Mr. Krisantha Nissanka, Attorney at Law, and Convenor of Lawyers for Buddhist Rights in an interview with Mr. Mahieash Johnney ( Ada Derana English) on June 13, 2023, explains the Buddhist point of view with respect to the current controversy on the limits of Freedom of Speech, the necessity to respect […]

Senaka Weeraratna EMAIL Inventor Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai This is the same story with respect to the Decision Review System (DRS) which is the invention of a Sri Lankan Lawyer ( under the concept of ‘Player Referral’ conceived and published for the first time in the ‘Australian’ Newspaper dated March 25, 1997, calling for a Right […]

Senaka Weeraratna  Shashi Tharoor has said  DRS is such a major innovation. I never want to see international cricket without DRS ever again. It is so indispensable and eliminates so many bad decisions, and it creates an additional form of excitement for the viewer. It adds an extra element of tension to the plot and […]

Senaka Weeraratna Buddhism is the most endangered religion in the world. Buddhism has lost more territory and space worldwide to other religions in the last one thousand years, than any other World Religion. The encroachment of Buddhist territories still continues. The danger is there for everyone to see. Now the competitors are at the Gates of Buddhist […]

Senaka Weeraratna The most outstanding religious festival in the world in the sense of moral eminence is Vesak. Why? Because no harm is caused to any sentient being in the celebration of Vesak, which is slaughter-free by both custom and law (in Sri Lanka). Slaughterhouses are closed. Meat houses are shut. Supermarkets are prohibited by […]

Senaka Weeraratna India with the support of Buddhist Asia can become a World Superpower. Not necessarily militarily but economically, morally, and spiritually. Buddhism which has heavily influenced the moral and ethical foundations of a wide range of countries in South Asia, South East Asia, and the Far East in the past two millennia, can again […]

Senaka Weeraratna Today a Global Buddhist Summit was inaugurated in New Delhi by the Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. While the News is heart warming especially to Buddhists a content analysis of the Agenda of this Summit Conference is not.  International Buddhist Conferences usually fail to address the problems of Buddhist minorities in the […]

Senaka Weeraratna Sri Lanka’s Christian Colonial Dark History The Govt. Sri Lanka must :1) Inquire into Colonial Crimes committed by the three Colonial Rulers including Genocidal crimes and wholesale destruction of Buddhist Temples and illegal seizure, occupation of Buddhist Temple lands, and the prohibition of the practice of Buddhism, 2) Establish a Museum dedicated to […]

Senaka Weeraratna Kishore Mahbubani PPA is a Singaporean diplomat and geopolitical consultant who served as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations between 1984 and 1989, again between 1998 and 2004, and as President of the United Nations Security Council between 2001 and 2002. Wikipedia Born: October 24, 1948 (age 74 years), Colony of Singapore Education: Harvard University, National University of […]

Senaka Weeraratna it’s now 25 years since #hongkong was returned to #china following 156 years under British rule. As you can imagine, the West is having a hard time coping with China’s celebrations, despite the fact that Hong Kong was initially taken by brute military force after Britain’s illegal shipments of heroin to China were […]

Senaka Weeraratna The Vatican has publicly apologized for helping European colonizers in the past. But does the apology mean anything? Palki Sharma tells you more Don Juan Dharmapala and the Portuguese Inquisition in Ceylon The Website ‘ Wings of Time – Footsteps through History of Sri Lanka’ provides a series of web links giving fascinating […]

Senaka Weeraratna Dasis Manchanayake scored both a stunning century and half-century and then stunned the entire country by leading his team to a splendid victory over their rivals, which will remain etched in the memory of all those who were privileged to watch this unforgettable 144th Royal Thomian encounter. However, there is another story equally […]

Senaka Weeraratna Sri Lanka is Multicultural, Multi-Religious, and Multi-Lingual.  This is a fact. Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist. About 70% of Sri Lanka’s population is Sinhala Buddhist. This is a fact.  Therefore taking into account these ground realities Sri Lanka’s identity can be defined as follows: Sri Lanka is a predominantly Sinhala Buddhist country with […]

Senaka Weeraratna Had the Roman Empire under Constantine embraced Buddhism rather than Christianity we would have had a more peaceful Europe and a more peaceful world. Historically speaking despite all the rhetoric on Peace and Human Rights, Europe remains the same. The biggest battlefield in history compared to other continents. The track record of Europe is […]

Senaka Weeraratna For many years it was the propaganda of the Victors full of hate speech directed towards the losers i.e., Axis powers, Germany and Japan, and demonizing one of them i.e.Japanese, as cannibals and savages that characterized the WW2 narrative.  The people of Asia no longer accept the Western sponsored narratives as Gospel truths. […]

Senaka Weeraratna The wartime Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was clearly in the forefront of that fight.  His fault was that his side lost. But that should not de-legitimize the worldwide struggle to end Western colonial domination and rule in Asia and Africa which was finally achieved at huge cost mostly to the Japanese people. The […]

by Senaka Weeraratna Attorney-at-Law & RASSL Council Member Sri Lanka won freedom not in isolation but in step with the rest of the Asian countries in the aftermath of the end of the Second World War in 1945. Many factors contributed to the collapse of Western dominance in Asia. The Second World War was the […]

Senaka Weeraratna Independence Day – Demands An accountability process for these colonial crimes is warranted through an apology, catharsis, and adequate reparations. An Apology must be particularly directed to the descendants of the Sinhala Buddhist Kandyan people who were singled out as victims of colonial brutalities. These are the descendants of a highly oppressed group […]

Senaka Weeraratna Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 mainly on the back of Japan’s resounding military victories during the Second World War and the Indian independence struggle. The importance of the overthrow of Western colonial powers in Asia by freedom fighters supported by Japan should not be underestimated. If the intervention of Japan had not taken […]

Senaka Weeraratna I would like to draw your kind attention to the latest study on this subject.  The Book is titled ‘ Freedom Struggles of Sri Lanka – Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward’ edited by Professor C.M. Madduma Bandara. I am attaching the Table of Contents of the Book together with the Foreword of […]

Senaka Weeraratna  Aims 1)    To research and rewrite the narrative surrounding gaining of independence on 4th Feb 1948 2)    To ensure that the narrative is factually correct 3)    To explore the internal factors and the external factors that contributed to the gaining of freedom 4)    To plan a celebration that gives due place to all […]

Senaka Weeraratna  The consequence of God Delusion in the West largely among the mainstream Christian populace is the increasing search for Sati ( Mindfulness) originally taught by the Buddha in India over 2,500 years ago. Sati Meditation is filling a huge void in the Western consciousness due to the collapse of Monotheistic belief systems. The […]