{"id":78149,"date":"2018-06-08T00:08:05","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T06:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=78149"},"modified":"2018-06-07T16:59:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T23:59:52","slug":"i-am-proud-to-be-a-sinhalese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/06\/08\/i-am-proud-to-be-a-sinhalese\/","title":{"rendered":"I am proud to be a Sinhalese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

I am proud to be a Sinhalese<\/p>\n

I am proud to be Buddhist<\/p>\n

I am proud of my rata, jathiya and agama<\/p>\n

I am proud of my country\u2019s national anthem<\/p>\n

I am proud of my country\u2019s national song<\/p>\n

Devo vassatu k\u0101lena, ~ sabbasampatti hetu ca,
\nMay the sky-god rain down in due season, ~ and (may there be) the right conditions for all to have good fortune,<\/p>\n

ph\u012bto bhavatu loko ca, ~ r\u0101j\u0101 bhavatu dhammiko!<\/p>\n

may the world be prosperous, ~ may the King always be righteous!<\/p>\n

I am proud of the National Flag with the Lion (Sinhaya) in the middle<\/p>\n

I am proud of Arahant Mahinda\u2019s advice to King Devanampiyatissa in their very first encounter at Mihintale about 2300 years ago, in the following words:<\/p>\n

“Oh! Great King, the birds of the air and the beasts have an equal right to live and move about in any part of this land as thou. The land belongs to the peoples and all other beings and thou art only the guardian of it.”<\/p>\n

I am proud that the State once i.e. in the pre- colonial era, extended protection to animals, birds and other living creatures of the land based on Arahant Mahinda\u2019s noble message to all rulers of this land<\/p>\n

I am proud of the Mahavamsa written by Mahanama to awaken serene joy and emotion<\/p>\n

I am proud of the great Kings of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, and all other Royal Capitals<\/p>\n

I am proud of the freedom fighters who fought the foreign invaders from the West and the North and kept Thun Sinhale independent<\/p>\n

I am proud of the great Dagabos and Tanks, and Gama and Pansala, that provided the base of our unique Buddhist Civilization<\/p>\n

I am proud of Dutugemunu, Vijayabahu, Parakramabahu and Gajabahu<\/p>\n

I am proud of Mayadunne, Sitawaka Rajasinghe, Vimala Dharmasuriya and Rajasinghe ii<\/p>\n

They never gave up when everyone said all was lost<\/p>\n

Veera Keppettipola and his band of freedom fighters fought against the might of the British Empire in a one sided war that added Uva \u2013 Wellassa (1818) to the list of genocides in world history books.<\/p>\n

I am proud of them all including Puran Appu and Gongale Goda Banda – the leader of the 1848 war of independence.<\/p>\n

I am proud of Anuradhapura and the Atamasthana, Mihintale, Dambulla, Sigiriya, Mahiyangana, Yapahaua, Kurunegala, Dambadeniya, Kotte, Gampola and Raigama.<\/p>\n

I am proud of the sacred and ancient Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Tree at Anuradhapura.<\/p>\n

I am proud of Ruhunu.<\/p>\n

I am proud of Kandy, the last redoubt that kept our flag flying with a fighting \u2018 never say die\u2019 spirit, beautified with majestic iconic buildings (paththirippuwa) and dazzling lakes (kiri muhuda).<\/p>\n

I am proud of Anagarika Dharmapala and his Buddhist Revival Movement.<\/p>\n

I am proud of all those who contributed to gaining independence from the British Raj including the Ponnambalam brothers (Ramanathan and Arunachalam).<\/p>\n

Last but not least among the heroes I am proud of the Ranvirus, whose valour in historic battles and sacrifices in both limb and life, ensured the peace that we enjoy today.<\/p>\n

I am particularly proud of the Karaniya Metta Sutta: The Buddha’s Words on Loving-Kindness.<\/p>\n

May all beings be well and safe, may they be at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let there be no malice towards any living being.<\/p>\n

I am proud to be a Sri Lankan.<\/p>\n

Senaka Weeraratna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna I am proud to be a Sinhalese I am proud to be Buddhist I am proud of my rata, jathiya and agama I am proud of my country\u2019s national anthem I am proud of my country\u2019s national song Devo vassatu k\u0101lena, ~ sabbasampatti hetu ca, May the sky-god rain down in due season, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}