{"id":78833,"date":"2018-06-28T15:05:56","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T22:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=78833"},"modified":"2018-06-28T15:06:14","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T22:06:14","slug":"threats-to-the-buddha-sasana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/06\/28\/threats-to-the-buddha-sasana\/","title":{"rendered":"THREATS TO THE BUDDHA SASANA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

In recent years, Muslim extremists, evidently influenced by the Wahhabi form of Islam, have started a campaign to disrepute and undermine Buddhism, Buddhist Bhikkhus and the Buddha Sasana which is the foundation of the national culture of this nation. In parallel, these Muslim extremists are propagating within Sri Lanka, life-style, education system (madrasaa), a banking system, a parochial Islamic legal system, and a peculiar attire especially among their younger generation.\u00a0 Among their other tendencies include the proliferation of children, building of a multiplicity of new mosques and encroachment of public land for housing schemes meant exclusively for Muslims, some within National Forest and Wildlife conservations and in archeological sites which are of historical significance for Buddhists. The effects of these tendencies, particularly their long term effects are precariously unhealthy and has the effect of undermining the \u00a0unity and social harmony in the nation. They are contrary to the socio-cultural norms and values of the country. These tendencies are having a highly divisive effect on our society and are bound to create serious problems with drastic negative implications in future, for the nation\u2019s stability and prosperity.<\/p>\n

The Buddha Sasana is the oldest, the most fundamental and sacred of national organizations of our country for over 2200 years. It is this institution that promoted and protected the Buddha Dhamma and Buddhist spirituality among the Sinhala people. It is directly responsible for fostering Buddhist culture, values, and way of life of the Sinhala people. In fact, it has been the foremost institution, from historic times, \u00a0that was instrumental in laying the overall cultural foundation of our nation.<\/p>\n

It is this institution that helped to develop and enrich Sinhala language and literature. Sinhala language is spoken only in our motherland and is considered as one of the most expressive and richest languages in the world. It is this institution that produced the greatest of our Sinhala scholars, writers, poets, artists among other leaders in various fields. It is this institution that formed the main advisory body of our kings, royalty, and leaders. It is this institution that provided us with the Mahavamsa, Chulavamsa, Deepavamsa, Thupawamsa, among many other chronicles that outlines the history of our country, making our country one of the very few countries in the world with a well-recorded history that extends to over 2500 years. It is this institution that salvaged and protected the priceless ola books and scriptures containing valuable information for eternity when the country was under threat by ruthless foreign invaders and \u00a0the LTTE – Tamil terrorists.<\/p>\n

Historic sites, buildings and monuments associated with this institution that have preserved for us the most exquisite and fascinating collection of our indigenous Buddhist sculpture, paintings, architecture, wood carvings, and unique fine arts. It is this institution that was instrumental in the preserving for us one of the greatest cultural events of the country – the Sri Dalada Perahera, which has preserved for us the enchanting heritage of our unique\u00a0 visual culture and performing arts.<\/p>\n

It is this institution that endured the harshest of punishments and atrocities during invasions of our country by the South Indian Tamil-speaking Pandyans, Cholas and others, and the Christian Portuguese, Dutch and British. It is this institution that endured the murder of Bhikkhus, the burning of Buddhist scriptures, the destruction and demolition of Buddhist shrines, monasteries, and stupas by Indian and Christian European invaders in the past. It is this institution that is being threatened and undermined by extremist elements of the Muslim community who have adopted the fanatical Wahhabi form of Islam imported from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

It is this glorious and invaluable historic institution of ours, the Buddha Sasana, \u00a0that is being threatened today, by the extremist elements of the Muslim community of our country. The Sinhala Buddhist form the overwhelming majority of people in this country from historic times. It is time that our people realized that one of the biggest tragedies for the Sinhala Buddhists has been, the sharp divisions among them, especially on political party lines. This disunity has been the main springboard for anti-national elements, especially among the minorities \u2013 Tamils and Muslims,\u00a0 to destabilize the country and to promote racist, religious and separatist agendas affecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. It is time the Sinhala Buddhists, irrespective of their political party or other affiliations, join hands and come to the forefront in a dynamic and vigorous manner, to form an overall Sinhala Buddhist front to counter the forces that threaten the Buddha Sasana and Buddhists.<\/p>\n

It is a pity that for some Buddhists, being a Buddhist is of secondary or tertiary importance. This partly explains the lack of unity and togetherness among them.<\/p>\n

Buddhists would come together to perform a common Buddhist ritual in a temple, but they are reluctant or indifferent to the idea of joining hands as Buddhists to form a force to secure and consolidate their dwindling legitimate rights as Buddhists, even when violation of such rights are clearly evident.<\/p>\n

It is in this light that we must admire and appreciate the initiative and leadership offered some time back by the great Anagarika Dharmapala, L.H. Mettananda, Venerable Gangodawila Soma Thera and in recent times, by national organizations such as the Bodu Bala Sena, Sinhala Ravaya, Mahason Balakaya, in particular. In spite of untold threats and challenges and various unfounded and indecent criticisms leveled against them, especially by extremist Muslims and other fanatics who benefit politically and otherwise from association with Muslims, these bold, inherently national organizations, reflective of a clearly national character, outlook and disposition, and especially given the often unfavorable conditions under which they have to operate, these organizations, appear to be going ahead with their programme of activities, demonstrating foresight, forthrightness, courage, fearlessness and determination.<\/p>\n

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane In recent years, Muslim extremists, evidently influenced by the Wahhabi form of Islam, have started a campaign to disrepute and undermine Buddhism, Buddhist Bhikkhus and the Buddha Sasana which is the foundation of the national culture of this nation. In parallel, these Muslim extremists are propagating within Sri Lanka, life-style, education system […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-dr-daya-hewapathirane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78833","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=78833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}