{"id":84041,"date":"2018-12-09T11:41:48","date_gmt":"2018-12-09T18:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=84041"},"modified":"2018-12-09T11:41:48","modified_gmt":"2018-12-09T18:41:48","slug":"asoka-weeraratna-birth-centenary-1918-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/12\/09\/asoka-weeraratna-birth-centenary-1918-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Asoka Weeraratna Birth Centenary (1918 \u2013 2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Press Release\u00a0German Dharmaduta Society<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>The 100<sup>th<\/sup> Birth anniversary of Asoka Weeraratna will be commemorated at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo commencing at 3.00 p.m. on Wednesday December 12. 2018 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Asoka Weeraratna, born on 12<sup>th<\/sup> December 1918 in Galle, played a pioneering role in the dissemination of Buddhism in Germany in the post war period through the German Dharmaduta Society that he founded in 1952. He converted Dr. Paul Dahlke\u2019s Das Buddhistische Haus in Berlin \u2013 Frohnau, into a Buddhist Vihara in 1957 by stationing Buddhist monks on a long term footing to spread Buddhism in the West.\u00a0 He established the Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya (Mitirigala Forest Hermitage) in 1967 and entered the Order of the Sangha in 1972 as Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanissanti. His name finds resonance alongside other world renowned Buddhist missionaries of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, for establishing the oldest Theravada Buddhist Vihara in Germany, which has now become the seat of Theravada Buddhism in\u00a0 continental Europe, conducting a variety of Buddhism related activities. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A highlight of the event will be the release of a commemorative postage stamp and a Special Commemorative First Day Cover in honour of the Birth Centenary of the late Asoka Weeraratna, by the Philatelic Bureau of the Department of Post. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Life and Legacy of Asoka Weeraratna<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Leading Buddhist monks including Ven. (Dr.) Omalpe Sobitha Thera, Ven. Uda Iriyagama Dhammajiva Thera, Chief Preceptor (Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya), and Buddhist lay leaders such as Mr. Jagath Sumathipala, President, All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, Professor Jayasiri Lankage (President, German Dharmaduta Society) and Mr. Senaka Weeraratna ( Hony. Secretary, GDS), Mr. Ranjith Wickrematilaka (President, Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya Sanrakshana Sabhawa) and Mr. Hemantha Ranawaka (Secretary, Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya Sanrakshana Sabhawa) will be addressing the meeting dealing with the life and legacy of Asoka Weeraratna to posterity. A Short documentary will also be screened. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Recital of Poems (Kavi), and a short drama focused on the espousal of vegetarianism and the success Ven. Dhammanissanti achieved in lobbying former President R. Premadasa to stop State Patronage of Inland Fisheries in Sri Lanka, will be staged by children from the Bodhiraja Childrens\u2019 Home, Embilipitiya.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>German Dharmaduta Society<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>December 05, 2018 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Press Release\u00a0German Dharmaduta Society The 100th Birth anniversary of Asoka Weeraratna will be commemorated at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo commencing at 3.00 p.m. on Wednesday December 12. 2018 Asoka Weeraratna, born on 12th December 1918 in Galle, played a pioneering role in the dissemination of Buddhism in Germany in the post war period through the [&hellip;]<\/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-84041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84041","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=84041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}