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For All Sri Lankans: A Message of Tolerance and Conflict Resolution from Ven Galkande Dhammananda

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Courtesy of COLOMBO TELEGRAPH — SEE http://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/a-sri-lankan-buddhist-monk-speaks-out-let-sri-lanka-have-thousands-of-buddha-putras-like-him/ … and also absorb the blog comments it draws. NOTE: the sinhala is precise and lucid if high-flown. Indeed, it is a lesson in concise clarity. AND it is translated intoTamil and English as well. a MUST SEE and must listen –both media.

A Note from Dr WA Wijewardena: “It is indeed heartening to see an erudite Buddhist priest speaking out, guided by the teaching of the Master, when many have chosen to remain silent. Ven Dhammananda, Lecturer at the University of Kelaniya, speaks through his experience, but has not been angered or being revengeful despite the personal loss to him. Let Sri Lanka have thousands of Buddha Putras like him to guide this nation, which is now stranded and moving aimlessly, to its future glory!” says a former Deputy Governor – Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Dr. W.A. Wijewardena.

A Note from Professor Sudharshan Seneviratne: Dear All … This is a short film composed as a message of peace and understanding by Rev. Galkande Dhammananda. He is a faculty member at the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka currently reading for his Ph.D. at the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is also the last pupil of Rev Walpola Rahula. I have been working very closely with him on academic matters and also on peace efforts. Rev. Dhammananda has been extremely concerned about the subversion of a doctrine of peace for destructive parochial ends and is committed to what he believes as re achievement of peace and understanding, a sentiment that comes from his heart.

As a member of the Buddhist clergy, Rev. Dhammananda’s message has greater meaning at this juncture. He has taken an uncompromising position that runs counter to the renewed tribal cries of religious fundamentalism that is inflaming this island running parallel to similar cancerous parochialisms gnawing at the very marrow of civilized cultures in South Asia. In Sri Lanka we are yet to recover from a thirty year old trauma that has permanently scarred the psyche of people as we did not look for amicable solutions resolving differences and our misunderstood histories. If some self destructive individuals  in the lunatic fringe (be it those resident in Sri Lanka or those in the diaspora) are whipping up both communal and religious identities for their hidden agendas, Rev. Dhammananda’s appeal is an antithesis to that very cannibalization of humanness.    
 
It is a privilege and honour to know and be associated with Re. Dhammananda. Please pass on this valued appeal of greater understanding to others.
 
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   Ven. Dhammananda, Galkande

B.A.(Kel’ya), M.A.(JNU)

Designation:                     Lecturer

 

Research Interests:         Social History, Epigraphy.

Positions:                          Member, Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka.

                                          Member, Sri Lanka Historical Association.         

Selected Publications:

                1. Humour in Pali Literature and other Essays by Walpola Rahula (Ed)

                2. A review of the Chronology of the Anuradhapura Period (in Sinhala) 

                3. The Evolution of the Diacritics in the Sinhala language (in Sinhala)

 Contact Details:

            Contact Address: Ketumati, Buddhist Institute Avenue, Parliament Road, Kotte..

            Telephone:  0112866196 

 E-mail Address: dhammanandajnu@yahoo.com

 

ALSO SEE http://thuppahis.com/2013/04/14/standing-up-against-extremism-and-the-bbs-two-voices-just-ordinary-citizens-who-have-had-enough/ for “Standing UP against Extremism and the BBS: One Voice … ‘I am just plain tired.”

ALSO SEE “Hate has no place in Lanka,” — http://www.dailymirror.lk/caption-story/28688-hate-has-no-place-in-lanka.html

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