Friday, 8 February 2002 |
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Kulatunga Waidyasekera honoured by Lankans in the Netherlands Under the auspices of the Sri Lankan Mission in The Netherlands and with the support of the Sri Lankan community domiciled there Mr. Kulatunga Waidyasekera was honoured for his services of cultural Ambassadorship to The Netherlands over the past twenty three years. Mr. Waidyasekera has been resident in The Netherlands since 1978. The Embassy for Sri Lanka was established only in October 1992. But, its absence was not allowed to be felt culturally by Mr. Waidyasekera whose dedication to his motherland manifested in many Sri Lankan cultural activities organized single handed by him on every National Day or at any other opportunity. He was found in some part of The Netherlands to project the cultural image of Sri Lanka continuously for nearly quarter century. His enthusiasm and dedication was such that he collected artists and even trained Dutch artists to play Sri Lankan music and perform Sri Lankan dances at the early stages when Sri Lankans were rare community in numbers in The Netherlands. He once made even his Dutch wife wear cloth and jacket with a Konde and do the Sri Lankan folk dance. His contribution to the Sri Lanka-Netherlands relationship cannot be under estimated. He projected Sri Lankan identity and the image amongst the Dutch people with continuity and dignity. Coming from Harispattuwa the backwoods of Kandy he graduated at the University of Colombo in Physics and Mathematics. Joined the Steel Corporation and later the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and served a Personnel Manager and cultivated many friends amongst whom was the late Mr. Charlie Abeysekera, Social Reformer and an eminent Civil Servant. Waidyasekera is also an eminent violinist coming of a traditional musical family of Waidyasekeras in Sri Lanka. His eminence in The Netherlands is being appreciated by the Dutch educated and the learned. He is an effective participant and member of several Sri Lanka-Dutch social, cultural and charitable organizations. Hence, as a mark of recognition, the Sri Lankan Embassy and the Dutch, Sri Lankan communities came together to felicitate him fittingly by reading out a scroll and donated to him a Silver Casket beautifully crafted according to Kandyan tradition. This is an unprecedented event in the history of Sri Lankan Mission in The Netherlands. |
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