Second Int'l Buddhist Conference this week

KANDY: The Sri Lanka Association for Buddhist Studies (SLABS) will hold its second international conference on November 17-19 at the Peradeniya University, Mahaweli Reach Sri Lanka and Palipane Sri Chandrananda Buddhist College under the theme of Future of Buddhist Studies in the Region. Over 100 scholars led by Prof. D.J. Kalupahana and Prof. Y. Karunadasa will participate.

Prof. Y. Karunadasa will deliver the keynote address on The World of Buddhism: A Search for a Command Ground.

Scholars from Sri Lanka, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Italy, Netherlands, UK, USA, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Singapore will present 60 research papers in 14 academic sessions during the first two days.

Prof. Maurits Kwee of University of Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina will deliver a guest lecture on A Psychological Revolution in the Buddhist Teaching is Under way on November 17."

The Presidential address will be delivered to felicitate SLABS founder President Prof. P.D. Premasiri on November 18. The SLABS AGM will be held on November 19 at the Mahaweli Reach Sri Lanka. The conference also contains two special religious and social events; visit to the Temple of Tooth Relic and special reception hosted by the Palipane Sri Chandananda Buddhist College students at Asgiriya. A tour to historical sites in and around Kandy will also be arranged for foreign delegates.

The inauguration will be held at the Senate Building and all the academic sessions will be conducted at the Education Building of the Arts Faculty. Two parallel sessions chaired by eminent professors will also be held.

The sessions on Buddhism in South Asia, Tradition and Change, Applied Buddhism and Buddhist Meditation and Experience will be held. The sessions on Buddhist Psychology and Counselling, Pali Tripitaka and Commentarial Studies, Buddhist Philosophical Studies, Buddhist Art and Culture, Comparative Studies, Texts and Tradition and Sociological Perspectives on Religious Behaviour will also be held.

The last session conducted by the Society for the Integration of Science and Human Values (SISHV) of the Pali and Buddhist Studies Department will be chaired by Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne.

The conference that brings the experienced and young scholars in the Buddhist Studies field together is expected to function as a platform for a fruitful interaction and association to work for future co-operation and collaboration among the scholars and institutions in Sri Lanka.

This conference becomes a venue for enriching the academic traditions of Sri Lanka and strengthening of the network of international and cultural relationships between the Sri Lankan academic community and those of the other countries.

The SLABS the only academic and professional body of university lecturers, scholars and researchers in the Buddhist Studies field and related subject areas, was founded in 2002 as a concept of Prof. Asanga Tilakarante. Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Kelaniya University.