First Sri Lankan Buddhist Mission to Germany to be honoured

Janaka PERERA

COLOMBO: The First Sri Lankan Buddhist Mission to Germany 50 years ago (1957-2007) will be honoured at a grand ceremony at the Savsiripaya Auditorium, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7 on Wednesday.

The Government’s Philatelic Bureau will mark the event with the issue of a commemorative postage stamp and First Day cover.

Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister Karu Jayasuriya will be the chief guest while the guest of honour will be the German Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Juergen Weerth.

Special guests of honour will be Posts and Telecommunications Minister Rauff Hakeem.

A public lecture by Dr. Karl-Heinz Golzio, University of Bonn, Germany on “The German contributions to Theravada Buddhism and the Reception of Buddhism in Germany and its influence on German culture,” will precede the issue of the commemorative stamp.

The Goethe Institute and the German Dharmadutha Society is jointly organising the lecture to shed extensive light on the century-old ties between the countries through Buddhist links, particularly the contribution of German monks and scholars to Theravada Buddhism and Sri Lankan Buddhist Missionary efforts in Germany commencing in the mid 1950s.

At the ceremony, the Ven. Dr. Bellanwila Wimalaratana Nayaka Thera, Chancellor, Sri Jayewardenepura University, will administer Pansil and Ven. Wijayarajapura Seelawansa Nayaka Thera will deliver the Dhamma Sermon.

Emeritus Professor Jayadeva Tilakasiri (President, German Dharmaduta Society and GDS founder member) will deliver the welcome address. The first Buddhist Mission to Germany which left Colombo on June 15, 1957 was sponsored by the German Dharmaduta Society.

The Society has since then through successive missions set up an International Buddhist Centre and a Vihara with resident monks in Berlin-Frohnau thus fulfilling a most urgent need of German Buddhists at the time. It has made a notable contribution in maintaining a Theravada presence in Central Europe and in the westward movement of the Buddha Dhamma.

- Asian Tribune