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Between Buddhist nations:
Brotherhood strengthened
Bonds of friendship and brotherhood among the Buddhist countries have
developed and strengthened over the years, Prime Minister D M Jayaratne
addressing the 25th General Conference of World Fellowship of Buddhists,
said yesterday.
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Prime Minister
D M Jayaratne |
He said, as a Buddhist, I consider it a great privilege and an honour
to have been invited for the inauguration ceremony of the 25th
Conference of World Fellowship Buddhists. This is a landmark event for
my country and for the Buddhist public of Sri Lanka. We celebrate on
this occasion another important event, i.e. the 91st anniversary of
establishment of All Ceylon Buddhist Congress which had its beginnings
in the year 1919.
Sri Lanka takes great pride for being able to preserve the Buddha
Dhamma in its purest form for over two millenniums in spite of
intermittent foreign invasions and threats to its sovereignty it had to
face during that long period. It is from Sri Lanka that the message of
the Buddha spread to our friendly countries in Asia who had nurtured
their cultures and traditions moulded by the teachings of the Buddha.
Bonds of friendship and brotherhood among our Buddhist countries had
developed and strengthened because of our common religion, Buddhism.
Establishment of WFB in the year 1950 was a historic attempt made to
bring under one umbrella all Buddhists in the world. On this occasion we
respectfully remember the great service rendered by late Professor G P
Malalasekera the then President of ACBC in the setting up of WFB.
With a membership of few Buddhist countries in the beginning, World
Fellowship Buddhists had grown into a highly influential international
Buddhist Organization within the last 60 years. As spelt out in the
teachings of our great Leader, the Buddha, World Fellowship Buddhists
passionately advocates international peace and harmony among people and
countries of the world. Its voice is heard in many international fora.
In this conflict ridden world, World Fellowship Buddhists had
relentlessly exerted pressure and influence on the countries in conflict
to follow peaceful paths in resolving their problems and differences.
Performance of World Fellowship Buddhists in propagating the message of
peace and tolerance had been quite successful over the years. Commending
World Fellowship Buddhists for the unique role, it had played in the
international arena, I wish its future activities will be more fruitful
for the course of peace and harmony in the world.
We extend a special welcome to Hon. Wang Zuo’an of China who had
graced this occasion as a special guest of All Ceylon Buddhist Congress
and World Fellowship Buddhists.
We also warmly welcome all other distinguished Buddhist leaders both
from Sri Lanka and abroad who have graced this historic occasion.
I wish the foreign dignitaries a happy stay in our beautiful country.
I am sure they all would be delighted to visit Sri Lanka’s venerated
places of Buddhist worship which symbolize Sri Lanka’s rich Buddhist
culture and heritage.
I wish all success for the deliberations at 25th Conference of World
Fellowship of Buddhists.
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