Mentor who stands tall

Channa Bandara Wijekoon

A person, who has dedicated his whole life towards grooming children of his motherland to be sensitive individuals in life by inculcating creative thinking, admiration of aesthetics and warmth in their minds, is truly someone to reckon with.

Lionel Ranaweera is an individual of that calibre. Though he is respected by Sri Lankans as a veteran art teacher, the big picture is the philosophical vision he inculcates in his pupil’s mind and ego in the teaching process. In other words, Ranaweera magically purifies his student’s ego in the guise of a teacher.

Lionel Ranaweera

One of Ranaweera’s paintings

Although the world has painted Ranaweera’s reputation as a person larger than life, he is unbelievably humble and simple individual in temperament. The love he has towards the humankind, animals and nature, is a hint of undying creativeness he possesses. Children are my world, says he. This whole world needs new blood to remain youthful and to be a happening place. New inventions and discoveries beyond our wildest imagination are in store for the future. Thus, we need to gear our children, the guardians of the future now itself, for they are to take challenges of a very different future.

Lionel Ranaweera is a world renowned artist who had represented Sri Lanka in international art competitions held in Brazil, Japan, Bangladesh, Finland and India since 1981. He has participated in the recently concluded Asian International elders’ art exhibition held in Bangladesh in November 2010. Three creations by this veteran: Life and Nature, Mithuna and Group were highly commended by the jury.

Ranaweera was a founder member of the Sri Lanka National Child Art Foundation formed in 1981. He has rendered a great service through this foundation to ignite and bring forth to limelight, the hidden creativity of children. Achievements of his students in international competitions have brought immense recognition and fame to our country. The amounts of gold, silver and bronze medals these children have won to date in international competitions are a clear indication of the prowess of Ranaweera, the man behind. He stands tall among all teachers of aesthetics in Sri Lanka as the only person who has achieved these heights.

Ranaweera hailed from a business family in Weligama in the down South. He was born in 1943 and had obtained formal education in Weligama Sri Siddhartha College. He obtained secondary education at the faculty of aesthetics in the Colombo University. He got the rare opportunity to undergo an advanced training from Professor J M Sararoksy at Sorbonne University in 1965. In 1975, he entered the teachers Training College in Giragama to be trained as a teacher.

The first appointment came his way in 1970, which was at Aththanapitiya Maha Viduhala in Bandarawela.

My intention was and will be to encourage children to participate in international competitions every year. This will stimulate the creativity in them and develop self esteem, said Ranaweera. He had been doing this service to the Nation for 40 long years continuously. Tens and thousands of his former students are now contributing to the country’s well being as sensible and cultured individuals.

This humble gentleman had never craved for monetary and material gains. Once Ranaweera had humbly refused to accept a brand new house offered to him by a late leader of the country. Instead, he silently engages in self initiated charity programs in the vicinity of his residence at Sapumal Place, Rajagiriya, and at times in rural areas too. In 2008, when the war against terrorists was at full pace, he had donated books, school uniforms and colour television sets to all the children in Paranagama College, Dehiaththakandiya.

People in the calibre of Lionel Ranaweera are assets to our country. They emerge from time to time to make this Jewel of Indian

Ocean glow more prominently in the necklace of the virgin celestial body called planet Earth.

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