Sri Lanka - from the Euro - Asian commercial hub to
pan-world socio-political importance:
An inspiring leader
Text of the Commemorative Oration by former
Ambassador of Sri Lanka to France and USA Professor Ananda W. P. Guruge
delivered on November 24 in Colombo
Continued from yesterday
Foreign relations initiated by the Sangha consisted of extensive
missionary services in Southeast Asia. A ninth century inscription at
Dvaravati in Thailand contains the opening verses of the Telakatahakatha,
which dealt with the story of Kelani Tissa and his daughter
Viharamahadevi, Sinhala monasteries of Thaton in Myanmar and Nakhon Si
Thammarat of Thailand served to spread the Sri Lankan form of Buddhism,
which George Coedes calls the Sinhala Reform, to Myahmar, Thailand and
from there to Cambodia and Laos.
A Burmese monk named Chapata came with a team of monks including a
prince of Cambodia to Sri Lanka to be re-ordained in the island. The
Sangha in Southeast Asia was identified as Lankavamsa.
Sinhala monks had been the spiritual advisers to Kings Ramakamheng
and Lithai of Sukhothai in the 12th century as recorded in their
inscriptions, King Dhammazedi of Myanmar sent in 1476, a team of monks
to be ordained at the Kalyani Sima and they took from here manuscripts
of Pali works, which have been recopied and preserved in Southeast Asia.
Pali language became the lingua franca of the region and Sri Lanka was
regarded as its religious metropolis.
Commercial interests
In Thai and Cambodian script was found an extended version of the
Mahavamsa, which had twice as many verses and greater details than the
original. Reflecting the outreach of the Sinhala Sangha, an inscription
at Ratuboka, the capital of the Shailendra Empire of Indonesia, bears
witness to the existence a branch of the Abhayagiri monastery there.
Also interesting to note is that royal matrimonial alliances existed
between Sri Lanka and this empire and one of them caused the invasion of
Myanmar by Parakramabahu the Great (1153-1186).
D A Rajapaksa |
Thus along the trade routes to the East Buddhism travelled from Sri
Lanka to the whole region. The Sangha used commercial vessels for their
extensive travels. Fa-Xien travelled form Tamralipti in India to Sri
Lanka in a large merchant ship and returned to China via Java in another
which had space of two hundred persons. Amoghvajra saw a flotilla a 35
Persian ships in the Sri Lankan port. Sri Lanka had its own fleet as
seen from the ships of Parakramabahu I, who waged war in South India and
Myanmar.
No records exist to show if Sri Lankan Buddhism had any impact in the
West. The only piece of evidence, perhaps, is the remarkably accurate
interpretation of Buddhism by Saint Clement of Alexandria in the third
century.
History changed with the initiative of Henry the Navigator of
Portugal in the 15th century. Due to hostilities with Arabs generated by
the Crusades, the European nations entered into open competition with
them and sought sea routes to South Asia. Their policy of linking trade
with colonization and empire-building put an end to the more cooperative
trade relations which had existed up to that time. Though the Portuguese
came by accident due to a storm, they were induced by commercial
interests to occupy a part of the maritime region. Any international
relations of the Sinhala kings were military in character and purpose.
Getting naval support to oust the Portuguese was the objective.
Relations with the Zamorin in Calicut were followed by those with the
Dutch. After the Dutch occupied the maritime region, similar
negotiations were conducted with the French and the Danes.
The loss of independence in 1815 left no Sri Lankan authority to
engage in foreign relations. But Sri Lanka was not a country that could
have been kept aloof from the world. Even in this bleak period Sri
Lankans sought for opportunities to make a mark on the world. With two
failed of culture or more precisely Buddhism that this opportunity was
found.
International community
Within half a century of British occupation, the Sangha were engaged
in introducing Buddhism and Sri Lankan culture to British
administrators. The monks inspired pioneering British scholars like
Robert Childers, T. W. Rhys Davids to study Pali and popularize it as a
discipline in higher education in the West. The correspondence of
Venerables Hikkaduwe Sri Sumanagala and Dodanduwe Piyaratana Tissa with
Colonel Henry Steele Olcott in the 1870s displays their outreach to the
world and how they won allies in the Theosophical Movement. Anagarika
Dharmapala and Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka, both proteges of Colonel Olcott,
brought the laity into the picture. The Sri Lankan support and advice to
Rhys Davids resulted in the creation of the Pali Text Society of London
in 1881, which made the Buddhist Canon in Pali and English translation,
besides other Pali works, available to a widening international
community of oriental scholars.
Anagarika Dharmapala established the Maha Bodhi Society in 1981 to
agitate for the restitution of Buddhist shrines of India to the
Buddhists. It turned out to be the first ever international Buddhist
forum enlisting the cooperation of an impressive body of dignitaries
from the East as well as the West. Its journal so impressed the
organizers of the first Parliament of world's religions in Chicago that
Anagarika Dharmapala was invited to serve in the organizing committee.
British Empire
In 1893 he attended the Parliament, delivered the historic speech on
the World's Debt to the Buddha to a representative audience of 6,000 and
became an acknowledged Buddhist leader of the world. He initiated the
reintroduction of Buddhism to India and set up the London Buddhist
Vihara. Thanks to him and late to Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka, Sri Lanka
became the leading focal point for the spread of Buddhism in the modern
world. Institutions, which were developed in Sri Lanka like the
Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara Pirivenas, were the models for higher
learning institutions in the Buddhist countries of Asia. Mater Tai-Xu,
the pre-eminent reformer of Buddhism in China in the early 19th century,
acknowledged that Sri Lanka was his exemplar.
In the meantime, Sri Lankans took every advantage of being exposed to
Western literature, science and technology.
Placing the highest priority to education of the younger generation,
facilities were utilized to gain professional and technological
leadership in diverse fields. Students going to foreign seats of
learning led student organizations and displayed their capacity to
function internationally.
Diplomatic relations
Sri Lankans ventured to seek new pastures in the extensive British
Empire. With their superior intellectual gifts and admirable work
ethics, they were welcome all over. Progressively their representation
in medical, educational, engineering, accounting and technical sectors
of not only developing countries but also in Britain and other advanced
British dominions was numerically far in excess and higher in visibility
when compared with its size. Sri Lankans went out to the world not as
seekers of help but as welcome contributors to development.
A few landmarks in our foreign relations since our entry to the
socio-political community as an independent nation deserve to be
highlighted. I have been told that the suggestions of two Sri Lankans,
namely Professors Gunapala Malalasekera and K N Jayatilleke, led to the
formulation of the motto of UNESCO, whose Buddhist and Sri Lankan
inspiration is obvious: "As wars begin in the minds of men it is in the
minds of men that defences of peace must be constructed."
In 1951 it was the Sri Lankan representative to the Peace Treaty
Conference of San Francisco who quoted Na hi verena verani. From the
Dhammapada and freed Japan from war damages to grow into an economic
giant. Not only was Sri Lanka praised in the New York Times saying "The
voice of free Asia eloquent, melancholy and strong with the tilt of an
Oxford accent dominated the Conference" but we also gained the eternal
gratitude of the Land of the Rising Sun. During the Korean War of the
1950, Sri Lanka asserted its freedom by continuing to supply rubber to
China against the pressure of the United Nations exerted through Britain
and thereby gained entry to the world body. In 1956, Sri Lanka
terminated the provision of a naval and air base to Britain and expanded
its diplomatic relations with China and USSR, It became an active member
of the Non-aligned Movement whose summit in 1977 in Colombo is
remembered as a landmark.
Significant contribution
Representatives of Sri Lanka play decisive roles within the United
Nations and its specialized organizations and have made significant
contributions in every field. Important positions like the President of
the General Assembly and chairmen and key office-bearers in commissions
and committees have been held by them winning much prestige and
recognition for the country. So have several hundreds of high level
professionals of all fields served and continued to serve not only in
the head offices of the United Nations system but also as experts
adivising and conducting operations all over the world. Sri Lanka
initiated in the United Nations the International Year of Shelter for
the Homeless and also the steps to have Vesak recognized as a UN
holiday. Through UNESCO-WFP-Sri Lanka Cultural Triangle Project, the
international community was involved in safeguarding the cultural
heritage of the country.
UNICEF had held Sri Lanka as a model for human development with
minimum resources but with deep commitment. With the recent success in
dealing with the terrorist menace, the experience of Sri Lanka is sought
by similarly affected nations.
It has been said of Sri Lanka it is too small to have enemies but big
enough to have friends.
We have gone to the world with our readiness to contribute to the
welfare of humanity. Our pan-world socio-political influence is in a
measure far in excess of our size and limited resources.
On this day that we most affectionately recall the admirable example
of devoted service set to us by D A Rajapaksa, let us rededicate
ourselves to more and greater international service through all
available human and material resources. We sure can continue to make a
mark on the world.
May I conclude with my own grateful thoughts for his lifetime of
service by wishing that his journey in Samsara be short and be attains
the ultimate bliss of Nibbana.
Concluded |