Author Archives: MFA User

Sri Lankans living in Beijing and Tianjin together with Chinese well wishers gathered at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Beijing, early morning on 21st May 2011 to commemorate the 2,600th Sambuddhattva Jayanthi celebration which was organized by the Sri Lanka Embassy in Beijing in collaboration with the Beijing-Sri Lankan Youth Forum. Sri Lankan Buddhists observed Astanga seela administered by Ven. Lunugamvehere Wimalananda Thero. Ven. Wimalananda Thero was flown in especially for the Vesak Day celebrations in Beijing and Shanghai, with the assistance of Sri Lankan Airlines.

The Government of Sri Lanka & the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg have concluded negotiations on an Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and for the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and on capital.

His Excellency Dr Karan Singh, Member of Parliament, Representative of India on the UNESCO Executive Board,
His Excellency, Mr President of the General Conference,
His Excellency, Mr Viraphand Vacharathit, Permanent Delegate of Thailand to UNESCO,
His Excellency, Mr Dayan Jayatilleka, Permanent Delegate of Sri Lanka to UNESCO,
Permanent Delegates of the Asia-Pacific Group of Permanent Delegations to UNESCO,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

[Closing remarks at the UNESCO international scholarly symposium on “The Contribution of the Buddha’s Teachings to Universality, Humanism and Peace”, in commemoration of the 2600th anniversary of the Buddha’s Enlightenment-Paris, 20th May 2011]

“This effort of ASPAC (the Asia-Pacific group) and UNESCO was an exercise in intervention. We were hoping to intervene against two syndromes. One which [Edward] Said called ‘Orientalism’, and the other, its reverse, which we may term ‘Occidentalism’. The first entails the notion that the West is the preserve of philosophy and the East is the domain of exotic cultures, and that ‘universality’ originated from and flows from West to East. Counter-posed to this Eurocentric vision is its inversion: the Eastern idea of the West as the site of a mechanistic materialism and a tawdry consumerism, whereas the East is the realm of the metaphysical and the spiritual.

The High Commission of Sri Lanka in London organized an alms giving and a Dansela (open house) to celebrate Vesak and the 2600th Sambuddhathva Jayanthi on  20th May 2011 at the High Commission premises.