IN FOCUS

Advent of Buddhism

1. In which year was Buddhism introduced to Sri Lanka?

2. Name the distinguished bhikkhus and others who accompanied Arahat Mahinda to Mihintale.

3.By what name was the now famous Mihintale rock called in ancient times?

4. How did Arahat Mahinda address King Devanampiyatissa at the first meeting?

5. The king's intelligence was tested by Arahat Mahinda with a few simple questions about a certain type of a tree. What kind of tree was it?

6. What was the sermon delivered by Arahat Mahinda at the first meeting on the summit?

7. What was the name of the queen who expressed her desire to join the order of bhikkunis, to Arahat Mahinda?

8. For how many days did Arahat Mahinda expound the simpler and higher teachings of the Buddha at the invitation of King Devanampiyatissa?

9. Who arrived in Sri Lanka from India with a sapling of a bodhi tree?

10. Where was the sapling planted?

11. By which name was the month of June reffered to in ancient days?

12. What does Triple Gem or Thisarana refer to?

13. By what name was the grassy plains comprising mango trees, where the first meeting took place, called during the time of King Devanampiyatissa?

14. What are the Five Precepts (Panchasila )of Buddhism?

15. Who was the first Arahat of Sri Lanka?

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Answers

1. On Poson Full Moon Poya Day in 236 B.C.

2. Iththiya,Uththiya,Sambala, Bhaddasala and Sumana Samanera. An Upasaka named Bhanduka also came along with them.

3. It was called Missaka Pavva or Missaka Pabbata (Pali) Missaka Parvatha (Sanskrit).

4. Arahat Mahinda addressed him as "Tissa".

5. Arahat Mahinda's first question to the King was about a mango tree.

6. The Chulla Haththipadopama Sutta.

7. Queen Anula who attained Sovan status.

8. For seven days.

9.The sister of Arahat Mahinda, Bhikkhuni Sangamitta.

10 At Maha Meuna Uyana in Anuradhapura.

11. June was known as Jetta.

12. It refers to the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.

13. It was called Ambasthala.

14. The Five Precepts of Buddhism are:

To abstain from taking a life (killing); to abstain from taking what is not mine or not given to me (stealing); to abstain from sensuous misconduct (immorality); to abstain from false speech (lying) and to abstain from intoxicants (drunkenness).

15. The Upasaka Bhanduka who was granted the lesser (Pabbajja) and higher (Upasampada) ordination by the Sangha and attained arahanship soon after.

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Titanic launch 100 years ago marked in Belfast

Dignitaries marked the 100th anniversary of the launch of the Titanic from Belfast in Northern Ireland with a religious service and the firing of a flare on May 31.

The ill-starred ocean liner slid down the slipway of the Harland and Wolff shipyard, then the largest in the world, on May 31, 1911, a little less than a year before she sank.

To mark the occasion, the Lord Mayor of Belfast and local dignitaries attended a service at the docks. A flare was then launched at 1113 GMT -- exactly a century on from the launch.

"No ship has gripped the world's imagination like RMS Titanic. Her remarkable story begins at her birthplace in Belfast," said Niall Gibbons, head of Tourism Ireland, which is involved in the memorial events.

An exhibition featuring more than 500 artefacts related to the Titanic, some of them previously unseen,also opened on this day at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Northern Ireland.

The "unsinkable" liner hit an iceberg on its maiden transatlantic voyage from Southampton on April 14, 1912, sinking in just over two and a half hours and drowning 1,517 of her passengers and crew.

The last remaining survivor of the sinking, Millvina Dean, died exactly two years ago in England at the age of 97. She was only nine weeks old when the ship went down.

- Courtesy: AFP