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| Sunday, 29 June 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Buddhist monk honoured with an MBE by Wimal Silva For thefirst time in British history a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk was awarded the rare honour of the 'Member of the British Empire' (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, in her Birth Day Honours for 2003. The recipient of this most respected honour is Venerable Galayaye Piyadassi Thera, head of a very popular Sri Lankan Buddhist Temple in North London the Sri Saddatissa International Buddhist Centre in Kinsbury.
This honour was awarded less than two months after a leading British Local Council offered the Ven. Thera the Citizenship Award for the London Borough of Brent in recognition of the vast amount of community and charitable work he has done during the past years. Members of Parliament, Borough Councilors and Community and Religious leaders of the area willingly participate in all the events organised by Ven. Piyadassi Thera. Venerable Piyadassi Thera is the President of the World Buddhist Foundation, The Head of Sri Saddatissa International Buddhist Centre and the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Educational, Cultural and welfare foundation all engaged in charitable and community activities among the Sri Lankans and many other religious and racial groups living in the cosmopolitan city of London. Under a separate organization called Mettha Foundation he has set up a care-home for homeless children in Sri Lanka, and at present is providing welfare and educational needs for more than 52 delinquent juveniles. At the height of communal tension in Sri Lanka he came forward to provide an example of communal harmony by bringing together both major communities in Sri Lanka the Sinhalese and the Tamils in a combined Sri Lankan New Year festival in London. This became an annual event and now the 'Kingsbury New Year Festival' is a well-known and very popular annual event among all Sri Lankans and attracts the largest crowd for such a programme in London. Ven. Piyadassi Thera was also responsible in organizing for the first time an all night Pirith Chanting ceremony at a temple in Europe with all the traditional rituals. Since then like the Sinhala New Year all night Pirith Chanting has become a normal event in Sri Lankan Buddhist calendar in many temples situated across European cities. For the first time out side Sri Lanka Ven. Piyadassi Thera introduced a traditional Vesak Dansala and a compact disc with Maha Piritha was also produced using a recording made at the temple. As far as the religious activities are concerned the Exposition of Buddha Relics held in 1996 was the most important and the biggest event the Ven. Thera has undertaken so far. This became a unique event in the history of Buddhism in the UK and thousands of Europeans were among those who came to witness and pay respect to the corporal relics of the Buddha. He was also responsible in organizing the UK Buddha day, which is now held annually to celebrate the advent of Buddhism to the UK by a well-known and first ever British national to become a Buddhist monk Rev. Ananda Metteyya. At the Sri Saddatissa International Buddhist Centre a free Sunday school is held where the vernacular language and Buddhism are taught to more than 100 regular students between the ages of 3 to 16. Almost all the students are British born and would not have any other opportunity to follow such studies out side the temple. With all this busy activities Ven. Piyadassi is also involved at present in an ambitious research work on the influence of Theravada Buddhism in the UK. |
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