March 2010

Rissho Kosei-kai Opens Dharma Center in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lanka Dharma Center of Rissho Kosei-kai was inaugurated March 28 at a ceremony at a hotel in Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia City, south of Colombo. The ceremony was attended by about Rissho Kosei-kai 250 members from Colombo, Polonnaruwa, and Galle. The mayor of Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia City and local Theravadin monastic leaders were special guests. Last December a signing ceremony was held to establish the Dharma Center.

At the opening ceremony, recitation of the Lotus Sutra in Sinhalese was led by the minister of the new Dharma Center, Rev. Yoshiaki Yamamoto, and one of its members testified to the faith. In his commemorative speech, Rev. Kotaro Suzuki, director of Rissho Kosei-kai International in Tokyo, recalled President Nichiko Niwano's first Dharma guidance in 2010 stressing the importance of good friends in the Dharma. Rev. Suzuki explained that friends in the Dharma are fellow members of the Sangha who help one find liberation through the Dharma. He stressed the importance of venerating the buddha-nature in ourselves as well as in others. After greetings from Rev. Yasuhiro Hasegawa, director of Rissho Kosei-kai International of South Asia and minister of Rissho Kosei-kai of Bangkok, Ven. Kirama Wimalajothi Thero, director of the Buddhist Cultural Centre in Sri Lanka, made a congratulatory address.

Buddhism reached Sri Lanka in the second century BCE, and 70 percent of the population adheres to Theravada Buddhism. In 1983 the Tamil minority formed a separatist movement, leading to a civil war which ended with the Tamil Tigers' defeat in 2009.

Mr. Gamini Chandrasekera, who had taken refuge in Japan from Sri Lanka's civil war in 1991, joined the Yamato Dharma Center of Rissho Kosei-kai in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1992. After returning to Sri Lanka in 1993 he engaged in dissemination of the teachings in and around the city of Dehiwala. Rissho Kosei-kai's emphasis on practical application of Buddhism by the laity in daily life gained wide appeal, and Rissho Kosei-kai opened a liaison office in Sri Lanka in 1998. In 2003, its 100 members welcomed a visit by President Nichiko Niwano. After the inauguration of Rissho Kosei-kai of South Asia in January 2005, the Sri Lanka liaison office was redesignated one of its chapters. Rissho Kosei-kai of Sri Lanka now has 2,200 member households and nine hoza centers.

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