High Commission of Sri Lanka in India

The 2556th Veask Day was commemorated by the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi on the 5th and 6th May 2012.

On the 5th May 2012, Sri Lankans living in New Delhi together with the staff of the High Commission participated at the Vesak commemoration at the Maha Bodhi Society’s Buddha Vihar in New Delhi. The programme comprised of Dharma talks, Meditation programme, offering of Alms and Bodhi Puja. Children of the High Commission staff recited Bhakti Gee (Buddhist devotional songs). The High Commission premises was fully illuminated in the evening.

High Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam was the Chief Guest at the Vesak Commemoration at the National Museum of India in New Delhi on 6th May 2012, organized by the Young Men Buddhist Association of India. In his speech, he said that Gautama Buddha, who’s Life and Message is celebrated on the Vesak Day, undertook the task of committing his days on this Earth to teach people the path of peace, compassion, understanding, tolerance, and nonviolence for all humanity without exception. This Message resonates transcending time and is growing in relevance in today’s world where people are searching for balance between rapid scientific advancement and spiritual content of life. 

A twenty-member team of students from various government schools in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka visited New Delhi, under the student exchange programme of the India-Sri Lanka Foundation, from 16-22 April 2012.

Addressing "Sri Lanka Expo 2012”, organized by the Export Development Board (EDB) at the BMICH, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the presence of investors at the event shows the failure of the efforts of those who still support the agenda of separatist terror that prevented development in Sri Lanka for more than three decades. 

“You are here today, with a measure of confidence in Sri Lanka that has not been diminished by false propaganda that is currently spread by those who are trying to prevent investment flowing to our country. You are a strong and valuable vote of confidence in Sri Lanka; an expression of growing trust in the new opportunities for export trade in a country that was famous for international trade from ancient days, the President said.

The large international presence at this event is a clear indication of the growing awareness in the world of the new investment opportunities in Sri Lanka.

For text of President Rajapaksa’s address visit:

http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca201203/20120328large_investor_presence_sl_expo_2012.htm



Inaugurating an exhibition entitled ‘Traditional Temple Paintings of Sri Lanka’ by three Sri Lankan artistes at the prestigious Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi, High Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam said that Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in the South and South-East Asian region that can claim an unbroken tradition of wall painting, which is older than two thousand years and continues to the present day. 

The exhibition which is organised under the India-Sri Lanka Cultural Exchange Programme as a joint effort by the National Crafts Council of Sri Lanka and the Lalit Kala Akademi of India, features about 110 replicas of ancient temple paintings and rock and wall paintings as well as interpretations in traditional style.

Highlighting the exhibition as yet another event in the continuous important partnership between India and Sri Lanka, High Commissioner Kariyawasam referred to the earliest Buddhist images found in Sri Lanka dating back to the 1st century which are characteristic of the Indian Amaravati style. Some of the carvings in the ancient Anuradhapura Kingdom have been said to reflect the influence of the Gupta and Pallava schools of India of the 4th, 5th and 7th centuries. He said that the paintings at Sigiriya, of which some reproductions were on display at the exhibition, are from the same period as those of Ajanta in India. The suggestion often made, which seems reasonable, is that the Ajanta school representatives and artists from Sri Lanka may have travelled in both directions and exchanged the latest art technologies of the time.

The High Commissioner pointed out that like Buddhism, Hinduism too has left an indelible impression on the evolution of the arts of Sri Lanka. According to some scholars a comparison of the stone architecture of Southern India with the Hindu buildings in Sri Lanka illustrate that the survival of early Hindu culture in Sri Lanka was perhaps “better preserved than on the mainland”. The fusion in art of the Buddhistic and Hindu traditions, is an integral part of our rich heritage that Sri Lanka is justifiably proud of, he added.

Mr. Balan Nambiar, Acting Chairman and Dr Sudhakar Sharma, Secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi as well as Mr Suresh Goel, Director General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ambassadors and diplomats based in New Delhi, a number of leading artists and art critics were among the participants at the inauguration of the exhibition which continues until the 5th April 2012.