SLAAS invites Dr. Nur Yalman
View(s):The Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) was recently honoured by a renowned anthropologist, Professor Nur Yalman of Harvard University. In the guest lecture organised by Section F (Social Sciences) of SLASS, Professor Yalman addressed on ‘The Rationality of Buddhism and the Future of Secularism’. The speech highlighted the rationality of the Buddhist doctrine and common practices of the Buddhist laypeople with special focus on secular life that promotes through the modernity. This open house event was held on February 9.
Pic from left – Prof. Ruchira Cumaranatunga –President SLAAS, Ravi Bamunusinghe – President of Social Sciences (Section F) and Prof. Nur Yalman Professor of Anthropology
Prof. Yalman confessed that it was the ancient traditional civilization in Sri Lanka that attracted him to this country when he first came here in 1957. “Turkey too has a similarly old civilization, therefore being a young and energetic person looking for an adventure back then, I was curious to discover the civilization in Sri Lanka,” he exclaimed. He perceives that Sri Lanka has a philosophical, eloquent and a gentle civilization that is not seen much in other countries. By which he emphasizes the potential of Sri Lanka to think and act rationally to develop and strive as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and a multi-cultural country.
Prof. Yalman is a leading Turkish social anthropologist and a professor at Harvard University. For his BA and PhD, he studied Social Anthropology at Cambridge University and carried out fieldwork in Sri Lanka. Although his first book, Under the Bo Tree, was on Sri Lankan kinship and marriage, he has since expanded his research to include religion and politics in Middle Eastern and Muslim cultures. Not only has he written about many countries of the world, he has also conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Sri Lanka, India, Iran and Turkey.
Follow @timesonlinelk
comments powered by Disqus