Sunday Times 2
Special blessing for SL’s new UK HC
View(s):Sri Lanka’s new High Commissioner to the UK Amari Wijewardene commenced her duties by participating in a special blessings ceremony at the London Buddhist Vihara in Chiswick, The Vihara was established by the Anagarika Dharmapala in 1926 and is the oldest Buddhist temple in the UK.
By Neville de Silva in London
Sri Lanka’s new High Commissioner Amari Wijewardene last Monday visited the London Buddhist Vihara, the pre-eminent place of Buddhist worship in Britain, to receive blessings before assuming duties.
Ms. Wijewardene was accompanied by Deputy High Commissioner Sugeeshwara Gunaratna and Minister Counsellor Manoj Warnapala, to the Vihara where she offered flowers and baskets of fruit and spent over three hours, participating in an alms giving at the invitation of the Most Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala, head monk of the Vihara and the Chief Sangha Nayake of Great Britain.
In his anusasana, Ven Seelawimala Thera gave a brief history of the London Vihara which was founded by the Anagarika Dharmapala 90 years ago. The Venerable monk mentioned the close links between the London Vihara and the High Commission and the assistance extended by the mission in the early days when there were few Buddhist families in London.
A long-standing tradition is that the High Commissioner, whatever his or her religion, offers dana to the monks at the Vihara on the 1st of each month.
Ms. Wijewardene, the chief dayaka of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara, is a devout Buddhist and has sponsored aloka pooja at several well-known Buddhist viharas and devales including the Kelani Raja Maha Vihara, Dambadeniya Raja Maha Vihara, Kiriwehera Kataragama Devale and the Maha Saman Devale in Ratnapura. She is well known in Sri Lanka for her numerous philanthropic activities.
Later in the week she visited the Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Centre in Kinsbury where the head monk the Most. Ven Galayaye Piyadassi Thera blessed the new chief of mission. She also visited the Hindu Kovil in Wembley and would be visiting other places of worship in the coming weeks, sources said.
Last week Ms. Wijewardene called over at the Protocol Division of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to hand over her credentials. As head of mission of a Commonwealth country she is allowed to function even though she has not ceremonially presented credentials to the Queen.
With the British parliament in recess for the summer it will be some time before Ms. Wijewardene is able to meet the new Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and interact with parliamentarians including the president of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Sri Lanka.
Even though the newly built and yet unoccupied residence of the High Commissioner is available Amari Wijewardene is now lodged in a hotel as the British High Commission in Colombo and the Visa Office in Chennai have been delaying the issue of a visa to her domestic aide who has been languishing in Sri Lanka for several weeks as a result.