London Buddhist Vihara begins centenary celebrations with week-long Vesak observations

London Buddhist Vihara launched their centenary celebrations for next year (2026) with a week-long commemoration of Vesak last weekend attended by all the leading Buddhist monasteries in the United Kingdom, diplomats, past pupils associations and over 200 observing 'sil' on Vesak Day.

Most Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala Thera, Head Monk of the London Buddhist Vihara welcomed the Indian High Commissioner Vikram K. Doraiswami and diplomats from Thailand, Nepal and Myanmar and the Acting High Commissioner for Sri Lanka Ms. Manorie Mallikaratchy while Venerable Thawalama Bandula Thero read out a message from the Anagarika Dharmapala Trust in Sri Lanka.

Monks from both, the Theravada and Mahayana schools included those from the Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Centre; Saddaloka Vihara; Amaravati Buddhist Monastery; Wat Buddhadipa Monastery; Three Wheels Shin Buddhist Temple; Qing Liang Buddhist Temple and the London Peace Pagoda joined resident monks of the London Buddhist Vihara in chanting sutras.

A performance of Bakthi Ghee by teachers and students of the Dhamma School was part of the Vesak Day proceedings. From Monday onwards past pupils associations of Sri Lankan schools organised events to mark Vesak in the United Kingdom.