Most Venerable Bhante Walpola Piyananda's 80th Birthday Celebrating - Collected Essays

relevant to our respective communities and the global society at
large. I urge all of my fellow Sangha members to develop the
practice of putting aside any personal or philosophical differences
they may have with their brothers and sisters in the community.
We must stay cooperative in the face of global change and
upheaval, and if we don’t, then we will each perish alone – much
in the same way the poor quail were trapped by the clever hunter.
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Most Venerable Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala
Nayake Maha Thero
Our most Venerable Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala was born on
20 th of January 1827, during a dark era in the history of Sri Lanka where
the country which suffered tremendously under the suffocating rule of
Portuguese and Dutch colonists at the time and was forced to officially
surrender itself to the British Empire. Thus on 2 nd of March 1815, Sri
Lanka lost its 2538 years of independence by becoming a colony of
the British Empire. The Governor Robert Brownrigg who signed the
Kandy convention by promising to preserve the status of Buddhism
as the country’s main religion went back on his words once he came
to power, by making it a priority to spread the word of Christianity
throughout the country.
Several decades after that, the Buddhist faith among the
people started deteriorating. To salvage the situation Ven. Weliwita Sri
Saranankara Sangharaja Thero started a religious revival which brought
all the Sangha in the country together. The attempt, however, was not
successful due to various disagreements among different sects of the
Buddhist Sangha. The situation became so bad that in the year 1852
Mr. James De Alwis, who translated Sidath Sangarawa into English,
predicted that by the end of 19th Century all Sinhala poets will begin
their work by asking for the triple blessings of the Lord instead of the
blessings of the Triple gems.
As was published in the Journal of the Pali Text Society on
25 th of October 1861, he stated, “There are indeed good grounds for
believing that Buddhism will at no very distant period disappear from
this Island. What I believe is that if Christianity was spread throughout
the country little by little without alerting the general populace, the
prevalent false beliefs and foolishness in the country would lessen
before long”.
This statement was in agreement with a French newspaper
journalist, Bertholomeusz, who stated that the Sangha in Sri Lanka was
too weak to protect the Buddhist era from fading away, and that there
was no sign whatsoever of this situation changing in the near future.
It’s evident that the British Empire, which had governing power
over the whole country at the time, hoped to completely eliminate
Buddhism from Sri Lanka and add it to the empire as a Christian
country. In order to firmly establish their power in the country, this
was a necessity. So, Christian missionaries were sent to Sri Lanka from
Europe in order to establish schools and start spreading western culture
in the country.
In a letter sent to the British politician, William Wilberforce,
in England, on 13 th of June 1816 Governor Robert Brownrigg stated
that there were enough reasons to believe that Buddhism as a religion
would soon disappear from Sri Lanka.
It was during this dark period in Sri Lanka that a precious baby
boy was born to Mrs. Dandegoda Gamage. Christina and her husband,
Mr. Don Johannes Abeyweera Gunawardhana Liyanarachchi had the
boy baptized at four years of age and given the name Nicholas. If he
was not given a Christian name, he wouldn’t have been allowed to
go to any of the schools established at the time. Since the first-born
son, Louis, of Mr. Gunawardhana, became a disciple of Christianity as
a result of his close association with fathers at the Christian Church,
the five year old Nicholas was handed over to Ven. Sobhitha Thero at
the village Temple. The little boy who grew up under the guidance of
Buddhist monks was allowed access to the Central school at Galle Fort,
as he was among those who were baptized by the Christian Church.
The village astrologist managed to convince Nicolas’ father
that the boy was very unlucky, and that he would die at a very young
age. This prediction completely changed the course of this young boy’s
life. In 1840 he was ordained as a Buddhist monk at the Temple of
Thotagamuwa , Thelwaththa, Galle, under the supervision of Ven.
Mabotuwana Rewatha Thero and Ven. Malagoda Siriniwasa Thero.
As a monk, he was given the name Hikkaduwe Sumangala. He was
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