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THUSHARA WITHARANA
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- KANDY,SRI LANKA
- Sri Lanka
- Youth Sector - National Coordinator…
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THUSHARA WITHARANA's Groups
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Asian Peace Builders
41 members
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University for Peace
109 members
THUSHARA WITHARANA's Discussions
Is the human rights necessery for a war circumstances.
Friends, First of all you for your reply. So we can continue our discussion. All of us know about human rights and we respect it. We know the importance of human rights in a war situation. If the p…
Replied Feb 20
Is the human rights necessery for a war circumstances.
12 Replies
This topic is not only for Sri Lanka. You can write your ideas. Thushara.
Started this discussion. Last reply by Charles Anaman Sep 23.
Sri Lankan ethnic crisis.
3 Replies
What do you think about this topic.Send your ideas and we can make a real discussion.
Started this discussion. Last reply by Sie.Kathieravealu May 17.
A peaceful world is one of our RIGHT
Latest Activity
We can join and work for peace.
Yes, we can make Peace.WE can.We can.............Finaly also we can
We can join and work for peace.
Yes, we can make Peace.WE can.We can.............Finaly also we can
Great, I will do it later. I am now still busy facilitating training for women groups in Aceh, Indonesia. I believe it will be interesting to share about peace in Aceh to day
Thank you all,
Your contribution is very important. We can share our informations via this wall. So plz write your contry situation and othernews about asian countries and your works. I'll write Sri Lankan situation.
Thanks
Thushara
Buddhi, Surya, Yunis and Friends, This is right time not to inspire discourse for philosophical enterprise, but to make an impact, therefore, let us organize some effective program in a coordinated manner that MUST impact.
Now, knowledge is not the…
Profile Information
- What motivated you to become involved in peace and conflict resolution?
- I studied Peace & Conflict Resolution in my University degree.Now also I am working in this field.
- Please feel free to provide a short bio about yourself (no more than 3 paragraphs)
- I am a graduate in Peace &Conflict Resolution ( Hons ) (Uni of Kelaniya ) , Dip in International Relation ( BCIS ) , Dip in Human Rights ( IHR ) , Dip in Counseling Psychology ( SLMHF ) , Under graduate in MA Political science.
Now I am working in Prayathna Peoples Movement .As National Coordinator in Youth Sector
- What is your current country of residence?
- Sri Lanka
- What is your current job (and organization) and/or where and what field are you studying?
- Youth Sector - National Coordinator in Prayathna Peoples Movment
- What is your personal or organizational website?
- http://www.prayathna.org
- What is one of your favorite websites in the field? (please provide one answer per box)
- http://www.fce.lk
- What is one of your favorite websites in the field? (please provide one answer per box)
- http://www.sahajeewana.org
- Which are your primary sectoral areas of expertise?
- Peacebuilding, Conflict Resolution, Youth, Psychosocial
- Which are your primary skills areas?
- Program Administration
- What are some of your current areas of research (if any)?
- Youth Development,Human Rights,conflict Resolution,Peace Building,Peace keeping,Peace making,
Comment Wall (62 comments)
- At 2:42pm on November 20, 2009,
James M Thogkow said…
- you all member peace building it's most improtance you could make different and be force of peace not by religion by human nature I christ believe in Jesus is our save but if you are different Religion the way your religion discribes I would like to said that we should come the zone of religion because muslam and christianity we have conflect that is why the world are not stable the religion is not problem we human being we forgot love one other the could be basic key element of change and bring peace international and end up conflect but it 's require us would implementing change give rights of ever human being in planet shall have his own rights to operated his own country the shall come consense of the peace I know international community does considered what is key of the peace international munal respected one other unconditionally then we could achieve peace goal and the world could be better place for the generation to come
- At 10:57pm on August 2, 2009,
Manu said… - Hi,
Tushara how are u doing?
- At 11:28am on July 7, 2009,
DR. ROLANDO Z. GANAC said… - Thanks for making me as your partner for peace.
rolando
- At 11:36am on June 7, 2009,
M. Ashaq Malik said…
- Hi THUSHARA,
Many thanks for your message. I am extremely sorry writing to you so late because of lack of internet connectivity. It is nice to meet people like you who are so committed for brining peace in the world especially in Sri Lanka. Please consider visiting my social network, Global Network for Peace and Tolerance, and then visiting Peace resources at left hand side, may it will be of some help to you
Always with you
Ashaq
- At 11:00am on May 5, 2009,
Sie.Kathieravealu said… - "A peaceful world is one of our RIGHT" You might be 100% correct. "RIGHTS" do not just fall in our laps from "nowhere". We will have strive to get those "RIGHTS". We will have to work to "EARN" our "RIGHTS". One way to work is to do our "DUTY" sincerely. And so to get our "RIGHT" for a peaceful world we will have to do our "DUTY in finding ways and means to achieve it.
I am doing my "DUTY" by putting forward some suggestions to achieve a peaceful world and asking the cooperation of others - particularly those qualified in 'conflict resolutions' - in finalizing those suggestions. I do hope that everyone will do their "DUTY".
- At 2:14am on April 2, 2009,
Zahid Shahab Ahmed said… - Hello dear Thushara! I hope you are doing fine. I visited your country back in Feb. 2007 and will be looking forward to coming back to SL. I am at the moment doing my PhD research on regional security in South Asia. I will be more than delighted to join your dialogue project and let us start communicating on that and from now onwards you can also reach me at: shahab_zahid@yahoo.com. It is great to find a fellow peacemaker like you from Sri Lanka. By the way I feel sorry for what happened to the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore and such incidents further motivate activists like us to work towards a peaceful South Asia. Cheers. Zahid
- At 2:32am on March 26, 2009,
L.W.Ranjith Wickramasinghe said… - dear Thushara,
I work in the depatment of Cultural affairs in Sri lanka.And Im chairmen of the Organization of Environment and Children Rights Preservation. Im Secretory of the Colition of Education Development.Memer of the South Asian Peace Alliance(SAPA),South Asian Young Environmentist Netwark(SAAYEN).
I have 18 years Exprience in the Commiunity work with Peace,Environment.Youth Development,Commiunity health(HIV/Aids,Nutrition,Sexual health ),Child rights and other commiunity activities.
I like to shairing my Exprienc with all our members.
Ranjith
- At 3:15pm on March 12, 2009,
Mark Robinson said… - Thank you for replying to me. I will join your group.
- At 12:48pm on February 23, 2009,
Rene Wadlow said… - I thought you might be interested in my review of earlier efforts at cultural revival in Sri Lanka
Howard Murphet
Hammer on the Mountain: The Life of Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907)
(Wheaton: Quest Books, 1972, 339pp.)
There is, in a period of transition, a need for individuals with the specific talents of organization and the ability to translate doctrines into social policy. Henry Steel Olcott was such an individual.
The last quarter of the 1800s was a period very much like our own — a period of transition with no firm guidelines as to the shape of the period to come. It was a period, like ours, of cross currents, of strong positive and negative movements.
In America and Europe, there was a growing interest in the contribution of Asian thought to the eternal questions of man’s nature and destiny. Yet at the same time others wondered what relevance these Asian doctrines had to the growing social and political problems of the period. Were any religions more than the opiate that some suggested they were?
In Asia, where Olcott was most active during his later life, there was the start of the cultural nationalism that has taken a cultural-economic-political form today. But was the intellectual revival of Hinduism and Buddhism only the manifestation of energy displaced from a political area — then under control of colonial powers — which would abandon the cultural sphere once the political realm was open? Would Hinduism and Buddhism be able to translate their doctrines into social policy: projects such as the Christians had been able to do with the creation of schools, hospitals, and social services in Asia, often for the most neglected strata of the society?
The leadership of Henry S. Olcott and the work of the Theosophical Society in quickening cultural life among Buddhists is important as a historical precedent — one which merits attention, not only because of its significance in the past, but also because Buddhist-influenced Southern Asia, from Sri Lanka to Japan, is currently trying to deal with many of these issues.
Colonel Olcott was a distinguished lawyer from a prominent American family, and he remained primarily a lawyer, with a great gift for organizing, throughout his life. The title of Colonel he kept from his war service as an investigator of fraud in the American Civil War. It was a war service that he had undertaken prior to his becoming a Theosophist and Buddhist, but he never renounced the title, for, as with most of his generation who had fought for the Union in the Civil War, he considered the war as a fight against slavery. After 1878, when he had settled in India as President of the Theosophical Society, he worked strenuously against all forms of killing — war, capital punishment, and animal slaughter.
In Ceylon, his legal mind helped him see the inequalities of the colonial system. He intervened with the British Governor for better treatment of the people and helped create a Buddhist Defense Committee. At a time when people were interested in colonial areas only if they were professionally involved, he helped to create an interest in the situation of the people of Ceylon with his book, The Government and Buddhists of Ceylon (1884).
It is, however, in the field of social policy that Olcott is best known in Ceylon. From 1886 on he was active with David Hewavitarane in setting up a Buddhist educational fund and the first modern Buddhist-sponsored schools. Until then, all formal modern instruction had been run by Christian missionaries, many of whom were, unfortunately, both aggressive and narrow in the understanding of any faith but their own. These Buddhist-sponsored schools were important factors in the cultural renewal of Ceylon, for they combined modern technical training with a deeper understanding of the religious and cultural heritage of the land. In fact, Olcott was concerned with the cultural life of all in Ceylon. He worked closely with the Hon. P. Ramanathan, a respected leader of the Tamil-speaking Hindus in connection with the possibility of founding a Hindu-Buddhist college that would serve both communities. For financial reasons, the college was never begun. Today, when there is an even greater need for understanding between the two communities, it is important to look at how education can build bridges.
One of the most lasting instruments of this educational concern was the publication of Olcott’s Buddhist Catechism (1881). In many ways a catechism is not a Buddhist way of teaching, which is based more on the interplay of master and student, and the use of ritual. But the Catechism is a noteworthy attempt to accomplish two separate tasks. The first is to present in a simple form the basic teachings of Buddhist thought to the faithful, many of whom had never studied the Dharma in a systematic way. The second and more difficult aim was to translate basic Buddhist doctrine into social policies that could serve as guidelines and recommendations for modern society. One chapter of the Catechism is devoted to the similarities between the Dharma and Western science. This is probably the weakest chapter, and today a good deal more would need to be said on the relationship between traditional Asian philosophies and Western science. In writing the other chapters of the Catechism Olcott depended on the advice of learned Buddhist scholars in Ceylon, but neither they nor Olcott were scientists.
The Buddhist Catechism was widely used. By 1889 it had been translated into 15 languages, mostly those of Asia. It was used as a textbook in many schools. Today, it has gone through forty-five printings, translated into over twenty languages. The success of the Catechism came as a surprise to Olcott himself, for the writing has none of the literary value of Sir Edwin Arnold’s earlier The Light of Asia (1876). Olcott was interested in philosophy, though he was not a philosopher in the formal sense. He saw the need for an improved, widely-accepted teaching tool, and he created it.
The same direct approach was used in his work for cooperation among the various traditions of Buddhism. From his extensive travels in India, Ceylon, Burma, and Japan, he saw the need to bring together various schools of thought in the Buddhist world around a certain number of essential points. For nearly the whole month of January 1891, Olcott had brought together representative Buddhist scholars from Japan, Ceylon, Burma, and one representative from Chittagong (then eastern Bengal) to draft a fourteen-point platform of agreement and mutual sympathy. In the same year, the Maha Bodhi Society was created by Olcott’s former student David Hewavitarone, who became the monk Anagarika Dharmapala, carrying much further this worldwide task of teaching, of harmonizing, and of cultural renewal.
It is likely that today, when contacts among different schools of Buddhist thought are more common than in 1891, the area of agreement would be greater. But what characterized the life of Henry Steel Olcott was the ability to see a crucial problem and then to organize with others to solve it.
Rene Wadlow
- At 9:25am on February 22, 2009,
Sie.Kathieravealu said…
- I want to hear from you regarding my suggestions for sustainable peace in Sri Lanka. There are many Sri Lankans on this site who are working for peace in Sri Lanka. You can post my suggestions on the discussion "Sri Lankan Ethnic Crisis" started by you for others to read and make their observations and also post your comments to carry-on with the discussion and arrive at an understanding for peace in Sri Lanka. Ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka will fade away if there is good governance in the country.
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Events
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EMU Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) 2010 accepting applications
November 5, 2009 to January 8, 2010 – Eastern Mennonite University
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Canadian School of Peacebuilding 2010 - Accepting Applications
November 10, 2009 to April 1, 2010 – Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Canada
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USIP Event, Building Peace in Muslim Tribal Societies
December 11, 2009 from 9:30am to 12:30pm – 1200 17th St. NW, Washington DC
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10TH JAN TINBERGEN EUROPEAN PEACE SCIENCE CONFERENCE
Latest Activity
Peace has a material condition: that people have a safe and nurturing environment. The traditional village can be improved with lots of technical and social inventions.
“Mediation is the intervention into a dispute or negotiation by an acceptable, impartial and
neutral third party to assist disputing parties in voluntarily reaching their own mutually
acceptable settlement of issues in dispute.” (Moore, C. 2003)
the positive and negative influence of transnational business on human rights and development
Dear Friends,
We have a situation today for more conflicts can brake out everywhere in the world due to the economical crisis...
What are we going to do ? We work on the peace movements ....where there is a dam of conflicts just about to explode.
voice of ther voiceless, standing with the poor at the time of the need. Protection of the Rights of every one.
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