Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka stage “Sahithya Sankathana”
Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka in its 35 years of history had done immense service to this country and Buddhism by producing well-qualified scholars to disseminate Buddhism in local and international communities. Similarly, the university gives a prime importance to the academic growth of the students as well as the academic staff. Marking another limestone of the academic development, “Sahithya Sankathana”-the literary arts festival was first introduced to the university community in 2016 as per a concept of the Vice Chancellor, Ven. Senior Professor Gallelle Sumanasiri Thero. It has now been organized for the second consecutive year with a more favorable outcome and glamour. A series of invaluable events had been held on 14th and 15th September 2017 at the university premises, Pitipana, Homagama.
The inauguration ceremony was held on 14th September 2017 at 9.00 am and a special discussion on “Practical Buddhism and Theravada Tradition” was held at 1.00 p.m. The creative skills of the academic staff, non-academic staff and students were brought to light at 12.30 p.m. and the refereed journals, journals and magazines of each department and students’ associations and, the unpublished books of academic members were also launched on the same day. The second day of the festival also comprised some valuable events like a discussion on the “Challenges in the field of Buddhist Studies” at 9.00 a.m., a food festival at 11 a.m., prize giving and awarding of certificates at 1.00 a.m., the progress assessment of the university and a book donation for Dhamma schools and libraries at 3 p.m., and the most entertaining poetic soiree at 6.00 p.m.
A diversified food festival was organized by the Department of Language Skills Development for the second consecutive year concurrent to the annual literary arts festival. The main objective of organizing this event was to make the students aware of different food cultures in the countries like China, Japan, Korea, France and India. This food exhibition is an imposing practical activity of the foreign language students of the university which could deepen their knowledge of various multicultural culinary activities.
Sahithya Sankathana 2017 was an unprecedented literary festival with many invaluable literary activities of the Academic Staff, Non-Academic Staff and the Students. The organizing committee of Sahithya Sankathana cordially invited all and sundry interested in literature, foreign food and culture to take part in this extraordinary festival.
