Buddhism, Water And Sri Lanka

 

In my spare time I write books and articles on topics that interest me or that I feel need to be given more attention. Six months back I was asked to contribute an essay for a book to be called Sri Lanka, A Heritage of Water.  The editor, Sarala Fernando, felt that there should be at least one chapter on the role of  water in the religions of the country,  she asked me  if I’d write something on the subject, I gave the idea some thought and decided to decline the offer. My thinking was that water has no significance in Buddhism and I am not really qualified to say anything on the subject as it might pertain to the other religions; Islam, Hinduism and Christianity. But Sarala can be very persuasive. She asked me to reconsider, I did, and  thinking about it a bit deeper realized that water actually does have some part to play in the life of the Buddha, in his Dhamma and certainly in Sri Lankan Buddhist culture and history. And of course it has even more  significance in Sri Lanka’s other religions, e.g. baptism,  wadu, etc. To cut a  short  story shorter, I wrote the article and the book is due to be released soon. Apart from my essay there are others on the ancient irrigations works in Sri Lanka, on the various aquatic ecosystems in the country, on water conservation, aquatic wildlife, etc.  For anyone who loves Sri Lanka or just nature, the highlight of this publication is its stunningly beautiful photos by Luxshmanan Nadaraja, the country’s finest wildlife photographer.  

Sri Lanka, A Heritage of Water can be ordered by e-mail from wildlight@sltnet.lk or by calling  011-2861738. Price Rs.6,800. A special pre-publication price of Rs.4,900 will be given for all orders taken before November 30^th 2016.