“Culture, traditions, values, and rituals are not written by politicians — they are carved into the soul of a nation. Governments may pass laws, leaders may come and go, but the heartbeat of a civilization lives in its people. No politician, no policy, and no personal agenda can erase what generations have carried in faith, sacrifice, and memory.” As such the decision by both the President & PM not to attend any Sinhala Buddhist New Year celebrations is disappointing especially when the PM decided to only attend a Hindu religious celebration in a kovil. With teams drawing up both their itineraries well in advance, this omission was nothing but intentional & should go down in history with disgust & distaste.
With the open economy, commercialism & consumerism man/women & child have been turned to commodities. As such the modus operandi has been to distance the individual from his clan. All that had kept a family together is being subtly dismantled to isolate the individual. Customs like bowing down to elders has been laughed at. Being modern is not being disrespectful. Culture & kindness never goes out of style. While world attention has been drawn to “artificial” intelligence, what is being ignored is the natural intelligence of the mind which is far greater & more powerful than any computer system working on algorithms & filters. Elders are walking libraries. They can share with you wonderful stories you will never enjoy on Netflix. Don’t wait till they’re gone to learn from them.
Notice how the media is being used to erase language by mixing words from other languages. These are all pre-planned initiatives to erase the identity of people. A generation that mocks tradition grows up confused. Look at the lives of those who mock tradition & customs. They present an outward confident self but inside they are fighting their confused self.
It is important for all to realize that we are the vehicle for the continuity of our culture. Education system has failed to show how our ancestors have carried the flame & passed it on to us to carry not to blow it out. In Sri Lanka, ayubowan is more than just a greeting, it’s a blessing. Thus our culture, our values, our Buddhist heritage are not just decorations. They are the backbone, our identity and it is our duty to protect them.
No smartphone, no wi-fi can match a happy family. Modern is not forgetting what made us strong for thousands of years. The magnificent monuments, the ancient architecture, the irrigation marvels were all built without modern technology, not by people graduating from ivy league universities or anyone who had passed O/L or A/L with distinctions. Modern & development has so many restrictions. There were no doors, windows or massive gates for fear of rogues & rapists. There were no cameras watching our movements. Do we really have the freedom that the ancient people enjoyed?
It is unfortunate that many have come to consider culture as merely an annual event wearing a national dress grudgingly following what parents demand. Culture is about how we think. How we live. How we treat our parents, grandparents & others.
When Buddhists stop going to the temple, teaching dhamma lessons to our children – it is not becoming modern. We are creating a lost generation. This is probably part of the agenda.
Children need to be taught discipline, they must also be taught to know their mother tongue or feel shy to speak it. Schools should not be a place for marks. It must be a place for morals. This is what is lacking today in both student & teacher. Teach maths but team Metta, teach science but also teach Sila, teach ambition but also teach Anicca (impermanence) these are lessons that are eternal truths.
It is unfortunate that for foreign funding, personal scholarships etc policy makers are sacrificing the foundation of this nation. Those who write policies, syllabuses & laws are committing a major mistake in removing Dhamma from schools, erasing history in the name of bogus “neutrality”. Social media is full of ugly messages making children & even adults believe that Buddhist values are “old fashioned”. Falsely believing so will usher a future of people with less integrity, less humanity and no wisdom. A country that forgets its roots will fall not with an explosion but with slow decay. We can see it happening because people with no values, no integrity & no character are in seat of governance & decision making.
The youth must be intelligent enough to not fall for the traps. Don’t accept the lie that tradition is boring. Don’t be ashamed of your culture. Be proud of it. Be a generation that remembers not a generation that thinks it fashionable to forget. Be modern in skill but ancient in spirit. Wear modern clothes but remember your sila.
Look around the lives of youth who claim to belong to the “new generation” how happy are they? Do you not notice there is something missing in their lives? This experiment has failed. These youth become guineapigs of lust, drugs & all types of narcotics, their bodies are used that by the time they are of a mature age they have nothing more to enjoy. What should have been enjoyed phased out has been experienced in their teens & these children become psychologically traumatized beings.
We are fully aware of the plot & plan to erase the culture & history of Sri Lanka.
School curriculums are being altered, history is being re-written, diluted or removed especially content related to ancient civilizations & national heroes. Some “experts” are promoting “Sri Lankan” history when such never existed. Important cultural & religious teachings are being rebranded & claimed “controversial”, Sri Lankan students are taught about foreign revolutions and not the heroic efforts of their kings & theroes who protected the Nation. The outcome is simple – youth cut off from their roots grow up with no loyalty to the land that raised them. This is the goal.
Inspite of the Constitutional provision to protect & foster Buddhism/Buddha Sasana temples, pirivenas, cultural centres & local arts are being intentionally neglected, given less funding or those that hate Buddhists are being appointed to govern them. Sacred rituals are mocked, ancient customs are called “backward” except when a party wants votes of the majority. Cultural festivals are reduced to commercial events ignoring the spiritual significance. Without respect & support these entities collapse – this is obviously the goal.
There is a new frenzy to promote “secularism” this is again intentionally attempting to remove the Buddhist foundation of Sri Lanka. This project involves subtle removal of religious values from education, media, public life in the name of “modern” but with intent to dislodge the place of Buddhism, thus the call to change the Constitution which is nothing but to remove Article 9 & Article 16.
Media is being used to redefine the identity of Sri Lanka glorifying modern lifestyles, mocking traditions, promoting foreign ideals, imported cultures. When people are regularly indoctrinated with foreign ideals & values they subtly begin to forget who they are & what they should stand for apart from a wise handful.
The most damaging outcome is by passing laws that undermine heritage to intentionally weaken religious institutions, change status of national language, undermine historical religious protections (Article 9 / Article 16) & promote globalization instead of national culture. When laws stop protecting the national identity, the national identity begins to get erased. This is the goal.
All these may appear unimportant but a nation that forgets its culture becomes vulnerable to division to foreign control & to spiritual collapse. When there is no history, there is no pride in people. If people pride in foreign values, these foreign nations will easily manipulate them. When tradition is forgotten, there is no unity. When this happens, the nation is weak & made vulnerable. When there are no values there is no direction. People end up like zombies and gypsies, no sense of where they belong.
The scenario should now be clear to imagine
How can we overcome these dangers – we need to educate outside the system, teach the real history. We need to support temples, pirivenas & local artists who value our culture & traditions. We need to hold leaders accountable – when they attempt to rewrite or ignore history.
We need to celebrate our culture publicly, proudly & unapoligetically.
Shenali D Waduge