It was a full moon day in month of June B.C 306; King Dewanampiyathissa & his crew or band of followers was enjoying hunting. The day was a most remarkable day, in the annals of Buddhist civilization. The King was engrossed in the hunt when he heard his name being called, twice. “Tissa Tissa”. Arahat Mahinda, the illustrious apostle of Buddhism raised his aryan esteemed voice. The king stopped in his tracks and paid heed to the call of Arahat Mahinda. It was in this manner that Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka. Buddhism brought along with it t a distinctive civilization and cultural pattern to the social and religious life of the community. The Temple became central to the community – it was place of religious worship as well as the seat of learning. . The agricultural society that was prevalen in Sri Lanka in those days was moulded according to Buddhism and its teachings.
After having freedom from English crown, the formal education system of the country identified the need of creating a Trustworthy, Respected, Responsible society inculcating the values of the Buddhist way of life. The teaching of Buddhism as a subject was introduced to Scholl Curriculum and the Daham School (Sunday school) was started to be facilitated by the government.
In another chapter in the annals of the history of the country the the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka launched the “Nenasala”, Sri Lanka Telecentre programme as a means of reaching out to the far flung rural communities.. Trhought the Nenasala network communities, right from the grass roots level are being empowered to use Information and communication technology in their day to day life.
Thanamalvila is a very remote location in rural Sri Lanka. It is also on one of the driest areas. Kandiyapitawewa is located 12 kilometers away from the Thanamalvila & the livelihood of the villagers in this area is based on paddy farming. Though the “Nenasala” , Kandiyapita village has been equipped with Information Communication Technology; Computer, Internet, Fax, Telephone and so on. Eranda Sampath, owner of the nenasala is a a young man nurtured in Buddhist culture and Damma Schoo & his wife also a Daham school teacher. Developing a web site called Dahamsauya, is his own initiative. The Community Assistance Project of e-Society Programme of the ICTA stepped into help Eranda to implement his idea.
Daham Saura (http://dahamsayura.org) is a web site with full of Daham School Curriculum and its content. It has the content from grade 1 to 11 in local language. “ when we were given the “Nenasala” four years ago, at the very beginning of the our telecentre, We found that most of school children didn’t like to browse internet, as there wasn’t no enough content in local language at that time. Those days I determined to make available the Dhaham School content as it is a source of rich content for our society. normally to obtain the Daham school books, a student is required go to temple or attend the Daham School on Sunday. Because of the tuition classes and various other s commitments, most of the students in cities don’t attend the Daham School. But things are different in a village; most of the village students attendg the Daham School. Sometime students have difficulties in obtaining the required books for the Dharmacharya Exam. Therefore this site is enriched the Dharmachara books as well. I know most Sri Lankan Buddhists living in other foreign countries will appreciate this initiative as this web site caters to the both living in the village as well as in cities” said Eranda Sampath.
The ways of preserving the Buddhism and it teaching has changed over the years in keeping with e contemporary technology. During the early years the teachings of the Buddha were memorized I and passed down from generation to generation, then it was written in the ola leaf books, later it was printed. Today in this era of Information and Communication Technology it is being digitized making it available for future generations. It is a collective responsibility. This village proves that they are on the track to face the modern world while preserving their culture and heritage.
No comments:
Post a Comment