The following is the text of the speech of Bandu Masakorala, delegate of
Sri Lanka Veg. Soc. to the 1999 congress:
Sri Lanka is a country with 25 centuries of recorded history, with two chronicles,
Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa, describing the story of civilisation in the island
from the 6th century before Christ. Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka in the
3rd century B.C. and has remained since then as the dominant religion of the
country. The other main religion of Sri Lanka is Hinduism, which in its Vedic
form was probably the first major religion that was practiced in the country.
Up to this day, 82% of the population belong to these two religions. As we all
know, both religions give the utmost importance to Ahimsa, the principle of
non-violence to all living beings.
Like in any other culture, in Sri Lanka too reality and ideals have never been
co-equal. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka has some impressive records from an animal
rights' perspective. The first animal sanctuaries in Sri Lanka were established
by Buddhist kings in pre-Christian times. There have been five kings of Sri
Lanka who proclaimed what was called the Maghata rule which completely prohibits
the killing of all animals in the kingdom. The first such king was Amanda Gamani
who lived in the 1st century.
Until the advent of western colonialism, the consumption of animal food was
minimal and the slaughter of cattle was regularly prohibited. Up until the early
decades of the 20th century, fishing and hunting and other forms of killing
animals were limited and people who resorted to these occupations had absolutely
no social status.
The situation began to change gradually from about the 16th century when the
first colonialists arrived in the island. It began to change more rapidly when
the country started to adopt the practices of western economics in the 19th
century under British rule. The advent of factory farming took place only very
recently, and with aggressive techniques of marketing, the habit of consuming
mass produced and imported foods of animal origin is now at an all-time high.
Although the principle of Ahimsa was highly respected, it must be said that
vegetarianism as such was strictly followed only during the periods when the
Maghata rule, which prohibited all killing, was in force. The history of modern
vegetarianism seems to have had its beginning in Sri Lanka about one hundred
years ago. The oldest vegetarian literature available is dated 1902. Between
then and now various vegetarian societies came into existence and faded away
with the demise of their founders, some of whom were veterans who fought a valiant
struggle against a developing habit which had the support of government - which
was always controlled by a partially westernised elite. Unfortunately conservative
Buddhist monks never took a stand in favour of the budding vegetarian movement.
One of the unforgettable names in the history of vegetarianism in Sri Lanka
is that of Dr E W Adikaram. A radical Buddhist educationist, he established
the vegetarian habit in several schools with which he was connected. In the
early seventies he started an organised campaign against meat-eating, tobacco
and alcohol. In 1982 he established the Sri Lanka Vegetarian Society in Colombo
and another society by the same name in Matara. The movement suffered a setback
after his death in 1986 but was revived last year and has now joined hands with
the other numerous but less well-known and smaller Ahimsa and vegetarian societies
that always existed in the island. We still lack a well-knit united vegetarian
movement, but the trend in favour of adopting a vegetarian life-style is definitely
gathering momentum, as can be seen in the numerous pro-vegetarian writings in
the press and the occasional but very effective presentations in the electronic
media. The Sai movement, which has a considerable base among both Buddhists
and Hindus of Lanka, is staunchly pro-vegetarian and is beginning to organise
itself in this field in a strong way.
The strategy of the SLVS which I have the honour to represent at this momentous
33rd World Vegetarian Congress has been two-pronged. On the one hand it tries
to appeal to the historic principle of Buddhist and Hindu Ahimsa and on the
other it seeks to draw inspiration from the world-wide modern vegetarian and
animal rights movements. Both are potentially effective strategies and from
a philosophical angle they are mutually supportive. I believe ours is the first
vegetarian society of Sri Lanka to get affiliated to the International Vegetarian
Union.
In pursuance of our strategy we do a regular campaign of leafletting and the
publication of a vegetarian magazine, of which the fourth issue is now in the
press. In these publications we rely heavily on the historic religious teachings
of Buddhism and Hinduism and also on the mass of emerging medical evidence which
favours the adoption of a plant-based diet for mankind. We also try to educate
the public on the environmental implications of vegetarianism.
The health issue is particularly important, as one of the greatest stumbling
blocks confronting the vegetarian movement is the entrenched opinion that a
non-meat diet is nutritionally deficient, an opinion that has been inculcated
by the western medical profession and gleefully spread by several vested interests
in commercial, governmental and certain religious quarters. The religious approach
is important because another great stumbling block in our way is, sad to say,
the apathy of the conservative Buddhist establishment represented by some of
the most senior members of the monastic order. Their attitude towards vegetarianism
at times goes as far as positive opposition. We believe that we are taking the
right step in meeting this challenge head on and it is a happy augury that more
and more monks are becoming vegetarian. We have even succeeded in helping to
found an organisation of vegetarian monks whose recruits are mostly young and
university-educated. It is still a fledgling organisation and we will try our
utmost to strengthen its hands.
One of our regular activities is to visit Buddhist temples and with support
of like-minded resident monks, we hold seminars on the major retreat days of
the religious calendar. The seminars are followed by distribution of our leaflets
and our magazine. During the last seven months we have visited twenty four temples
and addressed the devotees who are assembled for religious observances.
In the last analysis, we see all our work, even where it is geared to educating
our fellow citizens of the environmental and medical benefits of a plant-based
diet, as a part of the larger and fundamental issue of reminding ourselves of
the roots of our spiritual civilisation which has been firmly anchored in the
teaching of Ahimsa and the inter-connectedness of all life. Like all our brothers
and sisters in the world wide vegetarian movement we are firmly convinced that
the future is on our side. In seeking to accelerate our march to that future
we whole-heartedly try to harmonise our activities with what we have inherited
from the past. What we seek is a harmonious inter-linking of us and our fellow
creatures, our planetary environment and the roots of our own spiritual history.