Tag: Ahangamage Tudor Ariyaratne

• August 20, 2009

  Huffington Post Article about Ariyaratne, Leading Gandhian Buddhist Leader of Sri Lanka

  I met Aryaratne over twenty years ago in Cambridge, had a wonderful dialogue with him about Buddhist and Jewish approaches to compassion. Laurence Simon of Brandeis University, my old colleague and friend, introduced us, and I have been grateful ever since. Here is an honest article about this extraordinary man and his movement, the Sarvodayah Movement.

  A.T. Ariyaratne: Leading Sri Lanka’s Largest Civil Society Movement for 50 Years
  By Anuradha K. Herath

  The meek 77-year-old Ariyaratne, often called the “Gandhi of Sri Lanka,” has become popular for his massive meditation sessions in which hundreds of thousands of people converge to pray for peace. His Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, which Ariyaratne established 51 years ago, is based on Buddhist and Gandhian principles — Sarvodaya in Sanskrit means “awakening of all” and Shramadana “to donate effort.” The organization is the largest civil society movement in the country. By its own estimations, it

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