CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE
For UN Vesak Day 2019
First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude and thankfulness for inviting Mr.Saman Amarasinghe as a delegate for this historic event. It is a great privilege and honour to receive an invitation to represent the Sri Lankan Buddhist Community of Fiji in this momentous event.
Furthermore, I also extend my sincere thankfulness and appreciation to venerable Bhante Jinalankara thero of Dhamma Gavesi Meditation Centre in New Zealand for extending this great opportunity to have a representative from Fiji for this noble cause in this year.
Every year, we celebrate the sacred day of Vesak to symbolise the birth, enlightenment and passing away of lord Budda Gautama in Fiji as Vesak is an extremely important event for Buddhists all over the world.
As I believe, this years’ theme of “Buddhist Approach to Global Leadership and Shared Responsibilities for Sustainable Societies” is a very relevant topic and theme in view of current global crisis and issues among various countries in the world.
While Vietnam as a nation of Buddhism is so privileged and fortunate to have United Nations Day of Vesak Celebration once again in 2019 in Vietnam which is an extreme rare opportunity for any nation for that matter, we, as Sri Lankans also origin from a great Buddhist culture and heritage and it is a nation blended with rich Buddhist cultural values.
I take this opportunity to congratulate Vietnam for being so blessed and fortunate to have United Nations Day of Vesak Celebration in 2019 once again and wish all the success and blessings for the event. I am sure the event will be a great success and will greatly assist in exploring the avenues for using Buddhist
BOOK OF MESSAGES: UNITED NATIONS DAY OF VESAK 2019 115
approach in global leadership roles and generally enhancing the knowledge of philosophy of budda among all the delegates.
Once again, I extend my sincere gratitude for the event and wish all the success to the event. Mr.Saman also look forward to participate in this blessed event on behalf of the Maithree Buddhist community in Fiji.
Ajith Kodagoda Honorary Consul,
Sri Lankan Consulate in Suva, Fiji