THE IDEA

Dear Friends

 

 

I’ve been asked to tell something about this project, about ourselves and what we do.

I will start with the last; my name is Ven. Holland Sri Devamitta Maha Thera. I am a Dutch Buddhist monk who came 27 years ago to Sri Lanka and was ordained here as a novice in the village of Kahawa where my teacher the late Ven. Kahawa Sri Devarakkhita Maha Thera gave me the village temple called Kurupukhanda Viharaya to reside. We are of the famous ancient lineage of the Totagamuva Raja Maha Viharaya in Telwatta.

 

A few months later I got my High Ordination at the Malwatta Raja Maha Viharaya in Kandy. I stayed in Kahawa for a few years, initiated with some friends different social and welfare services, and then moved with my pupils to the jungle at Vandina Ella Mountain near the Jala National Park in the central dry zone of the country. There we spend our time with the practise of meditation and lived a simple live of service to the poor people of that region. Due to a number of circumstances I left the country to work as monk among others in Thailand, Europe, Canada and Taiwan. After the Tsunami I returned to Sri Lanka to bring relief goods and work to rebuild and build medical and educational facilities in Tsunami related projects.

 

There where so many needs and wants that after people asked me to stay here I decided to do so and work for the benefit of the Buddhist Brotherhood (Sangha) as well as the suffering laity in this region and elsewhere in the country. Since that time I have ordained a few young novices who are all interested in the way we practise Buddhism, meditation and render services to the laity.

The aim is that they can take over the work when I’m not able to do that anymore.  The oldest one of those novices is the Rev. B. Ariyadhamma though he is now only 16 years old he is one of the hardest working people we have, and he is not only working under my guidance; he also works independently on different projects in some cases, helps others in organising their projects, translates for visitors and foreign students who come to Sri Lanka and helps them in different ways to make their research successful. The other two are 14 years old and are being trained to be able in some time to start doing the same.  We hope that as soon as we have the accommodation we can ordain two more youngsters to join us. We need this young people because they have to learn from young age on to live in the service of the people, and it is astonishing to see how many youngsters would like to join us, because we live a very simple life of practise and very hard work. They search ordination with us because they see our way of living and working and it appeals to them more then living in the big Temples with better accommodation and an easier life in the towns and villages. Even though we got several applications from young boys who want to join us, we select very carefully who to ordain. At the moment there are a few boys waiting to be ordained as soon as we can accommodate them.

One of Devamitta`s novices 2006

There are so many needs here because we work with the poor and the desolate. We found that the two keywords to resolve the problems we face as a country and a society are: Care and Education. Even though we try to help everyone who needs it; we try to concentrate on the children and the youth, they are the future of this beautiful country. We started a broad variety of programs ranging from; simple medical care programs supporting individuals who need medical help in different ways, Hospitals who need help; with the help of some volunteers we renovated Mother and Child medical centres in the rural regions. We were able to run a broad Inter-Religious Dialogue project, language lessons and different social rehabilitation projects. Fortunately we got some help from a small group of people of the Randolph Fellowship in Holland, and some other individuals who have been helping us during the last few years. The problem is that the needs are so many and so big, our means so very restricted, and the support these few people can give us is limited. 

 

There is a great number of artistically talented children & youngsters in our society. There is a lot of creativity but those who are interested to pursue a future in arts are unfortunately pushed in to a career as copyists. Originality is not sufficiently stimulated so creativity vanishes after some time. In art education they for example put up a rule that there may not be any white or open space in a painting or drawing. Everything has to be filled up. Depth and perspective as well as proportion and anatomy are nearly never teached. Because of the copyist tradition the paintings tell no “story”, transfer no emotion or feeling. Many artists who are still a bit creative and have original ideas, use photographs as example and use them to make their paintings. Also artistic and industrial photography are not really teached. The journalistic value of photos of the daily life and surroundings are here highly underestimated. I had the dream to start a project to work with those talented children and youngsters through photography, in the hope to give them the opportunity to develop their talents and maybe give them an idea to seek work in the art sector later in their life.

 

As often happens we did not have the opportunity to do so. Until a few months ago I received an e-mail from our dear friend Georg Hoefer who we know as a hard working volunteer during the time after the Tsunami and a person who is genuinly interested to help the people here!  He asked if there was a project related to his profession as a photographer. Well, there was not really but I told him of our hope to start a project like the one we propose to you now, and he was very enthusiastic to work with us and to help to organize it. So, as often happens when the time is right the opportunity to do what we hope to do will come, and our trust is rewarded. We hope therefore that there will be people who read this and are able and willing to help us in running this and maybe some other projects.

                        This picture was taken in Tellwatte in 2006

 

So in this project we hope to stimulate the creativity  of the young people of Tellwatte. We would like the children who participate to take pictures that tell a story with an emotion. Most of these children are still affected by their experiences as tsunami victims and some are quite traumatized. We hope that this way they will be able to express their emotions which will help them to heal their inner wounds.  We will try to help them to develop an” eye” for the beauty of their surroundings. We hope they will learn about composition and photographic techniques through this program.

 

To show their work we would like to make a 3 monthly newsletter (or a kind of newspaper) by and for kids, their parents and other adults.

We hope to show their work through an exhibition, on the internet and by any other means possible.

 

At the moment we are in contact with different organisations that are quite enthusiastic and willing to work with us and look what more can come out of this project.

The Goethe Institute is thinking about having an exhibition of the best photos, we have made contact with different local children newspapers to pay attention to the project, with local newspapers who have a children supplement.

We made contact with a special student magazine which is distributed for free among them through the universities, and with the Ministry of Education.

Contacts are being made with children programs on a few television stations,  the Rotary Club in Galle and different other organizations.

 

So I’ll end this text with our greetings and regards and the wish that all of you who read it will through the Blessings of The Triple Gem (The Buddha, His Teachings and the Brotherhood of monks and nuns) be Happy, Healthy and Safe!

 

Yours sincerely:

 

Ven. H. S. Devamitta Maha Thera

Metta Ashrama

Sinha Govi Mawatha

Dalluwattumula

Telwatta.80242

Sri Lanka.