Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-04-06

Establishment of a Buddhist Revival Fund

- Sri Lanka has about 12,150 Buddhist Temples and out of which about 750 temples maintain Pirivenas. Similarly, there are about 150 Forest Hermitages around the island. These Temples render an invaluable service to safeguard the cultural heritage related to Buddhist religious traditions and to promote the knowledge of priests as well as laymen through the Pirivena education. Due to the problems associated with Temples and Pirivenas, the Bhikkhus have to face various difficulties in carrying out their social responsibilities and a state of affairs has now arisen, in most instances, where the incumbent priests of the Temples find it difficult to incur the present day expenditure required for these tasks. Although, the Ministry of Buddhasasana, the Department of Buddhist Affairs and the Ministry of Education make a significant contribution to fulfill the management of physical resources pertaining to the Temples and the Pirivenas, it is done only within the provisions of the Annual Budgetary Estimates. Privileges like donations by philanthropists are also rare for most of these temples in the remote areas. As a solution to the above problems, the proposal made by Hon. Maithripala Sirisena, H.E. the President to create a fund called 'Buddhist Revival Fund', with the use of various forms of revenue and donations as proposed by the Buddhist Bikkhus to select the places of Buddhist religious worship and provide facilities and provisions to them, on a common policy adopted therein, was approved by the Cabinet.