Buddhist Encyclopedia: Lost without a trace!

The Island, Mar 17, 2010

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Way back in 1955 as part of the Buddha Jayanthi celebrations, the then government inaugurated an extremely laudable project - the compilation of a Buddhist Encyclopedia.

Sri Lanka, the acknowledged repository of Theravada Buddhism which also had highly competent Buddhist scholars, such as Prof. G.P.Malalasekera, Prof. K.N.Jayatilaka, Dr. Jothiya Dhirasekera (to name a few), was the most appropriate place for the undertaking of such a great project.

Several volumes came out of the press and were available for scholars and others interested in this area of knowledge. When one goes through the available volumes one can see how authoritative the articles are, many of them written by Sri Lankans and some by highly competent foreign scholars.
To come to our problem, sometime back the media revealed the good news that the present Board of Editors, led by Dr. W.G.Weeraratne, working with great dedication, has been able to complete the project and that the final volumes have been printed.

The tragedy, however, is that these final volumes are not available for people to buy. Inquiries have revealed that the printed volumes are in a storehouse somewhere, maybe where white ants can consume them and gain merit!

Can some worthy authority speak up and tell us whether this is true or not, and if true when we will have the chance of seeing these last volumes?
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