A New Festschrift Honouring Professor Tilak Kariyawasam

We are delighted to share the recent publication of “Contemporary Insights into Buddhist Philosophy and Culture”, a festschrift volume in honour of Professor Tilak Kariyawasam, edited by Professor Udita Garusinha and published by the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

This valuable volume is a fitting tribute to a scholar whose career has spanned more than five decades. Professor Kariyawasam began his academic journey in 1961, earning First Class Honours in Buddhist Philosophy at Vidyodaya University of Sri Lanka, before completing doctoral research at the University of Lancaster, receiving his Ph.D. in 1974.

He joined the University of Kelaniya in 1980, rising to Senior Lecturer, Professor, and Senior Professor, and was later honoured with the title of Emeritus Professor. For nine years he served as Head of the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, rebuilding its academic strength during a particularly difficult period and personally recruiting a new generation of scholars who remain its intellectual backbone today. Among his most enduring achievements was founding, in 1991, the Diploma Programme in Buddhist Studies for international students — beginning with just five overseas participants and growing to welcome students from across Asia and beyond, evolving into a genuine pathway to MA, MPhil, and PhD study.

Since 2009, Professor Kariyawasam has also been part of the International Buddhist College (IBC), Thailand, serving as Dean of the Graduate School from 2009 to 2023. He currently continues as a permanent professor and Academic Advisor at IBC. His scholarship spans Theravāda and Mahāyāna Buddhology and the major Pāli and Sanskrit texts, and he teaches Buddhist Philosophy, Pāli, and Theravāda Buddhism — extending his mentorship to a new generation of students in the region.

This festschrift — five years in the making, delayed along the way by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic and political upheavals — brings together scholarly contributions from colleagues and students whose lives he shaped, offered as a lasting record of his devotion to teaching, research, and academic leadership.

We warmly recommend this volume to anyone with an interest in Buddhist philosophy. It stands as a heartfelt tribute to a teacher who has truly been, in the words of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, "a beacon of light" for the field of Buddhist studies.

Congratulations and best wishes to Professor Tilak Kariyawasam on this well-deserved honour.