The 1979 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

RESPONSE of Lokukamkanamge Manjusri

The Ramon Magsaysay Award is well known in my country because three of my compatriots have received it before me. They were distinguished and well-known people. I am a poor artist, a painter. I never thought that I, too, would receive it one day. I thank the Board of the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation and the Executive Trustee for this great honor conferred on me, and thereby on my country.

I am a painter by accident. A long time ago, when I was a Buddhist monk, I spent a few years at the poet Tagore's ashram, Santiniketan, in Bengal, India. During this time I used to see young people sketching and painting in the art school. My curiosity was aroused, and I began to paint too, by myself. This was in 1932.

By the time I returned to Sri Lanka in 1934 my experience at Santiniketan had awakened me to the beauty of art. I began to look at the paintings on our temple walls with new eyes. I saw that valuable temple murals were neglected, destroyed and replaced by cheap, meaningless, tasteless modern paintings. I decided to copy what was left, before they too were destroyed.

The Buddhist clergy and some groups of painters were opposed to what I was doing. They said that engaging in activities like painting was unethical for monks. Instead of being helped and encouraged, I was obstructed and discouraged. But I continued, with the determination that I had to save these treasures for posterity. I copied them faithfully, traveling the length and breadth of the land to find them on crumbling temple walls. I wrote to the newspapers about them, illustrating what I wrote with the sketches I had made. I wanted to awaken my countrymen to the need to preserve this cultural heritage for future generations.

Gradually, monks as well as laymen began to realize the value of this art of their forefathers. People began to collect my newspaper articles in Sinhala and in English. Some collected them in files; others bound them in book form.

There are still more temples to visit; more murals to copy; and many more to protect and preserve. But I can no longer undertake this task unaided. Perhaps with this Award I may find some help.