Launch Of Dr. Wickrema Weerasooria’s Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law

On  the evening of Tuesday, February 15, the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) will be launching a monumental text on Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law authored by the well-known lawyer and legal academic, Dr. Wickrema Weerasooria.
The text provides a comprehensive coverage of the subject of Buddhist Law in Sri Lanka and as an English text it is considered a ‘global first.’ There is no similar text in Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand (Siam) which are the two other  main countries – other than Sri Lanka – where pure Theravada Buddhism prevails. Consisting of over 850 pages of 30 chapters the text will be a guide not only to Sri Lankan lawyers and judges but to all global scholars in foreign universities which have now established Colleges of Oriental Learning and Religion.

Foreword to text by Dr. Guruge

World renowned Buddhist Scholar Dr. Ananda Guruge who now lives in the United States has  highly  commended the text in an excellent foreword . Dr. Guruge states: As an author of over 54 texts on Buddhism, Education, History and Culture, I can myself confidently state that there is no other single book in the world similar to this text which is over 850 pages of 30 chapters on the subject of Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law. Such a book can only be written in Sri Lanka where Buddhist Temporalities have been subject to the legal process for nearly two centuries. In that context, this scholarly text is a global first and since it is written in English it will be of immense benefit and knowledge to all Westerners interested in Buddhism and as to how secular and temporal affairs relating to Buddhism were managed in modern times.

As we all know Sri Lanka (or Ceylon as the country was called prior to 1972) has been the repository and custodian of pure Theravada Buddhism for now over 2600 years. When the British got possession of the entire island in March 1815, they gave a solemn oath at the famous Convention held in Kandy in March of that year (well-known as the Kandyan Convention) “to protect and safeguard the religion of Buddha with all its rites and ceremonies etc” as had been earlier done by the country’s kings. The British did this despite vehement criticism that a Christian monarch (first George III and then Queen Victoria) should not be the Protector of “a heathen or pagan religion”.

The contents and coverage of Dr. Weerasooria’s text appears to have originated from three major issues the British faced in Ceylon. Firstly, the necessity for them to settle disputes relating to succession to the chief priesthood or head of a Buddhist temple, where the incumbent died. In earlier times, the King had performed this duty and appointed the successor.

Secondly, the temples owned vast amounts of land (temporalities) donated to them by the King or other wealthy chiefs or even average people. By tradition, temple property was exempt from all taxation or any form of revenue collection. The British did not mind this but they found abuses where non-temple lands were being classified as temple lands to avoid taxes and levies. Thirdly, the British found that some Buddhist monks were not capable of managing temple lands (some because of old age), and cases of abuse was not uncommon. Hence the plea was to appoint lay trustees.

Thus, the main issues to be addressed were, the appointment of incumbents or viharadipathis to temples, the proper classification and registration of temple land, the collection of revenue and the prevention of abuse in the management of temples. Also, the enlightened legal and judicial system established by the British from 1833 and the abolition that year of Rajakariya (or service by the people to the King and the Chiefs) and its impact on the feudal systems of land tenure – all resulted in considerable litigation. In deciding the disputes so litigated, the Englishmen who were then the judges administering justice applied ‘customary law’ as explained to them by learned Buddhist monks of experience and learning. Truly, it was this ‘customary law’ made ‘by the Buddhist priests for the priests’, plus some legislative provisions introduced by the British – that came to be developed by the courts as Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law.

Ceylon also has a rich tradition of law reporting from the 1830s. In the law reports, the above issues were firstly titled “Buddhist Law”, next “Buddhist Temple Law”, then “Buddhist Temporalities Law” and finally “Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law”. This indeed, is the fascinating story that Dr. Weerasooria unfolds in this exciting new text. Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law soon became a virile and living system of law in Ceylon. A careful study of the system (as outlined in this text) also shows the close interconnection between the culture of the Sinhalese (the majority population of the island) and the Buddhist religion and the important part played by Buddhism in the formulation of the laws and customs of  the Sinhalese.

Additionally, the early British judges in Ceylon, with their scholarly backgrounds from Oxford or Cambridge Universities, probed into customary practices when deciding Buddhist litigation. Being learned, they wanted to learn. While these judges recognised the rules of the Sangha (Buddhist priesthood) and the conduct of monks in the Buddhist tenets and scriptures such as the Vinaya Pitaka, the judicial preference was for “actual customary practices” as explained and interpreted by ecclesiastical experts. The Judiciary also took the view that while the Buddhist doctrine and belief can be safely left to and decided by Buddhist ecclesiastical tribunals, issues as to who can succeed to an incumbency of a temple, (since it involved property rights as well) were matters for the civil courts.

So it can be asked, what then are the main areas that come within the term or phrase “Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law”? Dr. Weerasooria provides the answer in this text of over 850 pages. He has painstakingly read and researched all the decided judicial decisions on the subject numbering over 250 and condensed them into 30 chapters. In 20 of his 30 chapters, Dr. Weerasooria deals with all the important practical topics and issues that make up Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law. The most important are the rules relating to succession to be the head or “viharadhipathi” of a temple. The now established rule of succession is pupillary succession where the senior most pupil of the incumbent tutor succeeds him. Next, the issue arises as to how a bhikkhu became a pupil of another. As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Weerasooria is a lawyer and legal academic of distinction and repute who has written over 18 legal texts. In that context, he has selectively included in this text a very interesting account of the judiciary, the legal profession and the early text writers on Sri Lankan law and shown how the judges, the lawyers and text writers contributed to the development of Buddhist Ecclesiastical law.

As Dr. Weerasooria emphasizes the Buddhist law for the most part comprised not in legislation but in “judge made law” based on customary practices. The text writers and experts of the Buddhist priesthood outlined the practices; the lawyers who appeared in temple litigation formulated the practices into legal arguments and submissions and the judges who heard the disputes, incorporated them into their judicial decisions. Indeed, this is how this law came to be formed and developed.