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A story written by me when I was doing A/L

The Place of Women in BuddhismIn the Brahmin’s society women always had a subordinate place. Men enjoyed superiority over women. In this set up women had been deprived of some of their rights. During the period women were exposed to a great deal of torture both mentally and physically. In this time women could not learn and follow a religion. It was a forbidden thing to go to a religious place. If she had been found reading a religious scripture, she would have lost her tongue. And if she had been caught listening to them, Brahmans would pour sizzling liquid metal into her ear. Women always had to be under man. The following Sanskrit stanza bears testimony to the then situation,“Baleyya pithur vase nishteth

Panigrahasya yawvane

Puthranan bhartheera prethe

Nabhajesthri vethanthranam”

According to the above stanza, a woman during her childhood time should live under her father’s protection, after marriage under her husband’s and then under the protection of her son. If she has not got a son, she should jump into her husband’s funeral pier. And if she could not do that, her life would be miserable. She did not have a chance to marry again. She had to cut her hair and wear white clothes. She had to get food only one time per day and it should also be without any salt. People even thought she was an unlucky sight. One of another opinion of Brahmans is don’t trust women in any time.

“Au dumbaran bavan pushpan

Svetha varnassa kakayo

Mathsya padan jale pishcheth

Stree vakyan navishvaseth”

The stanza states please trust if someone says there are flowers in Udumbara tree, crows are white and there are foot marks of fishes in the coast. But never trust what women says. This shows the bad attitude of Brahmans about women. And also a maiden had to marry a man with a greybeard. It happened according to her parents wish. Polyandry was a forbidden to women. But Polygamy was not a forbidden to men. Brahmans had only one use of women .That is to supply a boy child to the society. There are many stories about how women’s rights were deprived in Brahmin society in Manusmruthiya (A book that has been written in Vedic period)

But Buddhism is based on the principle of equality and milk of human kindness. Therefore with the introduction of Buddhist doctrine women could recover their lost rights and put an end to the insults. In Buddhism woman is valued as a mother, wife, devotee and a bhikkhu.

People trusted Brahma has mercy. Buddha showed parents also have mercy. Then Buddha said it is useless of worshipping an invisible Brahma and it is great merit to worship parents (Brahmathi Matha Pitharo) Buddha said mother is the best friend of children (Matha Mitthan Sake Gare) Treating parents is a good meritorious thing and the one who does not treat parents is an out caste

In Buddhist philosophy women has been admired as a wife too. Buddha said wife is not a waiting woman but a partner. Buddha defines the contact between the husband and wife at 5 points in Singalovada Sutra. As in Paththabariya Sutra women has allocated 7 forms as their qualities. From these seven kinds of wives, first four are good and next three are bad. They are Mathu Bhariya (the wife who acts like a mother), Ghathi Bhariya (the wife who acts like a relation), Bhagini Bhariya (wife who acts like a sister), Sakee Bhariya (wife who acts like a friend), Sami Bhariya, Vadaka Bhariya and Chora Bhariya.

Women have been recognized as a devotee too in Buddhist philosophy. In this society man could be a devotee and women also could to be a devotee. Vishaka, Kujjuththara and Bandula Mallika are some of them.

The most valuable turning point in women’s history was the establishment of community of nuns in Buddhist culture. First Buddha also did not give his consent because those days there were fragments of Brahmin’s philosophy. However women could enter the order because of Prajapathi Gothami’s leadership. Women could attain Arahathship too. Buddha gave designations too for their possibility. Patachara, Kema and Uthpalavanna are some of them.

Women could get most of rights as man because of Buddhist philosophy. But now in the west women are demanding rights equal as man.These things might lead to some degree of hatred among the sexes. But Buddhist philosophy shows women should live with a guardianship of a man. It is useless of demanding rights and men should get it from man. For example there are many divorces in the west than in the east. Because of them children become helpless.

If women adjust their life as mentioned in the Buddhist philosophy, then there will not be shouts about equal rights and they will automatically get them and as a result there will be a good caring society.

::::::::::::::::: Facing to a Challenge :::::::::::::::::

Last week I finished my one of special exam which includes to public school education system. I finished my Ordinary Level exam in 2004 and I could pass it well. With the inconvenience of doing Advanced Level in a good school in city, I followed by doing A/L’s in the same school. And I chose Arts section for that because there was an only Arts section. And also there were only 3 subjects and I also chose them as others. The subjects are Sinhala, Buddhist Civilization and Political Science,

Anyhow I started attending school from 2005 to 2007. Even though I was unable to schooling in city I was able to attend some tuition classes in Anuradhapura for Sinhala and Buddhist Civilization. I learnt Political Science only from my school and I thought the method of that teacher is good and can understand well. And also all the A/L student should do a project with our selves and a team project. I did a project about Tantirimale Temple as my own project. As my team project I did made some wood and wrote the biological names of trees on it and hang them in trees with my team.

At the last months of A/L class we had many classes in school and tuition classes. The class teacher who is teaching Political Science spent much time with us to teach how to write answers. And the other teachers also put much weight on our studies.

August 6th was a very the day which started A/L exam. But we had to sit on 13th for the first time on Sinhala subject. And then we finished one by one and the 29th of August was the last day of our exam. I hope I did the exam well. Now I am waiting for my results and also I am hoping to do some computer courses or a job until I get the results.

::::::::::::::: Who am I? :::::::::::::::::

I am Ruvini Senevirathna and you can know me as a senior student at the Horizon Lanka Foundation. Born on January 21st, 1989, I have grown up with my two brothers in Mahavilachchiya in the North Central province of Sri Lanka. My parents Lionel Senevirathna and Beatrice Gunawardhana engage in the main occupation of our village which is rice cultivation.

I attend Saliyamala Public School in Mahavilachchiya. I have studied here happily from Grade 1 and have made many friends over the years. The arrival of our English teacher, Mr. Nandasiri Wanninayaka was a great blessing to us as he provided us with many new opportunities which we had never even dreamt of, before. As a result, students from our school began to get best results for English. In 2004 I sat for the Ordinary Level exam and got good results and I was one of the students who got an A for English. While awaiting my results I joined Horizon Lanka along with my friends and followed courses in Web Designing, Graphic Designing and developing spoken English etc. with a volunteer English teacher. I enjoyed these courses as they helped greatly enhance my knowledge in many areas. 

Since I got good results for the O/L exam, in 2005, I began following classes for the Advanced Level.  I have chosen Political Science, Sinhala & Buddhist Civilization as my subjects. I hope these subjects will be useful in my future endeavors. I am already working very hard for the exam  by writing answers and reading extra books. I will be sitting for the Advanced Level exam in 2007.

Apart from doing studies at school, one of my favorite places to spend time at, next to my home, is Horizon Lanka Foundation. I have been studying there for about 7 years now. It has been the place where I have gained much knowledge about many fields, especially Computer Technology.

Radhika, Iresha, Duleeka, Aruni, Krishanthi, Ranuka, Nuwan, Majith, Dinesh are friends I made at Horizon Lanka. Working as a team has given us a great opportunity to achieve our goals while also helping us to build good friendships.

In addition to my love of Computer Technology, I also enjoy designing websites and creating graphics and I hope to learn programming too.

I have access to a PC at home through the Digital Butterflies project.  This has helped my brothers and me to improve our knowledge of computers. With the help of a second hand computer I designed my own website. After seeing my website, Mr. Gamini Premadasa of LearnAid in Kuwait hired me to build a website for LearnAid.

Mr. Denuwan Wijerathna a Sri Lankan, living in Dubai promised a brand new Desktop PC to the student who got the best results at the O/L exam. I was the student who got the best results but I thought it would be much easier to work with a laptop computer. So, with Mr. Denuwan’s help and the money I earned from designing the website, I was able to buy a laptop computer. 

In 2005 I could attend to a presentation held by Intel in Colombo with 2 of my friends and my teacher. We also get a part in it to do a presentation about us. After the presentation Mr. Craig donated us brand new Laptops. It is also a great help to us to put a step forward.

Getting a scholarship through the MicroScholarships Project has been a great benefit where my academic work is concerned. Mr. Nuwan Samaranayaka a Sri Lankan, living in USA is the one of people who is helping me to further my education. Mr. Alfonso Solideal is also helping students in rural areas and I have been lucky to have met these two gentlemen who have contributed so much towards our education and for that, I am truly grateful and would like to express my sincere appreciation to them both.

Thanks to the help I have received from these generous people, I have been able to realize my dream of completing my higher education. My present goal is to get good results for my Advanced Level exam. Other than that I hope to be able to find a job related to the field of computers.