The Buddhist

On the 2315th anniversary of Buddhism's arrival on the island, Sri Lanka's first 24 hour television channel on Buddhism (and possibly the first in the world), The Buddhist, was inaugurated here on Friday (Day before Pson Poya day) by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The Buddhist will begin its broadcasts in Sinhala, Tamil and English, but will soon have services in French and other international languages too.


Ironically the financier of this private channel is a Tamil Hindu, Muhundan Canagey, though the prime movers are a Colombo-based Buddhist NGO (Including Sambodhi Viharaya in Colombo 7) and some Sinhala entrepreneurs. The satellite is arranged by Dialog Telekom, a joint venture with Telecom Malaysia.