Sunday Times 2
Buddhism and climate change: Seeking a path of mindful actions
View(s):- Anagarika Dharmapala Memorial Lecture on the Founder’s Day at the London Buddhist Vihara, on 13th September 2025.
By I. M. Dharmadasa, Professor Emeritus, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom.
E-mail: Dharme@shu.ac.uk Tel: +44 7572415184 Website: www.solarvillagesdg.org
Kaduruwewa Solar Village
Venerable Sangha, your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.
First, I would like to thank the UK Sangha Nayaka Ven Seelawimala and the Secretary of the Maha Bodhi Society, Mr Amal Abeyawardene for inviting me to deliver this Anagarika Dharmapala memorial lecture.
I came across Anagarika Dharmapala’s biography on three occasions. When I was completing my A/L studies at Ibbagamuwa Central College, I received a book on Anagarika Dharmapala’s biography as the best student prize in 1968. I read the whole book and gave a talk on his life & work in one of our hostel meetings. For the second time I received the Dr C A Hewavitarne memorial prize for the best performance for my Physics Special Degree at the University of Peradeniya in 1975. Although I assumed he as a very important person, since there was no google search facility at that time, I didn’t know who he was.
When I sat down to prepare this memorial lecture, 50 years after receiving that prize, I came to know that he was one of Anagarika Dharmapala’s brothers. I was delighted and this memorial lecture is now the third occasion I come across Anagarika Dharmapala’s life and work.
It is a great pleasure and honour to deliver this lecture today at the London Buddhist Vihara.
Anagarika Dharmapala
The title suggested for this talk is “Buddhism & Climate Change: Seeking a Path of Mindful Actions” and covers several important areas. For clarity, I have divided this presentation into sub-sections as follows:
1.0 Brief Introduction to Srimath Anagarika Dharmapala
2.0 Climate Change (CC) Effects
3.0 Solar Village Project & Mindful activities
4.0 Benefits and impacts of Solar Villages – Practicing Metta & Loving Kindness
5.0 Ultimate Solution to Climate Change – Green Hydrogen Technology
1.0 Brief Introduction to Srimath Anagarika Dharmapala
In brief, Anagarika Dharmapala was a pivotal figure in the Buddhist revival movement in Sri Lanka and in India. He was also a strong social reformer. Anagarika Dharmapala was born 161 years ago, in 1864, in Colombo. His parents were Don Carolis and Mallika Hewavitarne and his father was a wealthy furniture businessman in Colombo. During this colonial period, he was named Don David Hewavitarne and had his education in several Christian Colleges. These colleges were Christian College Kotte, St Benedicts College Kotahena, St Thomas College Mutwal and Royal College Colombo. He mastered the English language and read the Bible. In parallel he also studied Buddhist teaching from Venerable monks like Migettuwatte Gunananda Thero.
At an early age, he saw some of his Christian teachers shooting birds; he didn’t like this and was drawn to more spiritual pursuits. He became a vegetarian, practiced meditation and started to help the poor.
During his life span, he went through three different stages. At his young age, as Don David Hewavitarne, and later changed his name to Anagarika Dharmapala. Anagarika means the homeless one, but not with the present-day meaning of “homelessness”. He was from a wealthy family and had all the comforts, but he sacrificed all these to travel widely and do what he really wanted to do in his life.
He wore white or saffron clothes but did not shaved his head and never fully ordained as a Buddhist monk. He lived in this midway status between that of a monk and a layperson so that he could travel freely and carryout his activities. If fully ordained, he had to follow all the Vinaya (discipline) rules of a Buddhist monk preventing his busy activities. Dharmapala means the protector or guardian of the Dharma. When he was about 69 years old, he became a Buddhist monk with the name Ven Sri-Devamitta Dharmapala and passed away a few months later, in India.
Anagarika Dharmapala visited Buddha Gaya, when he was 21 years old. He was shocked to see the state of the place, and Buddha Gaya was under the control of a Hindu priest and Buddhist features were disappearing. After a legal battle, he salvaged the site, renovated and returned it to Buddhist care. His amazing activities include restoring various Buddhist sites, founding the Maha Bodhi Society, promoting Buddhist principles, starting many Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka, etc.
He preached Buddhism in three continents: Asia, Europe and North America. In 1926, Anagarika Dharmapala established the London Buddhist Vihara in Ealing and later moved to Chiswick.
2.0 Climate Change (CC) Effects
Global warming and climate change arise from two reasons: natural changes and human activities. As a result of build-up of greenhouse gases like CO2 in the atmosphere, global temperature gradually increases. Because of this change in the atmosphere, climate change effects are currently experienced round the globe.
Dangers of climate change are numerous. These include rising temperatures, forest fires and droughts, water scarcity and food shortages, heavy rains flash floods hurricanes and tornados, sea level rise and coastal erosion etc. Countries like Sri Lanka and the poor are highly vulnerable.
Solutions to mitigate climate change effects are possible, but we have control only of human activities. We can do this by producing our energy without CO2 emissions. This can be done using highly matured renewable energy sources like hydro, solar and wind, instead of burning fossil fuels. The second method is to reabsorb CO2 from the atmosphere by tree planting and re-forestation. Trees naturally absorb CO2, combine with sunlight and water to produce our food via photosynthesis.
3.0 Solar Village Project & Mindful activities
Background to the solar village project
After working in the British Petroleum Research in Sunbury/London on solar panel development and commercialisation programme, I joined Sheffield Hallam University in 1990. I divided my job functions into three categories: Lecturing, Solar Energy Research and Public awareness of renewable energy applications. I noted the maturity of the solar technology and gave public lectures in Schools and community events in Sheffield area and in the UK.
After seeing the huge interest, I extended this work to Sri Lanka initiating a Higher Education Link (HE-Link) programme in 1992. This was funded by the DFID-UK, managed by the British Council and coordinated by me. Five local universities (Peradeniya, Colombo, Moratuwa, Kelaniya & Matara) and companies interested in renewables took part for six consecutive years in this programme.
The aim was to enhance solar energy research in local universities for collaboration and promote renewable energy applications in the country.
Over 40 senior academic visits were completed, local and regional (SAREP-South Asia Renewable Energy Programme) networks were established, Solar Asia conference series was initiated, and the Solar Village project was designed.
After six years, the DFID funding stopped but the well-established networks are self-sustaining. Solar village project was piloted in 2008, monitored to observe social benefits and completed nine solar villages over the past 17 years. This project is now ready for wide replication in the country. This has been a tireless effort and as Anagarika Dharmapala quoted “Without effort, progressive development is impossible”.
Concept of the Solar Village
This project was designed to practically promote renewable energy applications in Sri Lanka and empower communities. The technical name of the solar village is CARES (Centres for Application of Renewable Energy Sources). Since this title is highly technical and a mouthful, we use the easy-to-understand term “Solar Village”, for this project.
1.FIRST step is to select a needy community with about 1000 inhabitants and identify a method to create regular income using a solar solution, for that selected community. This is the unique feature of this project to empower the community.
Wealth creation methods used to date are:
(a) solar water pumping to provide clean water for drinking and other activities. Users pay
water bills as usual to accumulate funds within the community, OR
(b) installing a solar roof and connecting it to the National Grid using net+ scheme, and receiving a regular payment from CEB, OR
(c) solar water pumping for drip-irrigation or normal irrigation for food production. Water
users pay to a common pot for the benefit of the whole community.
2. SECOND step is to form a VDC (Village Development Committee) with ~50% female members and open a VDC bank account. The VDC members manage the funds with full transparency, and to use in various development projects to:
(a) Enhance Education; by improving Nursery, Primary School, Library, Scholarships, etc
(b) Improve Environment; by Tree planting, Beekeeping, Organic farming, Road Repairs by Sramadana (voluntary work) etc.
(c) Contribute to climate actions; by using solar energy reducing CO2 emissions, and
absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere by increased vegetation.
3. THIRD step is to introduce new development projects for job creation and empower the whole community. By applying various ideas and guidance, the community develops rapidly with their own efforts. Working with a government Ministry, we distributed 100,000 TomJc mango plants and 500 bee-hive boxes to solar village areas. These will earn extra income to the participating families.
This project plants the “Seed of the Solar Village” and empowers the community to grow it to a successful “Solar Village”.
Above mindful activities go with Anagarika Dharmapala’s quote “Activity in doing good is the law of progress”.
(4.0a) Benefits and impacts of the pilot Solar Village at Kaduruwewa
- Provision of clean water supply to the community throughout the year using solar water pumping. These areas suffer from lack of drinking water during the peak of the dry season
- Reduction of noise and air pollution from diesel engines, reducing CO2 emission, providing solutions for climate change and global warming
- The school and the temple receive free water supply from the system
- Solar powered water pumping converts sunlight into real wealth, reducing country’s fossil fuel import bill.
- Teachers not wanting to leave this severely difficult school and working with encouragement and enthusiasm generated by this new project.
- School ear-marked for closure in 2007, is now thriving becoming the second out of 186 primary schools in Maho zone, during 2023 year-5 scholarship results.
(4.0b) Benefits and impacts of the most successful Solar Village at Nochchiya/Galgamuwa
- This solar village at Nochchiya was sponsored by Helasarana and APSL charities to install a 7-kW solar roof. This has been named as “Raja Meehitiya” memorial solar village to honour the founding president of the Helasarana charity.
- This is one of the mature and successful solar villages and empowered communities coming together to help themselves, through voluntary work. They have repaired their 2 km road by bringing together over 200 people, replacing the old community hall with a new one and now building an office for the VDC and an IT library for the village, on the first floor.
- This area had kidney disease, and therefore government had installed a water purification system, and we empowered them by installing a 7 kW solar roof connected to the national grid. The community has used the regular income to pump water, purify, and provide clean drinking water to the village and sell water to the surrounding seven villages. This process and other activities like micro-credits allowed them to grow their VDC bank account to Rs 73 Lakhs by July 2025. Clean drinking water prevents spreading of kidney disease in this area. This progress was witnessed within eight years, and we are sharing this information with other new solar villages to follow similar good ideas and develop themselves. They are now planning to install a solar roof on the office building with their own savings.
- The environment is becoming more green and pleasant due to tree planting projects, and the country becoming a “green carpet”. Reduced alcoholism and crime were observed, due to the involvement in joint development projects minimizing idle time. Children from the Solar Village receive scholarships and Motivation certificates + Education packages.
- Children from the solar village receive scholarships and Motivational certificates + Education packages.
- This project fulfils 13 out of 17 UN-Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In this project we practice Metta and Loving Kindness. Mindful actions are taking place as the essence of Lord Buddha’s teaching.
Progress of the solar village project to date
While I was at full-time employment, we established only five solar villages at Kaduruwewa, Pulmudai, Nochchiya, Puthier Nagar and Monaragala. There were many issues at the new technology/society interface to solve and fund raising was a bottleneck. Getting approvals from the CEB (Ceylon Electricity Board) and the Education department offices were also very slow. It took over 15 years to complete five solar villages slowly, but we accumulated a wealth of knowledge and established a mechanism to do these projects by forming a dedicated solar village team in the country.
After my retirement from lecturing we managed to establish four solar villages in the year 2024. For all these nine solar villages, funds were raised using personal donations and charities. During the past year NSF (National Science Foundation), Sarvodaya and Wayamba university also joined our solar village activities and Regen Renewables solar company donated a solar roof to the Kanatholuwa solar village as a part of their CSR (corporate social responsibility) budget. Helios Renewables Foundation in the UK secured funds from the Next Energy Foundation for three solar roofs in the Panama village cluster.
Since these rural development projects cannot be continued using donations and charities, we have recently established “Solar Village SDG”, a community interest company (www.solarvillagesdg.org) to attract external funds. This is a not-for-profit organization, and we plan to expand the project by adding smart IT classrooms to rural schools and rapidly replicate solar villages in Sri Lanka.
While submitting proposals to various funding bodies, we are now organizing a sponsored walk in Oxford City in the UK, on Sunday 2 November 2025 called Oxford City Walkabout. We are inviting like-minded people who are living far away from Oxford to sponsor us by clicking “Donate” on our Enthuse fundraising platform at:
https://solarvillagesdg.enthuse.com/pf/dharme-dharmadasa
If you live in the UK, we are inviting teams of walkers or individuals to join in this exciting fundraiser taking in many of Oxford’s beautiful landmarks. The walk will last about two and a half hours. This will culminate in more fundraising with a social event which will include a quiz, an Oxford /Sri Lanka themed art sale, Sri Lankan music, a raffle and a banana leaf wrapped Sri Lankan lunch. To join the fundraising walk registering on the Enthuse platform is required at:
https://www.sundaytimes.lk/251012/
Details of “How to register” can be found here:
https://www.sundaytimes.lk/251012/
5.0 Ultimate Solution to Climate Change – Green Hydrogen Technology
During the industrial revolution, fossil fuels (coal, oil & gas) were used to provide our energy. These have done their job, but only 2/3rd of the world population is developed and led to the pollution of the atmosphere creating global warming, climate change and various health issues. Therefore, the world community is now actively working to de-carbonize the planet.
“Renewables are for All” and hence these technologies could develop the whole world communities reducing the gap between rich and poor. This in turn will remove many of the issues human race experiences at present.
In addition to hydro power, most developed renewables are solar and wind. However, these are intermittent and weather dependent. Therefore, scientists and engineers have found the ultimate solution to remove this disadvantage. This is by producing green hydrogen (GH) using solar and wind, whenever these are available to split water and use hydrogen gas as the future versatile energy source.
The minimum DC voltage to split water molecules is only 1.24 V. Green hydrogen can be produced using a photo-electro-chemical cell (PEC) or the standard electrolyzing of water using an external power source. Industry is currently manufacturing large and efficient electrolyzers to produce GH, and these can be stored, converted to ammonia or methanol for various uses. GH is the most versatile and future energy vector, and it can be used for all applications.
For Power production: GH can be burnt and produce electricity whenever needed at any time removing the intermittency of solar and wind. Only water vapor is emitted during this process without pollution.
For Transport: mature Fuel-Cell Technology can be used. Both GH and ammonia can be used to produce electricity to run vehicles using fuel cells. Nowadays hydrogen buses are running in major cities of many developed countries.
In addition, electric vehicles should be introduced rapidly, and their batteries should be charged using solar and wind. Then there is no necessity of importing expensive and polluting diesel and petrol to the country.
For Industry: GH can be converted into ammonia and methanol to produce fertilisers and run ships respectively. By burning hydrogen instead of coal, green-steel and green-cement are now being produced. Similarly, there are many other applications in industry for green hydrogen.
Sri Lanka has a renewable energy potential of over 200 GW, and the current total power production is less than 5 GW. Hence by installing solar and wind rapidly, GH can be produced for use within the country and Sri Lanka can become an energy exporting country instead of importing expensive and polluting fossil fuels.
There were 1250 coal mines in the UK, and these have all been shut down today due to their polluting and harmful nature on peoples’ health. There is no reason for Sri Lanka to depend on imported coal in the future.
Sri Lanka can easily achieve the 70% renewable energy goal by 2030, using only hydro, biomass, solar and wind.
For example, there were only two or three solar energy companies in Sri Lanka when we started our promotional activities in 1992, but today, there are more than 650 active solar energy companies in the country. With the right support, all these companies could expand their work into green hydrogen activities. If the public and private sectors, CEB and the people work together to develop Sri Lanka, the country could achieve the net-zero target well before 2050 and become an energy exporting country with green-hydrogen. Renewable energy powered green and lush Sri Lanka could become a magnet for worldwide tourists.
Short Video on Solar Village project (2.4 minutes video with English sub-titles)
- Provision of clean water supply to the community throughout the year using solar water pumping. These areas suffer from lack of drinking water during the peak of the dry season