Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs

Ministry of Buddha Sasana

බුද්ධශාසන අමාත්‍යාංශය புத்தசாசன அமைச்சு
Ministry overview
Jurisdiction	Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Headquarters	135 Srimath Anagarika Dharmapala road, Colombo 7 6.914409°N 79.858778°E / 6.914409; 79.858778
Ministers responsible	Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, Minister of Buddha Sasana Sarathi Dushmantha, Deputy Minister of Buddha Sasana
Ministry executive	Chandraprema Gamage, Ministry Secretary
Website	mbra.gov.lk

The Ministry of Buddha Sasana (Sinhala: බුද්ධශාසන අමාත්‍යාංශය Buddhashasana Amathyanshaya; Tamil: புத்தசாசன அமைச்சு) is a cabinet ministry of the Government of Sri Lanka. It is responsible for oversight of the country's de facto state religion, Theravada Buddhism by:

• General oversight and maintenance of the welfare of the nation's Buddhist clergy and places of worship
• Oversight of Buddhist education in the country, including provision of information technology to temples
• The development of temples as community centres with multiple services outside of matters spiritual
• Maintenance of selected places of Buddhist worship as tourist sites, and maintenance of sites of Buddhist pilgrimage
• The propagation of Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy
• Maintaining the nature of the Buddhist state via necessary legislation

List of Buddha Sasana Ministers

Minister of Buddha Sasana
Incumbent Gamini Jayawickrama Perera since 25 August 2017
Nominator	The Prime Minister
Appointer	The President

Parties

  Sri Lanka Freedom Party   United National Party

Name		Portrait	Political party	Tenure	President
rowspan ="1" !align="centre" style="background:Template:United National Party/meta/color; color:white;"|	W. J. M. Lokubandara		United National Party	12 December 2001 - 9 April 2004	rowspan=1 !align="center" style="background:Template:Sri Lanka Freedom Party/meta/color; color:white;"|	Chandrika Kumaratunga
rowspan ="2" !align="center" style="background:Template:Sri Lanka Freedom Party/meta/color; color:white;"|	Mahinda Rajapaksa		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	25 November 2005 - 23 April 2010	rowspan=2 !align="center" style="background:Template:Sri Lanka Freedom Party/meta/color; color:white;"|	Mahinda Rajapaksa
D. M. Jayaratne		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	23 April 2010 - 9 January 2015
rowspan ="3" !align="centre" style="background:Template:United National Party/meta/color; color:white;"|	Karu Jayasuriya		United National Party	12 January 2015 - 17 August 2015	rowspan="3" !align="center" style="background:Template:Sri Lanka Freedom Party/meta/color; color:white;"|	Maithripala Sirisena
Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe		United National Party	4 September 2015 - 23 August 2017
Gamini Jayawickrama Perera		United National Party	25 August 2017 – Present

See also

• Buddhism in Sri Lanka
• Religion in Sri Lanka

External links

• Government of Sri Lanka