L.T.P. Manjusri Lokukankanamge Thomas Peiris Manjusri (1902-1982) (Sinhala: ලොකුකංකානම්ගේ තෝමස් පීරිස් මංජුශ්රී) was a well-known Sri Lankan painter and one of the recipients of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1979. Life events
Manjusri was born on 28 October 1902 in Alutgama village in Sri Lanka as the third of the five sons of the fisherman Lokukankanamge Appusinno Peiris, and his wife Ratnavira Patabendige Podinona de Silva (Dharmasiri, 1990). At the age of ten, he left the vernacular school due to ill health and started to work as a carpenter (Dharmasiri, 1990). However, he entered the Buddhist monastic life as a novice monk by the name Bhadanta Seelawamsa at the age of thirteen (1915) and started studying Buddhist Philosophy, Pali and Sanskrit at Mangala Pirivena school at Beruwala (Dharmasiri, 1990). He became an ordained monk in 1922 (Dharmasiri, 1990). In 1932 he went to Shantiniketan in eastern India to study Chinese (Dharmasiri, 1990). Spending his time there from 1932 to 1934 a…
