A Bodhi Pooja against the Tobacco Cultivation Ban

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Background

A Bodhi Pooja is a ritual conducted by the Buddhists to seek the blessings of the Bo tree. Bo tree is considered sacred by Buddhists because it was under a Bo tree that Lord Buddha attained enlightenment.

In 2016, the government announced a plan to ban tobacco cultivation in Sri Lanka by the year 2020.[1][2][3][4][5]

Image 1: A national newspaper (Mirror) related website reporting the event with photographs and videos[6]

Tobacco Company Organising a Bodhi Pooja

The “Bodhi Pooja” was organised by the All Ceylon Cigarette Tobacco Barn Owners' Association at Sri Sambodhi Viharaya in Kalegama, Dehiattakandiya, in October 2017. According to Jayantha Egodawela, the president of the Barn Owners' Association, this event was facilitated by the Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC) as a response to the government’s plan to eliminate tobacco cultivation. Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC), the subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT), holds the monopoly of manufacturing and sales of cigarettes in Sri Lanka. Media was invited to the event and it received a positive coverage in mainstream and social media (Image 1).[7][6][8]

Cigarette tobacco barn owners, registered directly with the CTC, function as the extended arm of the tobacco company coordinating tobacco cultivation for the company at the ground level. You can read more details in our TobaccoUnmasked pages All Ceylon Cigarette Tobacco Barn Owners' Association and Jayantha Egodawela.

Further details on the Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC)’s attempts to sustain tobacco cultivation in Sri Lanka can be found in our page Attempts of Ceylon Tobacco to Sustain Tobacco Cultivation in Sri Lanka.

TobaccoUnmasked Resources

Other relevant TobaccoUnmasked pages

The local language translations

TobaccoUnmasked_Sinhala
TobaccoUnmasked_Tamil



Notes