Initial Concept and Goal of UMVM

This is the story about a spiritual leader and a Buddhist thero (monk) based in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. The Chief Incumbent (CI), who is the founder and leader of the UMVM, envisioned inventing a spiritual and eco-friendly village sprung from a Buddhist community. Although he claims himself as an ‘Arhat’ (the awakened one), which to some is problematic, he does deeply care about spiritual values and nature. It can also be said that he has many followers both internationally and domestically, including prominent figures in Sri Lanka.

While talking to the Chief Incumbent for the first time, we were sitting outside the

‘Kethumathi Prasadaya’, which is the main residential building. The entrance of the building is very ornamental, which is where the first interview was held. He gestured at paintings and reliefs on the walls while answering questions regarding the initial project idea of UMVM.

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“I travel all around the world. I hold vast knowledge about the world - many doctrines and subjects. I graduated in microbiology, but I follow a different path. Now, all these paintings on the wall… I draw the initial sketches, and t hen I pass them on to the mason who completes the work. (...) We wanted a land where our skills and competence can be brought to light. For that, this is the land that we found.”

I had a similar discussion with monk #2, who told me that: “When our CI travels abroad, we too travel with him. He then collects ideas from every place we visit, reinvents them and advises us how to apply those ideas to our own context”. In various other interviews since then, other informants have also spoken of how the CI visualized to them a master plan to create an aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly community village in a “walking monastery” - a place that you can stroll around in and let your mind wander off in tune with your legs.

When discussing the livelihood goal of UMVM, the CI explained that UMVM is a big project. It’s a concept and a process where the goal is to build a place considering the necessity to answer contemporary world issues, such as global warming, environmental degradation, and increased use of artificial chemical fertilizers and how, in his opinion, our human qualities are fading away. The further goals are to decrease selfish acts of humans and promote an altruistic lifestyle.

As explained above, the livelihood goals of UMVM cover a wide of social-economic, environment and spiritual motivations. However, the findings from the interviews and participatory observations describe how spirituality has come to be the core value of its emergence. Their definition of spirituality, according to the CI and several other informants, is that spirituality has three emergent concepts: well-being and happiness, moral responsibility and serenity (mindfulness). In the words of the CI:

“UMVM is a centre for making people realise the importance of virtues and dhamma…It facilitates a platform to raise philosophical inquiries in society.’’

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UMVM has also tried to set a moral example to society by creating a ‘Model Village’

that shelters many social, economic and environmental solutions. For example: it promotes a more organic and natural way of living by reducing the need for harmful chemical fertilizers used in agriculture production. The CI insisted that:

“We have excelled at using organic fertilizer. Sri Lanka is an agricultural country, if so, we need to develop the country through agricultural designs.’’

The CI also identified the values of travelling as a way to create awareness,

“On average there are thousands of visitors who come to see UMVM in a month. We advise visitors to borrow new ideas from here. A new vision!

You should change your home, school, temple and church (to become as) beautifully as this’’.

Similarly, monk #2 confirmed what the CI said by adding that “We aim to deliver a results-oriented and pragmatic spiritual approach to society.”

The CI highlighted how the serenity and nature at UMVM makes it a spiritual place:

“Now see, how calm the surrounding environment here is? The mind calms to zero. Then, there are these sounds of the birds. That’s all. There is no hustle and bustle here! Everyone should come and then enjoy the serenity’’.

UMVM operates in a multi-faith atmosphere rather than holistically operating as a Buddhist monastery. According to the CI:

“This place is not created only for Buddhists. Christians, Hindus, Muslims or anyone else can come and stay here. There is a collective experience here. It is not a tourist project. This experience can be brought into your life.

Becoming rejuvenated, with a refreshed mind - an enlightened person should go out (and experience nature). That’s how the UMVM theme has been systematically created. We call UMVM “a sanctuary for intellectuals”.

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These understandings have been confirmed by several informants as well, such as volunteer #1: “I am not a Buddhist. I am a Hindu (Malayalam). I volunteer at UMVM as well as Siri Sadaham Ashramaya (SSA) whenever they need my help”.

Similarly, monk #5 stated: “I am a Christian (Catholic). I have had a very troublesome youth. Now that I am here, I have learned to keep my mind occupied by working with others.”