Scholar and humanitarian Rev. Fr. Aloysius Pieris s.j. passes away

By  Robert Cruz

The Sri Lankan Asian Jesuit Theologian, Indologist and Buddhist Scholar Fr. Aloysius Pieris s.j., passed away at his Tulana, Gonawala-Kelaniya residence at the age of 90 years and 11 months on the morning of Sunday March 22 2026 after a long illness. 

Born on 9th April 1934, he founded the TULANA Research Centre for Encounter and Dialogue, which is a Sri Lanka Jesuit Province Apostolate mandated by the Superiors in 1974.  He served as its Director until his very end.

The name TULANA has its roots in Sanskrit and means four things taken together: elevation, weighing, comparing and deciding for the weightier things – in short ‘DISCERNMENT.’ Its primary founding motivation was as a response to two challenges -- the challenge of the spirituality and philosophy of Sri Lanka’s major religion, Buddhism, and the challenge of the socio-political aspirations of the highly educated but marginalised rural youth in the 1970’s.

Over the years, Tulana has developed into many things in one:-  a mini-university where scholars from here and abroad come for research,  research guidance, consultation and thesis supervision, and where  students and others attend seminars, workshops and training and study courses. It is also a mini-retreat centre, where people come for meditation and spiritual accompaniment; a social animation centre for those engaged in social issues; and a forum for artists who want to express their philosophy in non-logical, non-verbal media of communication.

Aloysius Pieris, s.j. inherited the intellectual legacy (with its valuable library, documents and ancient map and coin collections etc.) of Fr. Simon Gregory Perera (1883 – 1950) who was an eminent scholar and the leading historian of his day, specialising in the Portuguese, Catholic and Jesuit history of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The centre piece of Tulana is its library which consists of the Fr. S. G. Perera Memorial Oriental Library, and the main Tulana Library.

Fr. S. G. Perera’s library and intellectual property became the essential hub around which Aloysius Pieris pursued his Theological, Orientalist, Buddhist and Pali studies, and developed a unique thesis and practice of an Asian Theology of Liberation in collaboration with the mainly non-Christian peripheral religious peoples of Sri Lanka and Asia. 

He has made a name for himself in the halls of academia

worldwide with doctorates, lectureships and professorial chairs, and  published many books and written numerous articles, most of which were published in English and Sinhala in various international and local journals. Some of his books and articles have also been translated and published in a number of European and Asian languages.  

Pioneering doctorate in Buddhism

His studies, his pioneering doctorate in Buddhism, and the subsequent constant deep research he conducted into the original Pali texts resulted in his being considered a specialist in the Abhidhamma both in Sri Lanka and abroad.

The intellectual work of Fr. Aloysius Pieris and his many collaborators at the Tulana Research Centre has borne fruits not merely in the form of books and papers, but in the continuously evolving practices of Liturgical Renewal, Basic Human Communities, Interreligious Dialogue, Trans-Ecclesial Ecumenism, Inter-Ethnic Reconciliation and the Restoration of Justice and Peace in this fractured island of ours. 

Today,  the Tulana Library has quadrupled in size and is internationally renowned as a resource centre for research in Indology, Buddhism, Christian Theology and Philosophy, Western Culture, as well as Sri Lankan and South Asian History and Culture. The Tulana Research Unit actively pursues studies in Indology, Anthropology and Theology. Fr Aloy was sought by scholars here and abroad for research guidance in post-graduate and post-doctoral work. He had also been serving as a thesis director and examiner in the University of Kelaniya, both in the Post Graduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies, and in the Dept of Western Culture and Christian Studies.

Tulana used to produce Dialogue (New Series) – an international journal for Buddhist–Christian studies which was edited by Fr. Aloy  and published by the Ecumenical Institue for Study and Dialogue,  and Vagdevi: Journal of Religious Reflection,  also edited by Fr Aloy and published by the Sri Lanka Jesuit Province. 

The Encounter programme at Tulana, both informal and formal, is mainly targeted at (Buddhist, Christian, and non-religious) school teachers, workers, trade unionists, peasant leaders, youth in general and university students in particular, and seminarians and pastors of all denominations. In depth encounters also take place for spiritual animation – e.g. retreats, especially for those who have made an option for the poor; practical lessons in mindfulness and insight-meditation and counselling.

Helping the Hearing Impaired

Aloysius Pieris was instrumental in co-founding with Rev. Sr. Greta Nalawatta PH, the Centre for Education for Hearing Impaired Children (CEHIC) in 1982. This unique ‘Community School’ provides a FREE EDUCATION and TRAINING using the AUDITORY-VERBAL method of education to enable hearing impaired children, specially the very poor,  to hear and speak using hearing aid devices, and to thus HABILITATE them from the earliest age, firstly in a PRE-SCHOOL setting, and then at the school going age of about 5 years old. 

They are then INTEGRATED into the NATIONAL SCHOOL SYSTEM, and provided with extra follow-up Primary and Secondary CLASSES in the National CURRICULUM at CEHIC,  with continuing LANGUAGE AND VERBAL THERAPY until they reach the university entrance level. To date, about 18 CEHIC alumni have graduated from universities in Sri Lanka, and 6 are currently undergraduates. Other alumni have gone on to be successful trained in vocational professions and other jobs. Many are married with families and leading useful creative productive lives for the betterment of Sri Lankan society. He has said that co-founding this educational centre was his greatest achievement,  greater than all that he achieved as a scholar  intellectually and academically.

 Fr. Aloysius Pieris will be remembered by all who encountered him for his warmth, his deep welcoming humanity, generosity of spirit and for living ‘Christian Sensuality’ to the full. Spending time with him was always a joy, full of laughter and fun. His every living moment was guided by his deep Faith and belief in God. For Fr Aloy, to Believe and have Faith went hand in hand with the search for Justice. The two were not separable. He will be missed very much by all who knew him. May he Rest in Peace.

 Funeral Arrangements

The mortal remains of Fr. Aloy Pieris will be taken to CEHIC, Lumbini Mawatha, Dalugama, Kelaniya, on Sunday March 22, and will remain there  until 10.00 a.m. On Monday March 23 at 11.00 a.m.    the mortal remains will be brought to Daham Sihila Seminary, Dalugama. On Tuesday   24th March at 10.30 a.m., the Funeral Mass will be held at Daham Sihila Seminary. Thereafter the remains will be taken to Tulana (No. 521/2, Kohalwila Road, Gonawala, Kelaniya.) Funeral service will take place  at 3.00 p.m. followed by the burial at Tulana.

May his soul rest in peace.