Foraign Affairs Signature

Sudharshan Seneviratne Ph.D., FSLCA., FNAASL

High Commissioner for Sri Lanka to Bangladesh

Professor Sudharshan Seneviratne had his primary and secondary education at Ananda College Colombo. He was Head Prefect and Captained the first Rugby Football Team at Ananda College and joint recipient of the Fritz Kuntz trophy awarded for the Best Student. He lived in India for 10 years (1970 -1980) and completed the BA (History Hon.) degree in 1973 at Hindu College, Delhi University and Doctoral degree at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was also the first Sri Lankan to receive, both, Masters and Doctoral Degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

Having returned to Sri Lanka in 1980, he joined the academic staff of the Department of Archaeology, University of Peradeniya. He was Head of the Department and Professor of Archaeology. He held several appointments with the UNESCO-Sri Lanka Central Cultural Fund (CCF/Custodian Organization for UNESCO World Heritage Properties in Sri Lanka) and was later Director General of the CCF. During his tenure of office as DG/CCF, state-of-the-art museums (Maritime Archaeology Museum in Galle, Sigiriya, Kataragama) were completed along (with the Galle Dutch Fort and select Dutch relics at Matara). He revitalized the Maritime Archaeology Training Program in Galle. As DG/CCF he initiated programs on Inclusivity & Shared Culture, Sustainable Heritage Tourism Initiative and promoted heritage for conflict resolution & peace education; heritage and sustainable development; and preservation of traditional knowledge and environment; protection of tangible and intangible heritage, memory and natural heritage.

Professor Seneviratne was also Director of several national and international archaeology cum heritage projects and managed such funded projects e.g. Ford Foundation, American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies, Institute of Fundamental Studies, Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, International Center for Ethnic Studies, UNESCO, NORAD, SAREC, Netherlands projects and Toyota Foundation and most recently DAAD Project from University of Berlin.
Professor Seneviratne had active engagements in international affairs and was Senior Advisor (Culture) to the Ministry of External Affairs under the minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. He was Distinguished Visitor to India (Presidential invitation) and Visiting Professor at JNU and made definitive contributions towards the promotion of academic and cultural connectivity especially in the SAARC and Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) countries. He participated in many academic and heritage policy-making bodies in the SAARC region, Agha Khan Foundation and Harvard University in the USA and Consultant Archaeologist to UNESCO, Governments of South Korea, China, Republic of Maldives and the American Institute of Archaeology and ICOMOS. His international engagements culminated with the appointment as High Commissioner for Sri Lanka to India (2014-2016). Professor Seneviratne has delivered a wide range of guest lectures and orations in several countries including his address at the United Nations General Body in 2011 and the Mahatma Gandhi Anniversary and Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Lectures.

Prof. Seneviratne publications and seminar presentations in international and Sri Lankan learned journals cover a wide range of problem-oriented and issue-related multi-disciplinary topics relating to historical, archaeological and heritage research and education. His publications in English and Sinhalese are translated in to Tamil.

He was and is visiting Distinguished Professor at several Universities and prestigious Liberal Arts Colleges in the USA such as Cornell University, Bowdoin, Swarthmore, Carleton, Whitman and Macalester. In 2016-17 he was Hubert Humphrey Distinguished Professor (USA). He also holds Life Membership in several professional bodies in Sri Lanka, India and the USA. He is Fellow and Life Member of the Sri Lanka Council of Archaeologists and Fellow and Life Member of the National Academy of Sciences in Sri Lanka. He was the only Asian to be awarded with the prestigious 2013 Conservation & Heritage Management Award by the Archaeological Institute of America. USA.
Professor Seneviratne was awarded Professor Emeritus status in 2016 by the University of Peradeniya and invited as Consultant Professor to the Faculty of Technology at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka in 2018.
In November 2020, Professor Seneviratne arrived in Dhaka with his spouse Harsha. Madam Seneviratne, is past pupil of Holy family Convent, Colombo and is graduate of the University of Punjab in India. Her subsequent research was based on the depiction of female figures in ancient sculptured art. She was Founder President of (US) Zonta Club of Kandy, former President, Delhi Commonwealth Womens Association and Executive member, Sri Lanka University Womens Association. Madam Seneviratne also is a culinary expert on fusion cuisine.
Their daughter, Shavera, alumnus of Hillwood College, Kandy, graduated from Carleton College (MN. USA) in English Literature & Theatre and is currently completing for her doctoral thesis in English Literature at the University of Minnesota, USA.
Professor and Madam Seneviratne are fond of outdoor travel destinations and are appreciative of western and eastern music, theatre including rugby football, cricket and tennis.
11th November 2020