Sunil Jayaranjan SENEVIRATNE
Pioneer of Ayurveda-Clinics for foreigners in Asia and Founder of the Sri Budhasa Ayurveda Clinics in the year 1990.
Sunil Seneviratne grew up as the son of a teacher in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. He studied biology and thereafter successfully completed the hotel school in Sri Lanka and the commercial school in Switzerland.
Two experiences in his childhood have impressed him deeply: His 13 year old sister fell sick with polyarthritis and was bedridden for 6 months. Western medicine could not help her. Secretly her father, who was very familiar with Ayurveda, brought the girl to an Ayurveda Doctor. Secretly, as that time Ayurveda, the wise indigenous Medicine was not considered to be up to date and modern anymore in Sri Lanka, but only western medicine. After 2 weeks of Ayurveda treatment the child was completely cured.
Something similar happened to a young man from Germany, who had come for a holiday to Sri Lanka. He was in a wheel chair, as his legs were paralyzed. Western Doctors could not give him any hope, that he will ever be able to walk anymore. Sunil' s Father also took him to the Ayurveda Doctor and after a few weeks of treatment the young man was cured and could walk on his own.
These two incidents have impressed Sunil deeply and have awaken the desire in him to make this possibility to be healed by Ayurveda in Sri Lanka available to people in the western world.
At the beginning his idea met with a lack of understanding and was ridiculed.
But Sunil insisted and opened in the year 1990 together with his wife, Rita Albiez, a Swiss Western Medical Doctor, the first Ayurveda heath centre in Sri Lanka.
Rita Albiez brought there groups of patients from her clinic in Basel Switzerland for Ayurveda treatment. At that time Ayurveda was completely unknown in Europe and only due to the confidence the patients had in their house doctor, these first Ayurveda guests flew together with her from Switzerland to Sri Lanka for Ayurveda treatment.
It was a big success and soon there came imitators, it means after 2 years another Ayurveda Hotel was opened in Sri Lanka. After some time, more and more clinics followed. Several years later also in India the first Ayurveda Spa for foreigners was constructed. In the meantime Ayurveda has become a boom all over the world.
So Sunil Seneviratne as the Pioneer in Ayurveda Clinics has given access to many people to this old wise medicine and brought them healing. In addition he has given work to many people and saved the living of many families during the civil war in Sri Lanka, who lasted more than 20 years.