Lionel Ekanayake

Lionel Ekanayake, 71, was born in the village of Kulugamana, Sri Lanka, on June 26, 1943, the son of a police constable in Kandy, Sri Lanka's mountainous, pre-colonial capital. In keeping with his great-grandparents' family name, Galledande, or Bridge-builder, Lionel left home at seventeen to study engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology on a full scholarship, where he also became a scholar of the Japanese language. As a petro-chemical engineer, he lived and worked in many countries, including England, Oman, Japan, and Canada, and brought his family to the United States in 1980. A devout Buddhist, committed scientist, and patriot, Lionel was a lifelong seeker of knowledge, and engaged everyone he met with unparalleled compassion, empathy, generosity, and wit. Lionel passed away in Arcadia, California, and spent his final days as he spent all the years of his life—surrounded by his family. He will be lovingly remembered by his devoted wife Chitra and scores of family and friends, and his legacy lives on in his children, Aruna and Wasana.


Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday, July 2, at 6:00pm.

Church of the Recessional
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
1712 S. Glendale Avenue
Glendale, CA 91205

A reception following the funeral will be held at the home of Dr. Lakshman and Thusitha Makandura in Arcadia, California.

Please contact Wasana Ekanayake at 909-267-8666 for more information.


Yo ca vassasatam jive
apassam udayabbayam
ekaham jivitam seyyo
passato udayabbayam.

Better than a hundred years lived unperceiving
of the rise and fall of things,
is a single day lived in perception
of how all things arise only to pass away again.

– The Dhammapada, verse 113


"How I long to see
among dawn flowers,
the face of God."

– Matsuo Bashō