Sooriyakumara Wannisinghe Punchi Banda Bulankulame, OBE, JP (known as P. B. Bulankulame or Tikiri Bandara Bulankulama

Dissawa The Mahâ Dissâvas was a Great Officer in the Amātya Mandalaya, or Sinhalese Council of State, in the Sinhalese Kingdoms of monarchical Sri Lanka. Like many of the existing high offices at the time it had combined legislative and judicial ...

) (12 December 1890 - 17 December 1958) was a

Ceylonese Sri Lankan or Ceylonese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Sri Lanka * A person from Sri Lanka, see Demographics of Sri Lanka ** Sinhalese people, the ethnic majority ** Sri Lankan Tamils, an ethnic minority ** Sri L ...

politician, who was the former Cabinet Minister of Lands and Land Development in

Dudley Senanayake Dudley Shelton Senanayake ( Sinhala: ඩඩ්ලි ශෙල්ටන් සේනානායක: ta, டட்லி சேனநாயக்கா; 19 June 1911 – 13 April 1973), was a Sri Lankan statesman who served as Prime Min ...

's and John Kotelawala's government.

Education and legal career

Educated at the

Royal College Colombo Royal College, Colombo is a selective entry boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by Rev Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton in Janu ...

where he played in the Royal-Thomian. He then studied law at the

Ceylon Law College Sri Lanka Law College (abbreviated as SLLC), formerly known as Ceylon Law College, is a law college, and the only legal institution where one can enroll as a attorney-at-law in Sri Lanka. It was established in 1874, under the then Council of Legal ...

becoming a Proctor. Having established his legal practice in his home town of

Anuradhapura Anuradhapura ( si, අනුරාධපුරය, translit=Anurādhapuraya; ta, அனுராதபுரம், translit=Aṉurātapuram) is a major city located in north central plain of Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of North Central ...

, he was later appointed a Justice of Peace.

Political career

Bulankulame was elected to the 2nd State Council of Ceylon on 21 April 1944, following the death of the sitting member, H. R. Freeman. In 1947 he was elected in the 1947 general election from

to first Parliament of Ceylon. In the first government since independence, he was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Lands. He was re-elected in the 1952 general election and was appointed Cabinet Minister Lands and Land Development in the cabinet of

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

John Kotelawala, serving till 1956. He lost his seat in the 1956 general election to Sirimewan Godage.

Honors

He was awarded the title of ''

of Anuradhapura'' by the

British Governor of Ceylon The governor of Ceylon was the representative in Ceylon of the British Crown from 1795 to 1948. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in Ceylon. The governor was the ...

. He was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the

1949 New Year Honours The 1949 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the '' London ...

and later made an

Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the 1951 Birthday Honours.Late Deshamanya E. L. B. Hurulle
/ref> The Bulankulama Disawa Mawatha in Anuradhapura is named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulankulame, P B Agriculture ministers of Sri Lanka Parliamentary secretaries of Ceylon Members of the 1st Parliament of Ceylon Members of the 2nd Parliament of Ceylon Members of the 2nd State Council of Ceylon Ceylonese Officers of the Order of the British Empire Sri Lankan justices of the peace Dissava Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Alumni of Ceylon Law College Sri Lankan Buddhists Sinhalese politicians Ceylonese proctors 1890 births 1958 deaths

Education and legal career

Political career

Honors

See also

References