What is the J.R. Jayewardene Centre?

The J.R. Jayewardene Centre is situated at 'Vaijayantha', 191, Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 07, originally the residence of Chief Justice E.W. Jayewardene. It has since become a depository for gifts that President J.R. Jayewardene had received as Head of State. When he became Head of Government and Head of State he made it a practice to store the gifts he received from State visitors or on State visits abroad in a special room at the President's house thus underlining the point that these were not personal to him but property of the State. This simple gesture was the indirect expression of his principle of leaving everything he treasured, including his own house 'Braemar' at Ward Place, to the benefit and service of the public.

The Centre was established by act of Parliament titled J. R. Jayewardene Centre Act No.77 of 1988. It was an apt depository for the treasure, as it had been the house where President Jayewardene spent a part of his childhood and a later period until 1938, the year he shifted to his own house 'Braemar'.

Today the J.R.Jayewardene Centre, apart from its original purpose of museum and reference library, is an educational base where multi-disciplinary classes such as meditation, arts and crafts, information technology, languages, aerobic exercises, Kandyan dancing, etc. are conducted. The Centre also floats a scholarship fund to facilitate higher education for needy children. Other facilities available at the Centre are a fully equipped auditorium and reception hall, which is available for wedding receptions, seminars and workshops on literature, history, religion and for book launches at reasonable rates.

'President Jayewardene's love and concern for the Center is evinced by the fact that, as reported, (he turned down the invitation to assume Presidentship temporarily after the assassination of President Premadasa and went back to his library to do what pleased him most in his retirement; to oversee the establishment of the J.R. Jayewardene Cultural Centre at the house in which he had spent part of his childhood and the early years of his professional career)'

-Political biography of J. R. Jayewardene Vol. II By K.M de Silva and Howard Wriggins.