Nalin Swaris
Born in Colombo, ordained a Catholic priest in 1962 in Bangalore, Nalin Swaris gave up priesthood and went to the Netherlands in 1969. He obtained a Master’s in Social Sciences in 1973, and followed it up with one in Religions from the Catholic University of Nijmegen. He completed his PhD on the “Buddha’s Way” at the State University of Utrecht in 1997 with summa cum laude. Swaris was also a human rights activist and the author of Buddhism, Human Rights and Social Renewal. He died in April 2011.