The technical story
The live stream was already under way at dusk when the Internet connection became a serious obstacle. The Cisco 2500 supplied by Sri Lanka Telecom failed. Harsha drove for more than forty-five minutes to Rajarata University, where the Vice-Chancellor permitted the University’s Internet link to be temporarily disconnected so its Cisco router could support the webcast.
Harsha recalls configuring the borrowed Cisco 805 in approximately five minutes and reconnecting the streaming team. This occurred before mobile broadband, cloud video platforms and modern plug-and-play broadcasting. The achievement depended on router configuration knowledge, institutional cooperation and rapid troubleshooting in the field.
Historical claim: Harsha identifies this as the first event streamed live over the Internet from Sri Maha Bodhi. The photograph and technical details are supported by his first-person account. Independent sources confirm that Sarvodaya’s large Anuradhapura Peace Samadhi Day occurred on 15 March 2002; no surviving independent technical log has yet been located to verify the webcast equipment or the “first” claim.
People in the photograph
Dihan Morawaka was Harsha’s student and accompanied him in research and technology projects; he later became a lecturer at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Janantha Marasinghe, then a young member of the team, later moved to Australia and preserved this photograph by sharing it.
Surviving documentation
- Contemporary retrospective describing Peace Samadhi Day on 15 March 2002, the Anuradhapura setting, approximately 650,000 participants and the ceremony beside the ancient Bodhi tree.
- Sarvodaya account of its national peace-meditation movement, including the earlier mass meditation of 29 August 1999 in Colombo.
- The onsite photograph reproduced above and Harsha Wijayawardhana’s accompanying first-person technical recollection.