- 1949-05-00 — Anwer Cadir was the first member of the Bahá'í Faith community in Sri Lanka. In May 1949, in Colombo he met a homeopathic doctor from India, Dr. Lukmani, who was a Bahá'í. He accepted this new Faith because he loved its fundamental principle: the oneness of mankind and because the Bahá'í Faith accepted that the spiritual teachings of all the great religions of the past are basically saying the same message. Then, it was Anwer Cadir who established the Bahá'í Faith in Thailand in 1952. He also often served as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, the national governing body of the Bahá'ís of Sri Lanka, throughout much of the 1960s, 1970s until his sudden passing on February 5,1981.
Anwer Cadir was one of Sri Lanka’s earliest civil engineers, who served under Lord Mountbatten in the Royal Engineering Corps at Peradeniya Gardens during World War II. After the war, he later worked for the Ceylon Public Works Department before traveling to Burma (Myanmar) to work as an engineer and there he married a Burmese lady. In Sri Lanka, he worked on the Gal Oya project and on the Norton Bridge Dam project. In Nigeria, he worked on the Niger River dam project,
On February 9, 2025 was the day of the launch in Sri Lanka of the biography, The Lamp of the Company Above – the life story of Anwer Cadir of Dehiowita. The author, Ian Bayly, came from Australia for this special occasion after releasing his book in India, Myanmar, Thailand and Nigeria, which were also countries in which the late Anwer Cadir lived in and served their communities. The book launch was held at Hill House, Pirivena Road, Dehiowita, which was Mr. Anwer Cadir’s family home, where he was born and passed away. [Sunday Observer]
- 1961-07-08 — The Custodians announced that mass conversion had begun in Ceylon, Central and East Africa, and Bolivia, while in Canada native peoples had begun to enter the Faith. [MoC293]
- 1962-04-21 — The National Spiritual Assembly of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) was formed in Colombo. [BW13:301]
- 1964-02-03 — Hand of the Cause Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum and her companion Violette Nakhjavání left Haifa at the start of their 55,000 mile, 9-month journey through India, Ceylon, Nepal and Sikkim. [AV114; VV11]
- 1986-00-00 — The Sri Lanka post office issued a commemorative postage stamp featuring the Bahá'í-sponsored World Religion Day. [BINS176:4]
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