Biography Narrative

Samanta Surya is a young professional in communications, and earned his bachelor’s degree in communication science at the University of Indonesia in 2008. His expertise covers public and government relations in bilateral cooperation and publications. For nearly two decades, he has been a member of Parisadha Buddha Dharma Niciren Syosyu Indonesia (NSI), an inclusive Buddhist organization with that cooperates with faith-based organizations, governments, and NGOs in Indonesia to promote harmonious life. Surya is a youth coordinator and regular speaker at NSI’s youth division meetings and is also the editor of NSI magazine and cooperated with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia in 2014 to publish the book Buddhism and Environment.

Surya has been engaged with various interreligious forums in local, national, and global levels since 2008 co-organized by governments of Indonesia, the Asia-Europe Foundation, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and the United Nations. In 2014 he made a short film about interreligious life in Indonesia which was presented in Myanmar by the government of Indonesia with the goal of reducing tension on the issue of Rohingyas in Myanmar. Surya loves to travel, experiencing new insights, walking and photography. His motto is “sincerity, propriety, and equity”.

Interreligious Activities and Initiatives

Seminar: Enhancing Wisdom and Citizenship Among Religious Preachers

The initiative “Seminar: Enhancing Wisdom and Citizenship Among Religious Preachers” aims to supplement religious preachers with foundation insights in promoting religious teaching that aligned with citizenship, improving their awareness toward tendentious speech and avoid it, keep their preach’s content moderate in a constructive and meaningful way. I invited visionary religious leaders as the speakers that are well-known for their contribution in propagating peace and nation building. I believe by promoting their views to preachers from 6 religious affiliations, it shall strengthen a proper understanding of religion practice and how it should relate to politics and national building. This practice will also covering on how to address hate speech and hoax related to religion. To address the issues and problems properly, religious leaders and preachers need to have wisdom. This seminar was designed to contribute well to the wisdom-improvement process of the participants, so they can disseminate religious values that aligned with respective religious teaching and practice it to promote social welfare and coexist values.