KAMALIKA PIERIS

Sarita Gunaratna and Dinesh Jayakody (2022) have provided a comprehensive, well-researched and heart-rending account of the brutal murder of samaneras at Arantalawa by the LTTE on June 3rd, 1987. The   essay is titled The Saffron Children: Massacre of samanera: Aranthalawa, 35 years on”. The link is https://sundaytimes.lk/online/opinion/The-Saffron-Children/158-1137728

The account was compiled using the interviews with survivors, eye witnesses, first responders, family members of victims and others with direct involvement or knowledge of this event, as well as the sworn statements and affidavits obtained by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and police. All other statements were corroborated by accredited sources, which are cited or obtained from experts in the area to which the statement pertains. They are listed in the extensive Acknowledgements section.

Analysts have asked, why LTTE chose to kill these samanera. Why not monks engaged in silent meditation in forest monasteries. They are easier targets. What is special about this Pirivena.

The Gunaratne/Jayakody  essay provides the answer. The massacre was intended  to stop the rise of an influential  Buddhist pirivena in Ampara ,the  Sri Vidyananda Pirivena  whose   head priest  Ven. Indasara  was becoming a force to be reckoned with  and the   samanera were being  trained for leadership roles in the near  future.

Gunaratne and  Jayakody start at the very beginning. In 1959, when the Gal Oya Development Project started, a 27-year-old  bhikkhu ,Ven. Hegoda Sri Indasara  came to Ampara.  He first lived in a cave then he was given land next to the Ampara Base Hospital where he established a small temple.

Born and ordained in Galle, Ven. Hegoda Sri Indasara who came from a prominent and well-respected Southern family, was a bit of a curiosity in the area, said Gunaratna/Jayakody. For a bright young university-educated monk, from an elite family, with his choice of well-established and comfortable temples throughout the southern and western provinces available to him, to move to the newly developing region of the East was  unusual.

Ven. Indasara believed in the promise of the Gal Oya Project. These new agrarian settlements needed community temples to anchor them, or people simply would not stay, he said and set about establishing many small vihares to support the farming settlements throughout the Gal Oya  district. By 1987    Indasara was overseeing almost 40 temples in the Eastern Province.

Ven. Andaulpotha Buddhasara  who was  then a samanera recalled that poor people from a nearby Tamil village would arrive, children and all, at the time of the monks’ mid-day dané. Ven. Indasara instructed the kitchen to prepare food for these families, even though the monks themselves had barely enough to eat.

When the LTTE started attacking  Sinhala villages in the eastern province, Indasara  went several times to Colombo to   speak to the  country’s political leaders  and make them aware of what the LTTE was doing  to the Buddhist population in the East. He implored the leaders to take some action on the matter,  they must provide adequate military protection. He did  not get a favorable response. His pleas were ignored.

Using his van,  with two dayakayas as his drivers and a megaphone,  Indasara went about, advising people on how to keep themselves safe from LTTE attacks. The LTTE attacks villages at night when you are sleeping. Don’t sleep in your homes!” He instructed through his megaphone. Many heeded his advice.

When  the LTTE attacked   Arantalawa on February 07, 1987, Indasara immediately rushed there.  He ignored police and military who had been instructed not to let anyone into the village. He pushed his way through ,consoled the bereaved and conducted last rites.

In 1966,  Indasara established  a Pirivena school named Sri Vidyananda Pirivena in Ampara. He  linked it  to Vidyalankara Pirivena in  Peliyagoda. It had a  few students, then Indasara ordained 60 young boys in one bout and  Sri Vidyananda Pirivena expanded from a few students to almost 70 in the mid 1980s.  Indasara had  recruited many  intelligent   boys and had also scooped up” those who at a young age felt the urge to join the    bhikkhu order.  How he found these boys, we do  not know.

The life that the samanera entered  into at Ampara was a difficult one. Meals were meager, often consisting of rice, lentils and coconut sambol.  Villagers were too poor to provide daily danés (alms) to all the students residing there, so the monks had to go on pindapathé.

The villagers supported this ambitious  pirivena project .They had supplied the monks with meals within their very limited ability. When the pirivena grew from a few students to almost 70 the villagers arranged  for  families to offer alms in groups.

The buildings were primitive. They had been built with donated or collected materials using volunteer labour from the construction workers and craftsmen in the area. Classes were conducted in  a wattle and daub hall .Another similar building functioned as the avasa .

Despite the basic nature of the facilities and the daily hardships they faced, the  samanera thrived  in the pirivena. Ven. Wawinne Sirinanda recalled that the samanera did everything together. Among the close friends he remembered with affection were Buddhasara, Buddharakkitha, Wimalajoti, Sarana, Saddhananda, Vijitha, Gunawansa, Vijithananda…” He said before trailing off as he recalled their murder. They were clever, bright students.”.

By mid 1987, the Sri Vidyananda Pirivena was the leading training institute for Buddhist monks in the Eastern Province. Samanera were  taught languages,  Sinhala, Tamil and English, as well as  Hindi to able to communicate with all the communities on the island and those in India. Tamil teachers risked their lives and  came to the pirivena to teach Tamil. Ven. Andaulpotha Buddhasara recalled that the special English class would go on till late. At 10 at night, we were still learning.”

Some were busy studying for their O/Level examinations. They were expected to do well. But that was not to be. The samanera were massacred at Arantalawa before they could sit the exam.

The Pirivena knew that a war was going on. Ven. Andaulpotha Buddhasara recalled how anxious the samanera became when   the Head Monk got late returning from visiting  Aranthalawa village. When he didn’t come back by nightfall, we went and sat in a row on top of the low rock boundary wall by the road and waited for him.”

The Pirivena had planned  a month  long charika for the samanera,  which would take in Kandy, Anuradhapura,  Kalutara, Galle Kataragama,  and Mahiyangana. The little monks were delighted by the upcoming field trip and were unable to contain their excitement . The older Samaneras were doubtful. They thought the trip would attract unwanted attention from the LTTE. Some of the dayakas were also concerned.

Two days before they were to go on the charika,17-year-old Wavinne Aththadassi visited his mother and told her that he would be participating in an important charikawa that Ven. Indasara had organized. But he  was uneasy about joining the trip. ( Continued)