KAMALIKA PIERIS

The intention of the LTTE in their Arantalawa attack was to destroy the Sri Vidyananda Pirivena. But the opposite happened. The late Indasara was  promptly  replaced by his pupil, Ven. Kirindiwela Somaratana. Ven. Somaratana  had recently left Sri Vidyananda Pirivena to pursue his higher studies at the Kelaniya University.  He returned immediately to Ampara when he heard about the massacre and took over as the  chief priest. He was 24 years old. He also took over the 40 or more temples that had been under the care of Ven. Indasara.

Buddhists rallied around the  young  chief priest, offering him all assistance .Even the parents of the slain monks gave him their support to  continue the Pirivena and maintain the vision of Ven. Indasara .

Ven. Somarathana oversaw the ardhana ceremony and cremation of the slain monks. Then he focused his attention on the needs of the injured who were scattered between hospitals in Ampara, Kandy and Colombo. He also tried to create an environment for the remaining monks to return to a much-diminished Pirivena,  which was now without its leader,  one teacher and almost all of its students.

One by one the surviving child monks asked to leave  robes. Some were dealing with debilitating injuries. Some were scared about being attacked again for being Buddhist monks. Parents too begged to take back their sons. Of the 12 surviving monks, only three would remain in robes. 

After the Aranthalawa Massacre Ven. Wawinne Sirinanda  felt frightened daily that his saffron robes made him a target of the LTTE. The fear and the terror with which he lived took a mental toll on him. After spending a week with his family after the Aranthalawa Massacre, Ven. Wawinne Sirinanda Thero returned to the pirivena, but struggled to adjust. He found it impossible to stay there especially at night, he said. He missed his friends with whom he had spent every waking hour. I could not fill the void.” He said.One day at the pirivena, he became so frightened at the thought of being attacked again for being a Buddhist monk that he decided to leave the robes and re-enter lay life. He was 15.

The ordained life was a difficult existence back then he continued.. We didn’t always receive alms (at the temple) so we had to often go on pinnapathé with our alms bowls to collect our meals. Unlike many Buddhist monks whose needs are taken care of today, we had to be very self-sufficient. It was a difficult and meager existence, one which lost its appeal to meafter what happened.”

But the  Pirivena did  not collapse.  It survived and in 2022 Sri Vidyananda Maha Pirivena is a bustling school for novice monks   .with a new group of 60 students and teachers, said analyst.

The Pirivena now provides both primary and secondary education to its students.  There is a strong focus on higher education, dhamma duta work and social service in keeping with Ven. Indasara ‘s vision. The Pirivena  also operates the Sri Vidyananda Dhamma (Sunday) School for lay children and also runs a pre-school for the community’s youngest children.

The current Pirivena students are the same age as the victims of the massacre and come from the same parts of the island, mostly the rural heartland, observed analysts.  The majority, like their predecessors, felt an urge to become monks at a young age.

 There are also a few very young students who were given” to the temple. They are as young as four or five years old and are too young to decide if they want to join the Order. They arrived at the Pirivena due to an unfortunate change in their families’ circumstances, such as the death of a parent or a divorce. These children follow the same routine, classes and Vinaya as the ordained student monks, but are not required to wear robes. If they ask to join the Order, we will ordain them.” the  Pirivena said.

The student monks have always actively participated in social service work within the Ampara community. The Pirivena has accepted many refugees  who were looked after by student monks.

The Pirivena took in refugees after the Akkaraipattu Massacre on March 24, 1991, another village cutting” in the Ampara district. The Akkaraipattu  survivors who were from a middle-class suburban part of Ampara were mostly teachers, public servants and professionals.  they arrived  in a state of shock, unable to grasp what had happened to them. The monks cared for these traumatized families for more than a year until they could pick themselves back up and leave the Pirivena,

In 2004, when the tsunami struck the East Coast, the Pirivena  accepted refugees. This time the refugees were all Tamil, from the east coast’s fishing villages. The BBC Sinhala Service carried a news article about this titled LTTE Massacre Site is Haven for Tamil Victims”. The refuges were not told  the story of Arantalawa.

The  temple has also  remained the sole, safety net for the Arantalawa  survivors  and the  families of  the dead samanera. D. M Siriyawathi  said the Pirivena was the only institution that provided her with support after her son’s death. Whenever she visited, The Pirivena monks treat me very well.” She said tearfully. They give me sugar, tea, flour to take back with me. They give me money for bus fare or medicine. If we call and ask for anything, Somaratna Hamudurwo  will inquire about our well-being and attend to our needs,” Said Wasantha,formerly Ven. Wawinne Sirinanda  who was 11 years old when he faced the massacre

Ven. Kirindiwela Somarathana , chief priest, felt that this gruesome terrorist act against Buddhist monks should not be forgotten. I vowed that I would keep the memory of this event and of the monks who died alive in the hearts of the people of this country, through some action.” 

He decided to build a memorial at the very site of the massacre,  though it  took place  in the middle of a thick jungle .I wanted to  show the world, this is where these Buddhist monks were cut, chopped, shot and killed. He wanted to show the b brutality of the LTTE .

He obtained permission  from the government to clear the jungle and build the memorial.   It was a difficult site, with no access. But volunteers helped Ven. Somaratna clear the area. He then obtained ownership of the bus, was being kept at an SLTB bus depot in Bandarawela which he got delivered to the massacre site.

He was awarded a grant from the Deyata Kirula program. He then commissioned sculptor Anil Arumapura to recreate the scene of the massacre inside the bus, using eye-witnesses’ testimonies and photographs that the temple had collected.

The sculptor got to work, to create a moving scene of the violence and chaos unfolding inside the very bus in which the massacre had occurred. No details were left out, from the injuries depicted on the life-sized bodies made of plaster to the alms bowls covering the heads of some of the dead victims.  See https://youtu.be/e0C-yOsO1tc

The Memorial was unveiled on March 24, 2013 . A statue of the Chief Priest Venerable Hegoda Indasara came up nearly sometime later. Ven. Hanguranketa Pūnnyasara , a survivor of the Aranthalawa Massacre, who has visited the Memorial, said. It speaks to the heart,.” 

 Sunday Observer commented, In 2013, a  memorial  museum  was  built  at  the  location  using  the same  bus  in  which  these  monks  were  travelling .The gruesome last minutes of these novice bhikkhus had  been re-created in the bus and is open to the public.

The Memorial  was also threatened. It was going to be defaced. Monks offered to stay overnight at the site to protect it. They built a small temple adjacent to the Memorial, and the Aranthalawa Buddhist Monks Memorial Temple, came into existence, also in 2013..It was built with donations from Buddhists worldwide.

Visitors observed, a small number of Buddhist monks live here in simple dwellings. They lack basic facilities such as running water and do not have a surrounding lay community that is large enough to support it but Ven. Kirindiwela Somarathana now the Chief Incumbent of the Eastern Province, and head of40 temples and pirivenas,  intended to expand the site into a large complex.

Ven. Somaratana  holds  a well attended commemoration every  year at Arantalawa, on the anniversary of the Massacre. Religious ceremonies  are  held  annually  on June  2. Thanks to the Memorial Temple and the commemoration, this heinous event is slowly being etched into the public memory, while the hundreds of other similar acts of terrorism by the LTTE are now all but forgotten by a population eager to move on after the war ended, said analysts. 

This annual commemoration is  well patronized .One parent  whose child died at Arantalawa said that he finds the annual memorial service conducted by the temple to be immensely helpful, which he had participated in every year until he became frail and lost his vision due to cataracts. Since then, he had been unable to travel to the commemoration events, he said, but he hopes that they continue to perpetuity so that his son and the others who were killed in the massacre can be offered enough good karma to avoid being born into our world again.

D. M. Siriyawathi, the mother of 17-year-old Wavinne Aththadassi  who was killed in the Aranthalawa Massacre, had visited the Memorial and has attended the commemoration event every year until the Covid-19 pandemic. She hopes the annual commemoration event continues to perpetuity so that her deceased son and the other victims can continue to be offered good merit to avoid facing such an event in a future life.

B. M. Thilakarathna, brother of Ven. Wavinne Gunawansa  who was killed in the Aranthalawa Massacre at the age of 17 said that his parents attended the annual commemoration event every year till they died.

The victims’ families unanimously agreed that the annual commemoration events are an important part of the temple-centered support structure that Ven. Kirindiwela Somarathana Nayaka Thero had created for them. Every year, the families receive letters of invitation to attend the commemoration event. The event is a large and somber one that is also attended by delegations of monks from other temples, local officials, dayakayas and the Ampara community with the survivors and the victims’ parents being its honored guests. Here they are able to connect with each other and check on each other’s well-being, and form a community around their shared trauma. The parents, most of whom are in poverty, also receive an annual financial contribution from Ven. Somarathana, analysts reported .

The government  also  joined in and commemorated the Aranthalawa Massacre’s 20^th anniversary in Colombo at the BMICH, in a photographic exhibition that was open to the public. Sri Vidyananda Pirivena arranged transportation for the victims’ families to attend this exhibition, including finding them accommodation to stay overnight at Colombo temples.  Daily News ran a photograph of M.H Kiriappu, father of  a samanera killed at Arantalawa  viewing the exhibition.( continued)