A humble offering to the Maha Sangha

Tsunamiya saha Sinhala Sangha parapura (The Tsunami and the Sinhala Sangha)

Published by The Bauddha Bala Kendra

THIS book has been published by the Centre for Buddhist Action as a humble,yet highly appreciative tribute to the magnitude of the selfless role played by the Sangha during the Tsunami and the unusual, innovative, yet traditional performance of bhikkhus.

What the Tsunami did by cutting across all barriers of class, community and religion and inflicting death, injury and destruction on all alike, the temples did too by opening their doors to all people, making no distinctions, to offer food, shelter and protection.

Small, not so rich temples in the hinterland with little cash in their kitties, few stores in their larder and no experience at all in handling this kind of situation found adventurous young samaneras exceeding all expectations; and elderly scholastic bhikkhus putting away their piles of manuscripts, joining hands with laymen and arranging some kind of life for these traumatized, sorrowful, frightened people who made a beeline to the temples.

It was a huge operation in one hundred and sixty one temples and the Centre for Buddhist Action thought this spontaneous outpouring of ceaseless service, compassion for those in distress and the unexpected energy with which the Sangha rose to the occasion had to be recorded.

This is not a complete record but it will give the reader some idea of the immensity of the task when thousands upon thousands of people crushed into the temples in the clothes they were wearing, and carrying nothing else.

The bhikkhus had to do some unusual things: tend the wounded, transport them to hospitals with one samanera driving a truck up and down up and down.

The dead had to be laid out, the formalities completed and buried. Young monks left their robes on the ground dived into the water and saved people, pulled out others stuck in trees.

Mirisse Dhammavasa thera found 40 bodies at Tangalle and he had to see to their burial. A Methodist priest Rev. Loyd Fernando and sister Surangi brought food items and robes for him so that he could discard the stinking robes he was wearing.

Nightmare

The authors saw in this great loss and nightmare the core of Buddhist philosophy: the meaningfulness of what the Buddha said about the impermanence of all things and the meaninglessness of intensive attachment to material things and the inevitable separation from loved ones-sooner or later.

There were many bhikkhunis and dasa sil mathas on their feet for long hours along with the young bhikkhus.

Cooking was almost normal compared to building adequate toilets, organizing sleeping space and bedding and later classes for children to keep them occupied nursing the sick and counselling the depressed.

Just to take a few examples of temples where these myriad activities went on: Abhayaramaya, in Trincomalee in which the Viharadhipathi had to look after around 5,500 people; Thotagamuwe Raja Maha Vihare of Thotagamuwe Pirivena fame was the place where hundreds of people who escaped from the waters at Peraliya and Telwatte rushed to, some of them having witnessed the tragedy on the train at Peraliya.Here robes were laid out for people to sleep.

It is impossible to mention even a few names of the temples into which people ran in their hundreds, but take Mangalagama temple in Batticaloa where most of these Eastern province temples are poor.

When the temple was engulfed with 450 people the Ven. Ampitiya Sumanaratna broke the temple's till and found Rs. 3,500 in it and his brother pawned his chain for Rs. 2,000. That helped to feed the people.

Take Aranthalawe the scene of the most gruesome atrocity that the Sangha and the Buddhists have known. It was here in 1987 that the Ven Hegoda Indrasara Nayake thera, and 31 bhikkhus were murdered by the LTTE. There was bloodletting on two more occasions here by the LTTE.

But it was to the Aranthalawe temple that 600 Tamil families came and the Ven. Kirindiwela Somaratana gave them all the succour he could.

District by district the book lists the names of the temples and the service they performed and among them are: the Karapitiya temple, Batapola Subadraramaya which became the co-ordinating centre not only for food items but also for clothes,mats, pillows, medicines; Galagoda vihare in Panadure held health clinics, organized pre-schools, Sunday schools and even a library for children.

Later, bhikkus built temporary houses for the displaced and they have also started building houses for them.

Purposes

Collections made with difficulty for particular purposes were pulled out. Dadalle Shailathalaramaya spent Rs. 24,000 that Ven Telwatte Nandatissa thera had saved to build the temple and the Purana Subaddramaya, Karatha Kanda, Ambalangoda which had collected Rs. 150,000 to build a chethiya spent it all on food etc.

While all this is at least partly known what many people do not know is that many temples are in financial difficulties. Lights were kept on throughout the night for security reasons, telephones were excessively used by distressed persons and where there was water service bills shot up as never before.

In several temples telephones have been cut off. The Buddhist public should come to the aid of these temples.

The second part of the book is very informative and would be useful for students who want to find out about the past.

There are chapters on the genesis of the Sangha; the preaching of the Dhamma by the Sangha; the writing down of the Buddhist Canon and the magnitude of the sufferings of the Sangha during the famines, when they determinedly protected the survival of the Dhamma by memorizing it.

Conflicts

There is a very important chapter relevant for the present, on the role played by the Sangha in the affairs of rulers, during disputes between kings, in conflicts with citizens or invaders, and in times of disaster or misfortune.

King Dhatusena was a bhikkhu who was trained, educated and prepared to be king by his uncle who was another bhikkhu, after the driving away of the South Indian invaders.

All of it is written in short takes, easy to read and comprehend, such as the chapters on the humble scholar monks who with no thought of fame or gain, wrote the great chronicles, the great histories and studies, commentories, literature and philosophy, history, religion, grammar, bibiliographies and mountains of other books which are our heritage today.

They are the emblem of the Sangha's devotion to learning throughout the centuries. With that same traditional devotion the writer of the Centre for Buddhist Action has shown studious care and analytical ability in handling this section which spans 23 centuries of Sangha activity.

- Mallika Wanigasundara