Film of Shyam Selvadorai’s Funny Boy

A death is always sad, unless the person was terminally ill and alone or the family had to struggle to care for him/her. When an old person dies, the sorrow has to be less because death is the one sure happening in life and when it is time to die it is much better to die, more so for the old person.

The sadness is greater when a person from a foreign land makes his home here and gives his all to religion and then dies. When the death looks like murder, or even if it is proved to be suicide, the sadness is further deepened. This is how it is with the recent death of Ajahn Jinawamso also known as Jinarathana Thera. As the host country to this devout monk, we need to be perturbed. This was how it was when I heard that the body of a Dutch monk who had lived long in Sri Lanka at the Polgasduwa Island Hermitage was found floating in the Ratgama lake.

The Ratgama Lake off Dodanduwa, Polgasduwa Island Hermitage, and the adjacent Parappaduwa Nuns’ Island are well known to me. Ayya Khema got constructed a fine nunnery with three kutis for ten preceptors, a dormitory of six twin-occupancy rooms just by the water’s edge, an open half walled meditation hall with a skeleton hanging in it and a library, kitchen, dining room and servants’ quarters. She had visited Polgasduwa Hermitage since she wanted to build herself an island aranya from which to propagate the Dhamma to foreign women and locals seeking the peace of Buddhist meditation. A teacher who was a devout Buddhist – Ms Gnanawathi – who accompanied her was very glad when she selected an island close to the monks’ hermitage. With immense help from Mr and Mrs Silva living by the lake and Gnanawathi, Ayya Khema realized her dream.

Ratna Dias and I were very frequent visitors to Nuns’ Island, invited by Ayya Khema to participate in meditation retreats of a couple of days, sometimes with a few others, when foreign women were not in residence. The Australian ten preceptor – Ayya Vayama – was a great help. Ayya Khema received higher ordination in San Francisco and we addressed her as Bhikkhuni Khema. Ayya Vayama returned to Australia much later when Ajahn Brahmavamso invited her to be head nun of a centre for women being envisaged in Perth. She received higher ordination as a Theravada Bhikkhuni from him, and is now addressed as Ajahn Vayama.

When Bhikkhuni Khema decided to give up Parappaduwa and return to Germany in 1999 due to the JVP uprising, a committee of us took over the island, tried to maintain it as a nunnery for many years but failed; even as a last resort having a foreign monk in residence. Nuns’ Island was given over to Polgasduwa. For many years incapacitated Ven Gnanawimala who was famed for walking all over Sri Lanka and always to and from Colombo, resided in Parappaduwa with two monks to care for him. I heard from Ven Mettavihari Thera that at present 13 monks reside on the island of Parappaduwa with 11 in Polgasduwa.

Polgasduwa Island Hermitage in the Ratgama Lake was built by Ven Nyanatiloke – German Jew monk – in 1911. Parappaduwa Nunnery was built in the 1970s. From that time to the early 2000s much assistance was given by the Head Monk of Polgasduwa – Ven Anuragoda Piyaratana Mahathera, even ferrying us in his motorized boat when we arrived from Colombo; sometimes with a van or bus load of women. We would often cross over in the Nuns’ Island boat to Polgasduwa for bana or dane or just to pay our respects to Ven Piyaratana. He was so generous in overlooking the nunnery from Ayya Khema’s time, to closer supervision when just a single Dutch nun and later a Sinhala woman took residence. He died a premature death of a heart attack, but the young monk who took his place continued to help maintain the nunnery until it was given over to Polgasduwa

Seeking information

Ven Mettavihari who resides in the Narada Bauddha Dharmayatanaya, Colombo 7, and conducts the Buddhist channel Dharmavahini, said he had met Ajahn Jinawamso and passed on information he had received from a monk who knew the deceased monk very well. I quote:

“There are many rumours going around and the media has put out some false reports so I want to convey what I heard from the abbot of the monastery where Ajahn Jinawamso lived the last few years.

“Ajahn Jinawamso was found on Dec. 8 floating in the lake around island hermitage, not far from the island of Parappaduwa. He had a stone or small rock bound to each of his legs when he was found. His hands and head were free and not bound as is said in the media which would make it an obvious crime if that was true.

“As he was living mostly alone and not associating with the other monks on the island, the monks didn’t realize that he was missing until he was actually found. Again the media falsely reported that he was reported missing since Dec. 6. However the calendar in his kuti was ticked off until the 6th so it is likely that he left on that day.

“The police is now investigating if it was suicide or if he was murdered. Later today there will be an autopsy. I probably will attend that with the abbot of the monastery.

“He had (strong) arguments with the local fishermen in the past but recently it was better according to the abbot. They are building a big meditation hall not far from his kuti and there was sometimes (again strong) arguments about sound and cutting trees. It seems unlikely it was murder but the police is not ruling it out as yet.

“I know Ajahn Jinawamso already more than 30 years from his early years in Nanachat Monastery (Thailand) and he seemed very happy and doing very well the last few years. He often said his practice was going well and he was never so happy before. Another monk who had trouble with depression said Ajahn Jinawamso too could be depressed, under cover of cheerfulness.”

My mind is crowded with images and anecdotes and memories of Polgasduwa and its adjacent smaller island – Parappuduwa Nuns’ Island, along with grief at the monk’s death.

By the time you read this you may know the verdict given by medical authorities at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, and know for certain whether Ajahn Jinawamso was murdered or committed suicide. A rumour on social media is that unscrupulous businessmen plotted to build a hotel in such a revered Buddhist place. Farfetched reason for murder!

Suicide is looked upon as an act that goes against the teaching of the Buddha. However there was the brilliant monk Ven Nanavira (Harold Edward Musson) of Britain who came to Ceylon with friend Osbert Moore. They were ordained by Ven Nanatiloke at Polgasduwa, the latter taking the name of Nanamoli. Ven Nanavira authored many intellectual books on his interpretation of the Dhamma and chose to live as a forest monk in Bundala. The spicy food left for him by the villagers caused a severe stomach condition. I heard from the wife of a person who was very close to the monk and communicated with him that the monk was greatly troubled by fantasies and wrote “it has to be wife or knife.” He committed suicide by tying a plastic bag around his head and suffocated to death.