A bold decision taken by the Government to repair the Samanalawewa by wet blanketing has proved successful. After the initial dumping of 250,000 m3 of the leak has been reduced by about 18% and more importantly the ground water level has reduced by over 40 feet.

An Expert Panel who are in Colombo from September 21st to the 24th will have detailed discussion with local experts and they will present a report to the Minister of Irrigation and Power Mr. Anuruddha Ratwatte which will identify the next course of action, the details which in all probability will be made public.

Samanalawewa project was one of the most intensively researched projects where investigations were done from 1971 up to 1983 by seven reputed international consultancy firms. The first study was done by our own Irrigation Department. When it was first impounded in October 1992 a leak developed discharging around 2 cu sec of water. Leaks in reservoirs are not uncommon features and specially when the geological structures are as complicated as it is at Samanalawewa. When a burst took place and a leak appeared during the impounding of the reservoir in 1992, all hell broke out where every one was blaming each other without rationally looking for a solution. There was a general belief that the dam is not safe and that the reservoir should not be filled to its maximum capacity.

In late 1994 when I took over the Chairmanship of the CEB, I noticed that the media was critical about this project without much idea about the nature of the peoblem and the details of this project. We took seventeen journalists and other media personnel to Samanalawewa, spent a day and a night where they had the opportunity to discuss with the local and foreign engineers the dimensions of the problem and the possible solutions. The media personnel were relieved to learn that the dam was safe and the leak was of manageable levels.

The Samanalawewa leak was the hot topic of conversation among the engineers and other professionals. In fact most of them had different solutions and unfortunately there were many areas of disagreement. It was known that the Talbella Dam in Pakistan which is many times bigger than the Samanalawewa reservoir had a far severe problem in the form of a large leak which was remedied by the method known as Wet Blanketing. Wet Blanketing is nothing but the replication of the nature’s method of stabilizing a reservoir leak by the deposition of silt. Wet Blanketing is an artificial method to make the reservoir bed impervious. In Wet Blanketing process large quantities of clay of a given consistency are dropped on to the ingress area in order to seal the leaks similar to what nature does by siltation.

In view of the great differences of opinion among those consulted on this subject, all the engineers and other professionals interested to debate this issue were called by the CEB for a seminar. Dr. Tariq from Talbella and few other reputed international experts were also called for this seminar where over 200 professionals attended. The seminar was followed by expert committee meetings and at the end of these sessions it transpired that we had three generally agreed options to address our minds viz:

1) Wet Blanket
2) Dry Blanket
3) Abandon any remedial work

After a proper cost evaluation it was found that Wet Blanketing was the most feasible solution and that Dr. Tariq had performed with success such remedial measures in 31 dams around the world which had similar problems. If the Wet Blanketing is successful the return on capital was over 20%.

The most sad part of this controversy on the part of both local and foreign consultant that we had engaged (prior to Dr. Tariq and Dr. Barry Cook) was their insistence that the reservoir should not be allowed to be filled predicting that abutments and the dam itself would be in danger and that there would be new large leaks if the reservoir is allowed to be filled. “This indeed was a great pity as billions of rupees worth of water was let loose up to last year without generating power because of that wrong assumption,” said Dr. Herath.

The new consultants viz. Dr. Tariq and Dr. Cook contrary to the general belief recommended categorically that the dam was safe, the abutments are safe and the leak at most will increase up to maximum of 3.5 cu sec from the current 2.3 cu se when the reservoir is raised to full supply level (FSL). They recommended that the reservoir should be filled to FSL. In view of the national implication of the decision a meeting was arranged with the Hon. Minister General Ratwatte who visited the Samanalawewa reservoir and spent a whole day to satisfy himself of the ground situation. When he was finally satisfied with the background that led to the decision to fill the dam up to FSL, a cabinet paper was submitted to raise the level of the reservoir up to 460ft (FSL) and to seek funding from OECF to repair the reservoir by the Wet Blanketing method. Hon. Minister also requested Dr. Tariq and Dr. Barry Cook to remain as consultants to supervise the Wet Blanketing process to a finish. Today we know that this bold decision has paid handsome dividends. Samanalawewa has potential to double the present generating capacity by installing two more generators for which provision has been made in the dam. In my view CEB should assign a consultancy team to prepare the necessary documentation with a view to installing two additional generators in order to maximize the storage capacity taking into consideration other related factors.

The new board is undertaking the implementation of this project in a timely manner. Mr. Ganesharaja who is in-charge of this project should be commended for his initial work in 1995 and 1996 and its timely implementation now.

The moral of this story is that some professionals in most parts of the world specially in the developing countries develop a sense of omniscience. If the professionals could accept that there may be some people in this wide world who may know a little bit more than themselves in some specific fields, world will be a better place to live and Samanalawewa would have been fully repaired sometime ago.

The Sri Lanka government is a signatory to the UNO’s convention of human rights. Women’s rights are an integral part of these human rights. Therefore the Sri Lanka government is in duty bound to observe women’s rights and see that there is no discrimination against them either in the secular or the religious sphere.

The Buddha and his contemporary, Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, were the first religious teachers in world history who founded religious orders for both monks and nuns. The Buddhist Sangha was a twofold one and consisted of monks and nuns. (Bhikkus and Bhikkunis). The Order of monks flourishes upto date in both the Theravada and Mahayana sects in Buddhism. The Theravada Order of Nuns died out in 1017 after the Cholian invasion of Anuradhapura, but the Bhikkuni Order flourishes in China, Korea and Taiwan in all its purity of lineal succession and observance of the Vinaya.

It is well-known that the defunct Theravada Bhikkuni Order was revived by Ven. Mapalagama Vipulasara, President Maha Bodhi Society in concert with the World Sangha Council and Sakyadhita, International Buddhist Women’s Organisation on 8/12/96 at Buddha Gaya and on 8/3/98 at Dambulla Raja Maha Vihara with the participation of some respected Sangha leaders both local and foreign. When both orders of monks and nuns were functioning in India and Sri Lanka it was the arrangement for Nuns to do the initiation of admission of women into the Bhikkuni Order. This is not a Vinaya requirement but a time honoured practice. The Theravada Bhikkuni Order became defunct in Sri Lanka round about 1017 AD. The Bhikkuni Order had not been introduced to any other Theravada country besides Sri Lanka.

Therefore, the Theravada Monks entrenched in their sectrian traditions came to assert that the Theravada Bhikkuni Order is defunct and gone and cannot be revived until another Buddha appeared on earth in a future age. They considered the Mahayana monks and nuns heretics and were not willing to revive the Bhikkuni Order with the assistance of nuns from China, Korea or Taiwan. Japan was out of the question as neither the Japanese monks nor nuns observed the Vinaya rules laid down by the Buddha. They had drawn up their own Vinaya rules and the majority of their sects permitted marriage for monks, but not for nuns.

In Sri Lanka during the Anuradhapura period, Mahayanism made a strong bid to convert the Sinhalese Buddhists. All the major monasteries in Anuradhapura went Mahayana. Only the Maha Vihara monastery held the Theravada fort. Abhayagiri Vihara, Jetawana, Lankarama and Vijayarama went over to Mahayanism and Mahayanism became the popular Buddhism. In this rivalry and struggle for supremacy the Theravada monks took to a deep dislike and prejudice against the Mahayana.

At the end Theravada managed to suppress the Mahayana utilising the dictatorial powers of King Parakrama Bahu I. Mahayana monks were disrobed and expelled. All the remaining monks were compelled to conform to Theravada, the orthodox Buddhism introduced here by Mahinda Thero during Devanampiyatissa’s reign. From that time onwards Theravada Sinhalese monks kept Mahayanism and Mahayana monks at arms-length.

Sinhalese monks were aware that the Bhikkuni Order established by the Buddha was functioning well in China observing the Vinaya. They had the unbroken pupillary suggestion from the Buddha’s original Bhikkuni disciples. Yet due to blind prejudice and antagonism against the Mahayana Theravada, monks were not willing to revive the Bhikkuni Order with the assistance of Chinese or Korean Bhikkunis.

During the medieval period and the feudal ages Sinhalese Buddhism had evolved and taken shape with several apostasies peculiar to it. Casteism, monopolism of temporalities, nepotism on caste lines in admission to the Sangha anti-feminism on lines of the Mana laws of Hinduism, worship of Hindu gods in Buddhist temple-premises became entrenched features. This anti-feminism included a tenet which asserted that the Bhikkuni Order is defunct and cannot be restored until another Buddha appears. All these apostasies are unscriptural and contrary to the Buddha’s teachings in the Canonical texts.

After the British conquered the country in 1815 democratic rights, civil liberties and religious freedom for the low-castes to enter the Sangha and women to become Buddhist nuns began to dawn. Thus the Amarapura and Ramanna sects were opened allowing low caste men to gain admission to the Sangha. The Dasa Sil Mata Order of Buddhist Nuns was opened for women renunciates who wished to take to holy orders in Buddhism.

The DSM nuns observed the Ten Precepts of novice nuns (Samaneri Dasa Sila). They took the precepts and robes from our Maha Theras who were sympathetic to women’s aspiration to leading the holy life. But the Sangha hierarchy did not recognise them as Samaneri Bhikkunis (Junior Nuns).

They coined a word Dasa Sil Mata-(Ten Precept mother). This term is unscriptural and is out of tune with the Buddha’s recognition of only four categories of disciples, viz: Bhikkus, Bhikkunis, Laymen and lay women disciples. The monks due to their traditional anti-feminist stand born of a gynephobia peculiar to Sinhalese Buddhism were not willing to recognise the DSM Nuns as Samaneri Bhikkunis which in reality and in conformity to the Dhamma of the Buddha they were. So their apostate appellation Dasa Sil Mata came to stay. The DSM Nuns was neither a Bhikkuni nor a laywoman, but an anomalous creation of Theravada misogyny.

Some Buddhist leaders such as Anagarika Dharmapala, Sir D. B. Jayatillaka, Prof. G. P. Malalasekera, Rev. Pandit Narawela Dhammaratana, H. Sri Nissanka, J. R. Jayewardene, Ven. Henpitagedara Gnanaseeha advocated the promotion of the DSM Nun to Bhikkuni status. Their ideals were carried forward by other progressives. Finally on 8.12.96, Ven. Mapalagama Vipulasara and Rev. Inamaluwe Sumangala with the assistance of the World Sangha Council, Maha Bodhi Society of India and the Sakyadhita, International Buddhist Women’s Organisation revived the defunct Bhikkuni Order with the assistance of Chinese and Korean Nuns. So as at now the revival of the Bhikkuni Order is an accomplished fact. There are now some 67 fully ordained Bhikkunis in Sri Lanka.

The Sangha Nayaka triumvirate seeing their monopolies in the Sasana and their vested interests endangered by the emergence of Bhikkunis who would rival them and bring into contrast their lapses and misdeeds in violating the Vinaya rules denounced the revival of the Bhikkuni Order in a statement issued to the Press. They called upon the President and the public not to recognise the newly revived Bhikkuni Order. They gave three obscurantist reasons based on their traditional apostate practices in Sinhalese Buddhism. These were quite contrary to the genuine Dhamma Vinaya of the Buddha. They contended that the Theravada Buddhism they had so jealously guarded is in danger of being corrupted by Mahayana Buddhism, because Korean and Chinese Nuns had taken part in the initiation ceremonies at Buddha Gaya and Sarnath.

The Buddha Sasana Ministry in a letter dated 17.3.97 signed by R. B. Rajakaruna, Secretary, informed Ven. Mapalagama Vipulasara as well as the secretaries to the President, Foreign Affairs, Media Tourism, Airways, Cultural Affairs, Buddhist comm. and Chairman Airports and Airways Company that on the recommendation of the supreme Advisory Council, HE the President has decided not to approve the revival of the Bhikkuni Order “because of the possibility of intrusion of Mahayana Buddhism in Sri Lanka.”

This means that the newly revived Bhikkuni Order will not be recognised by the Sri Lanka government. Hence their temples and places of education will not receive the grants and subsidies that the Pirivenas for monks receive. They will not get free books and robes as the monks. They will not get recognition or seats at state functions. They will not get separate seats in buses and trains. They will not get Rs. 1200/- subsidy per pupil as is granted to Pirivenas for monks. Their temples and nunneries will not receive the assistance that monk’s temples receive.

Hence this will constitute blatant discrimination against Bhikkunis on gender grounds. In a democratic state which functions on human rights, religious freedom and civil liberties it would be undemocratic and un-Buddhist discrimination in violation of the Buddha’s example and precepts in founding the Bhikkuni Order. Discrimination against women should not be done by the Sri Lanka Government as it violates the human rights convention of the United Nations.

It violates the Buddha’s doctrines of egalitarianism in the Sasana. It is a gross infringement of the teachings of Samanatwata (equality) Metta and Karuna-Love and Kindness advocated by the Buddha. It puts the clock back and takes us to the feudal ages of our history where the Sangha-King combine ruled the land with undisputed monopolism in caste-observance and anti-feminism debarring women from holy orders.

The Sinhalese Sangha is not a democratic body. The three sects are governed by a group of 20 Cardinals (Anunayakas). These prelates are not elected by a popular vote of the Sangha. They are appointed on caste and family lines by the Maha Nayakas concerned. The maha nayakas are selected by these appointees. So the vicious circle goes on when a cardinal’s post falls vacant the Mahanayaka appoints a monk on caste lines. These casteists band together and appoint a Mahanayaka when the post falls vacant taking into account certain considerations they receive from the candidates who seek election.

The rank and file of the Sangha have no voice, no say in the appointments of Maha Nayakas (Primates) and Anunayakas (Cardinals). Thus the Sinhalese Sangha is not a democratic body. It is a fendal set up where casteism and anti-feminism is the order of the day. Neither the President nor Parliament should bow to pressure from the Maha-Nayakas, as they have no mandate to represent the Maha Sangha.

They do not observe the democratic rules of modern civilised society, nor the humanistic egalitarian values anunciated in the Vinaya laws of the Buddha. Their golden age was the medieval and fuedal ages of Sri Lanka’s past, where they and the aristocratic class held all the plums of office, privileges and monopolies. In upholding with an unyielding grasp casteism and antifeminism they are labouring to take us back to the era of their monopolism in temporalities and antifeminism by denying women the status of Bhikkuni Nuns.

The President is Minister for Buddha Sasana Affairs since the time of President Premadasa. The Minister for Buddha Sasana cannot be guided, led or controlled by Parliament. He or she takes advice from the Supreme Council of Mahanayakas and carries out their wishes overriding the wishes of the Parliament, the majority wish of the Maha Sangha and the Buddhist public. As long as this dictatorship of the casteist monopolists remains there can be no human rights for low caste people in the Sangha, nor human rights for Sinhalese women to become Bhikkunis as prescribed and ordained by the Lord Buddha himself.

And our record of human rights in Buddhism will be a derelict and sorry one. And the preaching of our missionary monks in the Western lands saying that the Buddha emancipated women from the disabilities placed on them by the shackles of Hinduism under Manu’s laws will prove to be hollow and hypocritical.

The prayers which came into the Roman Mass after the time of St. Gregory the Great were among the first to be abolished by the Protestant Reforms. They included the prayers said at the foot of the altar, Judica me, with its reference to the priest going to the altar of God, and the confiteor with its request for the intercession of Our Lady and the Saints were particularly unacceptable. The Offertory prayers, with their specifically sacrificial terminology, and the Placeat tibi which comes after the communion, were totally incompatible with Protestant theology.

One of the reasons which must have prompted the Church to accept them, is the exceptional clarity of their doctrinal content. This tendency for a rite to express ever more clearly what it contains is in perfect accord with the principle lex orandi, lex credendi (''the law of prayer is the law of belief'').

The Protestant Reformers broke with the tradition of the Church by the very fact of initiating a drastic reform of liturgical rites. The nature of their theology was made clear not so much by what their rites contained as by what they omitted from the traditional books.

History Repeats Itself
The men who composed the New Mass, Fr. Bugnini and the liturgical experts, followed the same pattern of the Protestant Reformers. The Judica me was omitted and the altars were removed. In sixteenth-century Europe, the Protestant Reformers destroyed the sanctuaries of countless ancient churches and cathedrals. To the astonishment and dismay of many of the Catholic faithful, the decades following Vatican II witnessed an even more frenzied outburst of destruction in Catholic sanctuaries, but in this it was perpetrated under the authority of Catholic bishops.

The Confiteor invoking the angels and saints is retained as an option, but other penitential rites containing no such invocation and thus completely acceptable to Protestants are provided. It might be added here, the prayer Libera nos (deliver us..) after the Our Father, was abolished by Luther and Cranmer, owing to the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. A modified version is retained in the New Mass with no invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and saints.

There is no reference to an Offertory in the Mass General. Instruction 49 to 53, to the missal, come under the title ''The Preparation of Gifts''.

Compare the prayers of the Offertory in the Traditional Mass with the new ''Preparation of Gifts'' in the New Mass.

Receive, O Holy Father, almighty, eternal God, this spotless host which I, Thy unworthy servant, offer unto Thee, my living and true God, for mine own countless sins, offences and negligences, and for all here present, as also for all faithful Christians, living and dead, that it may avail for my own and for their salvation unto life everlasting.

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation, through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.

We offer Thee the chalice of salvation, O Lord, beseeching Thy mercy that it may be as a sweet fragrance before Thy divine majesty for the salvation of us and the whole world.

Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, through your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands it will become our spiritual drink.

The propitiatory nature of the Mass is made explicit in the traditional prayers but ignored in the new one. It is equally obvious that neither the new prayer for the bread nor the new prayer for the chalice grew ''organically from forms already existing,'' as required by the Article 23 of the Constitution.

The Placeat tibi,—''Grant that the sacrifice which I, though unworthy, have offered in the sight of Thy majesty may be acceptable to Thee and through Thy mercy, be a propitiation for me and all those for whom I have offered it.'' Following the example of Luther, Cranmer, and other Reformers Fr. Bugnini and the liturgical experts, removed this prayer.

Article 23 of the Constitution ordered that: ''There must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them; and care should be taken that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing.'' It is surely more than coincidental that the good of the Church just happened ''genuinely and certainly requires them; and care should be taken that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing.'' It is surely more than coincidental that the good of the Church just happened ''genuinely and certainly'' to require the discarding of almost every prayer which the Protestant Reformers had found unacceptable. The notable exception is the retention of the Roman Canon but it is simply an option.

Sacrifice of Propitiation
When the original 1969 General Instruction to the Roman Missal was criticized publicly as, at the very best, an inadequate and misleading presentation of Catholic Eucharistic teaching, it resulted in the serious modification to the General Instruction and the addition of a Forward to the revised version, both published in the 1970 Missal. What precedent is there in the history of the Church for a sacramental rite needing to have a Foreword written to justify its orthodoxy within one year of its publication?

The first five paragraphs of the Foreword are devoted to expounding the teaching of Trent, demonstrating that ''the Second Vatican Council has enunciated this same teaching once again,'' and that this common Eucharistic teaching of Trent and Vatican II is enshrined in the new Mass.

It also states, ''The Mass is therefore a sacrifice of praise, of thanksgiving, of propitiation and of satisfaction'' The inclusion of the word ''propitiation'' here is of exceptional importance. Nowhere in the general instruction, in the original or revised 1970 version, is it stated that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice. The rationale for the New Mass is found not in the Liturgy Constitution of Vatican II but in the General Instruction to the Roman Missal.

It was the doctrine of the mass as a sacrifice of propitiation which outraged the Protestant Reformers. Catholic teaching that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice, the fruits of which the celebrant can apply for the remission of sins of the living and the dead, as well as any other suitable intention, is what made the Mass anathema to the Protestants. Thus in order to safeguard Catholic teaching it is necessary to state explicit that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice. The original General Instruction does, however, perform a valuable function, as if reveals the thinking of the men who composed the New Mass. It is of significance that the authors of this defective teaching denied that it was defective. The true significance of the new Roman Missal published in 1970 is not that the General Instruction was amended but that the Order of Mass was not.

Julien Green—a Protestant convert
Extracts from Ce qui'il faut d' amour al' home by Julien Green of the Academic Francaise, Plon, Paris, 1978.

All at once I understood how cleverly the Church was a being drawn from way of believing to another. The faith was not tampered with—it was more subtle than that. It could have been objected to me that sacrifice is mentioned at least three times in the new Mass, but I could have answered that there is a great difference between just mentioning a truth and throwing light on it. We already knew that the Mass is the memorial of the Supper. That the Eucharist is also the crucifixion of Christ, without which there is no salvation, is said to us no longer. So, the reality of the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass is in process of discreet obliteration from the consciousness of Catholics, lay people and priests.

That Cross in the New Mass, was nothing but a phantasm: we were in the Cenacle on Maundy Thursday evening. But we were at the same time at the Supper and on Calvary in the abandoned Mass of Saint Pius V. The difference between the two is enormous... We had evidently been landed with what the theologians call an obscuration of an essential part of the Mass. To protest was considered an act of rebellion. The French bishops gave us to understand that the Mass of Saint Pius V was henceforward forbidden—which was a formal lie. And the rent was made.

I was very disturbed, for at the age of sixteen I had sworn fidelity to the Mass of the Council of Trent, and today I was ordered to have no part in it. Whatever one may think of certain attitudes of Mgr. Marcel Lefebvre, we are in debt to that French prelate for having aroused the conscience of part of the Catholic world by compelling it to ask itself about the faith. Do we believe or do we not believe in the reality of the sacrifice of the Mass? To what degree are we Roman Catholics, or do we tend to have a faith which is ready to make concessions to Protestantism?

About the author E.C.T. Candappa was one of Sri Lanka's been feature writers in the mid-fifties till the seventies. He was an outstanding journalist at Lake House and distinguished himself as a reporter and feature writer. He is now domiciled in Australia but still very much interested in his country of origin. He visited Sri Lanka last year and interviewed many of the personalities featured in this book.

"Another factor that stood in the way of Buddharakkita’s ambition was the presence in the Cabinet of two Marxist ministers, Philip Gunawardene and William Silva. Vimala hated them because it was their intention to give a better deal to the rice farmers by undermining the position of the proprietors who paid a pittance to those who labour."

"Pretty much the same as in China and Russia," Manley observed.

"A good analogy. These two Marxist ministers are idealists and draw their inspiration from Karl Marx and Mao.

"Vimala and the landed gentry trembled in their footwear at the prospect of losing their privileges. Vimala herself, while being a member of the government, organised a farmers’ march to protest against the Bill. This time Philip Gunawardene brought thugs from the harbour where he wields influence and broke the protest. Some blood flowed."

"Some Cabinet solidarity," murmured Manley.

"As I was saying, we play the game differently here. Anyway, I seem to have digressed somewhat again.

"Buddharakkita and company started another scheme, this time to export scrap iron – a firm called Metal and General – in collaboration with a Czechoslovak firm. They also bid to supply tyres from China for the newly nationalised transport services and to construct buildings for the new sugar factory at Kantalai in the Eastern Province. The two Marxist ministers frustrated their plans. So they want the Marxists out but the Prime Minister needs them to survive.

Once again I have digressed..."

"No, no, keep going. I don’t mind. I want to get the full picture."

Wijesinghe glanced at his watch.

"It’s five past ten," he said. "We are making good time. Just one more thing. All the matters that I mentioned so far are political, somewhat impersonal. Buddharakkita must surely have been smarting under the setbacks and the damage to his ego and influence, but what must hurt most is what affects both his and Vimala’s ‘good name’."

Wijesinghe lifted his eyebrows and made inverted commas in the air.

He explained, "There’s a great story here for someone who wants to write a novel on a grand scale. The story of the progressive corruption of people, given the right, or wrong, circumstances. But we don’t have time to go into that. The main thing is that the very close association between Vimala and Buddharakkita has given occasion for much gossip. Most of it has come from the Wijewardene household. Walls have ears and servants have tongues."

The sleek waiter cleared the plates and cutlery. Wijesinghe resumed.

"There has been talk that Buddharakkita visits Vimala almost daily and quite frequently spends the night at her residence. Servants have noticed that occasionally they spend the night together. They could be talking politics and business the long night through: no one can vouch for the contrary, but there it is. And so, recently, a pamphlet was printed anonymously, relating in the most scurrilous terms, these goings on. They were distributed widely and greatly embarrassed the couple."

"Isn’t she married?"

"She’s a widow. Even when her husband was alive, she didn’t let such a, what shall I say? technicality, get in the way of what she wanted to do.

"She had put him away quietly, anyway. Her husband had a severe heart ailment. She built an upstair house and located the bedrooms upstairs. So he couldn’t climb stairs. He had to live elsewhere in a rented house."

"Well, for crying out loud!" said Manley for the second time.

"Both Buddharakkita and Vimala urged the Prime Minister Bandaranaike to do something about the scurrilous pamphlet. They said they knew who the culprit was.

"But Bandaranaike gave one of those laughs for which he is famous. Hearty and loud and, to some, quite upsetting. Well, the couple were upset and offended and indignant that he took it lightly. They bided their time. Soon another pamphlet appeared on the streets, this time coupling the Prime Minister’s wife’s name with his private secretary. It was a foul piece of writing and evidently full of spite and vengeance. Rumour has it that the author is Vimala herself.

"This time the Prime Minister was furious. He even refused to sit in the Cabinet room with her. Now the feud is personal. Heaven knows what will happen next.

"Anyway, it’s time we left," said Wijesinghe, "we’ll get there in half an hour. I have a car waiting."

Chapter 4
The heavy, black Peugeot 203 pulled up by the side of the road. The peltophorum trees in full, golden bloom, on either side shielded it from the searing rays of the harsh June sun. Manley bent low to extricate his huge frame from the back seat. As he stood it seemed an age before he had reached his full height. Wijesinghe got out of the front seat advising the chauffeur to wait.

Wijesinghe, who had been here many times before, led the way. He halted outside a low, modest-looking building with an ornate, timber door, and rang a bell.

After a delay of a few minutes, it was opened by a stocky man of fair complexion. He was clean shaven and totally bald. He was corpulent and rotund, and his head too was quite globular. His dark eyes were sunken in fat and he flashed a toothy smile. He was clad in a sparkling white terylene shirt and black terylene trousers.His black shoes were polished without blemish. He extended his hand in greeting. Manley felt it plump and damp and flabby. He greeted Wijesinghe in Sinhala and bade the American in English to come in.

Manley had no difficulty identifying the man as Buddharakkita the chief incumbent of the temple.

They walked through a narrow corridor with several framed photographs on the walls and were then ushered into a large well-furnished drawing room. There were, indeed, several suites of furniture. One was low and heavily upholstered, another was of a carved black wood which Wijesinghe recognised as ebony. There were several other chairs, some cushioned, others with seats of woven rattan. There was a long coffee table with a glass top.

The room was air-conditioned and afforded much relief to the visitors. The host bade them be seated and then asked them what they would drink.

"An iced beer would do me fine," Manley said, looking inquiringly at Wijesinghe.

He spoke in Sinhala, and when the drinks arrived Manley noted that he had asked for a fruit drink.

Wijesinghe did not take alcohol before sundown as a rule and he was certainly not going to have any here.

Manley noted again the abundance of photographs on the wall and this time he noted that many of them were political, with the Prime Minister featuring prominently in them. There were also a few posters with a large hand printed on them: the symbol of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

Manley bent and opened a large briefcase from which he extracted an object in a leatherette case. He opened the case and held a tape recorder in his hand.

"Sir," he said addressing the bald man, "would you mind if I recorded the interview?"

Again that toothy smile, bland and somewhat sickening.

"No recorder, please" he said, and turning to Wijesinghe, spoke to him in Sinhala. Then turning to the American: "I tell you anything you ask. But no record. Okay?"

Manley put the machine away. "Okay."

He took his note book rather ostentatiously and balanced it on his knee. He didn’t query its acceptability but waded right into the interview.

"I understand that you were one of the strongest supporters of Mr Bandaranaike before the last election and that you are not any more."

The monk’s smile faded. He had caught the general drift of the question, but either the American’s accent or phraseology had not made the question quite clear. He looked at Wijesinghe. Wijesinghe performed the function for which he had accompanied the bureau chief and for which he was being paid handsomely. After his interpretation, the monk answered in halting but clear English.

"Without my help he would not have won the election. Not become Prime Minister. My temple very influential. Very rich. I spent many lakhs of rupees on election."

"Your money or temple money?"

A very broad smile before the reply. "My money, temple money. What difference? I have no family. I not taking all this when I die. All patriot money. I make him president of Freedom Party. I spend lot of money. What did I get? Nothing. I wait three years. He forget me. He promise to help Ayurveda..."

Manley nodded knowledgeably.

"He promise to help village teacher. What he has done? He done, what you say in American? sweet bugger all." The bald man grinned obscenely.

Manley kept a straight face though he was hugely amused inside. An interesting character, he thought, but I still have to get the measure of the man.

He was fascinated by the man’s face. It was moulded in a pasty, leavened fat, and the black eyes were like currants buried in a cake. It reminded him, also, of a Halloween pumpkin.

"So what do you want him to do?" Manley asked.

"To help the party. To help the people who helped him. We have a shipping company. I am a director. I spent half a million rupees to start. We want big contracts. We export rubber to China. You Americans don’t like that. What to do? We want rice, no? So China give us rice for rubber. Our company want contract to take rubber to China and bring rice. We want contract for five years. Mr Bandaranaike give it to Government Shipping Corporation. Very unfair. Very unfair. I help him. He not helping me."

The monk was not smiling now. A floury pallor appeared on the baked brown of his face.

At least he’s open, thought Manley. But you couldn’t write this stuff. He’d deny it. That’s why he had wanted the tape recorder put away.

The monk reached out and poured himself a good three fingers of scotch. He splashed soda water from a siphon expertly into it.

Manley watched entranced.

He had been reporting in the Asian region, covered Buddhist stories and ordinations, monastic life, temple frescoes. He had written pieces on Ajanta and Sigiriya. He had climbed mountains to meet famed monk-physicians. He had also talked with politically-inclined monks.

But, by Jiminy, this one was a whole lot different.

Heck, he thought, mentally throwing caution away.

"May I ask you something? You handle money. You drink alcoholic beverages. Yet these are forbidden to Buddhist monks..."

The monk seemed delighted he was asked.

"I am a monk in the temple. When I wear the robe. See. Trousers and shirt. I am outside the temple. I do all my temple work well. If anyone tell I am not Chief Priest, I call police. You see police outside. I look after temple and temple money well.

"But business is business. I keep good liquor for business. Yes, for reporters, photographers. That’s business."

"So what are you going to do now that you are disillusioned with Mr Bandaranaike?"

He glanced again to Wijesinghe for assistance. He received it in a few sentences.

"Ah," he said in reply, "we remove him."

"How?"

"Oh, many ways. At next meeting of Freedom Party Executive Committee I plan. At general meeting I put my own men. They vote against him."

"And if that doesn’t succeed?"

He beamed again. "We try something else."

It sounded eerie the way he said it. Manley shivered slightly.

On the way back, he said to Wijesinghe, "You watch that space, buddy. Something’s gotta give."

Chapter 5
Carolis Amerasinghe was a happy man, a contented man, a routine man. He was a family man, very much a family man, married with seven children.

He was a practitioner of the ancient system of medicine known as Ayurveda and had been one at the time these events took place, for twenty two years.

He specialised in one of the less desirable areas of the healing art, that of boils and carbuncles, but then it was an area that dealt with situations that were, unpleasant though they were, not of a life-threatening nature.

A safe area, an area where routine was not unduly disturbed, where people did not disturb one at unnatural hours. A profitable area too, not spectacularly so, but one that assured the practitioner of a steady but substantial income.

Oh, yes, he was thankful that he had specialised in boils and carbuncles.

Nine years prior to this he had been appointed lecturer at the College of Indigenous Medicine which gave some added prestige to him, and such things mattered in the crowded profession that was his.

Enough, one would have thought, to offer a large mead of contentment to anyone without entering the tussle of politics; but then he was a man who had a well-developed social conscience and one who cared for the advancement and prosperity of the country, or more precisely, of the Sinhalese Buddhist citizens of the country.

In time he became Chairman of the Kolonnawa Urban Council, in the area where he lived, Dematagoda, on a long and dusty road called Baseline Road.

Here, removed from the bustle by a hundred-yard drive to his spacious home, he lived a simple life not unencumbered by ambition but only by one of a modest scale.

He was a founder member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which was led, and ably so, by Mr Bandaranaike, one of whose election promises had been to develop the art of Ayurveda.

Amerasinghe found time from his busy routine to work for the party and it was known to the powers that were that he was a hard-working party man with unquestioned loyalty. So when the new government came into power he was rewarded with another and quite attractive perk: he was nominated by the Minister of Health, Vimala Wijewardene, who had her own strong views on what was what and where she was going, to the advisory board of the College of Indigenous Medicine shortly after she took office.

On this particular morning his day’s routine began as usual. He rose at 5.30, rinsed his mouth into a spittoon beside his bed and drank a cup of sweetened tea prepared for him by a servant upon hearing his alarm bell go off rather stridently. He then completed his morning ablutions which included a bath at a well by the foot of the garden. The water was drawn for him by a small servant boy while the master was content to tip the contents over his head without assistance.

By six thirty, clad in freshly laundered white cloth and a long sleeved white shirt, he worshipped at a shrine to the Buddha in a Buddhuge or domestic shrine, at which an oil lamp was burning.

He then breakfasted on string hoppers, hot coconut soup and red sambol.

He drank another cup of tea, and fortified for the arduous duties of the morning, set out to meet his patients whom he served from 7 till 10 each morning before leaving for the urban council, there to discharge his duties as chairman, until noon. He would return, routinely, to his residence where his wife would have supervised the preparation of his afternoon meal by a cluster of domestic servants and have it laid on the table for him to enjoy. She would stand attentively by to ensure that he had everything he needed when he needed it. She would have her meal later, after he had retired for his brief, routine siesta.

When he awoke, refreshed, he would go routinely to his surgery and practice his unpleasant but profitable profession till late in the evening.

But that day his routine was shattered in a manner that was to affect his life profoundly.

While he was attending to a patient on August 22 as he noted in his diary later, at approximately 6.45 in the evening, through the deepening dusk he noted a cream Opal Kapitan move up along the driveway past the shrubs and flowering plants.

He knew it belonged to the High Priest of the Kelaniya temple and noted that worthy seated at the back. Besides the chauffeur he also noted there was another monk and two other passengers.

Amerasinghe instructed his clerk to bid the visitors wait in the lounge while he attended to the last two patients. He then came to meet them, and he found the other visitors were Jayawardene whose family consulted Amerasinghe whenever they needed medical attention and Somarama, a monk whose temple was in Kotte and who was himself an ayurvedic physician and lecturer in ophthalmics at the College of Indigenous Medicine. The man in the uniform of a Police Inspector he knew was Newton Perera. The big-boned officer barely fitted into the cane chair.

(Continued tomorrow)

(C) E.C.T. Candappa