Monk’s mission
Kasippu village turns Mathin Thora Gama
By D.C. Ranatunga
It is a long way from Vijithapura (the place where the decisive battle between Prince Dutugemunu's and King Elara's forces took place) close to Anuradhapura to the deep south. But this is where six years ago, a 22-year-old monk from Vijithapura having completed his apprenticeship, went looking for a village where he could serve the poor.
When he arrived in the remote village of Girihelkada close to Kataragama, he found a few families who had settled there having obtained land for cultivation. It was a hard life for them. Water was scarce. There was only a footpath to the village. They lived in huts. Yet they were overjoyed to see a Buddhist monk and heartily welcomed him and found a place for him to stay.

"Seeing their plight I was convinced I could do something for them. They were extremely poor and had got used to distilling 'kasippu' and felling trees as a means of livelihood. They used to exist on animal flesh and most of them were drinking 'kasippu' themselves," Sathisanvara Gunananda Thera recalled when I met him in his pol athu avasaya last Sunday. "I visited them in their huts. They would offer me a cup of tea in a pol katta and I would sit and talk to them."

Lakshmi Udayangani has her own cycle to get to school

Today, life has changed completely for the thirty odd families in Girihelkada. They have given up their illicit activities, so much so that today the village is known as Mathin Thora Gama (village free from intoxicants). They all cultivate their lands and earn their living as peaceful citizens. How did you transform them? I asked Gunananda Hamuduruwo.

"I explained to them the need to give up bad habits. I told them that even the tank nearby would not get filled because nature would be against them if they continued to live the way they were doing. The rains would not come, I told them. They soon realized what they were doing was wrong and were willing to listen to me," he said.
The monk has been instrumental in improving their lives. With the road being built from Kataragama to Lunugamvehera, the village opened up. Gunananda Hamuduruwo had got a couple of agro wells – big community wells – erected.

The colonists are now able to get water for their plots of vegetables and other crops. Through a person whom he met quite by chance, he got the help of Rotary to build thirty houses. From their huts, the villagers have moved to two-roomed cottages with a kitchen on the side. Rotary had also constructed a toilet for each house.

The monk was only keen on seeing that the villagers got some basic facilities. For himself, he prefers to remain in the little wattle and daub avasaya with a thatched roof. The temple premises are an archaeologically protected site. A few stone pillars in front of the avasaya have been identified as those of an image house believed to have belonged to the time of King Mahanagha, a sub-king who ruled from Magama around the 3rd century BC.

While continuing to occupy the simple avasaya, the monk has done much for the villagers’ lifestyle, encouraging them to send their children to school, some four kilometres away. Now all the fifty children of the village go to school, either walking the distance early morning or being taken on push cycles by their fathers or mothers. There are some, like 14 year-old Lakshmi Udayangani, who cycles by herself.

Mild and soft-spoken, Gunananda Thera has convinced the parents on the need to mould the young. All the children attend the Daham Pasala. The classes were first held under trees which he planted. A half-walled hall has now been built and a few teachers from nearby villages have volunteered to come and teach. The results have been most encouraging with everyone except a very few, getting good marks at the tests.

Niluka, the young wife of a soldier is the only one in the village who has studied beyond the O/Level. She is in charge of the pre-school, which the monk has organised for the little ones. She also teaches in the Daham Pasala and serves as treasurer of the Dayaka Sabha.

A code of ethics prepared by the monk for the students was explained at a meeting of the parents last Sunday. The 24-point code contains simple guidelines, among them: Bring some flowers and come to school by 8.30 a.m. – boys clad in a simple white cloth and banian national dress and girls in half-saree. Worship your parents before leaving home. Respect teachers. Don't harass them. Be attentive in class.

The relationship between boys and girls should strictly be one of friendship. Speak pleasant words. Avoid wearing unnecessary ornaments when coming to school. Always walk one behind the other on the road when going back from school.
Life is tough for the monk. He has to be cautious about snakes, which he often encounters either in the vicinity or in the kutiya itself. "I don't do any harm to anyone. I am a pure vegetarian. I do my meditation. So I don't think any harm will befall me," he says. He has just a lantern for the kutiya. It is with caution that the devotees make offerings at the bodhiya in late evenings.

Though water is available, drinking water has to be fetched from a well a few kilometres from the village. When dana is brought to the temple, it is compulsory that a bottle of water is also brought. Our visit to distant Girihelkada was to donate a pump to provide water to the temple. It would ease the burden of villagers who have to bring gallons of water for the daily use of the monk. "How about doing up the roofs," someone suggested when he saw the thatched roof leaking. "Please don't. I am quite happy and comfortable as it is," the Hamuduruwo insisted.

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