Returning to Buddhagaya

by B. Sirisena COORAY

When I got an urgent request from the Chief Priest of the Buddhagaya Vihara, Ven. P. Seevali Thera, asking me to renovate the gold plated fence around the Sacred Bo Tree, I immediately thought of a request I received from the man who built that gold plated fence - President Ranasinghe Premadasa.Going to India, on pilgrimage, once a year, has been a habit of mine for a long time.

In 1992 I was planning to make this usual private visit, when Mr. Premadasa rang me. It was night, and he wanted to know if I could come to Sucharitha immediately. When I went to Sucharitha he had some Foreign Ministry officials with him. Mr. Premadasa asked me when I would be going to India. When I told him, he said he wanted me to takeover the task of building a Model Village for the poor oppressed caste people in Buddhagaya. Mr. Premadasa had been deeply moved when he saw the wretched living conditions of those people when he visited Buddhagaya.

So he had suddenly announced that he was going to build a village for them. Characteristically he had not asked permission from the Indian Government. Now the Indian Government was refusing to cooperate with our official tasked with undertaking the project. He wanted me to attend to the matter and get the project moving immediately.

I remembered this old story as I was listening to Ven. Seevali Thera. It was Mr. Premadasa who was instrumental in constructing the gold plated fence around the Sacred Bo Tree and the gold plated canopy over the Vajrasanaya. Both were done by our own State Engineering Corporation and the Government Factory. I had supervised the entire effort and Mr. Premadasa had supervised me, which was the way in which things were done those days! He had unveiled both when he visited India for the SAARC Summit.Now this ‘Ran Weta’ had fallen into disrepair. According to the Chief Priest, an ill-planned attempt had been made at re-painting it three years ago. The fence was gold plated and could not be cleaned in the usual way. It had to be done with special chemicals. A team of politicians who had gone from Sri Lanka had tried to clean the fence using normal methods. As a result the gold plating had got damaged and the entire fence had become blackened.

It became such an unseemly sight, that Buddhagaya Temple Management Committee had decided to dismantle it completely. Now the Chief Priest wanted me to help save the fence and do it before Dharmapala Day on September 17. This was the August 13 and I had less than a month to attend to the matter.

It was a bit like the deadlines Mr. Premadasa used to give all of us, which we kept, except for the massive project of renovating Mirisawetiya. That was the only deadline I could not meet, and the work was completed only after the death of Mr. Premadasa.As I listened to the Chief Priest I began to have doubts about whether I would be able to clean up the fence in such a short time. Mr. Premadasa is no more and I am on my own; nor is there a government to support me. So I decided to talk to some of the people who were involved in constructing the gold plated fence, including Gemunu Silva (Engineer and former General Manager of the SEC) and Sarath Jayatilaka (former Vice Chairman of the SEC).

They did an assessment of the renovating work which will have to be done. They also did a cost assessment. Since I could not manage the expense on my own I talked to a few friends, including Raja Mahendran, Milinda Moragoda, Ariya Guantilake, Biyatris Ravindran, Ajith Cooray and Krishantha Hettiaarachchi. Finally ten of us made the journey to India including Gemunu Silva, Sarath Jayatilaka, Samson Gamge, S.W. Ponnamperuma. Sathish Kumara and J.N. Kelanige.When I was sent by Mr. Premadasa to select a place to construct the model village and obtain permission and co-operation from the Indian Government, I had the full backing of the Sri Lankan State.

The President ordered our High Commission to lend me whatever support I required. Even then the matter may not have been possible if not for my personal friendship with J.N. Dixit. He was the Foreign Secretary in India at that time. Fortunately I managed to persuade him to help us fully in our project. And he did.Even then we had problems. Initially the State officials wanted the houses to be built by contractors, this was the way things were done in India. I refused because this would have violated our housing concept which meant building houses through the participation of the people. The debate got heated and ended in a deadlock.

I got up and threatened to walk out which alarmed the Indian officials. We were allowed to use the participatory method in building houses.

Then when I met the Chief Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadev, and gave him the plan for the village, he asked, “Why do you need to build lavatories? These people do not know how to use them. They will use them for something else”. Still he was very co-operative. When we began the actual work I got to see the poverty in that area first-hand. That had to be seen to be believed. We do not have anything like that here. Still we got a tremendous response from these people. They participated in the effort and we were able to get the help of a local NGO to teach the children how to use the lavatories.

This time there was no President or Government to support us. still, I was lucky I had some able men with me who had worked under Mr. Premadasa in the old days and were trained by him on the job about the importance of deadlines.

They had been involved in many of Premadasa projects and had been of great assistance to me in the most daunting among them - the raising of the historical Buddha Statue at Maligawila.When I saw the condition of the Ran Weta I was in despair. It looked so discoloured, I thought we will not be able to finish the work at all, especially in the short time available to us. There were interminable discussions as to how to clean the fence.

There were many ideas. Finally it was decided to use a certain type of chemical, though we could not be certain about the outcome. When the chemicals were applied, it did work.

The fence began to glow. Everyone worked with a will and we managed to finish the work with one day to spare, on September 16. The Chief Priest and the Committee were extremely happy with the outcome. We handed over the completed job to them and left Buddhagaya on the 16th itself.

For me, the fact we managed to finish such a difficult project in such a short time was nothing less than a miracle.When we built the Model Village in Buddhagaya we had a big function. Mr. Premadasa came for it. Indian leaders were also there. This was the time relations were beginning to improve between Mr. Premadasa and India. In his speech Mr. Premadasa said he could not have been able to complete the model village without me. That gave me a tremendous sense of satisfaction.

When the news of Mr. Premadasa’s death was announced, the people of the area went to Mahabodi weeping. They remembered with gratitude the man who understood the wretchedness of their lives and did something to improve their lot.I wonder how many Sri Lankans who visit Buddhagaya remember or even know of the work Mr. Premadasa did there. I believe he was the first and possibly only Sri Lankan leader to become personally involved in improving the conditions in this Sacred Place.

He built the gold plated fence around the Bodhi as a protection and he built a gold plated canopy over the Vajrasanaya, which safeguarded it from the elements.

He also gave a sense of hope to the neglected and downtrodden people of the area. he was a Buddhist not just in word, but in deed. When we managed to complete the renovation of the fence in time, I felt that we were following in the path of service he had charted.

(The writer is Chairman, The Premadasa Centre)