Opinion
Podi Hamuduruwo: An exceptional human being
by Dr Upul Wijayawardhana
He was always Podi Hamuduruwo, even when he became a Nayaka Hamuduruwo! Though referred to, by all, as Podi Hamuduruwo, Venerable Dr. Galboda Gnanissara Thero was a giant in action, commanding the respect from the lowliest to the highest in the land. Politicians of all hues sought his company and blessings. He was a Buddhist priest but transcended religion, race, cast, etc. in his service. His death, on Friday 2nd August, at the age of 81 leaves a vacuum that is impossible to fill. He was a no-nonsense man of action and had he been the president of Sri Lanka, at least for a few years, we would have been a developed country by now. In fact, when I mentioned this to him once, he laughed and said Oya pissu mata ona nehe (I do not want that madness).
I cannot recollect the exact date I met him first but I know it was in 1961. Jeewaka Buddhist Medical Hostel was started in June or July of that year and I was fortunate enough to be among the 26 pioneers. Even more fortunate was the fact that the hostel was at Turret Road, close to Liberty Cinema, an easy walking distance from Hunupitiye Gangaramaya, where Podi Hamuduruwo was ordained at the age of 11 years and resided till his death. Seven years later, as his mentor and Viharadipati, Venerable Devundara Wachiswara Thero became incapacitated with visual impairment, Podi Hamuduruwo took over the task of running the Vihara, at the age of 18 years.
As Ven. Shi Fa Zhao has detailed the achievements of Podi Hamuduruwo in the piece “A Tribute to a Noble Friend: Remembering Ven. Galboda Gnanissara Thera” (The Island, 5 August) I do not wish to repeat his many achievements but wish to delve into two more very important contributions he made.
Podi Hamuduruwo was responsible for the reconstruction of the Seema Malakaya in Beira Lake, getting architectural advice from the renowned architect Geoffrey Bawa. The continuing transforming of this entire area annually to a ‘Wesak Wonderland’ would remain as a recurring tribute to this great visionary.
The other recurring tribute, of course, would be the Colombo Navam Maha Perahera, started in 1979 by Podi Hamuduruwo, which has become a huge tourist attraction too. I remember his prophetic words when he was planning to start the Navam Perahera. He wanted a pageant to showcase ‘low-country’ dances and when I read a news item a couple of years ago that organisers of the Kandy Esala perahera had decided to drop ‘low-country’ dances, I realised what a visionary Podi Hamuduruwo was!
From that day in 1961, I walked from Jeewaka Buddhist Hostel to Gangaramaya to meet Podi Hamuduruwo, I have remained in touch, later joined by my family. Our daughter and son, both born in Castle Street Maternity Hospital, were taken to Gangaramaya to get the blessings of Podi Hamuduruwo, before being brought to our humble abode in Summit Flats. After leaving Sri Lanka, one person we never failed visit whenever I returned, was Podi Hamuduruwo. On every visit, he never failed to take us round to show the new additions to his temple, which amazed us all.
One incident I can never forget exemplifies the generosity of character of Podi Hamuduruwo. In April 1988, I took the offer of early retirement, as the Ministry of Teaching Hospitals decided to divide the Cardiology Unit among three cariologists, in spite of my succeeding Dr N J Wallooppillai as Cardiologist, when he retired in June 1985. Due to a relentless campaign of misinformation enhanced by the GMOA, the Ministry relented and agreed to the division in March 1987. In compensation, I was made the Senior Cardiologist-in-charge and was offered the option of early retirement, if I was not happy. I started considering various options and consulted Podi Hamuduruwo.
One of the options considered was to retire and set myself up in private practice but the main concern about this option was that I would be limiting my services only to those who could afford to pay, which went against my conscience. How to offer a free service without antagonising my colleagues was the biggest headache. I knew the best counsel I could get was from Podi Hamuduruwo.
When I met him, as JVP troubles had started, he advised me that I should consider the future of my family foremost but if I decided to stay, he assured me that providing free service would not be a problem at all. He did not have to think twice before he said, “I will provide you all the facilities in Gangaramaya, perhaps in Seema Malakaya, for you to do a weekly clinic. Not only that, I will see to it that every drug you prescribe for patients would be provided free of charge.” Such was his love for humanity.
Unfortunately, as JVP killings intensified, I was forced to leave the country. I regret very much that I could not accept that wonderful opportunity offered by Podi Hamuduruwo, but I would not have been alive to pen this tribute to him if I had stayed back.
May Podi Hamuduruwo attain the Supreme Bliss of Nibbana!
The first and only tsunami that Sri Lanka experienced was on Boxing Day(26th) of December 2004. My wife and I, as usual, went down to Modara in Moratuwa to purchase our seafood requirements of seafood from our familiar fishmonger, Siltin, from whom we had been buying fish for a long time. Sometimes we used to take a couple of friends of ours. But on this day, it was only both of us that went on this trip.
We made our purchases and were returning home and when we came up to the Dehiwala bridge, many people were looking down at the canal from both sides of the bridge. This was strange, as normally if there was something unusual, it would be on one side.
Anyway, we came home unaware of anything that had happened. A school friend of mine (sadly he is no longer with us) telephoned me and asked whether I was aware of what had happened. When I answered him in the negative, he told me to switch on the TV and watch. Then when I did so and saw what was happening, I was shocked. But still I did not know that we had just managed to escape being swept away by the tsunami.
Later, when I telephoned Siltin and asked him, he said that both of us had a narrow escape. Soon after we had left in our car, the tsunami had invaded the shore with a terrifying wave and taken away everything of the fishmongers, including their stalls, the fish, weighing scales and money. The fishmongers had managed to run to safety.
This had been about five minutes after we had left. So, it was a narrow shave to have escaped the wrath of the demining tsunami( the name many Sri Lankans came to know after it hit our island very badly}
HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE
Sri Lanka has recorded a staggering 375 elephant deaths in the past eleven and a half months due to a multitude of causes, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation. U. L Thaufeeq, Deputy Director – Elephant Conservation said the deaths include 74 from gunshots, 53 from electrocution, 49 from hakka patas (explosive devices hidden in food), seven from poisoning, 10 from train accidents, three from a road accident, and six by drowning. It makes such diabolical reading!
“The causes of other deaths are due to natural causes or causes that could not be identified. Most of the elephants that died were young,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the human-elephant conflict has also taken a toll on people, with 149 human deaths reported this year.
Accordingly, human-elephant conflict has resulted in 524 deaths of both elephants and humans in 2024.
In 2023, a total of 488 elephants and 184 people have died consequent to the conflict, according to Wildlife Department statistics.
The human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka has escalated to unprecedented levels with reasons like habitat destruction, encroachment, and the lack of sustainable coexistence measures contributing to the issue.
This is an indictment of the Wildlife Department for just giving the sad yearly statistics of shocking losses of our National treasures !
Given the fact that Sri Lanka boasts of 29.9% of the country declared as protected forests, Sri Lanka is a haven for nature lovers. Boasting 26 national parks, 10 nature reserves including 3 strict nature reserves, and 61 sanctuaries, the national parks in Sri Lanka offer an incredible variety of wildlife experiences.
Taken in that context, the million dollar question is why on earth the Wildlife Department is not being proactive to capture these magnificent animals and transport them into protected sanctuaries, thus effectively minimising dangers to villagers ?
Being a Buddhist country primarily, to turn a blind eye to these avoidable tragic deaths to mankind and wild elephants, we should be ashamed !
As a practising Buddhist myself, I think our clergy could play a major part in calling upon the Wildlife Department to get their act together sooner rather than later to protect human elephant conflicts !
Sri Lanka being a favourite destination amongst foreign tourists, they are bound to take a dim view of what is happening on the ground!
If the top brass in the responsible department are not doing their job properly, may be there is a case for the new President to intervene before it gets worse!
All animal lovers hope and pray the New Year will usher in a well coordinated plan of action put in place to ensure the well being of wildlife and villagers !
Sunil Dharmabandhu
Wales, UK
This has reference to the article from the Aircraft Owners and Operators Sri Lanka, titled ‘Closer look at regulatory oversight and its impact on Tourism’, published on Tuesday, 24th December 2024.To explain further, in the beginning there was the Air Navigation Act No 15 of 1950 which was followed by the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) of 1955. This was long before the national airline had acquired pressurised aircraft, intercontinental jets, sophisticated navigation equipment, satellite communication and automatic landing systems, and ‘glass’ flight-deck instrumentation.
Today, civil aviation in Sri Lanka is governed by Civil Aviation Act Number 14 of 2010. Yet the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) promulgated back in 1955 remain in force.
These outdated regulations still stipulate rules forbidding the carriage of passengers on the airplane’s wings or undercarriage (landing gear). In short, they are neither practical nor user-friendly. In contrast, the Air Navigation Regulations of other countries have progressed and are easy to read, understand, and implement.
To overcome the problem of outdated regulations, as an interim measure in 1969 the then Minister of Communications and Transport, Mr E.L.B. Hurulle issued a Government Gazette notification declaring that the Standard and Recommended Procedures (SARPs) in Annexes to the ICAO Convention signed by Ceylon in 1944 shall be made law.
Even so, nothing much was done to move with the times until updating of the Civil Aviation Act 14 of 2010, while the Air Navigation Regulations remained unchanged since 1955. However, these regulations were modified from time to time by the promulgation of Implementing Standards (IS) and General Directives (GDs) which were blindly ‘cut and pasted’ by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL), from the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Annexe ‘SARPS’ without much thought given. To date there are literally 99 IS’s starting from 2010.
The currently effective air navigation regulations are not in one document like the rest of the world, but all over the place and difficult for the flying public to follow as they are not regularly updated. This sad situation seems to have been noticed by the current regime.
The National Tourism Policy of the ruling NPP states, “Domestic air operations are currently limited due to high cost and regulatory restrictions. The current regulatory and operational environment will be reviewed to ensure domestic air connectivity to major tourist destinations. The potential of operating a domestic air schedule with multiple operators is proposed. Additionally, domestic airports and water aerodromes in potential key areas will be further developed, for high-end tourism growth.”
“The tourism policy recognises Sri Lanka’s potential to develop Sri Lanka’s aviation-based specialised tourism products, including fun flying, hot air ballooning, paragliding, parachuting and skydiving, and scenic seaplane operations. To facilitate the growth of these niche markets, existing regulations will be reviewed with the aim of attracting capable investors to develop and operate these offerings.”
It remains to be seen whether the NPP government lives up to those promises.
Note:
That OPA report talks of two funds: ‘Connectivity’ and ‘Viability’ for a limited period like three or five years to help jump-start the domestic aviation industry.
The ‘Connectivity Fund’ will cap the seat price for local passengers to a more affordable value to destinations while the ‘Viability Fund’ will assume that all seats are occupied and compensate the operator for any unutilised seat. The intention is to popularise domestic aviation as a safe, quick and convenient mode of transport.
Capt. Gihan A Fernando
RCyAF/ SLAF, Air Ceylon, Air Lanka, Singapore Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines.
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