Tragedy in the Forest Monastery

 

Whispers from Pansiyagama are turning into shockwaves across the island. The calm of the Na Uyana Monastery — known for its deep forest meditation — has been shattered by a horrific cable car plunge that has claimed the lives of seven Buddhist monks.

Among the dead are at least two foreign monks, their bodies now placed at the Gokarella District Hospital. The others have been taken to the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital.

Insiders say thirteen monks had crowded into the monastery’s cable car when disaster struck. The car broke away and plunged into the forest darkness, turning a night of meditation into a night of mourning.

Doctors at Kurunegala are fighting to save the critically injured. The Buddhist world is stunned — Na Uyana, once spoken of for its spiritual stillness, is now on everyone’s lips for all the wrong reasons.

Was it poor maintenance? Overloading? Or sheer fate at play in the hills of Melsiripura? The investigations will have answers soon, but tonight the silence of the forest has been broken by grief.