A Nation’s Reckoning: Child Abuse, the Monastic Crisis, and the Dawn of a Sri Lankan #MeToo
Sugath Senevirathne
Over the past two to three weeks, our country’s social media has been flooded with incidents of child abuse involving Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka. For any responsible citizen, the moment news of child abuse reaches the ear, it stirs a visceral, burning anger mixed with revulsion. That is not an abnormal reaction; it is the natural, human response. Our children are the future of this nation. Scientific consensus holds that a victimized child suffers numerous complications in cognitive development. Children who are defiled by adults become long-term victims of mental illness. It is hardly necessary to state that the majority of our population already suffers from a multitude of psychological afflictions—depression, anxiety, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among them. If we, living in the 21st century, are to conquer the world, we must arm our child generation with science and technology. In that endeavour, physical and mental equilibrium is an absolutely essential ingredient. The responsibility a government bears in maintaining a child’s physical and mental stability is no trivial matter. Rescuing the child generation from adults afflicted with various psychopathologies must be a priority task. The youth who endured a thirty-year war are now adults. Rehabilitating them in the aftermath of war is a duty of the government. Yet, no such thing ever truly took place in Sri Lanka. Who can say that those we designate by the title “Ranaviruwo” (War Heroes) are not sufferers of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
We refer to Buddhist monks by the epithet “Guardian Deities of the Nation.” From time immemorial, they took a leading role in preserving and advancing our heritage. They counseled kings on law and meaning. They taught languages and sciences to the people. They authored prose and poetry. It was they who taught morality to the people. In any moment of national calamity, they stood at the forefront. Among the monks who provided leadership to the nation in the past century, Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala, Pelane Sri Vajiragnana, Weliwitiye Soratha, Polwatte Buddhadatta, and Henpitagedara Gnanaseeha Nayaka Theras were paramount. (I have mentioned only a very few names that came to my memory). These monks were scholars of profound erudition in various periods, languages, sciences, and arts, who purified the wisdom of the populace. Historically speaking, the social responsibility of the monk is something to be esteemed. They were worthy of veneration. However, in recent days, what we have heard about monks are not tidings that soothe the heart. A report from the National Child Protection Authority indicates that in the last three years alone, close to 300 monks have been accused or convicted in child sexual abuse cases.
In the past few weeks, what most convulsed social media was the sexual abuse case of the Pallekanda monk. Concurrently, day by day, week by week, social media networks became saturated with numerous other child abuse incidents. In the Anuradhapura District, Galenbindunuwewa, Sivalakulama area, the 40-year-old incumbent of Sri Seewali Chethiyaramaya, Ven. Polgampola Dhammaloka Thero, was found guilty of serious sexual abuse of a 10-year-old minor child and sentenced to 24 years of rigorous imprisonment. Further, in May 2016, in the same Anuradhapura region, Ven. Habbehamuwe Chandananda Thero received a 7-year prison sentence for sexually abusing a 14-year-old minor child who had come for alms-giving the previous day. The 65-year-old Ven. Wimala Tissa of Mulleriyawa is the incumbent of Sri Sambuddha Walukaramaya at Thalakolawewa, Thambuththegama. In May 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for sexual abuses committed on a 14-year-old minor child. The case of the Sil Matha (nun) known as Navaneliye Subodhi, or the epithet “Tripitaka Mathiyo,” the incumbent of Uyanhena Siriseela Senasana in Pinnawala, Balangoda, who gifted the minor girls who grew up under her tutelage and became Sil Mathas to her former lover, is a heart-shattering incident. How did Sri Lankan society and its religious institutions become a playground for child abuse and sex crimes in this manner? What has happened to us? Monastics, scholars, intellectuals, artists, social activists, and others must come together to initiate a discourse of a new dimension. In my conviction, the antiquated models of religious institutions must be replaced by new models. The old models no longer aid the monk’s progress in any way. The old model inherently creates the necessary environment for exploitation and predation. By “model,” I refer here to the network of religious institutions run on a foundation of property. The difference between this model and the Buddha’s teachings is like that between sky and earth. Acquisition instead of renunciation. These two poles are utterly opposed to one another. “Not by delight, but by disenchantment.” Discussions about abolishing the Sanghadhikarana Act, the Dhamma Sangayanawa, and the Vihara Devalagam Act are mere drivel. Merely by doing so, neither will the Sasana be purified, nor will monks become virtuous. For some time, these abuses may be suppressed. That they will not resurface again, however, cannot be prevented.
“Methunadhamma sewanaya” (the practice of sexual intercourse) is forbidden to monks—that is a Buddha’s command. In any society where sexuality is suppressed, those sexual impulses are released upon society in a different guise. Among the desires that exist within human beings, the most powerful is the lust-desire. In human evolution, this is an inheritance we have received. Animals engage in sexual behaviour only during a specific period of the year. But because the human mind has undergone a lengthy evolution, sexuality has no fixed season. The Buddha’s counsel is not the suppression of lust, but its elimination—its uprooting—through the wisdom of insight meditation (vidarshanā prajñā).
Nevertheless, it is a fact known to all that in the past two months or so, social media has been overflowing with monk child-abuse cases. Some monks and laypeople may argue that this is an anti-Sasana activity. However, the service rendered by social media in awakening society, introducing new laws and regulations, and building a new conversation within society, with the intention of arousing awareness, must be appreciated. It is an open secret that the mainstream media in Sri Lanka turned a deaf ear to these incidents.
In 2017, through the “#MeToo” movement that erupted in America, social media played a massive role in mitigating the harassment and sexual abuse suffered by women in the workplace, in generating a societal discourse, and eventually in introducing new laws. In 2017, Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano made a public disclosure on her Twitter account about the sexual abuse perpetrated by the famous film producer Harvey Weinstein. This spread like wildfire across social media. Many who had been abused by Weinstein came forward and disclosed the harassment they had suffered. In addition, women across America disclosed on social media the sexual harassment they had to face in the workplace. Owing to these revelations, legal action was taken against Weinstein. In 2020, the New York court found him guilty and he received a 24-year prison sentence. Following an appeal, in 2024, a Los Angeles court sentenced him to 16 years imprisonment. Although #MeToo came to prominence in 2017, its inception occurred a decade before that. It began as a campaign started by a Black woman named Tarana Burke, along with a few friends, to fight against the sexual harassment she had to experience as a young woman both at school and in the workplace. #MeToo was not confined to America. Via social media, it went viral in Europe and many other countries as well. Because of this, America introduced new laws related to violence against women. In the meantime, there existed Statutes of Limitations—a prescribed time limit for taking legal action concerning sexual harassment. Due to the impetus given by the #MeToo movement, that time limit was abolished.
Looking at it in that light, what Sri Lankan social media has done is a battle similar to the fight put up by the #MeToo movement in America. Therefore, our utmost reverence must be extended to those YouTubers and their media colleagues. May they have the courage to carry their struggle forward.