Thuppahi invited its Limited Circle of Readers to Interpret the Brushwork Reading of the Awful Act of a Buddhist Monk a named Somarama Thero on 29th September 1959 …. who pulled out a revolver as the Prime Minister bowed in the customary worship of a Buddhist religiosi…. and killed him.[1]
The Australian artist Donald Friend had international renown in his own time …. after a colourful career involving many lands, including England, Italy, Nigeria and the island of Ceylon. Friend was homosexual in his tastes and lifeways; and his detailed and extensive diaries provide information on his pedarastry and paedophilia . He was residing in Ceylon — a tropical land that was an attractive destination for personnel with such inclinations (among them Arthur C. Clarke) — when the deadly act by Somarama occurred.[2]
Mevan Pieris, a scholar, scientist and Sri Lankan cricketer,[3] has immediately responded with his READING of Donald Friend’s brushwork reading. This act, in its turn, has spurred me to provide an interpretation myself in the process of encouraging others to follow suit.
ONE: An Interpretation from Mevan Pieris, June 2024
Hi Michael,
I give below my analysis of the painting.
This painting is of the assassination of the prime minister, SWRD Bandaranaike which took place at his residence in September 1959. He was shot at point blank range in the verandah of the house by a Buddhist priest, Talduwe Somarama. The painting shows a fallen prime minister in spotless white attire with spectacles on, with the assassin yet firing at him using a revolver with fire spouting out through the nozzle, and the prime minister’s wife, Sirimavo with outstretched arms staring helplessly at the assassin. On the left is seen a lone police constable crouching with the rifle directed at the assassin (it was rumoured that the constable’s shot had hit the assassin’s testicles).
There is also seen, a guy in black dress, running towards the door.
The artist has gone a step further to share his.imagination of the prime minister’s journey to the next world. The dead body of the prime minister is seen, carried towards the enlightened, by two naked women (a rather undignified expression), with a leaf of the sacred bo-tree reaching through the roof, towards the fallen prime minister. On the extreme top left, is seen on a pedestal, another Buddhist priest blowing a trumpet of triumph, and a guy in trouser, having a good drink.
TWO: An Interpretation from Lam Seneviratne, June 2024
I think Mevan has given a fine detailed and most plausible explanation. The top left possibly shows the handlers of Somarama in jubilant mood– ie Buddharakhitha Thero and the person who supplied the firearm.
THREE: An Interpretation from Michael Roberts, June 2024
In my reading the ‘central’ causative act is at the bottom end of the painting. But this act produces a dreamland scenario of celestial realms. This celestial realm is presided over by the Buddha.
But …. Yes But …. the fallen Prime minister is being carried (‘carted’?) by two celestial nymphs with voluptuous breasts, while (a) a monk blows a trumpet on the sideline with (b) a drunkard guzzling a bottle of booze beside him; and (c) a vulture pursues its ‘greed’ on the sideline.
In sum, this is the work of an iconoclast extraordinary.
PS: In his abode at his home named “Brief” …. off Bentota …. Bevis Bawa would probably have been amused by this irreverential interpretation.
END NOTES
1 = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_S._W._R._D._Bandaranaike
2 = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Friend
3 = https://thuppahis.com/2023/03/26/serving-sri-lanka-skandakumar-on-mevan-pieris/
The bottom half is well depicted of the event.
The top half of the painting makes a complete mockery of enlightenment. It elevates a dead body to the heavens and the two females carrying the body are totally incongruous. Perhaps he did not understand enlightenment to depict it or worse looked down on it as being native construct subject to ridicule.
… a hint from Donald Friend’s Diaries re the assasination…
some light on his views on the assassination from Donald Friend’s diaries…
some light on his views on the assassination.
“25th September,1959
A man dressed as a Buddhist monk entered the prime minister’s residence this morning pulled out a pistol and shot four bullets into the Bandaranaike’s residence. He has been operated on and is still alive. The Governor-General has declared a State of Emergency and called up army reserves. The surprising thing is that is that it has not happened long before in country where murder is so common and many politicians and businessmen keep bands of thugs.”
“28th September,1959
The ‘canonisation ‘ of Bandaranaike goes on daily, by means of the government-directed radio. And since his death, 200,000 have made the pilgrimage to his tomb in the fmily estate at horagolla, where a sort of shanty town has sprung up of traders in soft drinks and food who cater for the bus-loads of people who come daily. The MEP Government of course keeps this feeling stirring as well as they can, hoping to be heirs of the sanctity of this man whose weakness and political folly led so logically to all the curious circumstances of his own murder.”
Thanks HARASHA. This ‘discovery’ of yours is an useful historical FIND. It reveals the thinking of a small set of personnel within the Western-educated middle classes who were affected the Sinhala-Only programmes arising from the democratic processes set in place from the 1940s.
The claim that many politicians had “bands of thugs” at their disposal is intersting but requires confirmation from knowledgeable journalists. Nor must we forget the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1958 as one ‘blot of data’ re the repercussions of the changes brought about in 1956 by an SLFP-MEP colation (which had Buddharakkhita’s support).