Greeja and I revisited Hikkaduwa and Galle after a span of 15 years just a few weeks ago. We were in Sri Lanka with our daughter Raviena on January 2004, enjoying the sun, beach and whetting our appetite with great seafood, not realizing that exactly 11 months from our visit there, the whole scenario would change.
Christmas day 2004, I was on the couch watching TV and Greeja was in the kitchen. Suddenly I felt rather dizzy and felt the floor move under my feet. My fear was that something was happening to me, and I called out to Greeja, and she said she was experiencing the same dizziness. But it stopped after a while, and then they flashed on the TV saying that North West of Sumatra was hit by an earthquake. Reports indicated that some parts of Peninsula Malaysia experienced tremors due to the earthquake.
If the earthquake caused damage to the immediate proximity to the epicenter, it was the subsequent Tsunami that created one of the greatest destruction in the living history of mankind.
Memorial Tomb
The above monument stands as a reminder to the wrath of nature which took away 36595 (official) lives in Sri Lanka in one fist of fury. This monument was erected above an open burial ground that houses thousands of unidentified dead persons in the aftermath of the Tsunami devastation at Hikkaduwa.
Marked Grave
Greeja and I visited the Tsunami Photo Museum at Telwatta, a few kilometers from Hikkaduwa. We had the same haunting feeling as when we visited the Killing Fields in Cambodia. This was one of the few Tsunami photo museums there. Ms Kamini, a survivor of the 2004 Tsunami, ushered us around the Tsunami Museum, which actually was the site of her home before the Tsunami devastated the entire home to oblivion. She lost many of her family members and friends on that fateful Boxing Day.
Tsunami Photo Museum
Floor Foundation
"The above floor foundation is the only thing that was left after the water resided" she said, in a deep sorrowful voice.
The Canvas Tent
And she excitedly pointed to the tethered canvas above, and exclaimed that was the tent which served as her home until proper placement took place several months later. She as many others we met are still in the state of confusion as to why this had to happen to them, I really don't know whether they have really moved on or even made peace with themselves or with their Maker on what befell them on that day.
Telwatta also witnessed the death of more than 1600 persons who were trapped in the Colombo - Galle mail train. As the train was approaching the Telwatta station, a huge wave about 24 - 29 feet above sea level swept through the train, uprooting the train with its track, which was located approximately 200 meters from the shore line. Since it was a Full Moon holiday coupled with Christmas, the train was carrying an unusually large number of passengers, none of whom survived.
Photo of The Twisted Railway Track
The Lament of The Survivors
More Messages From Survivors
An Obituary
Below are the drawings as seen by the surviving young children who witnessed this calamity.
These pictures were drawn by Surviving Children
During the calamity, people also witnessed certain intriguing events. Amongst which was that the entire Seenigama Muhudu Viharaya (Temple) which is located in a small island off Hikkduwa was totally spared by the Tsunami, but claiming everything on the coast adjacent to it, perhaps just about 600 meters away.
Seenigama Vihar
Another interesting thing about this temple is, the water from its well is fresh water and not salty as it should be. Lord Devol Deviyo who is the main deity at this temple believed to be the patron of fisherman. There is a story behind Lord Devol, but that we will keep it for another day.
The Fresh Water Well
The fragility of human lives can be recounted from the harrowing experiences by the people of Sri Lanka, whilst nature was displacing people on this side of the island, in the north however human recklessness was seeing the death of more than 100000 people, which eventually came to an end in 2009.
Sri Lanka, the Tear Drop of India, was also famously quoted as Serendib, Island of Dharma and also the Pearl of the Orient, had gone through it's own wretched past, but looking at the people today at Hikkaduwa, they have surely rebounded. The past is still etched in their memory but they are not allowing it to weigh them down in their pursuit to build a better tomorrow.
We left Hikkaduwa that day, quite for sometime, not really talking, but trying to take in the overwhelming stories by the locals, and wondering in amazement how life reconciles and evolves with or without people who may have mattered at different points in time.
Our existence only goes as far back as the memories of someone who still remembers us, thus there goes the insignificance of "I". All the inherited and created ego of an individual can be just washed away in a blink of an eye, so why the self-conceit when one is alive.
Honganji Vihara
This statue of Buddha posing with the Abhaya Mudra was erected facing the sea near the site of the railway track that killed thousands on that unfortunate day. Abhaya Mudra is a gesture of fearlessness and provides reassurance and safety, which is also supposed to dispel fear and provide divine protection and bliss. Note carefully that this Buddha sculpture is based on the Bamiyan design that was destroyed in Afghanistan by the Taliban. The key message is HOPE and hence PERSEVERANCE.
This reminds me of a Tamil poem in Purananuru, written by Kaniyan Pungundran (2nd century CE) that goes like this (translated) :
"Every village is my village and every person is from my kin.
Like a lot of things in life good and bad cannot be attributed
to other as they come from within us.
Likewise, agony and relief of agony come without any
external triggers but from within us.
Death is not unheard of or new.
It unnecessary to
rejoice that life is sweet or complain in anger that life is bitter.
Like rafts drifting along in the rapids of a great river,
dashing over the rocks after a downpour (from skies resounding with thunder and
lightning), our lives, no matter how dear, follows its own course.
We know this from the vision of wise seers who can see.
So, we are neither awestruck by the great nor do we belittle
the ‘not so great."
This poem proposes the idea of equality amongst all living being, and with equanimity it can bring about peace and harmony within mankind as well as with nature.
Alas human GREED seems insatiable, more destruction is forthcoming, injustice is on the rise, not only the helpless suffer but poor mother nature is severely taking the beating.
I trust that HOPE for a better tomorrow lies within every citizen of the world, by bringing about change to themselves first.
Today is 26 December 2019, Boxing Day, 15 years ago since the earthquake in North West Sumatra with a magnitude of 9.1 triggered a series of Tsunamis as high as 30 meters, hitting the shores of 14 countries and causing death to an estimate of 227,898 people. With one swift blow it changed the lives of many.
So in remembering that fateful day, let us reflect and ponder on the fragility of life and what should all of us do to make the world a better place to live.
Ravi Varmman
1456
26122019
Subang Jaya
