Inside story of Soma Thero's death

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As the President of the Buddhist Society no less wrote on December 6 to Kosala Jayasinghe in Australia after the meeting with Soma Thero - "ask them to only talk about positive things; ask them to encourage Thero in this difficult situation. He trusts the doctors and the people around him. He gets blessings and protection of the triple gem. He is physically and mentally tired of these nonsense calls. This is my only request to you, please help Ven. Soma Thero." That request unfortunately was not hee- ded, even after the venerable Thero's death. Ambassador Wijekoon's report Rev. Gangodawila Soma Thero had come to Russia on an invitation of the International Theological University, St. Petersburg (ITU) which has decided to award a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Buddhism for a book named Buddha Stupa authored by him on the recommendation of Dr. Shanti P. Jayasekera, a Sri Lankan living in the city of St. Petersburg. Rev. Soma Thero seems to have come to Russia alone on October 11 from Sri Lanka. Before he landed in Moscow it appears that he has felt a severe chest pain. In spite of this chest pain he has decided to take the next plane to St. Petersburg which is over 750 k.m. away from Moscow. On arrival at St. Petersburg airport Dr. Shanti Jayasekera has received him there and when he complained about the chest pain, Dr. Jayasekera has taken the Rev. Thero directly to a hospital called City Hospital No. 2 in St. Petersburg where he had been medically treated. After a few days of treatment in the hospital, when he recovered he had been transferred to a sanatorium called Rapina where he was resting and taking physiotherapy exercises before he was to undergo a surgery (bypass operation). The embassy was unaware and nobody cared to inform us all these happenings until the last week of November when Kosala Jayasinghe from Australia informed me that Rev. Soma Thero was ill and undergoing treatment and one Dr. Shanti Jayasekera was looking after the priest. Immediately, I contacted Dr. Jayasekera and inquired about the condition of the Thero. He also gave the telephone number of the Thero to whom I spoke immediately and inquired about his health conditions. Thero gave me a description of his illness and told me that he was much better, undergoing exercises and that he was very satisfied with the doctors and others who were taking care of him. Meanwhile I contacted the Sri Lankan community here in Moscow and decided to bring the Thero to Moscow. When I contacted the Rev. Soma Thero and told him of our intention of bringing him to Moscow he completely refused saying that he was fully satisfied with the treatment he was getting there. Then we decided to send President, Buddhist Society in Moscow, Rupasiri Perera to visit and see the priest. He went there on November 30. He came back and reported that the priest was normal and happy to stay in St. Petersburg and that we need not bother to bring him here to Moscow. On December 4 the ITU had awarded the degree to the Venerable Thero with a simple ceremony at the sanatorium premises itself. Again on December 3 I convened a meeting of the members of the Buddhist Society and other Sri Lankans here and decided to send Dr. K.A. Karunanayake (embassy panel doctor) and Rupasiri Perera to St. Petersburg and find out the health condition of the priest and also decided to collect some money to pay for the cost of the operation. Members present agreed to contribute nearly US$ 9,000. I also kept contact with the priest almost daily. Rev. Soma Thero asked me also to participate in the degree awarding ceremony. However I could not participate as I had to make preparations to go to Kazakhstan to present my credentials. However, the presentation of credentials to Kazakhstan was postponed but I had to go to Moldova on December 8 to present credentials there.
On December 8 the priest had been admitted to the hospital again for further tests and examinations before he was to undergo surgery. It seems the doctors have not favoured immediate surgery as he was a diabetic patient. On December 12 morning the Thero seems to have had a severe heart attack and passed away at about 8 a.m. Doctors had taken him to the intensive care unit and done their best to save his life. December 12 was a public holiday here in Russia. I came back from Moldova only on the night of December 12. By the time I arrived in Moscow at about 2300 hours, the office staff in spite of it being a holiday had come to the office and taken all preliminary steps regarding the next arrangements. I decided to go to St. Petersburg and attend to the arrangements of sending the remains to Sri Lanka. Along with me I took Dr. Karunanayake, N. Pemmawadu (interpreter) and Hiran Karunaratne, a Sri Lankan businessman here who was very useful for the occasion. Meanwhile I got instructions from Colombo to send the remains without a postmortem and embalming. It took nearly five hours to convince the authorities to get the body released without a postmortem and embalming. By the time the body was released to us it was too late in the evening. Meanwhile we were able to get some Buddhist monks from a temple in St. Petersburg and attended to religious rites. There were about 20 Sri Lankans to pay respects to the late Thero gathered at the time. Most of them were students. The undertakers next informed us that they would be able to send the remains to reach Sri Lanka only on Friday, December 19. We were facing a real problem as the body was not embalmed. I contacted the Rev. Thrikunamalaya Ananda Thero of Sri Vajiragnana Dharmayathanaya, Maharagama and appraised him of the situation. Subsequently, we got some instructions about the preservation of body and accordingly it was done. On the following day we got further instructions and that time the remains had left the funeral parlour. Our next serious problem was getting a flight to Sri Lanka to send the remains. Fortunately a charter flight was available to go to Colombo from Moscow on December 17. We contacted the parties concerned and were able to find accommodation on that charter flight leaving Moscow at 1820 hours on December 17 and reaching Katunayake Airport at 09:20 on December 18. The remains were dispatched from Moscow on the evening of December 17 at 1820 hours by SU531, a charter flight. I also sent J. Walpita, the husband of my secretary/stenographer - a committee member of the Buddhist Society in Moscow - taking the personal belongings of the late Thero. I also would like to bring the following factors too for further information. The weather here is very unfavourable. There is heavy snowing and the temperature is minus Celsius. This death took place in St. Petersburg over 750 k.m. away from Moscow where the weather conditions were much worse. We really condole over the untimely demise of a great Buddha Putra who fearlessly preached dhamma of the Lord Buddha. However, we feel happy that we were able to carry out our responsibilities in spite of many difficulties and obstacles. Finally I am told that various unfounded stories are going round the country over this death. It is my humble opinion that this was a natural death caused because of a severe heart attack. U.B. Wijekoon, Ambassador
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Inside story of Soma Thero's death

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