Thiniyawala Palitha Thera does ‘Mr. Bean’ act!

 May 23, 2016

Chief incumbent of Nalandarama Temple in Nugegoda, Thiniyawala Palitha Thera has violated the Bhikku precept ‘Nachcha Geetha Waditha Visooka Dassana Mala Gandha Vilepana’ and watched the world famous comedy first screened in 1997, ‘Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie or Bean: The Movie’, is preparing these days to give a telephone call to Mr. Bean, aka Rowan Atkinson, in order to come out of the soup he is in, reports say. The predicament he is facing is as follows:

In order to celebrate Vesak at the weekend, sacred relics brought from Pakistan were to be displayed at Temple Trees. However, organizers could not find a suitable Buddha statue to place along with the relics. They told the chief organizer, Thiniyawala Thera, about this, and his prompt solution was to get a good statue from the national museum.

On his advice, the organizing committee telephoned Commissioner of Archaeology Sanuja Kasturiarachchi and explained their need and requested her to provide them with a Buddha statue. Kindly rejecting the request, she said permission could not be given to take Buddha statues out of the museum, because if any harm comes to them the entire Department will get a black mark.

What she told them was relayed by the organizing committee to Palitha Thera, who directly spoke to the archaeology chief and ordered her to send a Buddha statue to Temple Trees immediately as this was a matter of the prime minister. Very reluctantly, she gave permission to take an Anuradhapura era Buddha statue made of copper to Temple Trees.

In the last two days, this Buddha statue was on display along with the relics. Yesterday afternoon, the Navy personnel on security duty were going to straighten the red carpet on which the Buddha statue was placed, when the statue fell down. The frontal area of the Buddha statue was damaged in the fall. Alarmed by the incident, the Navy men and the organizing committee members immediately informed Palitha Thera about it. Greatly troubled, what he told them first of all was, “Do not allow this to be known to the media. Immediately take the statue back to the museum.”

On his instructions, the Buddha statue was returned to the museum around 11.30 last night. The entire night, Palitha Thera kept awake and is presently carrying out a big operation at the museum under Navy security to restore the Buddha statue, in the same manner Mr. Bean restored a damaged painting of high archaeological value in the above-mentioned movie. On his advice, nails and bolts are being inserted into the damaged area of the Buddha statue. Shocked by the incident, archaeology chief Kasturiarachchi is going to resign from her position, say department sources. Several attempts to reach her by telephone for a comment were unsuccessful.