{"id":21173,"date":"2026-05-30T19:19:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T19:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/sri-lanka-suspends-senior-monk-accused-of-child-abuse-stripped-of-sacred-bodhi-tree-custodianship\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T19:19:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T19:19:45","slug":"sri-lanka-suspends-senior-monk-accused-of-child-abuse-stripped-of-sacred-bodhi-tree-custodianship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/sri-lanka-suspends-senior-monk-accused-of-child-abuse-stripped-of-sacred-bodhi-tree-custodianship\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka suspends senior monk accused of child abuse, stripped of sacred Bodhi tree custodianship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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COLOMBO, May 30 — Sri Lanka’s Buddhist hierarchy suspended on Saturday a senior monk accused of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl, in a high-profile case that has shocked the religiously conservative nation.<\/p>\n

In a rare disciplinary move, 71-year-old Pallegama Hemarathana was stripped of his responsibilities as the chief custodian of a highly venerated ficus grown from a sapling of a tree believed to have sheltered the Buddha.<\/p>\n

“The Council of Monks of the Malwatte Chapter decided today to suspend Ven. Hemarathana until the conclusion of the legal proceedings against him,” a statement issued by the chief priests said.<\/p>\n

Police arrested Hemarathana on May 9 over allegations that he had sexually abused an 11-year-old girl in 2022 at the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi temple in Anuradhapura, 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Colombo.<\/p>\n

The monk has since been granted bail while a court has barred him from travelling abroad.<\/p>\n

The temple draws thousands of people daily who pay homage at the tree Buddhists believe is closely connected to the same ficus that sheltered the Buddha when he attained enlightenment.<\/p>\n

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Hemarathana’s suspension came on the same day Sri Lanka celebrated Vesak, the anniversary of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and passing.<\/p>\n

There have been several cases of clergy abusing children in Sri Lanka, but Hemarathana is the most senior monk to be accused of such a crime.<\/p>\n

In a separate case, a group of 22 monks arrested in April with 110 kilograms (242 pounds) of cannabis have remained in custody pending prosecution, but not suspended from the priesthood. — AFP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sri Lanka suspends senior monk accused of child abuse, stripped of sacred Bodhi tree custodianship<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COLOMBO, May 30 — Sri Lanka’s Buddhist hierarchy suspended on Saturday a senior monk accused of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl, in a high-profile case that has shocked the religiously conservative nation. In a rare disciplinary move, 71-year-old Pallegama Hemarathana was stripped of his responsibilities as the chief custodian of a highly venerated ficus grown…<\/p>\n

Read More “Sri Lanka suspends senior monk accused of child abuse, stripped of sacred Bodhi tree custodianship”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}