Talduwe Somarama

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1 The Assassination
2 Further reading
3 External links

Talduwe Somarama was a serving Buddhist monk who shot and killed Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) in 1959. He later converted to Christianity, just weeks prior to being hanged in the Welikada gallows.

[edit] The Assassination

Drafted in to the conspiracy by the Ven. Mapitigama Buddharakkitha, the Chief Incumbent of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara, Somarama reluctantly consented to destroy the Prime Minister, "for the greater good of his country, race and religion".

The date was set to September 25, 1959 and Somarama was to visit the Prime Minister at his home and shoot him at point blank range.

His saffron robes gave him free access to 'Tintagel', the private residence of Bandaranaike, in Rosmead Place, Colombo. As the Premier commenced his routine meetings with the public, Somarama waited in patience for his turn. When the monk's presence was intimated to him, Bandaranaike rose to greet him in the traditional Buddhist manner. The assassin monk then plucked out the revolver hidden in his robes and fired at the prostrate Prime Minister. Somarama was injured in the cross fire between himself and the Prime Minister's bodyguards.

The wounded Premier was rushed to hospital and died the following day in spite of a six hour surgery by the country's most skilled surgeons. Somarama too underwent surgery for his injuries.

In his message to the nation from his bed in the Merchant's Ward of the General Hospital in Colombo, Bandaranaike referred to his unknown assassin "as a foolish man dressed in the robes of a monk", but requested the authorities "to show compassion to this man and not try to wreak vengeance on him."

It was only a matter of time before Somarama had to face trial along with four others, involved in the conspiracy. It was a hopeless case, and in spite of a resourceful defense the jury unanimously found Somarama guilty of the capital offence. Before sentencing him to death, the trial judge, Justice T.S. Fernando, told Somarama he had a "streak of conscience as he did not attend court in his saffron robes."

The Chief Conspirator Mapitagama Buddharakkitha, the Chief Incumbent of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara and H. P. Jayawardena, a businessman closely associated with him, were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.

Bandaranaike had suspended Capital Punishment, but after his death the government had it restored. In an apparent blunder by the draftsman, the law re-establishing the death penalty had failed to include Conspiracy to Murder. As a consequence while Somarama would face the hangman's noose, the two chief conspirators would get away with a life sentence.

Prior to his hanging Somarama converted to Christianity.