As I travel with Prabhash by mini-bus towards Colombo, the bus radio captures my companion's full attention. "Something amazing ... I never heard of such a thing in Sri Lanka!"
What? In Galle a Buddha statue that survived the Tsunami's full brunt is now exhibiting strange lights. Many people are there right now watching it.
Suddenly we notice the slowing bus - the stop and go of a typical Sri Lankan traffic jam. As we inch forward, up ahead we can see bedlam on the road and footpaths. Crowds of people are walking past us eagerly - more quickly than the hesitant traffic - towards something up ahead.
Prabhash suddenly makes the quantam leap. Up ahead is the Kovavla temple. There must be Buddha trouble with the statues in this temple too. We get down from the bus and proceed on foot along the narrow road edge - joining the pious or curious crowds.
What an amazing sight! In the temple compound behind the imposing white fence, crowds stand transfixed before a giant colourful standing Buddha and an equally colourful seated Buddha.
As we enter the temple yard discalced, we notice the crowds are not only content to trouble the giant statues but also cluster like bees , jostling to see into several hive-like structures - miniature dagobas containing smaller Buddha images.
Without waiting for instructions, we take up a position at the back of one of the crowds arranged for maximum viewing access before the giant standing Buddha. "Look at the hair!"decides Prabhash.
The black curls are tinged with sky blue touches of paint. "You must look long and hard!"comes advice from the crowd. Yes! I see something. A glimmer. An uncertain, gentle electrical flashing of the blue and black curls.But surely it's a trick of the light - familiar failings of the eyesight when focussed too long and too hard.
"Can you see it?"a solicitous stranger asks. We admit we are seeing something on the hair. "No! Not the hair. You must look at the edge of the Buddha's orange robe. You will see flashing lights." From another more advice "No not lights. You will see him breathing!"
Under direction we do less well. Maybe I can see some after image in yellow appearing intermittently, but I was much happier with my effects on the hair.
But now Prabhash reports some news from the crowd that does stir a little apocalyptic thrill in me. Not only the Galle Buddha and these Kovala Buddhas - but crowds are flocking to every Buddha statue in Sri Lanka. It's a nation wide phenomenon.
I find this wholesale miracle less satisfying than the idea of a lone Tsunami survivor in the shattered market place at Galle sending some reassuring and empathetic glow from its heart chakra. Flashing Buddhas all over Sri Lanka smacks of an impressive but very natural hysteria. But why are people going away so satisfied? What are they seeing?
I met two young theros in red brown robes. They are young and obviously excited by the new enthusiasm for their temple, but also a little bemused. I ask them "If this is true and the Buddhas all over the island are exhibiting supernatural symptoms, what does it mean?" They smile slightly embarrassed that there is nothing definite on this. I suggest that if its true, then something of great import is about to happen in Sri Lanka. Peace at last? Outright war? Another Tsunami? I keep the last option to myself. This poor country has suffered enough from the latter two disasters, without foreigners offering doom-sayings.
With my altar boy past coursing through my veins, I offer another angle to the puzzled monks. "If up in Trincomalee the Vishnu statues and the Jesus statues are also flashing, then the message is clear. Heaven is sick and tired of the Sri Lankan troubles and is demanding Peace!" They agreed with my forlorn fantasy.
A visit to a photo shop later in the day, provided the other side of the Sri Lankan character. When we mentioned the Buddha troubles, the two young men staffing the shop were eager to demonstrate an experiment they had devised on their computer. The screen filled with a yellow background and a block of orange with a curved edge similar to the curve of a Buddha's robe. Once again we were encouraged to stare fixedly at the intersection of yellow and orange. A few moments of nothing and then definite flashes of light along the line.
That night the nation's television is agog with news of the island-wide phenomenon but a talk-back show provides almost unanimous rebuttal from a scientist, an astrologer and interestingly a very rational monk. So was it the final word?
No. An encounter in Horana town with a friend of Prabhash's father, introduces a young but pious gem-dealer. Yes. he saw the television program. No. He didnt agree with the rebuttals - not even from the monk. He stands firm with his belief that something very special happened yesterday - he hopes it heralds the success of peace talks desperately peservering on the island. We can only hope with him for that.
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