Sri Lanka, June 1 -- In a rare and striking disciplinary move, Sri Lanka's Buddhist hierarchy last week stripped 71-year-old Pallegama Hemarathana of his responsibilities as chief custodian of one of the faith's most sacred sites, a venerated fig tree grown from a sapling of the very tree believed to have sheltered the Buddha when he attained enlightenment.

"The Council of Monks of the Malwatte Chapter decided today ( to suspend Ven Hemarathana until the conclusion of the legal proceedings against him," the chief priests said in a formal statement on May 30, 2026. That the Council acted at all, and on Vesak Day, no less, signals how acute the pressure had become. But it also exposes, by its very rarity, how entrenched the culture of cler...