Dangers of being a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ken and Visakha Kawasaki <kawasaki@...>

Dear Eisel,

A week and a bit ago, [the scholar-monk Bhante Nyanatusita] was
robbed.  Two young
men went to the Forest Hermitage and asked for
water.  When he turned to get them some, they
attacked him with knives.  He tried to run into
the Hermitage, but fell and twisted his ankle
badly.  They put their knives to his throat,
pushed him inside and tied him up.  They had cut
the telephone wires at some point, and carefully
closed all the curtains to work in secrecy. While
they were searching for stuff to steal, he
managed to untie himself and attempted to escape.
The front door, however, was locked and they
caught him as he tried to reach the back
door.  This time they dragged him upstairs and
tied him up there and locked him in.  At last he
was able to shout for help from the neighboring
monastery/meditation center across the ravine.
The monk from there came and rescued him.  One
hand sustained some very deep cuts and his leg
was badly sprained and painful.  They stole his
laptop computer, some money that his steward
hadn't put away yet, and toothbrushes and soap
(?!)  Fortunately he had just backed up all the
data on his computer and it was an old, not very
good one, with a sticky keyboard.  Police suspect
it was some young army deserters, but who
knows.  We hope they are caught before they do something worse.

In case of sprain, ice for the first 2 hours,
then warm soaks, and keep elevated as much as
possible.  No massage, ever!  Source:  WTIND.

Do write as soon as you can -- we're concerned
about your situation and don't want you factored into Lao statistics!

With metta,
v and k