From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

Obituaries

“I come to bury Caesar,  not to praise him.  The evil men do lives after them.   The good is oft interred with their bones.”  ––William Shakespeare

Bowatte Indrathana Thera,  a Buddhist monk of the Porambe temple in Pelmadulla,  Sri Lanka,  died on May 26, 2013 at the Colombo National Hospital,  two days after setting himself on fire outside the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.  “The monk had been heard making a statement saying his effort was not to take his life,  but to sacrifice it,  in a bid to end cattle slaughter.  Indraratana Thera had been an active campaigner against cattle slaughter, and had launched a number of animal rights campaigns,”  Ceylon Today reported.  Added the news portal Ada Derana, “Certain media aired videos of the monk issuing demands such as putting an end to the killing of cattle for meat and Buddhists being converted to other religions.  Indrarathana Thera informed those media of his intentions before committing self-immolation,  while they recorded the incident.”  The fiery suicide,  apparently the first on record by a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk,  was followed by conflict among Buddhist factions over which would perform last rites for Indrarathana Thera.   Read more