Coming home: H.C.P. Bell’s little Buddha statue
Back to a country much- loved by his Granddad: Rev. Kenneth Bell with the little statue. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
Having travelled the wide world, across seas and continents, enjoying pride of place wherever taken, a beautiful little seated Buddha carved in wood has finally come home after nearly 100 years.
To be taken in procession from the Queen’s Hotel, the statue will be presented to the Sri Dalada Maligawa (the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic) in Kandy next Tuesday, December 17.
Even though the many hues of this intricately-carved statue may have paled slightly, the Buddha in the Samadhi posture with eyes downcast still exudes serenity and keeps the beholder riveted and fascinated.
It is on Monday that we see the 14-cm statue, ‘expanding’ to 22 cms with the frame, resting on a white cloth on a low and long cabinet in a home in Wellawatte.
“It is a far better thing that I do than I have ever done before,” is what Rev. Kenneth Bell who comes bearing this gift of the little Buddha, tells us, quoting Charles Dickens in the ‘Tale of Two Cities’.
He says that he as an ordinary clergyman had a vision in his sleep of unity between “our” two faiths – Christianity and Buddhism. “This is a gift I wanted to bring to Sri Lanka, a country much-loved by my Granddad and also very much a part of my own childhood.”
Rev. Bell who has lovingly wrapped up the statue and brought it all the way from England is the grandson of H.C.P. Bell, considered the ‘Father of Archaeology’ in Ceylon.
Englishman Harry Charles Purvis Bell, who held the important post of Archaeological Commissioner from 1890-1912 and slashed and stumbled through thick jungle to uncover the country’s hidden treasures including fantastically-preserved Sigiriya, Anuradhapura and Polonn-aruwa, had arrived in 1873, died in 1937 and is buried here.
The tale of the statue goes back to the time when Malcolm, Rev. Bell’s father and son of H.C.P. Bell was romancing the pretty damsel Dorris Murray-Clarke.
H.C. P. Bell with Zoe, Malcolm and Dorris, Daphne and Kenneth
By that time, H.C.P. Bell was living in retirement in Kandy and Rev. Bell points us in the direction of the sole reference to the statue in ‘Ninety Years of Change – A Memoir’ by Dorris, his mother, which his sister, Daphne, had persuaded her to write before her death.
This is what Dorris says of the statue which has been under their care for nearly a hundred years: “The Bells’ insisted that I should stay with them for a week to have a photograph taken to send home to their family, the Prideaux, who lived in Putney. Old Mr. Bell greeted me very affably, although I did not feel as much at ease with him as I did with Zoe (Malcolm’s sister and Rev. Bell’s aunt) and Mrs. Bell. He took me over to the Temple of the Tooth and calmly took a little figure of Buddha off an altar. ‘You do not mind?’ he said to the Buddhist Priest in his saffron robe. ‘Oh no,’ was the reply. ‘Big Master take anything he wishes. Big Master do so much for us translating our Olas’.”
Dorris adds: “I still have the little Buddha on my mantelpiece in the dining room. I have always treated him with respect and given him a prominent place in our home.”
Incidentally, the way the robe is carved and the siraspata (the head ornament) being aligned and at the centre of the halo indicate that the statue is likely to be from the Kandyan Period (17th to 19th century), according to sources who study Buddhist art and sculpture. Before marriage to Malcolm, Dorris had been living at Templestowe Estate in Rozelle with her brother who was the Superintendent there, while Captain Malcolm Bell (who had just returned from the war) was head of the adjoining Binoya Estate. Zoe had also done much for Ceylon, volunteering with the Red Cross during the war and been honoured with an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire).
H.C. P. Bell
Suave and formally attired Rev. Bell whom we meet on Monday is also no stranger to Ceylon, having been here during his boyhood and youth, although born in Nairobi, Kenya, while his Dad was into tea in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). He reminisces about how they occupied the up-stair of Granddad’s two-storey house in the hills above the Kandy Lake and partook of meals with Granddad at the head of the table with his family around him.
By 1945, Kenneth had gone back to England for his schooling, securing a certificate in tropical agriculture with a strong focus on tea planting, followed by a stint in the National Service as a 2nd Lieutenant serving in the south of England training troops and getting back to tea in Malawi (“then it was known as Nyasaland,” he smiles) for 22 long years.
His calling to the ministry in the Church of England had come “well into my 30s”, he says, adding that he was married to Mary Wallace by that time. Thereafter, it was back to England and into theological studies and taking up duties as Curate followed by shepherding his own parish. Now he lives in retirement in Overton, North Hampshire.
Rev. Bell says that the statue went with his parents wherever they went to, from Ceylon to Kenya, to Tanganyika, back to Ceylon, to India and then to England, always occupying a prominent place on their mantelpiece. Once their parents passed on, the little statue was in the possession of his sister, Daphne, in her home in Compton, Surrey, until her death in 2014, “when the Buddha statue came to live with me”.
“Now we believe it is time for the little Buddha to come back home,” says Rev. Bell who turns 90 on April 8th next year and feels that he may not be able to travel much thereafter.
He adds: “This is an act of peace and unity between our religions of Buddhism and Christianity, preached by two great men – Buddha and Christ.”
…….And on Tuesday, the little seated Buddha will be back where it belongs and Rev. Bell and his children, Andrew and Fiona, will fly back to England content that a fervent wish has been fulfilled.