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# Pazha Nedumaran's Son, Who Became a Buddhist Monk, Dies in Melbourne at 57
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/pazha-nedumarans-son-who-became-a-buddhist-monk-dies-in-melbourne-at-57/
- Published: 2026-10-01T17:50:34.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T17:50:34.000Z
- Author: Our Reporter
- Tags: JM Exclusive, Obituary

MELBOURNE, Australia — Manickam Nedumaran, the younger son of Pazha Nedumaran, the veteran Tamil nationalist leader and longtime supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, died in Melbourne on Thursday after treatment for cancer, according to people close to the family. He was 57.

Mr. Manickam had lived and worked in Melbourne for several years. He had converted to Buddhism and was living as a monk. He died at about 8:45 a.m. Indian time on Oct. 1, after about a month of treatment.

His funeral is expected to be held in Melbourne according to Buddhist rites. His parents will not be able to attend. Mr. Nedumaran and his wife cannot travel to Australia because his passport has been impounded, according to people close to the family.

Pazha Nedumaran, 93, has for decades been one of the most outspoken supporters in India of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the founder and leader of the Tamil Tigers, or L.T.T.E., which fought the Sri Lankan state for an independent Tamil homeland.

Mr. Nedumaran had a close relationship with Prabhakaran and supported the Tamil Tiger movement during its years of activity in Tamil Nadu. He traveled to Sri Lanka during the civil war to meet Prabhakaran and defended the Tiger leader and his movement in public many times, including after the L.T.T.E. was banned in India.

His advocacy brought him into repeated conflict with the Indian authorities. After Sri Lankan forces announced Prabhakaran's death at the end of the civil war in May 2009, Mr. Nedumaran continued to maintain that the Tiger leader had survived. In 2023, he declared publicly that Prabhakaran was alive. The Sri Lankan authorities rejected the claim, and no independently verified evidence has supported it.

Buddhism holds a privileged constitutional position in Sri Lanka, and Buddhist nationalism has long figured in the political grievances of the island's Tamils. Mr. Nedumaran spent much of his political life on the Tamil nationalist cause and in defense of Prabhakaran's armed movement. His son became a Buddhist monk and will be cremated according to that tradition in Australia, without his parents present.