Obituary

Pazha Nedumaran's Son, Who Became a Buddhist Monk, Dies in Melbourne at 57

Pazha Nedumaran's Son, Who Became a Buddhist Monk, Dies in Melbourne at 57

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
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Shanmugam Sathananthan: A Life Spent Giving Quietly

Shanmugam Sathananthan: A Life Spent Giving Quietly

By Niranjan Nadarajah A Life of Substance Over Spectacle The world lost a man of quiet strength, steady optimism and deep humanity when Shanmugam Sathananthan died peacefully on August 22, 2026, after a brief illness. He was 72. Known to his closest friends as “Satha,” and to colleagues, community members and younger people as “Satha Anna,” the Tamil term of respect for an elder brother, he lived a life that spanned four continents, touched thousands of lives and left a quiet legacy that will
Obituary September 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Madame-Sir

Madame-Sir

Iranganie Manel Abeysekera, the first woman to enter Sri Lanka's career diplomatic service, died in Colombo on September 10, 2026. She was 93. She was buried at Borella Kanatte the following day. She joined what was then the Ceylon Overseas Service in 1958, the only woman among eight candidates selected that year. By the time she retired, she had served as Chief of Protocol, as Ambassador to Thailand and to Germany, and had written the Foreign Ministry's first Manual of Protocol Procedure. An
Obituary September 2026
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
Jaffna’s Beloved ‘Kala Miss,’ Who Devoted Her Life to Chemistry, Dies at 59

Jaffna’s Beloved ‘Kala Miss,’ Who Devoted Her Life to Chemistry, Dies at 59

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka —Kala Namasivayam, a chemistry teacher whose resonant voice and patient instruction guided generations of students in northern Sri Lanka through one of the school system’s most demanding subjects, chemistry, died on Thursday. She was 59. The cause was cancer, according to doctors who treated her. Ms. Namasivayam taught at Kokuvil Hindu College and at Jaffna Hindu Ladies' College, two of the district's prominent schools, and for years ran private chemistry classes that drew st
Obituary August 2026
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Final Tributes Paid to Journalist Arumugam Sabeswaran in Jaffna

Final Tributes Paid to Journalist Arumugam Sabeswaran in Jaffna

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The remains of Arumugam Sabeswaran, a Tamil journalist, editor and journalism lecturer who worked for years in northern Sri Lanka’s media, were brought to the Jaffna Press Club on Tuesday night, where journalists, academics and civil society representatives gathered to pay their final respects. Mr. Sabeswaran, known widely among colleagues as Sabes, died in Canada on July 29 after a period of ill health. He was 47. His death brought tributes from a journalistic community in
August 2026 Obituary
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Jaffna Mourns Prasanth Sachin, a Teenage Thavil Virtuoso of Extraordinary Promise

Jaffna Mourns Prasanth Sachin, a Teenage Thavil Virtuoso of Extraordinary Promise

JAFFNA — Prasanth Sachin, a teenage thavil virtuoso from a family of thavil musicians whose self-taught command of the instrument had marked him, in the eyes of senior artists, as one of the most gifted of his generation, and some believed, a successor in the making to the great Yazhppanam V. Thedchanamoorthy, died on Tuesday night. He was 17. His death, at his home on Rasapathai Road in Kopay North, was ruled a suicide following an inquest conducted by the Inquirer into Sudden Deaths, Namasiva
June 2026 Obituary
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Deepthi Attygalle, Pioneer of Sri Lankan Anaesthesia, Dies at 86
Deepthi Attygalle

Deepthi Attygalle, Pioneer of Sri Lankan Anaesthesia, Dies at 86

Deepthi Attygalle, the Sri Lankan anaesthesiologist whose work on magnesium sulphate became an important reference point in the treatment of severe tetanus, died on June 1, 2026. She was 86. For much of the twentieth century, severe tetanus was managed by heavily sedating patients and supporting them on mechanical ventilators for weeks at a time, a regimen that consumed intensive-care resources often unavailable in many developing countries. At the General Hospital in Colombo, Dr. Attygalle and
May 2026 Obituary
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
D.B.S. Jeyaraj, Fearless Chronicler of Sri Lanka’s War, Dies in Exile

D.B.S. Jeyaraj, Fearless Chronicler of Sri Lanka’s War, Dies in Exile

By M.R. Narayan Swamy The world of Sri Lankan journalism will never see another D.B.S. Jeyaraj. Forced into exile by extremists among Tamil nationalists, Jeyaraj braved death threats and persistent danger to keep the world informed about the twists and turns during the long years a horrific separatist war raged in Sri Lanka. There were many journalists at work during those turbulent years, but few enjoyed the kind of access he had to virtually all the Tamil actors, and fewer still earned the
May 2026 Obituary
M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy