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Building Hope Amid Asian Devastation

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By JAMIE PILARCZYK, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 26, 2007

Updated: 12/22/2007 04:11 pm

PALMA CEIA - While dining with his guests at Thanksgiving, Nuance Galleries owner Robert Rowen had an idea.

He was talking with Lt. Col. Ataul Hassan, the senior national representative of Bangladesh at MacDill Air Force Base, about Tropical Cyclone Sidr, which devastated Hassan's country Nov. 15. In one of the worst natural disasters in Bangladesh's history, more than 3,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed when the storm swept through the southwestern edge of the South Asian nation.

When Hassan asked him for help, Rowen immediately thought of his friend of 18 years, Bhante Wimala, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk who lives in Princeton, N.J. Wimala has stayed with Rowen and his wife, Candi, on his frequent travels to Tampa.

Wimala has dedicated his life to spiritual teaching and humanitarian aid. He built villages in Sri Lanka, helped earthquake victims in Pakistan, and distributed computers and wheelchairs and coordinated health care services in Kenya.

When Rowen asked him to help in Bangladesh, he hopped on a plane from Kenya where he was organizing a wheelchair distribution and by Dec. 3 was touring some of the affected areas.

"Although the emergency situation is getting better, Bangladesh needs a lot of help at the moment," Wimala wrote in an e-mail to Rowen. "There are so many people who were badly affected by the cyclone. Those who lost homes are still living under difficult conditions."

Rowen started fundraising. He has collected $2,500, which Wimala used to buy saris, clothes and college textbooks. With the help of a local project manager, Wimala has begun construction to replace 12 homes, two village mosques and a Buddhist shrine
Wimala will give a free presentation, Bringing Wisdom into Compassion for Disaster Relief, from 7 to 8 p.m. Jan. 4 at the Friday Morning Musicale, 809 W. Horatio St.

On Jan. 5, Rowen will host an art auction at his South Tampa gallery, 804 S. Dale Mabry Highway. Artists Taylor Ikin, Rob Epstein, Laura Waller and Keith Martin Johns have donated works. Wimala will discuss his relief efforts.

"Plenty of people ask you to give a painting, but plenty don't have a project in as deep a need as Bhante," said Ikin, of South Tampa. "He's just one of God's people walking around on Earth."

Rowen hopes to raise $20,000. He said it costs about $750 to build a one-bedroom, one-bathroom home in Bangladesh.

"The amount we could use is close to endless, but at $20,000 I know we could build lots and lots of houses," he said.

Wimala traveled by boat, bicycle rickshaws, cars and ferries to survey the damage. Power lines and trees littered the ground; puddles and potholes left by receding waves spotted the dirt roads.

He talked with families in a village that lost 30 people. When asked why they didn't evacuate, Wimala wrote, the villagers told him: "We are poor farmers sir, we have no radios, no TVs. Nobody came to inform us about the cyclone. When it arrived by surprise we all screamed and ran away from the water. But the waves were so high and the wind was so strong. It was dark. Most of us had no place to run."

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Art auction with Buddhist monk Bhante Wimala to support cyclone relief efforts in Bangladesh

WHEN: 6:30 to 9 p.m. Jan. 5; auction starts at 8:15 p.m.

WHERE: Nuance Galleries, 804 S. Dale Mabry Highway
INFORMATION: Call Robert Rowen at (813) 875-0511 or go to www.nuancegalleries.com or www.bhantewimala.com.

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 835-2114 or jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com.

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