Sujith Jayaratne’s reincarnation case

Step 1

1970 · Sujith is eight months old · Told by his mother

A baby who only drinks his milk if he hears the word “lorry”

Sujith Lakmal Jayaratne was born on August 7, 1969, in Sri Lanka, near the capital, Colombo. His parents separated within a few months. Sujith stayed with his mother at his grandmother’s house in Mount Lavinia, a seaside city south of Colombo.

When Sujith was eight months old, his mother found something out by chance. One day the boy wouldn’t drink his milk. While talking to someone else, she said the word “lorry,” which is what a truck is called in Sri Lanka. Then the boy drank his milk. From then on, whenever he refused it, she said that word. According to his mother, it was the only way to get him to drink it. She thought the boy was afraid of lorries.

Soon after, Sujith began to talk.

Step 2

1971 · Sujith is about two years old · Told by his mother and his grandmother

Sujith says he was called “Gorakana Sammy” and that a lorry killed him

According to his mother and his grandmother, as soon as he began to speak in sentences, Sujith talked about another life. He said he lived in a place called Gorakana and that he was called “Gorakana Sammy.” He said his father was named Jamis and had a bad eye, and that he had a wife, Maggie, who he argued with.

He also said he had worked on the trains and sold arrack, a local liquor. One day he went to a shop to buy tobacco, stepped onto the road, and a lorry hit him. His grandmother gave two versions. In one, the boy also talked about an argument with Maggie just before. In the other, he didn’t. He still spoke very little, so he sometimes used noises and gestures. To say he had worked on the trains, he imitated the sound of a locomotive.

He asked to be taken to Gorakana, and he asked for arrack and cigarettes. His family didn’t know anyone in Gorakana and didn’t know whether any of it was true.

A great-uncle of the boy was a monk at a nearby temple.

Step 3

March 10 and 11, 1972 · Told by the notes of the monk Wattarappola Nandaratana

A monk writes down, with dates, what the boy says

Sujith’s great-uncle heard the boy and told a younger monk at his temple, Wattarappola Nandaratana. This monk was not part of the family, and he wanted to check what Sujith said. On March 10 and 11, 1972, he talked with the boy and wrote down in his notes, with dates, 13 things he said.

Sujith said he lived in Gorakawatte, a part of Gorakana, and that his father, Jamis, was missing his right eye. He said that in that other life he gave money to a woman named Kusuma to cook him a dish of steamed dough. And he said he gave money to the Forest Temple, where two monks lived, and one was called Amitha.

On March 13, the monk went to Gorakana to look for that family.

Step 4

March 13 to 18, 1972 · Told by the monk’s notes and the psychiatrist Ian Stevenson

The monk goes to Gorakana and finds Sammy Fernando’s family

Gorakana is 12 kilometers south of Mount Lavinia. On March 13, the monk did not find the family. There he talked with a girl named Kusuma Dabare and told her some of the things the boy said. At that moment, she didn’t connect them with her family. The next day, the monk saw Sujith again and wrote down 3 more things. According to the monk, before checking anything, the boy also told him that his house had a tiled roof, and the monk did not write that down.

On March 15, Kusuma went to Mount Lavinia. She confirmed some of the things Sujith said and asked to meet him. The psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, who studied the case afterward, assumes Kusuma had talked it over with her own family beforehand.

Kusuma was the niece of Sammy Fernando, a man from Gorakana. The monk went back there on March 16 and 18, and said he had checked almost everything he had written down. He checked it alone, and it is not known who he talked to.

The monk now knew who Sammy Fernando had been.

Step 5

1919 to 1969 · Told by Sammy’s family and the police records

Sammy Fernando, the man a lorry ran over in 1969

Sammy Fernando was born in Gorakana in 1919. He was the eldest son of Jamis Fernando. He worked on the state railways until he was fired, around the age of 25. After that he made his living by secretly making arrack and selling it along the river by boat. The police arrested him eight times.

According to his family, Sammy drank heavily and became violent. When he argued with his wife, Maggie, she left the house and walked down the road, and sometimes he followed her. He was generous to the poor and to monks, and he gave money to his favorite niece, Kusuma.

On January 29, 1969, Sammy came home drunk and argued with Maggie. She went out onto the road and he went after her. He stopped at a shop to buy tobacco with his brother-in-law, stepped onto the road, and a lorry hit him. He died an hour or two later in the hospital. Stevenson checked the date in the police records.

Sujith was born six months later, 12 kilometers away. His mother said the pregnancy had lasted seven months.

The news spread through Gorakana, and the visits began.

Step 6

1972 to 1973 · Told by the monk, the families, and Ian Stevenson

The families meet, and Stevenson checks the case

On March 30, Kusuma arrived in Mount Lavinia with ten people from Gorakana. Sujith got scared, clung to his mother, and said nothing. The next day she came back with only four, and according to the monk, Sujith called her by her name. In April, the monk took the boy to Gorakana, and the case appeared in the Sri Lankan newspapers.

Stevenson investigated the case in 1973 and saw the monk’s original notes. He checked that in a photo Jamis had a spot on his right eye. The neighborhood of Sammy’s parents used to be called Gorakawatte. And when Sammy was alive, two monks lived at the Forest Temple, and one was called Taldena Amithasara. That name, Forest Temple, had fallen out of use around 1910, except among older people.

Stevenson also found two people from Sujith’s neighborhood who knew Sammy. A former drinking companion of Sammy’s had lived less than 100 meters away since 1971 and sometimes came into the boy’s house. And one of Sammy’s sisters lived about 250 meters away. Both of them, and Sujith’s family, say they never talked about Sammy in front of the boy.

The question from the beginning remains. Did Sujith remember the life of Sammy Fernando?