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Members of a Heron Road Buddhist community say they are fearful after a statue of the Buddha was vandalized for the third time.

A surveillance camera caught a vandal hitting the statue with a piece of wood early Wednesday morning, the monastery’s chief incumbent monk Rev. Nugegalayaye Jinananda Thero said.

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On the wood was written the First Commandment from the Bible: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Police confirmed they were called to a mischief complaint at the monastery Wednesday.

“This is the third time and the whole Buddhist community is threatened by this — it’s not only vandalizing a statue,” Jinananda Thero said.

“It is an uneasy feeling.”

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A Buddha statue at the Hilda Jayewardenaramaya Buddhist Monastery was decapitated by a vandal in March 2018 and then damaged again several months later in May after the monastery had raised $7,000 to install surveillance cameras. In that second incident — as in the third — the footage was given to police.