KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Tamil Separatist Movement complained loudly that Buddhist temples were being built in the north where there were no Buddhists.   They are built on state land and in many instances by the army.

 In 2011 TNA politicians from Mullaitivu protested against the construction of a Buddhist temple at Bogaswewa near the Sapumalgaskada archaeological site. They claimed that the area traditionally belongs to the Tamil people.   TNA’s T. Raviharan said that the area belongs to Tamil people traditionally and it was known as Kachchcalsamalankulam. Tamil people have been given paddy fields and they are cultivating them with water from the Kachchalsamalankulam tank.  It is wrong for Buddhist monks to come there to construct a temple in an area which is predominantly Tamil, said Raviharan.

The chief monk had secured the help of the army to make bricks using clay from the shrubs in the jungle, continued Raviharan. Trees were being felled in nearby jungle to fire the bricks. However, a spokesman for the temple said that Sapumalgaskada area had been identified as a site of archaeological importance and there were ruins of Buddhist shrines, which were some thousands of years old and it was wrong to claim it was not a Buddhist site. The bhikkhus had only revived a temple close to the archaeological site, he said.

In 2015 there was  objection to the building of Sambodhi Vihara  in Kokilai, Mullaitivu. .Tamilnet said that Ven.Tissapura Gunaratana had in 2012 got a surveyor from Maharagama to survey three acres, with the ‘approval’ of the Divisional Secretary C Dayananda,  and started to construct a temple, with the help of the army.

However, the property was private land owned by local Tamils, said Tamilnet   and the project has displaced at least five families.(Tamilnet is not sure how many). The owners demonstrated, in June 2015, demanding back their lands. Land Registry officials inspected their land deeds and instructed the Divisional Secretary to issue an interim ban on the construction activities of the vihara. Mullaitivu District Secretariat issued an interim order    not to proceed with the construction of the ‘Sri Sambodhi Vihara’ until the dispute is solved.  There is also a court case pending verdict on the land dispute, added Tamilnet.   

The interim order was ignored. Tissapura thero said that TNA Provincial Councilor Raviharan had threatened him, stop developing the temple and vacate the area. The monk is adamant that he will build the temple here in our land. He has offered money to buy the premises but the owners do not want to sell, reported the media.

Ven. Tissapura had other plans for Sambodhi. A tube well was dug at Sambodhi premises and the public come there for fresh water. A pinthaliya was provided for them .Tamilnet says that this pinthaliya was thereafter transformed into a memorial site for two Sinhala soldiers who had died in the Eelam war.

The vihara premises will contain a Buddha statue, dharmasala, poya Ge, a two-storied Sangharamaya, a lotus pond   and a 10 meter high stupa. A welfare area’, is also planned with a multi-purpose building, a vocational training centre and a 100 perch model farm to introduce agriculture to fisheries-dependent settlers.

The five floor multi-purpose building will have a nursery, refectory, library and other facilities. The vocational training centre is to cater the adult women and men. It will be housing a sewing centre for the settling women, a yoghurt production unit, Diveneguma-assisted carpentry and welding workshop and a fertilizer manufacturing plant.  The monk is planning to convert the Sinhala Catholics into Buddhism and raise a new generation of the Sinhala occupiers of the north, warned Tamilnet.

Another version of the Sambodhi story by Adaalayam Centre for Policy Research   in   Jaffna, said that a temple is being illegally constructed on land that is partially owned by a Tamil living in the Kokilai region of Mullaitivu District.Security forces arrested this Tamil landowner in 2015 for protesting against the military land grab.  

Tamilnet complained that Ven. Tissapura   was also building another Buddhist temple nearby. Land belonging to the post office, the base hospital, a Hindu temple and a public road have been taken for that temple, said Tamilnet.

In 2018 there were 131 sites of Buddhist religious worship in the North, of which 67 were in Mullaitivu said Tamil Separatist Movement. . Buddha viharas are also coming up are Omanthai, Semmadu, Kanakarayankulam, Kilinochchi, Mankulam, Paranthan and Pooneryn. They are built on state and private lands. they were constructed after the armed conflict ended.   There are no Sinhalese living in those areas.  They must be removed immediately, said MP Raviharan.  

In some areas, such as Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, and Point Pedro, the military has built Buddha statues within or in close proximity to Hindu temples. Buddha statues have come up in front of the 2500 year old Thirukoneswara Hindu temple in Trincomalee and the Thiruketheeswaram temple. A 67 foot Buddha statue is coming up in front of the Nainai Nagabhooshani Amman Hindu temple, complained Tamil Separatist Movement.  

The military’s construction of Buddhist viharas in traditionally Tamil areas with no Buddhist population is a preliminary step to the Sinhala-Buddhist colonization of these areas and a re-assertion of Sinhala Buddhist dominance, said Adaalayam Centre for Policy Research , Jaffna.

Sinhala colonies, Buddhist temples and Buddha statues are being aggressively constructed with military sponsorship with the sole purpose of Sinhala Buddhisation of the North eastern Tamil homeland, said Tamil Peoples Council.

Ever since the end of the war, consecutive governments have accelerated the Sinhalization” of the north and east said Gajan Ponnambalam.

 Buddha viharas are sprouting like mushrooms in areas where there are no Buddhists said C.V.Wigneswaran.  Wigneswaran issued a statement saying stop erecting Buddha statues and Buddhist temples illegally on private lands and in places where there are no Buddhists.

 Why build a Buddhist vihara where no Buddhists live?” asked MP Nirmalanathan.Hindus form the largest religious group, followed by Christians and Muslims, with Buddhists in the fourth place.

The Tamil political parties have been complaining about the Archaeological Department, Mahaweli Authority, Forest Department, Wildlife Department, Tourist Board and the Defence/Internal Security Ministry dabbling in ethno-territorial politics and impacting the livelihood of Tamil and Muslim people in the northern and eastern provinces, said Kumar David.

It is alleged that the Department of Archaeology has been declaring vast extents of land surrounding Buddhist Temples in Mullaitivu and Trincomalee as heritage sites and prohibiting even subsistence economic activities being undertaken on these lands.

 The Tamil Separatist Movement said it had strongly opposed the construction of Buddhist structures in areas with no Buddhists. These protests increased during the time of the Yahapalana government of 2016. In 2016, after the Yahapalana government came to power, there were numerous demands for the removal of Buddhist temples, statues, and shrines built in the Northern Province, reported the media.     

The Tamil Peoples’ Council invited people to join a mass protest in Jaffna on September 24, 2016 to demand a stop to the construction of Buddha statues and Buddhist temples in areas in the Northern Province where there are no Buddhists.  In August 2016 TNA MPs met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and raised concerns about Buddhist temples and statues being built in the area.  

 The Northern Provincial Council   passed a resolution in 2016 prohibiting the construction of Buddhist temples in the north.   It had no legal standing, said lawyers  and D.M. Swaminathan, Minister for Hindu Affairs, said that no one will be allowed to remove Buddhist temples or statues in the north. Buddhist monks and devotees had the right to built temples and statues in any part of the Northern Province.  

In 2017 in London, British Tamil Forum under the auspices of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils launched a book, Proliferation of Buddhist structures in Tamil Homeland-sowing the seeds of disharmony.”

 In 2023, Tamils found that there was an increase in the number of new Buddhist structures and shrines coming up in the Northern Province. MP Selvarasa Gajendran led a demonstration demanding the removal of the Vihara illegally set up by the army in the Thahiti area of Jaffna. The demonstrators were arrested by the Palali police.

In 2023, The Tamil Separatist Movement had, it is reported, approached the Indian High Commission on the matter. But their own group has advised them to steer clear of the BJP which they said was not a progressive force.  (Continued)