KAMALIKA PIERIS

Strategic Buddhist sites in the northeastern region have been turned into ‘Contested Sites’ by the Tamil Separatist Movement. The most recent Contested Site was Kurundi, but there were two  before that.

In January 2019 a group of about 200 persons led by northern politicians stormed the precincts of Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya in Nayaru, Mullaitivu, claiming that the temple had been built on a land belonging to Hindu devotees, reported the media..The group included local politicians and devotees of the adjoining Neeraviadi Kovil. 

There was a clash between the Chief Incumbent of the temple and the intruders. They demanded the deeds of the temple. The Buddhists could complain to any one they liked but they would not allow the Gurukanda temple to function, said the intruders. The intruders threatened to cause bodily harm to the temple’s Chief Incumbent.  .if the chief priest disturbed the day to day affairs of the kovil, he would be killed, together with all present there. 

The mob was so strong that the police found it extremely difficult to bring the situation under control. The intruders attempted to snatch the mobile phones of  those who were videoing the scene.  Mullaitivu police filed action in the courts against both parties for breach of peace.

The Mullaitivu police dismantled the CCTV cameras installed at the Viharaya .The CCTV system had been installed by a private company as a security measure since the Chief Incumbent of the temple Ven. Mihindupura Ratanadevakitti didn’t live in the temple most of the time. Police said that there was a court order to the effect no constructions or installations would be allowed in both the temple and the adjacent kovil premises.

The matter went to courts, Director General of Archeology, stated in court that Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya in Nayaru, had a history of over 2,000 years with  many Buddhist artifacts and an ancient monastery.  Also that it was against the law to build a Hindu place of worship in the place where there was an ancient Buddhist temple.

Officers of the Archaeological Department M.V.G.K. Asanga and I.P.S. Nishantha had   visited Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya. They found ruins of a monastery, remains of a stupa, bricks, roof tiles and  pot shards. They dated the temple to Anuradhapura period.

They reported that a road has been built bifurcating the temple premises  and land plots have been demarcated. Several Buddhist  artifacts were found during the road building. A stupa which had been bulldozed, had a diameter of 10 meters. There was a new temple there at present. A small Hindu temple,  Neeravi Pillaiyar  temple  is also located on same site, the report said.

TNA leader R.Sampanthan made a statement in Parliament on the matter. Neeraavi Pillaiyar Temple at Chemmalai in the Mullaitivu District was a site of controversy as the Sinhalese in the area tried to take over a Saivite temple, he said. Gurukande Viharaya had been forcibly constructed between 2004 and 2009 when no civilian was permitted to visit the area.

 “More recently an attempt was made to restore that temple. This led to unrest in that area between the people who are all non-Buddhists and the monks who had come there. Upon this matter being reported to the relevant Magistrate, an order was made prohibiting the reconstruction of the temple. The Chief incumbent of the temple filed an application in the Provincial High Court of the Northern Province district of Vavuniya and the matter is still pending, Sampanthan said.

Suren Raghavan said that the boundary of the temple was under dispute. Though  the Gazette notification of 2016 said the temple was an archaeological site, the boundary was not mentioned. A problem arose when new measurements were taken to mark the boundary. While the measuring was going on, ‘both parties had a debate  regarding their historical heritages.” There was an army camp there during the war.  They had a set of buildings which they had handed over to the chief priest, added  Raghavan.

Shenali Waduge npted that  Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya shot to public attention on 14 January 2019 – Thai Pongal Day when a group of unruly protestors led by former TNA provincial councilor T Raviharan stormed the temple and in a very ugly & abusive manner shouted at the Chief Incumbent of the Temple claiming the Buddhist temple had been built on a land belonging to Hindu devotees. Not stopping there, they began digging to construct a Hindu temple inside the temple premises.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFVEe7u9Dmo   shows the illegal act of forcibly entering a Buddhist sacred site & forcibly digging to lay the foundation to put a kovil inside the Temple premises. All those who took part should face legal action, said Shenali. Video clips showed that the group included a Catholic priest. Why is a Catholic priest heading protests for a Hindu kovil inside an ancient Buddhist temple.

A B Mandawela, Director General of Archaeology giving evidence before the Mullaitivu Magistrate S. Lenin Kumara,  confirmed that the Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya in Nayaru had a history of over 2000 years. the land on either side of the Kokilai-Mullaitivu road are Buddhist sacred archaeological sites including the Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya  The Commissioner of Archaeology explicitly told the Magistrate that it was illegal to build a Hindu kovil inside the ancient Buddhist temple,

Gurukanda RMV is a declared sacred Buddhist site. No one has any right to storm the place and begin illegal constructions which is what the TNA politicians led by Raviharan were doing. This constitutes violating penal code too. The police must file action against TNA for violating Antiquities Act. Buddhist monks headed by  Ven.Ahungalle Jinananda  are proceeding to file criminal charges against TNA’s Raviharan and others too under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Mullaitivu police were deployed round the premises. The police filed action against both parties for disturbing peace. S.Lenin Kumara Mullaitivu Magistrate  however ordered the construction work on Gurukanda to be stopped.

Mullaitivu Magistrate had also  given [permission to name the  site Neeravi Pillair Kovil.  Therefore In June 2019   the name board of Gurukanda Ancient Rajamaha Vihara in Mullaitivu was removed by the officers of Road Development Authority .

The Chief Incumbent  said that The officers of RDA informed me that they are going to remove the name board of the temple and accordingly they came and removed it. But they did not remove the name board of Neeravi Pillari Kovil which was displayed in Tamil. They removed our name board and they went away after handing over it to us.    He said that the vihara concerned was registered at the Ministry of Buddha Sasana and hence its name board can be displayed. This board had been there for the last ten years. There is no further information .

Gurukanda was Tamil Separatist Movement’s first try at creating a  Contested  Site. It was therefore necessary to state their position. 

In October 2019, Jaffna People’s Forum for Coexistence issued a statement .The Forum said,  When the local Hindus protested against the construction of the present Gurukanda Rajamaha Viharaya after the end of the war in a location which they consider as part of the premises of the Neeraviyadi Pillayar Temple, the Department of Archaeology defended the construction claiming that an ancient Buddhist Dagoba existed in that location two thousand years ago.

However, the Maritimepattu D.S. Division, within which the disputed site is located, observed that no Buddhist temple had existed in the land where the Neeraviyadi Pillayar Kovil is situated and that there was no evidence to support that Buddhists had lived in the neighbourhood.

The Forum wants to place on record that for the past several decades the Department of Archaeology has been engaged in politicizing the history of the island, especially its northern and eastern regions, in ways that favor the agendas of chauvinistic politicians and communal-minded Buddhist monks. The Department has often ignored the religious and ethnic realities observed at present in places where the minorities live in large numbers and the political and cultural changes that have taken place in those areas across the passage of time.

The Jaffna People’s Forum for Coexistence assets that Sri Lanka is a plural society. It has been home to different cultures, languages and faiths in constant movement. The Forum wishes to reiterate that the pluralist demographic history of the island spanning over 2000 years is one of constant movement of different communities .  .the Forum opposes any action that threatens the religious, ethnic and linguistic pluralism of Sri Lanka . To pit one community against another,will prove to be destructive.  Let us ensure that our actions in the future will reclaim its plural history.

The Gurukanda issue must  be resolved carefully and amicably, based on appropriate and genuine historical evidence, in a manner where history is not used for legitimizing exclusivist claims about territory and polarizing the communities concerned, concluded Jaffna People’s Forum for Coexistence

In July  2019 A Hindu-Buddhist conflict developed in Trincomalee over a mound found near the Kinniya hot wells  Archaeological Department had gone there to do some routine conservation work. In the process some bricks had got dug up. Buddhist and the Hindus both claimed these bricks. Bhikkhus such as Ven. Ampitiye Seelavansa of Velgam vihara    said they belonged to an Anuradhapura era stupa which has been leveled and a Hindu temple built on top. Hindus said this was the ruins of a Pillaiyar kovil.

The locals were extremely aggressive towards the conservation work, said the Archaeological Department. A crowd of Tamils had gathered.  Tamil politicians had also come.  Television news showed the  two groups fighting. Police, riot squad and Special Task Force were called in. Police came with a magistrate order, to stop the protest, that it would cause communal tensions.

Thereafter, Kokila Ramani, a resident of Trincomalee, petitioned the Provincial High Court,  saying the land where the Kinniya  hot springs are located belonged to her and the Archaeology Department is trying to construct a Buddhist structure there without her permission. The Department plans to construct a temple on the site of a Hindu kovil and Hindu devotees are being obstructed from entering the site by the Department, she said. TNA Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran appeared for her.  Provincial High Court Judge M. Illanchiyan issued an interim injunction suspending the conservation of the Kinniya hot springs which will remove the alleged ruins of a Hindu kovil. There is no further information on this matter.

 The  Tamil opposition to Buddhist temples has extended also to cremation of chief priests on the temple premises. Two such protests are on record.

In 2017 A group of 12 lawyers   had gone to courts to prevent the last rites of the late chief incumbent of the Naga Vihara, Ven. Meegahajandure Gnanaratana, being performed at the Jaffna Fort Sports Ground. The restraining order had been sought on two grounds. Permission had not been obtained from Jaffna Municipal Council and secondly,  the cremation of bodies could damage the environment. Jaffna Magistrate Katheeswaran  did not agree. He refused to issue a restraining order. Last rites were conducted with the participation of the armed forces and the police.

The second   protest was  at Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya. The chief priest of Gurukanda, Ven. Colomba Medhalankara ,passed away in Colombo in September 2019. Neeraavi Pillaiyar Temple promptly filed a police complaint that that if the body of the priest is brought to the  Gurukanda temple,   while a court case is going on, there will be trouble.

Mullaitivu police informed  Magistrate’s court. The magistrate ordered that the  body of the deceased priest should not be cremated or buried in  Gurukanda temple, until a final order was granted in the  court matter.

Court was informed that the  Buddhist  temple was willing to conduct the cremation ceremony at another location and  that the  Hindu temple was agreeable to this.  Court  then ordered that the cremation  be conducted at the second location. Maritimepattu Predeshiya Sabha intervened to say  that arrangements were made for the cremation without obtaining permission in terms of the Cemeteries and Burial grounds Ordinance.

After the order was made a group of monks led by Ven. Galagodatte Gnanasara of Colombo,  took the body of the deceased chief priest to the  temple premises and cremated the body there. The cremation was attended by several monks   and took place amidst sadukara from a large crowd.

An equally large or possible larger crowd were there to oppose the cremation, observed the media. Television cameras showed heated arguments. Police were there. A clash occurred and the priest of the Hindu temple was severely injured. A lawyer appearing for the  Hindu Temple was  assaulted.

Several monks spoke to  Derana television  after the cremation. It is a Buddhist tradition to cremate a monk in the temple premises.     If Gnanasara did not go this cremation would not have taken place, they said.

Regarding the ownership dispute, the monks told Derana, that the Archaeological  Department should   point out that Gurukanda is on  protected territory. 3 acres at Gurukanda belong to the  Archaeological   Department. Court should be told this. Ven. Polonnaruwe Thilnakara  said there was no kovil there earlier.

This temple matter can escalate,  said  Bellanwila Dammaratana. Foreign forces are wanting to intervene and incidents such as this will be used for this.    TNA is behind this the monks said.  They scolded Yahapalana as well. We sacrificed ourselves to establish these temples. We went into jungles. It is we who looked after Buddhism in the north, the monks  told Derana, with emotion.

Former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, thereafter, led a protest opposite the Mullaitivu Divisional Secretariat against the cremation in the temple premises while a court  decision was pending. Several politicians, both national and local    as well as lawyers, civil society activists and the public in Mullaitivu joined the protest. Some, including lawyers, wore black arm bands.

The protestors demanded legal action against the  cremation. It was violation of a court ruling.  Violating a court ruling  constitutes Contempt of Court. They  demanded the immediate arrest of Galagodaatte Gnanasara and others responsible for cremation. They were extremely critical of Gnanasara Thera’s involvement in the matter, and wanted to know  whether the country has a separate law for Buddhist monks. They  burnt an effigy of  Ven.Gnanasara .  

The Attorney General should take legal action within three days against all those who are involved in the incident including Ven.Galagoda Aththe Gananasara along with the other Buddhist monk who had openly protested against the court order.  Attorney General must assure them in writing that he will  do so. Unless swift action was taken, the demonstrations would continue..

The demonstrators, then marched from Mullaitivu Divisional Secretariat to Mullaitivu District Secretariat and  handed over a memorandum to the District Secretary to be forwarded to the UN envoy in Sri Lanka..They also protested opposite the Mullaitivu Magistrate’s court.

All the lawyers of Northern and Eastern provinces led by Batticaloa Bar Association President K.Narayanapillai boycotted court duties in a black arm band protest outside the Batticaloa court premises. The Mullaitivu Trade Association closed shops and carried out a hartal in support of the demonstration.

TNA’s R. Sampanthan wrote to the President Sirisena, saying, the corpse was cremated in close proximity to the “Theerthakerni” tank in the Hindu temple premises containing Holy water for use by the Deity. The temple and the premises were  thus desecrated. He urged  President Sirisena to ensure that those who cremated a Buddhist prelate’s remains at Chemmalai, Mullaitivu in violation of a court order are brought to justice.

A second contempt of court action was filed in 2020  by TNA MP Shanthi Sriskandaraja..The petitioner has sought an order to issue a rule on the Respondents, directing them to show cause as to why they should not be punished for contempt of court for violating the Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court order preventing the cremation of the body of the late chief incumbent of the Gurukanda Raja Maha Vihara in Mullaithivu on a disputed property.  

The petitioner maintained that the Buddhist temple known as the Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya had been forcibly constructed between 2004 and 2009, when no civilian was permitted to go into that area which is within the precincts of the already existing Hindu temple. 

Following the death of the chief priest of the Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya, the Mullaitivu police filed a report in the Magistrate’s Court stating that in the event that the late chief priest’s body was brought to the land that is in dispute, it would result in a breach of the peace in the area. Subsequently, the Mullaitivu Magistrate issued an order directing the police to ensure that the cremation was not conducted on the Hindu temple grounds.  

 The petitioner further submitted that with the intervention of Ven. Gnanasara Thera, the body of the Chief priest of Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya was cremated on the premises in dispute and the police had allegedly failed to prevent the Court order from being violated.  ( Continued)