Reference Rama trail by Vichara in today’s Lankaweb 4.30 2024 I would like to make few comments
Posted on April 30th, 2024
Dr Sudath Guanasekara Mahanuwaar 30. 2024
As the following map (map 2) shows it covers the entire Island although it is said that they have identified only 21 places to be visited by these pilgrims in (Map 1). As Vichara has pointed the Rama culture has been successful in suppressing Buddhist culture in India.
In the light pf this backdrop, I think it is very dangerous to allow this project, particularly in the context of Modi’s present plan of Indian territorial expansion. Because already Modi and even his Foreign Minister Jayasankar has expressed the idea of annexing even Kchchative (former Kachchapa diipa) that lies within the international boundary fixed in a1974 in an agreement between the two Prime Ministers of the two countries an decided fixed up by Indian Supreme court decisions and also located on the continental shelf of this Island nation
Going by their present attitude I am afraid this Rama trail they might try to use it as historical evidence to a long-standing Indian tradition, more than 5000 years and try to build up a case for amalgamation of the Island to India. There is also a greater danger of suppressing and destroying the unique Sinhala Buddhist cultural imprint of this Island as it is already being done in the north and the east by separatist communal Tamils.
As such this tour of Indians, I strongly suggest should be adhered to a strictly laid down pilgrimage tour program, the breach of which should be the discontinuation of the trail programme forth with
I suggest the following conditions should be included in the list of conditions to the tourists.
- The Indian Government or any of their local agents should not put up any monuments of Rama or any god or Hindu religious symbols such as Lingas or any such buildings on any one of these spots in the guise of even pilgrim rests. They should use only facilities available in local tourist hotels
- 2.Neither the Indian Government or any one of their agents either Indian or local should be allowed to put up any religious monuments on these places as it will harm the historical local Sinhala Buddhist cultural landscape. The locational map as well as well as the trail tell many more stories hidden under the cover of this ambitious project map 1
Map2
