KAMALIKA PIERIS

Tamil Separatist Movement has shown an open lack of respect for Kurundi. Tamil activists entered Kurundi twice, while conservation was going on. They successfully disrupted the ceremony for enshrining relics, and then sometime later, said they wished to conduct a Pongal on the stupa premises.

They behaved in a rowdy manner showing disrespect to Buddhism.  The building of a stupa and placing relics in it are acts of religious significance, which should not be mocked or disturbed.  The Buddhist lobby must insist that the Tamil Separatist Movement   apologize for its behavior at Kurundi.

The Antiquities Ordinance and the Forest Reserve Act clearly state that no one can enter an archaeological reserve or forest reserve without permission. Kurundi vihara is in its own reserve which lies within the larger Norochcholai forest reserve.

Tamil Separatist Movement has trespassed into the Norochcholai forest reserve and the Kurundi archaeological reserve. They have deforested Norochcholai and destroyed Kurundi artifacts. Both are punishable offences.

Tamil Separatist Movement has   entered Kurundi vihara premises during Eelam war, and damaged Buddhist ruins including inscriptions .They entered the pilimage, removed Buddha statues and substituted a trident in order to turn the pilimage into a Hindu temple. They    also added a korowak gala and yupa gala to the Hindu worship.

Tamil activists entered Norochcholai forest reserve without permission, and   cut down 5 acres of valuable forest, dug up the ground, and made it look like a paddy field. Then they  parked tractors on the land to indicate possession. They did not dare cultivate it. The area they dug up had archaeological value. It was the   site of ancient iron manufacture. The five acres of bogus paddy field should be taken back by the Forest Department and the Raviharan group should be charged in court.

Tridents have been placed in many of the Buddhist ruins. Ellawela Medhananda found many such tridents placed in the Buddhist ruins of the east. This is trespass and meddling. The Department of Archaeology should remove these tridents.

Tamil Separatist Movement showed contempt not only towards Buddhism but to the Department of Archaeology as well .They spoke rudely to the Archaeology Officer in charge when they barged in to Kurundi to   conduct a Pongal. They were allowed to conduct a Pongal some distance away from the stupa. Then they said that they wished to conduct another Pongal close to the stupa. The Archaeology Officer was at first very conciliatory to the Tamil group, saying you have   carried out one Pongal, is that not enough, to which he got a rude reply. The archaeology official then spoke back equally strongly.

At the Pongal ceremony, the Tamil group, looked as though they would love to give Santhabodhi a good beating. Santhabodhi, unaware of this, went to speak to the Tamil group waiting to do Pongal close to the stupa. The police quickly removed Santhabodhi, not the Tamils. We saw this on television news. They had a reason.

The main concern of the police and the army at this event was not the stupa, the pongal or the Tamils, it was getting Santhabodhi out of the way. They knew that if Santhabodhi was given   one good slap by the Tamil group, who were dying to do so, there would be a mighty commotion all over the island.

 When the Kurundi stupa was getting excavated and conserved, there were two earlier functions where also Santhabodhi, who had pioneered the work, was asked to stay away .He watched the proceedings from the army camp.  This was also done to prevent anything bad happening.

Far too much recognition has been given to the Tamil Separatist Movement where Kurundi is concerned. They have nothing to do with Kurundi and their objections should have been firmly crushed. Instead, the Tamil opposition to Kurundi has been recognized and even dignified.

Udaya Gammanpila strongly supported Kurundi, when Kurundi badly needed support. Then in June 2023 he went to Kurundi where he met Raviharan. Television news showed them greeting each other cordially. Gammanpila told television news that the cultivation rights of the Tamils in Kurundi should also be looked after.

Bauddhaloka Foundation held an English language   webinar on Kurundi   in October 2023. https://youtu.be/Z9bzYgdFpAI. Bauddhaloka Foundation said they had received many requests for such a webinar especially from those living abroad.   There were two very comprehensive presentations   stating everything about Kurundi. Then came question time. There were no questions about Kurundi.   All the questions were slanted towards Hindu kovils.

First question was is there any plan to   include a Hind temple at Kurundi. Answer, there is discussion, but nothing has been decided.  Next question, how old is the kovil at Kurundi, what its history is   and what is being done for it.

 Answer from Department of Archaeology, Kurundi is in the middle of a 1600 acre forest.

There was no ancient Hindu temple there. The Hindu temple at Kurundi was started in 1981 when Cyril Mathew began to take as interest in Kurundi.  In this Hindu temple, they have placed part of a korowak gala for worship.

In the Bell report there was mention of a bull figure in Kurundi village. Was that found? Reply from Department of archaeology, we could not find a Kurundi village. Our work was confined to excavations at Kurundi temple. How close as the nearest village? It is more than 7 or 8 km away.

Next query, religious ceremonies were held before they started excavation at Kurundi. Was this also done before excavation at Hindu temples in Sri Lanka? Answer, Yes, we have started conserving two Hindu temples at Pooneryn and we had Hindu prayers before starting work.

Mention was made to the Hindu temple at Vallipuram, then to Tirukeethesvaram at Mantota. It was pointed out that Mantota   has a Buddhist temple and church as well. Recent attempts to expand the buildings of the church and Buddhist temple were halted by the Department of Archaeology.

The last speaker clinched the issue. He introduced himself as   Dharmakulasingham, a retired foreign service officer. He had earlier lived in Colombo. Kurundi, he said, is a simple issue made big by interested parties. The Tamil political parties have made a big issue out of this small matter. There is sufficient archaeological evidence, so why was it allowed to become an issue.  Why the correct situation was not presented at the start, he asked.

 A very small thing has been made big and the western media have taken it up as discrimination against the Tamils. .This has happened because the proper representaiotn was not made at the correct place at the correct time, he concluded. Tamils are a small population living among a much larger Sinhala population, he added.

Hindu temples belonged to two categories, one where there was a Brahmin priest to conduct the ritual of the temple. these are less than a thousand in number. Other small temples were under rule of madaalayam where no Brahmin poosaries and pandarams officiated. My impression was that more than 70% of the Hindu temples were these, said K.C.Logesawaran.  These temples were not rich. Colombo and Jaffna temples in contrast had rich and powerful devotees.

In India courts have ruled that   Hindu temples belong to the gods, in Sri Lanka courts have ruled that the Hindu temples belong to the trustees, said K. Kanag Iswaran. In Jaffna the ownership of the Hindu temple is vested not in the priests but in the persons who built the temple and pays for the rites, observed B Pfaffenberger. The trusteeship of the kovil stays with the family throughout        generations. it was a very lucrative trusteeship.  The owner of the temple got all the donations, which came not only from worship but also requests for passing exams and other such requests.

There is no legal provision for registering Hindu temples, said K.C.Logesawaran. The Buddhist lobby should call for control over the building of Hindu kovils in Sri Lanka. The kovils should be registered and there should be a register of kovils   maintained by the Department of Hindu Religious and Cultural Affairs

Jude Lal Fernando has spoken of the need to introduce special laws to govern the construction of religious sites as there are hundreds of such constructions. Demands to remove them have led to religious disharmony in the country he said. (continued)