Will Sri Lanka too end up a ‘Once Buddhist’ nation?
Posted on February 24th, 2017

Shenali D Waduge

It is a tragic state of affairs when an island nation boasting a written history of over 2600 years held together by Sinhalese Buddhist kings, a nation built by a clear majority would need to appeal to the world feeling alienated by a wave of systematic incursions. That fear stems from the realization that Sri Lanka may face the same predicament that befell all other once Buddhist nations which are today either Islam or Christian as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Maldives, South Korea, Indonesia and probably Myanmar and Thailand will be in time to come. Now attempts are afoot to expunge that history and instil a new artificial identity (Sri Lankan) which has no language, culture or history. Why is the world silent on the genocide of one of the most profound religions’ in the world and an ethnic group that should be protected? Buddhists are expected to look the other side, be ‘tolerant’ while the Buddhist heritage & history is expunged & replaced. How morally correct is this?

The incursions taking place in Sri Lanka has world approval by their silence. Religions that had not even been invented when Buddhists were worshiping these are sites are now claiming rights to these places that had been revered by Buddhists. These have turned into multicultural sites and are now being incrementally usurped with false histories.

Should we be passive onlookers and watch centuries of history and heritage be wiped out and replaced?

Of course, the moment fears are presented the automatic reactions is to either shoot down the messenger as being extremist, racist, fundamentalist or similar names or have a few write ups preaching peaceful coexistence to allay the fears and in turn brush the warning signals under the carpet.

This way, valid questions about the incursions, encroachment on Buddhist temple lands, bribing of officials to take sacred land areas, historically non-existent mosques and Churches emerging, use of loud speakers at mosques to drive non-Buddhists away are quietly shoved to a corner.

No majority Buddhist country has treated non-Buddhists as Hindus, Islam, Christianity/Catholicism are being treated in Sri Lanka. Show us one non-Buddhist majority country that has given Buddhists the same freedoms that all the minorities presently enjoy in Sri Lanka inclusive of the ever rising number of religious structures they put up legally & illegally.

However, it is no exaggeration that the only party expected to compromise are the Buddhists for every issue. These demands have been unrelenting and unreasonable. Today, a bunch of foreign funded NGOs have been tasked to draw up the country’s new constitution with their sole aim being to wipe out the historic status of Buddhism and subject it to ceremonial purposes by using foreign funded propaganda to hit at every Buddhist associated ritual and culture and demand its removal – the attempt to remove the perahera elephants using the bogey of animal cruelty was one such attempt exposed in time.

Simple questions end up being twisted to hide the objective. The question with regard to halal certification was simple. If Muslims had eaten food without halal label for centuries why was there a sudden need for a private institute to charge a fee to issue halal certificates on all food items purchased by the whole populace? Import-Export to Muslim countries had been taking place for centuries without halal labels! Was this not a business venture riding on religious rights??? Halal is also not consistent with Coke/Pepsi both of which have 0.001$ alcohol which is one of the most fast moving soft drinks consumed by Muslims.

New dress practices are not religious rights. Cultural practices are not religious rights. Commercial leverages are also not religious rights. Politicizing issues cannot be religious rights too.

All that Government authorities had to do was to give the historical timelines and say Look, these sites were Buddhist thousand years before Islam or Christianity was invented, how right is it to claim them as your own!” The ignorance of historical timelines is the cause of much of the unnecessarily politicized friction.

Politicians have also failed to show that Muslims never owned land during times of the Buddhist kings not even during colonial rule. Muslims owned land only after 1832. Robert Knox and Portuguese historian Queyroz can be quoted as evidence Besides the Dutch who possess, as I judg, about one fourth of the Island, there are Malabars, that are free Denizons and pay duty to the King for the Land they enjoy, as the Kings natural Subjects do; there are also Moors, who are like Strangers, and hold no Land, but live by carrying goods to the Sea-Ports, which now are in the Hollanders hands.” (Robert Knox)

If Christian countries can take State measures to protect its Christian history & heritage. If Muslim countries does the same. Why does the world feel

it must object to Sri Lanka protecting its Buddhist past?

should Sri Lankan politicians feel shy about introducing protection & preservation of its Buddhist past?

Of course, the majority Sinhala Buddhists have lost faith in all ‘Buddhist leaders’ for they all end up falling for the perks and offerings from minorities who are backed by a plethora of foreign sources.

Post-independent governments have failed to clearly articulate that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist nation. The Buddhist roots cannot be marginalized or replaced. That history cannot be removed by replacing an artificial Sri Lankan identity which is currently in vogue. Sri Lankan identity has no language, no culture – no criteria that advocates an identity of a country. The quest has been to remove the place of Buddhism and the slogans secular, multicultural, multifaith are ploys used for that objective.

No country can have a future without knowing its past. Many countries do not have proud histories. Most countries of the world were occupied, invaded territories which were partitioned and turned into new countries after colonization. Most countries of the world have been subject to artificial boundaries. Sri Lanka is an exception as it is an island nation. At no time was Sri Lanka merged with any other territory. The Sinhalese withstood invasions of South Indians and the 3 European occupiers. It was only as a result of selfish local chieftans that the island was handed over to foreign rulers. This proud past cannot be forgotten other countries do not have such memories to be proud of which is probably why they want us to forget ours.

Communities that were invited, protected by the Sinhale kings are now making aggressive demands. It goes to show how treatment in reverse happens. Majority protected minorities – Minorities demand the end of the Majority.

The minorities demand that the majority must live according to their whims and fancies – where in the world does such happen? The majority are expected to look the other way, silently watch as all their boundaries are crossed and turned into either Hindu, Islamic, Catholic/Christian domains. The majority are not expected to even object and the moment they do the whole world comes down calling them all sorts of names and the latest tactic is to get a handful of namesake Buddhists to run down their own people, for lavish payments of course!

There are reasons for Buddhists of Sri Lanka to fear. Maldives is one good example where its Buddhist history was expunged and replaced with only Islamic history. The Dhanbidhū Lōmāfānu copperplates in Maldives dates to 1193AD and shows how Buddhist monks were beheaded and mosques built on top of Buddhist monuments.

Islam’s iconoclasm entails the destruction of all non-Islamic sites. These are no exaggerations. The manner Islamic invaders destroyed all non-Islamic sites is a perfect example. The importance of the example of Bamiyan Buddhas is that there had been numerous attempts by Islamic invaders from Aurangzeb since 17th century to destroy these statues and succeeded only in 2001.

Mullah Omar states Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. It has given praise to God that we have destroyed them”. The response of the Afghan Foreign Minister was ‘we are destroying the statues in accordance with Islamic law and it is purely a religious issue’. Destroying non-Islamic religious statues is Islamic law and that explains the attacks on Buddhist temples in Bangladesh and Maldives. Does that not merit us in Sri Lanka to worry too? Are we exaggerating or should we too wait in silence until what happened in Bangladesh, Maldives and Afghanistan to happen to our ancient and proud statues in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Dambulla, Kelaniya etc!

What good is an apology after a monument of pride has been destroyed. Can it ever be replaced with an apology? Why must people destroy what is precious to a community that built the island?

Therefore, when Sinhalese Buddhist convey their fears – there is a valid reason to do so. They cannot be asked to keep silent and bury their heads as ostriches and expect to get accolades as a ‘tolerant’ and ‘compassionate’ religion while incursions and destructions are taking place.

Yes, ours is not a faith-based religion, ours is a compassionate philosophy giving life to all including animals but that compassion cannot be taken as our weakness and used against us. Many namesake Buddhists are yet to understand the real teachings of Buddha, which is one reason why they too get trapped into the secular slogans and ideology.

The facts speak for themselves. It is unfortunate that politicians have failed to put these facts on the table.

The nation was built not by Christians/Muslims or Hindus. If so, show the evidence not stories. The Sinhala Buddhist past can be seen at every corner of the island.

The architectural, man-made irrigational marvels of Anuradhapura that no other civilization has matched were built long before Islam even originated. It now emerges that iron technology too developed in our island.

Even after systematic destruction of Buddhist monasteries, temples and statues by South Indian invaders and the 3 colonial rulers a significant number of Buddhist structures exists to showcase the extent of Sinhala Buddhist rule throughout the island. You can imagine the structures that would have existed had these not been destroyed.

The Sinhale kings ruled following the Laws of Manu. After Buddhism was introduced, Buddhist customary laws applied to all. There were no forced conversions. No other religions had to fear Buddhism nor did they have to convert. The teachings could be followed by people of other faiths without converting. No other religion gave right to life for animals and it was nothing that other religions could disagree or argue against. No Muslims demanded halal labels or right to animal slaughter during times of the Buddhist kings! Even the British agreed to maintain the status of Buddhism when the Kandyan Convention was signed in 1815. Buddhism has never defined non-Buddhists. No teachings of Buddha advocates how to treat non-Buddhists. However, Islam defines people as Infidels, Zimmis, Kafirs.

The minorities claim peaceful co-existence – how can they explain why they would pass resolutions demanding autonomy if so. How can they explain why they create ghetto minority areas and disallow others from taking residence. In 1976 Tamils passed Vaddukoddai Resolution. The Muslim Congress issued the Oluvil Declaration.

Just like all Tamils are not LTTE but all LTTE were Tamils. All Arabs were not Muslim and all Muslims were not Arabs. Yonas were Greeks not Muslims as is being projected. Arab Christians converted to Islam after the Islamic conquests. These facts all need to come into the open.

The world is in turmoil as a result of incursions. Incursions led to Brexit, it is why Trump came to power. It is why France will see a new leader and why Germany will also see distinct changes. The people of these countries are feeling the incursions and they do not like it. They are also angry at how later-day arrivals are calling the shots and making demands as to how the majority should live. This is exactly how the Sinhalese majority are today feeling. Older culture, traditions and history cannot be bulldozed and replaced with new versions. A nation is not a place for experiments by people who have no culture, history or personal integrity to be proud of.

The Sinhalese majority have never said other communities do not belong. They have never called for other communities to leave the island. All that the Sinhala majority say is that other communities need to respect and not incur upon Buddhist heritage sites and history.

The incursions taking place as a result, forces the majority to identify the Sinhale nation with other once Buddhist nations that were usurped as a result of those natives being asked to just look the other way.

Therefore, people should desist from twisting and turning the real grievances of the majority because all that the majority is trying to do is to preserve the older culture that has existed for over 2600 years against new cultures which are demanding the older culture be replaced with theirs.

 

Shenali D Waduge

10 Responses to “Will Sri Lanka too end up a ‘Once Buddhist’ nation?”

  1. Christie Says:

    The Sinhalese are loosing since 1956. Hardly any one will agree with me. It started with “Sri Lanka” Freedom Party. A party funded by Indian Colonial Parasites and the Indian Union.

  2. Ancient Sinhalaya Says:

    Sri Lanka is on its way to become a former Buddhist country. Mother Lanka has so many enemies and she is dying a slow death. Make matters worse there are too many enemies within. Her own. So many of them. Chief among them is the traitor chief die hard hard catholic token Buddhist Batalande Wadakaya pol pot r@nil wickramaSinhalakiller. Born to a staunch christian family, he adapted Buddhism to hoodwink Sinhala modayas. He has managed to do immense damage with this religion of convenience. He has managed to fool even leading Buddhist monks like thibbotte bathgotte devidaththara etc. He is still not finished by any means.

    Then there are a long list of enemies. Arjunaya durjanaya, one eyed bandit queen, kirixalla, cham pakaya, para
    jithaya, maru sira (who is the architect of current destruction of Sri Lanka, Sinhalese race and Buddhism by putting
    pol pot r@nil in the driving seat), somersaulting banda etc. etc. List goes on.

    Then the traitor foreigner lot who has more rights than the natives tamils, mussies spearheaded by pigneshwaran, r@sambanthan, bada udin, xxxkhim, etc. etc. Too many enemies to mention. Traitor tamils chanting national question national question getting more and more while destroying Sri Lanka home and abroad with the help of so called ‘refugees’ diasporats.

    Then Sri Lanka Multiplying Community mussie xxxx who multiply at alarming rate with their Baby Machine Wives. They multiply multiply and outnumber Sinhalese. Even the sanctuaries aren’t safe from multiplying xxxx since they need more and more space. Not a single Sinhalese deshapaluwa open their mouth to protest fearing losing their support in elections. Multiplication means more votes. Votes means mps, mayors, deputy ministers, ministers etc. etc. So all the Sinhalese deshapaluwan start licking their backsides for votes. So the rampaging mussies at it like rabbits.

    This is what they did in old Buddhist iran, afganisthan, pakesthan, maldives, bangladesh, malaysia and indonesia.
    Multiply, multiply and outnumber. Not just the religion of violence. Fastest breeding religion as well!
    Sinhala modayas still think it’s not going to happen to them. Being famous for modayas, nobody should be
    surprised.

    Most Sinhalese couples are working and struggles to bring up one child. Mussies, mainly in businesses, have Baby
    Machine Wive(s) parked at home producing lorry loads of mussie babies. Automatic birth control for the Sinhalese.
    Baby boom for the mussies. Government give them FREE Education, FREE medicine and encourage them to
    multiply. Only way to stop these multiplication is to stop free ed, free med after 2 children. Who is going to do it?
    Not a Sinhalese deshapaluwa. They are too busy plundering whatever they can and licking mussie backs for votes. Buddhism, Sinhalese race and Sri Lanka are doomed. Catholic run UNPatriotic party will only expedite the demise.

  3. Charles Says:

    Shenali, I think there is lot to be done by the Sri Lanka Buddhist Monks, to reorganise the Sasana in Sri Lanka. The monks should unite and make themselves an example before asking the so called Buddhist lay Leaders to protect Buddhism.

    Buddhists have lost their voice, what we hear is the voice of the Tamils, Muslims and Catholics above that of the Buddhists.

    Are we to say that it is a sign of impermance and leave it at that ?

  4. Fran Diaz Says:

    Our thanks to Shenali for this article !

    ————

    Buddhist Life Values are forever. Buddhism will never die.
    It is the Land called Lanka that has to be protected.

    To safeguard Lanka :

    * Lanka has to put Laws in place to safeguard the island from invasions and ‘divide & rule’ folk coming from within and outside. Is the political party system conducive to protecting Lanka ?
    * Govt held LAND has to be protected. The People of Lanka must participate to safeguard the LAND as all govt held LAND is common property of the People of Lanka.
    * Lanka must have Leaders who are proven PATRIOTS.

    Many more points ….

  5. Dr.K Says:

    Buddhism was introduced to this country as a religion that was nourished by ‘Maha Yana ” bikkus from India.

    BUT we Sri Lankans have enough evidence from the history as well as from the iconic historic artifacts to prove that the Gauthama Lord Buddha had been lived and served in this country through out his life time. The ‘Nirmala Buddhu Dahama’ was originated in this country.

    Now we need a leader who would protect the Sinhala nation and the ‘Buddhu Dahama from religions and NGOs. .

  6. Lorenzo Says:

    Which political party wants to give the SUPREME PLACE to Buddhism? NO ONE! We are FOOLING ourselves by running from one TAMIL APPEASING party to another.

    Only a MILITARY-SANGHA take over can save SL, Singhala identity and Buddhism (DESA, BASA, RESA).

    But Singhala people are modayas in the sense they cannot THINK beyond their GODS – RUN-NIL, MAHINDA and SIRISENA. Then they cry Buddhism is dying!! Of course it will DIE if this is the caliber of politicians you worship!!

    IF you want to SAVE Buddhism allow a MILITARY-SANGHA takeover.

    SECULAR = HINDU

    e.g. ENDIA

  7. Ananda-USA Says:

    Katussa (Lorenzo),

    BUT, BUt, But, but …… I thought YOUR New God was this very same Palwatte Gamaralage Maithripala Yapa Sirisena …. Aiyooooo Sirisena for short ….. whom you VOCIFEROUSLY SUPPORTED at LankaWeb?

    Have you ABANDONED YOUR Aiyooo Sirisena GOD for another now?

    Where is your brain man, if not your FIDELITY TO YOUR GOD?

    Switching your GOD every few months at the behest of your EELAMIST Masters of the TGTE is very unprincipled, don’t you think?

    BTW, how is your PhD in Kovil Management coming along? Dissertation on how to bathe Sivalingams in Milk still on track?

  8. AnuD Says:

    Destroy SLFP, UNP and JVP which destroy Sinhala buddhist vote and make one party aligned with Sinhala buddhists. But, it should not be a racist party in open.

  9. Fran Diaz Says:

    Sri Lanka, being a Buddhist country, has been very generous to the Tamil community of Lanka. After being under the Big Foot of Colonists for nearly 500 yrs, Lanka’s Buddhist population gave much to the Tamil community of Lanka. Buddhist kindness has been misused by Tamil Leaders who want to claim a separate State eventually for Tamils only. This was tied to Cold War politics, both by Tamil leaders, Tamll Nadu & IDIA.

    It is time for Sinhala Buddhists of Lanka to unite and safeguard their country from getting annihilated in fresh Cold Wars and Tamil leaders aspirations of Separatism. It is not too late. Loss of State held LAND must be stopped. Loss of jobs must be stopped too.

    Those who want to help Tamil Nadu are welcome to do so by going to TN and helpiing out with engineerings projects to overcome droughts and floods there.

  10. Fran Diaz Says:

    Correcting error : read as INDIA.

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