CAVE TEMPLES ,BUDDHIST MONKS ,CATHOLIC CHURCHES AND MOSQUES
Posted on July 12th, 2017
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
I read with intrigue about the income generates in Damubulle Cave Temple by charging exorbitant amounts from Foreigners. It seems that temple care takers have been also running TV stations .Income generated by the temple should be used for betterment of Buddhist Temples and the poor people in the world .Unfortunately the monks in charge of these temples have been collecting and stashing the donations .When you go to the cave temple one or two caretakers loiter around and foreigners keep touching and some times leaning against statues ,posing for photos and nobody strictly follow the rules .
Even though I am a Buddhist I have visited Kochikade Church in Colombo and Indigolle church in Gampaha where you could see many Buddhist and none Buddhist visitors patronize in large numbers They do not charge entry fees ,but there is a sizeable collection of donations collected in the tills .
Quote
According to a Vatican report, in 2007, donations amounted to $79,837,843. In 2006, it was $101,900,192. The United States was the biggest donor, giving some 28% of the total, followed by Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Brazil and South Korea. In 2008, donations totaled $75.8 million, $82,529,417 in 2009, $67,704,416.41 in 2010 and $69,711,722.76 in 2011. These monies are used to fund the mission of the Vatican and its work throughout the world among the needy.
Unquote
I asked a Catholic friend of mine about the way they manage the collections ,and I was told that every church in the world has to keep strict accounts and inform Vatican about the income. Vatican decides where the money should go for propagation of religion or building more churches .
Quote from
Although Sri Lanka is a secular state, the new Constitution re-emphasises that Buddhism is the state religion and belief in the concept of Buddhist supremacy remains widespread.Buddhist monks, who are influential in the villages, are the main source of persecution for Christians. Services and prayer meetings have been stopped and church buildings attacked by mobs, often led by Buddhist monks. Pastors are most vulnerable. Pressure is also felt by believers from Buddhist, Muslim or Hindu backgrounds who are seen as traitors and consequently subjected to physical and verbal assaults.”
Unquote
There was another paper advertisement in where London Muslim Collective asking for Sakat ^ for various services in Muslims in other countries Rohingya muslims in Burma who have been persecuted by Buddhist was one sector they watred to help in addition to sending money to Palestine
Quote
Muslim Aid on the ground:
- Building 5,000 homes in addition to 300 homes built earlier this year
- Rebuilt and refurbished 6 schools
- Built two health clinics in Sittwe
- Providing education to over 8700 children every year
The people of Myanmar desperately need your help!”
Unquote
Should our Buddhist monks can think of using the income to be used for a society where they are needed where Buddhists are persecuted ?
They try to meddle in politics and completely forgot about their mission as preached by Buddha ?
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
July 12th, 2017 at 4:36 pm
The UNP let Catholic Govt has now shut down the Dambulla Temple which provides a good income for the Buddhist priests since they did not cooperate with them on the new Constitution. The Dambulla temple has been very well maintained by the priests. The Buddhists have been persecuted from 1505 when the Catholic Portuguese first came to Sri Lanka. Along the coast, many who did not convert were put to the sword. Many of the best Buddhist temples were pulled down and thousands of Ola leaves were set on fire. A lot of Knowledge of Ayurveda medicines and Buddhist Knowledge was as a result lost to our people. When the British came it was the same. They opened Missionary Schools to convert the Heathens to their Mythology of a merciful God in Heaven. Many of our people converted for economic gain and are still doing so. The truth is the first victim when it comes to profit.
July 12th, 2017 at 11:43 pm
මා පුරාවිද්‍යා උපදේසන සභාවෙන් ඉවත්කරලා
වසර 40 කට ආසන්න කාලයක් පුරාවිද්‍යා උපදේශක සභාවේ සාමාජිකත්වය දැරූ තමන් වහන්සේ එම උපදේශක සභාවෙන් වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුවේ බලධාරින් විසින් ඉවත්කර ඇතැයි පුරාවිද්‍යා චක්‍රවර්ති එල්ලාවල මේධානන්ද හිමියෝ පවසති.
ජනාධිපති ජේ.ආර් ජයවර්ධන මහතාගේ සමයේ සිට තමන් වහන්සේ පුරාවිද්‍යා උපදේශක සභාවේ සිටි නමුත් වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව පත්වූ පසු තමන්ගේ නම උපදේශක සභාවෙන් කපාහැර ඇති බවත් මේධානන්ද හිමියෝ පවසති.
වසර 62 ක කාලයක සිට පුරාවිද්‍යා ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ නියලෙමින් උතුරු නැගෙනහිර ඇතුලු රටේ අස්සක් මුල්ලක් නෑර පුරාවිද්‍යා පර්යේෂණ කළ තමන්ට උපදේශක සභාවේ සාමාජිකත්වය නැතිවීම පිළිබද කිසිදු කණගාටුවක් නැති බව උන්වහන්සේ කියති.
ජේතවනය, අභයගිරි, මිරිසවැටිය, අවුකන ආදී සංරක්ෂණ කටයුතු පිළිබඳව උපදේශකවරයෙකු වශයෙන් කැපවීමෙන් කටයුතු කළ තමන් වහන්සේ කිසිදු විටක තනතුරු සොයා හඹා නොයන බවද පවසති. අවුරුදු 40 ක් පමණ උපදේශක සභාවේ සිටි තමන්ගේ සේවය තවදුරටත් අනවශ්‍ය බව වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුවේ බලධාරින් තීරණය කළේ කුමන හේතුවක් නිසා දැයි නොදන්නා බවද මේධානන්ද හිමියෝ පවසති.
මේ දිනවල දඹුලු විහාරයේ ප්‍රශ්නය පිළිබඳ පුරාවිද්‍යා උපදේශක සභාවේ මතය ගැන බොහෝ දෙනා තමන් වහන්සේගෙන් විමසුවත් එම සභාවෙන් ඉවත් කර ඇති නිසා ඊට පිළිතුරු දිය නොහැකි බව උන්වහන්සේ කියති. එසේම තමන් වහන්සේගේ පුරාවිද්‍යා ගවේෂණ කටයුතු තව දුරටත් සිදුකරමින් යන බවද උන්වහන්සේ වැඩිදුරටත් පැවසති.
ජනක හෙට්ටිආරච්චි
July 13th, 2017 at 3:35 am
Religions in some silly countries are big business that rake in money from the stupid people.It gives jobs and the government must cash in by taxing this winfdfall.These establishments must not play silly buggers making it sacred and strangling the people and their daily business with absurd restrictions of any kind. To do so is to prove that we are utterly stupid and ignorant.
Maligawa is big business for some and obstacle for people in Kandy and an insult to Lord Buddha.I blame the British for sanctifying that criminal and once Dravidian place by bringing the relics in 1828 with the first perahara.I like the Perhara,reason I am so attached to my country, reason to get my foreign friends to meet.
July 13th, 2017 at 5:44 am
All this is done by the catholic run UNPatriotic Party to destroy Buddhism in Sri Lanka. They know this is the best time
since the biggest traitor ever in the history of Sri Lanka traitor chief die hard catholic token Buddhist Bay Gal
Karaya Mega Thief Batalande Wadakaya the Cancer in Mother Lanka Pol Pot r@nil wickrmaSinhalakiller is at the
helm. So they imprisoned Buddhist monks, tried to stop Kandy perehara, closed Dambulla Temple etc, etc.
All these anti Buddhist activities going on rattle snake traitor maru sira looks on helplessly. Now his main fear is
how to save his pathetic life once he was thrown out. While churches, mosques have a free reign catholic run
UNPatriotic Party wants to destroy all the Buddhist temples. Still greedy Sinhala deshapaluwan keeping quiet
since they are there to make as much money as possible. So the destruction goes unabated. Meanwhile traitor
brainless Sinhala modayas revere the monster, the Cancer in Mother Lanka! Sri Lanka Sinhala modayas’ paradise!
What these catholic run UNPatritoics don’t understand is they are destroying the only true religion in the world.
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is accepted by all the people who have brain cells >0 to be true. It says
there is no creator god, no messenger! Believe/don’t believe? So all these god based religions guys in fact going
on a wrong road to reach their desired destination. If they are going on the wrong road, are they going to get there?
You do your maths. So the Batalande Wadakaya and co not going to be two legged creatures in the next life. Most probably be
foxes! Batalande Wadakay do one good thing in your life at least. You going to be cursed by generations current and future! One treachery was abolishing state pension. You going to be cursed for millions of years for that alone! Happy? They will even curse your grave when the pensioners are begging on the streets!
July 13th, 2017 at 6:16 am
Handy work by the catholic run UNPatriotic party to ‘promote’ Buddhism, Sinhalese race and Sri Lanka.
http://ltte-christian-ties.blogspot.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV6_o9txURc
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/05/christianizing-of-sri-lanka-unps-betrayal-of-buddhism/
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/05/27/ranil-wickremasinghes-new-unp-3/
http://www.lankagrid.com/soma-thero/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_eJ1gX_fuU
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/09/26/ltte-terrorism-church-links-can-someone-explain-these-photos/