KAMALIKA PIERIS

Kurundi is set deep in the Nagacholai Forest reserve. Santhabodhi thera said that a large extent of Nagacholai forest surrounding the Kurundi Vihara was illegally cleared in 2019 and 2020 and five acres were turned into paddy fields. The Kurundi pond was enlarged into a lake to make sure that it could not be treated as a pond belonging to a monastery.

Sashi Kumar, a powerful person” who owns over 100 acres of paddy fields in Mullativu had carried out the task. Valuable trees such as kalumadiriya, ebony, were cut down and burnt.  Archaeology Department and Forest Department   complained to the police about this.

Santhabodhi said that they have filed a case against those who had cleared the land and enlarged the pokuna. The case is going on, he said in 2023. They have accepted that they are at fault. They have no documents to support what they did. At least three cases are still pending at the Mullaitivu Courts, noted Sunday Times in June 2023.

The Tamil Separatist Movement has its own story, regarding this matter. Sunday Times   was told that in 2013, Mullativu farmers had returned to their 15 acres of paddy fields   and cultivated them for two years. This land is now being claimed by the Archaeology Department, they complained.  They also said that they had been intimidated by the army and a group of Buddhist monks who claimed that the land belonged to a Buddhist shrine.

The Kurundi team   dismissed this story as a fabricated one. There is no long history of cultivation by farmers in the disputed area, no evidence of cultivation at all,  they said.   The disputed area is pure forest reserve. Aerial views of the Nagacholai Forest   confirm this. The deforested ‘paddy land’ is the only flat land in the area. It stands out. It is very conspicuous.

TNA MP Sumanthiran said that that Tamils have been cultivating paddy in Kurundi for centuries. This is a blatant lie, said Santhabodhi. There are no paddy lands here, and no people who have been farming for hundreds of years.  There are no human settlements anywhere near Kurundi. The nearest village is 6 kms away.

The ‘paddy land’ Sumanthiran is referring to is illegally cleared forest land, turned into paddy lands. However,   no paddy cultivation has taken place. Eka vee  etayak vath ne.  Instead in 2020 we saw bulldozers  parked  there.    Ven Ellawala  Medhananda  supports  this argument. He had   done archaeological research at Mullativu before the war, during the war (under military protection) and after the war. He   said that  there were  no paddy lands near the Kurundi Vihara.  He dismissed the claim.

The  Tamil Separatist Movement   now plans  to encircle Kurundi ,   so that Kurundi cannot expand  into a monastery. The idea of surrounding a Buddhist temple is not a new one . The tactic has been going on for some time.  In Colombo certain Buddhist temples are  encircled  by Muslim owned buildings.

Tamil Separatist Movement plans to confine Kurundi to its original 78  acre plot. TNA MPs  said that  they  do not challenge the original gazetting of 78 acres of land   as an archaeological reserve. They object to proposed new  acquisition of 229 acres of surrounding land.

Suresh Kumar  said the same thing. Suresh Kumar  is determined to stay in the picture. He met the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya delegation when they came on an inspection tour  to Kurundi in June 2023.  He   said that  they had no objection to the 78 acres already given to Kurundi, but they objected to further expansion.

Tamil Separatist Movement has decided to get hold of the extra  229 acres now requested by Kurundi. TNA said that    they had  been promised 229 acres of land from Thannimurippu. Clearly this is the 229 acres now requested by Kurundi. They said that the Director General of the Archaeology  had agreed at a meeting, to withdraw the directive seeking to acquire an additional 229 acres but  did not do so .  He did not handover the land either.

Sunday Times  looked at this. The newspaper reported,  that on March 13 , Director General of Archaeology had sent a request for a Survey Order to the Divisional Secretary of Maritimepattu, Mullaitivu seeking assistance to survey a new area of 229 acres of surrounding Kurundi temple in order to declare it as an archaeological reservation since archaeological artifacts had been found in the area.

Internal written communiqués between the Mullaitivu District Secretariat and Maritimepattu Divisional Secretariat seen by  Sunday Times indicate it was decided to survey five acres of additional land for the use of the Department of Archaeology. The decision, the written directives noted, was based on a decision taken during the District Development Committee meeting held on January 15 which was chaired by President Wickremasinghe, concluded Sunday Times.

In June 2023, TNA  decided to use the President Ranil Wickremasinghe  to put a stop to Kurundi expansion.  President  Wickremasinghe  had supported Tamil Separatist Movement during the Eelam war. He supported  the Ceasefire Agreement  which gave the LTTE  full power in the north and east. He was also involved in the Millennium City raid which cruelly     exposed the army’s intelligence network. LTTE had always wanted to crush this  network.

The TNA were sure that President Ranil Wickremasinghe  would support them this time too. TNA  asked  the President  to summon the Archaeology department officers for a meeting and briefed him as to what he  should say. TNA wanted him to  ask two   questions. why this sudden  interest in the Buddhist remains in the north and east    and why  demand such a vast extend of land  for Kurundi..

President Ranil Wickremasinghe  duly called a meeting with the Archaeology Department officials  on July 8, 2023. He wanted  to know  why this  sudden emphasis on the Buddhist ruin in the north and east.

Director General, Archaeology ,  Anura Manatunga, explained that no archaeological work had been done in north and east due to the war. they were now  making up for lost time.  It was not special attention. President   Wickremasinghe replied that the Department of Archaeology  should forget North and east and do Maha vihara, Malvatu oya  then Dimbulagala and  Magama.  He  also wanted the Archaeology Department to forward an annual plan for excavation, presumably for approval.

Manatunga also added that as the Department funds were not sufficient to do excavations, the department accepted financial support from third parties  including the sangha, to carry out its work in North and Eastern provinces.  President cracked down on this. He said that a government department like the Archaeology department must not used private funds, it can  only use   government funds.

President  then questioned the extra    229 acres  for Kurundi. Kurundi cannot possibly extend to  300 acres. That was more  than  the extent of  land  held by Maha vihara, Jetavana and Abhayagiri combined in Anuradhapura .Impossible he said. He wanted  the Kurundi request for 229 acres withdrawn and the boundary stones removed.

This discussion, shown on  television news, excited comment. Viewers  were contemptuous  about the reference to  temples in Anuradhapura . The land extent would have been limited  for any temple In the capital city of Anuradhapura.  Kurundi is a monastic complex   outside the capital city, said critics scornfully.      

Others were concerned about the whole meeting.  Ven  Medagoda Abeyratne  stated that the Archaeology department  had been asked to remove the  boundary stones. This is Pera nimithi. We now see what it  is ahead for us, he said. He also met the Malwatte and Asgiriya  high priests, regarding the matter. The Archaeology Department had been told to remove the boundary stones, he reported. This indicates  a greater    danger to come, he said. They are getting ready to violate the Antiquities Act.

Ven. Omalpe Sobitha said President  was helping the Tamil Separatist  cause.  the Tamil Separatist Movement is now getting ready to destroy the  ancient Buddhist vihara using the President .  Gombaddala  Damitha said that they were now trying to get what they  failed get  through war, the control over land . Pahiyangala Ananda said that  the  law suits initiated by the Tamil Separatist Movement regarding Kurundi are not going  their way. That is why they want to get this land soon.

One aspect of this matter  has so far  escaped attention. The Tamil Separatist Movement has long known about Kurundi and  has anticipated that the Department of Archaeology would descend on it someday.

Kurundi was not reachable  for the Buddhists  during the Eelam war but it was accessible for the Tamil Separatist Movement. Tamil Separatists have gone there ,probably just after the war and   taken a good look around Kurundi. They would have  inspected the ruins,  seen their  potential  for a Buddhist revival,  and decided to  take over the site. This is evident in their actions.

In Kurundi there is an area which was given over to metal production, probably iron manufacture .It Is precisely this area that has been deforested and turned into paddy fields and the soil stacked elsewhere. This cannot be accidental.

The Tamil Separatist Movement has explored  the Buddhist  ruins thoroughly. They  decided that the most important building would have been the pilimage,  located it and damaged it.  The most damage is found in the pilimage said the archaeologists.The pilimage has been destroyed in a  violent manner, excavators  said.   The Buddha statue  found there  has been deliberately  damaged, in a ‘sahasika’ manner. The damaged  items were shown on television news.  In a newly cemented area,inside  the pilimage, the Tamil Separatist Movement has placed a trident to show the existence of  an ancient  kovil. They have used  the ancient  korovak gala for the kovil. 

Unfortunately for the Tamil Separatist Movement , the old emphasis on the  pilimage no longer exists. Today,  it is the chaitya and the Bo tree that are objects of worship. Therefore the focus today is  on the   Kurundi  stupa. Buddhists are waiting  to go and worship there, once it is completed. Tamil Separatist Movement  is  alarmed.  (continued)