KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Tamil Separatist Movement has tried to dislodge Sinhala settlements and the accompanying Buddhist temples    introduced to the north after the war. In 2009 57 Buddhist families were brought in and settled in Navatkuli.   Navatkuli is located 6 km from Jaffna. They were Sinhala families that had been driven out of Jaffna in 1984 and 1990. 

There was a fairly large Sinhalese community in Jaffna at the time. The Jaffna Sinhala Vidyalaya had 250 students. Life was pleasant with the Tamils and Sinhalese getting along like one family. Our family had roots in Maniyamthottam and Kankesanthurai and I knew Jaffna district like the back of my hand,” said one returnee, Malkanthi.   Eight generations of her family had lived in Jaffna.  

We are now granted this land and 57 families received around 20 perches each,” said Malkanthi. We came here in 2010. We gathered all Sinhalese who once lived in Jaffna and those who wanted to live here once again by placing a newspaper advertisement. For three months we stayed at the Jaffna railway station. We then occupied this land, she said.

 There were a hundred people with me. I lived in a hut for almost a year. Thereafter we received a donation from a Sinhala philanthropist. Later, with the support of the Buddhist priest, who also took up residence here, we started to construct our houses. We live here now without any problem. I have got a 15-perch plot for my son and I am now in the process of applying for assistance to construct a toilet,” says Malkanthi. Sharma, her sister-in-law, who had come for a visit from Anuradhapura, agrees and says she, too, wants to apply for land in Jaffna.

But the Tamil public turned against this community. Demonstrations were organized against the settlers,     led by Tamil politicians S.Sritharan and Suresh Premachandran, who said this was government-sponsored Sinhala colonization.  Navatkuliya Sri Samiddhi Sumana Viharaya was constructed in 2013.  It was promptly bombed.

 In 2017   the residents wanted to start work on a new stupa.The Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha refused permission. The Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha filed the case against the construction of the Chaitya.  It was taken up for hearing at the Chavakachcheri Magistrate’s Court. Chavakachcheri Magistrate S. Chandrasekeran ordered the Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha to permit the construction of the temple’s stupa without any hindrance. Her verdict was publicly applauded by the Sangha. The Magistrate has said that she respects Buddhism even though she is a Hindu devotee, reported Ven. Sooriyawewa Sumedha.

We next turn to Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya, located in the village of Chemmalai, Mullativu near the Nayaru lagoon. Archaeological Department  had   found ruins of a monastery. They found remains of a stupa, bricks, roof tiles and pot shards. They dated the temple to Anuradhapura period.

Gurukanda had been vandalized. .A new road had been constructed through the middle of the monastery grounds. One stupa had been deliberately bulldozed. It had a diameter of 10 meters and bricks of varying size. However,   a new Buddhist temple has been built on the site on top of an ancient stupa.  

On 14 January 2019 a group of a group of 200     protestors led by TNA’s  T. Raviharan stormed the Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya,claiming that the temple had been built on a land belonging to Hindu devotees. They shouted abuse at the Chief monk Ven. Mihindupura Ratanadevakitti.

They demanded the deeds of the temple. The Buddhists could complain to any one they liked but they would not allow the Gurukanda temple to function,   they said . They began digging to construct a Hindu temple inside the temple premises.The mob threatened to cause bodily harm to  Ven.  Ratanadevakitti.   If the chief priest disturbed the day to day affairs of the kovil, he would be killed, together with all present there. 

The mob was so strong that the police found it extremely difficult to bring the situation under control.  The intruders attempted to snatch the mobile phones of  those who were videoing the scene.  

The police filed action against both parties for disturbing peace.  The police had informed the magistrate that a group had forcibly entered the temple on 14 January 2019 & attempted to lay a foundation stone to construct a kovil inside the temple premises.

Mullaitivu magistrate ordered the construction work on Gurukanda vihara to be temporarily  stopped. Mullaitivu police were deployed round the premises.The Mullaitivu police dismantled the CCTV cameras installed at the Viharaya .the CCTV system had been installed by a private company as a security measure since the Chief  monk did not live in the temple.

Director General of Archeology, A B Mandawela summoned before the Magistrate, told  court that Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya had a history of over 2,000 years with  many Buddhist artifacts and an ancient monastery. It definitely was a Buddhist temple. The land on either side of the Kokilai-Mullaitivu road are Buddhist sacred archaeological sites including the Gurukanda Raja Maha Viharaya..The Commissioner of Archaeology explicitly told the Magistrate it was against the law to build a Hindu place of worship in a place where there was an ancient Buddhist temple.  

Suren Raghavan  had  this to say . The boundary of the temple was under dispute. Though  the Gazette notification of 2016 said the temple was an archaeological site, the boundary was not mentioned. A problem arose when new measurements were taken to mark the boundary.  While the measuring was going on, ‘both parties had a debate  regarding their historical heritages.” There was an army camp there during the war.  They had a set of buildings which they had handed over to the chief priest, added  Raghavan.  

Gurukande Viharaya had been forcibly constructed between 2004 and 2009 when no civilian was permitted to visit the area, said TNA MP Sampanthan in Parliament.  More recently an attempt was made to restore that temple. This led to unrest in that area between the people who are all non-Buddhists and the monks who had come there. Upon this matter being reported to the relevant Magistrate, an order was made prohibiting the reconstruction of the temple.  Ven. Ratanadevakitti has  filed an application in the Provincial High Court    in Vavuniya, Sampanthan said.

Buddhist monks headed by Ven.Ahungalle Jinananda  are proceeding to file criminal charges against TNA’s Raviharan & others too under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)   said   Shenali Waduge.

The modus operandi  of the Tamil Separatist Movement in the matter of new Buddhist temples is now  clear. Place a rival kovil beside any Buddhist temple, ancient or new, which is under expansion in the north. Then rapidly expand the Kovil so that the Buddhist structures get dwarfed. These kovils will be quickly accepted  by Buddhists. They will  visit these new  kovils very readily  and emerge happily with ash  on their foreheads.  ( continued)