KAMALIKA PIERIS

 It is the bhikkhus who single handedly looked after neglected   Buddhist viharas whenever Buddhism was suppressed and lacked state support. They deserve special mention.

Bhikkhus looked after neglected viharas during the British administration. Ven.Dambagalle Ratanapala took up residence at Malayadi kanda vihara in 1912.  The stupa at Bellagama Raja Maha vihara was renovated in 1916 by Aralupitiye Sobhita.

A Sinhala monk” had discovered the ruins at Seruwila Mangala Viharaya in 1922, moaned the Tamil Separatist Movement. At the time, the area was inhabited by Tamils, Muslims and Veddahs. The vihara was rebuilt in 1930. The stupa and its surroundings, including several monuments, cover approximately 85 acres and it was declared as an Archaeological Reserve in 1962. 

Ven. Kudakongaskade Wimalagnana went to Tantirimale and started the restoration of Tantirimale vihara around 1962, with the support of the GA, Anuradhapura. The young priest proved to be a brave and courageous innovator, recalled   UB Wijekoon. He carried out   a well thought out programme for the development of the whole Tanthirimale area.

Bhikkhus knew that ancient” Hindu kovils built in British times, were trying to oust Buddhist temples. In August 1968, a group of prominent Hindus representing several Hindu organizations wrote to Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake requesting that Fort Fredrick area be declared a sacred area on account of the historic Koneswaran Temple being located there. The appointment of the committee on ‘Declaration of Fort Fredrick of Trincomalee, a Sacred Area’ was gazetted on 27 August 1968.  

On 30 August the Ven. Mangalle Dharmakirti and   Ven.Dambagasare Sumedhankara of Tammankaduwe lodged a protest with Prime Minister Senanayake. They said that with Koneswaram becoming a sacred area, an ancient place of Buddhist worship” would get into the hands of those who are neither Sinhalese nor Buddhists”.  Widespread agitation was threatened if the project was not shelved immediately.  Prime Minister vehemently denied that Fort Fredrick area was going to be declared a Hindu sacred area. Fort Fredrick was under the Defence Ministry, he said. 

Ven. Ellawala Medhananda provided information on the bhikkhus who bravely went into the Eastern Province during the Eelam war (1983-2009) and tried to look after the Buddhist temples there.  Bhikkhus tried to save these Buddhist ruins by setting up avasa on the premises. 

Medhananda met several lone bhikkhus who were trying to look after these Buddhist temples in the east. Most of them gave up and left after some time, but the resident monk at the Neelapola temple, stayed in the area throughout the war and encouraged his followers also to stay.

When I visited Veheragama in 1986 , there was one priest, Baddegama Chandavimala residing there, with much difficulty. He was   reestablishing the shrine. He started a daham pasala, said Medhananda. I visited Bollagama Raja maha vihara in 2011. This vihara had no support, the villagers were too poor. Despite this,   Kekirihene Seelavansa is keeping the temple going.  

Pallegalauda Mettananda set up an awasa in 1991 at Kuda Sigiriya .  At Namalu vihara (near Heda oya, on boundary of Ampara and Moneragala) a monk had settled by the stupa in a small hut.  A monk has settled at Maha kachcha kodiya vihara, Vavuniya and was struggling to survive, continued Medhananda.

When monks try to settle in the Eastern Province, they are harassed and they run away, said Medhananda. At Niyaguna kanda vihara in Ampara a monk had taken up abode in a Lena and the villagers were looking after him, now he is not there. onks had set up an avasa at Girikurumbika vihara, but now there is nothing. There was a monk at Kopavela vihara. He was a teacher at Serankada Vidyalaya. He has left, concluded Medhananda. A monk had once tried to live at Budu patum Kande. 

Bhikkhus moved into the temples in the north and east when the Eelam war ended in 2009. They revived neglected temples. The Seruwila Mangala Viharaya was re-opened in 2009. They built new temples such as Tissa Vihara in Kankesanturai.

The Tamil Separatist Movement strongly opposed the arrival of these bhikkhus into the north and east. Some overzealous Buddhist monks want to construct Buddhist temples in state land under the ruse the land is a Buddhist archaeological site, the Tamil Separatist Movement complained.  Due to this Tamil threat settler bhikkhus   had to be alert, militant and when necessary, aggressive.   

Ven. Panamure Tilkawansa, from Hambantota, dominated the Buddhist scene at Arisimale and Tiriyaya. Ven. Tilakawansa was chief prelate for the Northern and Eastern provinces, chief Sanganayake of Tamankaduwa division, and chief incumbent of Arisimale temple. Ven. Tilakawansa was also controlling Tiriyaya, complained TNA.

Arisimale is about    50 kms north of Trincomalee    south of Pulmoddai town. In early 1980 there was an Arisimale vihara lying close to the beach with 500 acres of land. A small farming community of Buddhists had been living here who supported the temple. LTTE killed them or they moved out.  The   bhikkhu also moved out and now this is a Muslim colony, reported Daily News in 2017.

Tilakawanse is behind the establishment of the Buddhist temples and Sinhala settlements in the region said Tamil Separatist Movement. Tilakawansa has built a new temple at Arisimale with an adjoining retreat, called Asiri Kanda Purana Rajamaha Viharaya on top of a hillock overlooking the beach. Access to the site is controlled by a Navy camp. The temple was constructed after claims that Buddhist artifacts were found, resulting in the government giving 500 acres for the temple in the early 80s, said Tamil Separatist Movement The temple is Located in a majority-Muslim and entirely Tamil speaking area.

The presence of Ven.Tilakawansa in Arisimale, coupled with his aggressive, expansionist policies that extend beyond Pulmoddai,   has alarmed the local community, Tamil Separatist Movement said. Tilakawansa is currently engaged in appropriating land in Pulmoddai and Thennaimaravaadi for the purpose of constructing Buddhist structures. Tilakawansa had in his turn, complained about local people encroaching on temple land, and demanded more protection for the area in 2018.

District Secretary Pushpakumara Nissanka said that the Arisimale Temple has been requesting 500 more acres to be given to the temple premises, and that they decided to grant 25 acres under the religious lands act, while declaring 500 acres as an Archaeological Forest reserve.

A Buddhist priest from Anuradhapura, Ven.Tissapura Gunaratana has started constructing a temple, Sambodhi Vihara  ,in the Kokkalai region,  on a piece of property owned by local Tamils, complained Tamilnet in 2011 and again in 2015.

Ven.Tissapura Gunaratana had in 2012 got a surveyor from Maharagama to survey three acres, with the ‘approval’ of the Divisional Secretary C Dayananda, and started to construct a temple, with the help of the army, Tamilnet said. However, the property was private land owned by local Tamils, said Tamilnet   and the project has displaced at least five families. Tamilnet is not sure how many.

The owners demonstrated, in June 2015, demanding back their lands. Land Registry officials inspected their land deeds and instructed the Divisional Secretary to issue an interim ban on the construction activities of the vihara. There is also a court case pending verdict on the land dispute, added Tamilnet.

Mullaitivu District Secretariat issued an interim order    not to proceed with the construction of the ‘Sri Sambodhi Vihara’ until the dispute is solved. The interim order was ignored.

Ven.Tissapura is adamant that he will build the temple. He has offered money to buy the premises but the owners do not want to sell. This is their family land and they want to stay here.”  reported the media.  Tissapura said that TNA Provincial Councilor Raviharan had also threatened him, stop developing the temple and vacate the area. 

Ven. Tissapura has plans for Sambodhi. The vihara premises will contain a Buddha statue, dharmasala, poya Ge, a two-storied Sangharamaya, a lotus pond   and a 10 meter high stupa. A welfare area’, is also planned with a multi-purpose building, a vocational training centre and a 100 perch model farm to introduce agriculture to fisheries-dependent settlers. A tube well was dug at Sambodhi premises and the public come there for fresh water. A pinthaliya was provided for them.

The five floor multi-purpose building will have a nursery, refectory, library and other facilities. The vocational training centre is to cater the adult women and men. It will be housing a sewing centre for the settling women, a yoghurt production unit, Diveneguma-assisted carpentry and welding workshop and a fertilizer manufacturing plant.

Tamilnet complained in 2018 that Ven. Tissapura was also building another Buddhist temple nearby. Land belonging to the post office, the base hospital, a Hindu temple and a public road have been taken for the temple, said Tamilnet. The monk is planning to convert the Sinhala Catholics into Buddhism and raise a new generation of Sinhala occupiers of the north, moaned Tamilnet.

There are several militant monks in the Eastern Province today. They have turned militant because of the opposition they are facing from the Tamil Separatist Movement and the conviction that unless the Sangha took action, Buddhism will disappear from the north east of Sri Lanka.

In August 2023, Eastern Province Governor Senthil Thondaman directed authorities to prevent any illegal construction of Buddhist shrines in Trincomalee area. The authorities promptly imposed a ban on the work going on at Boralukande Rajamaha Viharaya in Trincomalee.  Enraged Buddhist monks protested against this. They   demonstrated before the Secretariat, they lay down on the road; they stormed a meeting Thondaman was chairing and demanded that he revoke the order.

Buddhist monks, led by Ampitiye Seelavamsa Tissa, head of Boralukanda vihara accompanied by Morawewa Indraramadhika and Polhengoda Uparatana forcibly entered the District Secretariat, and disrupted the District development meeting that was in progress.

Seelawamsa sat down on the edge of the platform and refused to budge till he got the letter, to the open delight of those watching. The Regional Secretary revoked the earlier order. The letter was triumphantly displayed to television cameras. This whole episode was shown on television news.

Ampitiye Sumanaratana of Mangalarama, Batticaloa is easily the   best known militant monk in the east today. He has angered the Tamil Separatist Movement. They tried to kill him, but the bullet went elsewhere.

 Sumanthiran wrote to IGP in October 2023, saying that Mangalaramaya Ampitiya Sumana has repeatedly attacked TNA Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam and has also gone on to explicitly threaten all the Tamils living in the south, stating that he will cut them to pieces,” why  has the police not arrested him.

Ampitiye Sumanaratana is the most outspoken of the bhikkhus working in the east.He is very unlike the sedate monks we are used to seeing. But through him we can see what it is like to   maintain a Buddhist vihara in a hostile, Tamil dominated environment. He shows us the difficulties these bhikkhus have to face.

He said that it is very difficult to administer a temple in a Tamil dominated area. There is no one to help. He needs a tractor for his agriculture. The Muslims have tractors but they will not lend them to us,” he said.

Ampitiye has his own You Tube channel https://www.youtube.com/@VenAmpitiyeSumanarathanaThero. This channel has a string of videos, where he can be seen scolding Tamil police, Tamil residents, Tamil MPs, Christian evangelists. He scolds in strong language, he hits out and he also weeps.  Videos of angry outbursts by him have gone viral in the past.

Special mention must be made of the video on 25.10.23. https://youtu.be/tu0cZ0CUtD8 . This also went on evening news. The Buddhist section of the Batticaloa Jayanthipura cemetery was bulldozed taking with it the grave of Ampitiye Sumana’s mother. The bhikkhu said that this section of the cemetery was deliberately destroyed by the Municipality on the order of Tamil MP Rasamanickam. This   video went viral on social media.

He was very emotional in his video. This is the first time I have seen such a strong emotional protest by a bhikkhu.Come and see”, he said. Rasamanickam, Tamil separatists and Diaspora are all talking of their Rights. We, on the other hand, have no one to defend us. The Police hit us, Tigers hit us, everybody hits us, only us, he said. Come and see”. (Continued)