By Rohana R. Wasala

The ‘Lanka Leader’ (ලංකා ලීඩර්) Sinhala language YouTube channel of May 27, 2025 published a news item  under a headline which may be translated as follows: 

Public umbrage at General Daya Ratnayake for insulting the Mahanayake Theras”

According to the YouTube channel, the retired former Army Commander  General Daya Ratnayake participated in a religious programme conducted by a maverick Catholic preacher known as Brother Charles Thomas at the Padeniya Purana Raja Maha Viharaya on May 17, 2025. During his speech on the occasion mentioned, presumably as an invited guest, the retired military officer  was reported to have said,  ‘වන අලින් ගම වදින විට බල්ලන් බිරුවාට අලියා කලබල නොවී වගාව කා දමන බව’ ‘When wild elephants raid villages, dogs bark; but they eat up the crops unperturbed’. 

The ලංකා ලීඩර් (Lanka Leader) reported that members of the general public expressed displeasure at that remark for being derogatory towards the Buddhist prelates. It claimed that many of its readers had also taken exception to Ratnayake’s statement as defamatory of the Mahanayake Theras. I think I understand why Ratnayake’s words caused such a negative impression. My guess is that this was because people mistakenly  thought that Ratnayake’s comment contained an uncomplimentary allusion to the Venerable Mahanayake Theras with an innuendo of unjustified hostility to something that he (Ratnayake) believed was good (namely, that Charles Thomas was doing no harm).

That is a misapprehension. Ratnayake was actually doing the exact opposite; he was drawing attention to the great harm that the likes of Charles Thomas are doing to the dominant Buddhist religious cultural identity of the majority community on which the sovereign unitary state of Sri Lanka has been anchored for over two millennia.   

Incidentally, the Padeniya Purana Rajamaha Viharaya, the strategic venue chosen for Charles Thomas’s subversive act, is among the most ancient Buddhist Viharas of that type. Rajamaha Viharayas are large complexes of buildings containing monastic residences plus places of worship, places of learning for bhikkhus and preaching halls where the laity assemble for listening to bana sermons and for other Buddhist  practices. They are akin to Christian cathedrals, and grand mosques in Islam. Rajamaha Viharayas are therefore of great historic, religious and symbolic significance for Sinhalese Buddhists. The currently disputed Tissa Rajamaha Viharaya in Kankesanturai (Tamil corruption of the ancient Sinhala name ‘Kasawathpura’ or ‘City of Yellow Robes’) near Jaffna was originally built by King Devanampiya Tissa in the 3rd century BCE during whose reign Buddhism was introduced to the island by Arhant Mahinda Thera. The king built this Viharaya to mark the place in Jambukola (Chapter XIX of Mahavamsa) or Jaffna today, where later, Arhant Mahinda’s sister Sangamitta Theri landed with a sapling from the right side of the Bodhi Tree at Gaya under which Siddhartha Gautama attained Enlightenment. The Bodhi sapling was received by the king with great reverence and was taken to Anuradhapura in a majestic procession, where it stands to this day, venerated as the Sri Maha Bodhi.

 The origin of Padeniya Purana Rajamaha also  goes back to the same epoch in the early Anuradhapura period of Lankan history (377 BCE-1017 CE). It has survived well over twenty centuries of alternating glory, destruction and reconstruction. What remains today is as it was reconstructed by Meegastenne Adikaram during the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinghe (1747-1782 CE); it was under the sponsorship of that monarch that the rite of upasampada or higher ordination (which had disappeared earlier due to the depredations caused by Portuguese invaders) was re-introduced by Upali Thera who was brought from Siam (Thailand) in 1753. A simple ceremony was planned in 2023 to mark the 270th anniversary of the arrival of Upali Thera from Siam/Thailand  in 1753 with the participation of some Thai monks to be held at the specific place in Trincomalee where Upali Thera landed with his companions. But this was more or less scuttled under the government of president Ranil Wickremasinghe for reasons easy to guess. That was an instance of the genocidal cultural asphyxiation of the Buddha Sasanaya that started during the Yaha[palanaya of 2015-19 period. Regrettably, the Mahanayakes failed to take notice of the despicable instance of deliberate neglect and to denounce it in no uncertain terms. The Padeniya Purana Rajamaha Viharaya belongs to the same Siyam Nikaya (monastic order) established by the Siamese Upali Thera under royal patronage and comes under the control of the present Mahanayake Thera of its Malwatte Chapter.                 

After this necessary digression, let’s get back to our topic. Charles Thomas has been often accused of engaging in appealingly disguised unethical proselytism on the pretext of promoting interfaith goodwill between Christians/Catholics and Buddhists. Ven Katumuluwe Sumanaratana Thera, who is the chief incumbent of this historic Rajamaha Viharaya  located in the Kurunegala district (only 25 km northwest of the city of Kurunegala), is also the Adhikarana (Judicial) Sangha Nayake of the Devamedi Hatpattuwa under the Siyam Maha Nikaya. He reportedly invited Charles Thomas to the Viharaya and provided facilities for him to stage his popular ‘Sihinaya’ (Dream) programme, and organized the controversial event despite the Most Venerable Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatte Chapter of the Siyam Nikaya in Kandy having earlier (actually more than a month before) issued him a formal letter restraining him from holding the disputed programme. (All the information about Charles Thomas’s programme included in this essay, I have derived from various social media sources including the Lanka Leader YouTube channel already mentioned.)

I checked out three other Sri Lankan social media websites that use English as their medium about this particular episode involving Charles Thomas. All three seemed sympathetic towards Charles Thomas unlike the Sinhala language Lanka Leader (mentioned above) which covered the news without any bias towards or against any party or person. The first of the three English language YouTube channels, THE LEADER (May 17, 2025), reported: ‘The government has ordered a halt to a programme by Fr. Charles Thomas scheduled for today (17) at Padeniya Purana Vihara………The Deputy Minister of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs issued a directive to the assistant commissioner general of Buddhist affairs (sic) ……………..’.

The second website of the same description that I checked out was ‘Sri Lanka Mirror’ (May 17, 2025), which reported: ‘The Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs has issued a letter over a program organized by Br. Charles Thomas…………………

‘The letter notes that the Deputy Minister has taken steps to cancel the program following complaints from various parties, citing strong displeasure expressed by the local Buddhist community.’

The last English language YouTube channel I visited was COLOMBO POST (May 20, 2025), which describes the chief monk of the Padeniya Purana Viharaya as the ‘Chief Sangha Nayaka of the Devamedi Hathpaththu’. According to its report, ‘the incumbent of the Viharaya Katumuluwe Sumanaratne Thero has been suspended due to the holding of Brother Charles Thomas’s ‘Sihinaya’ program at the Padeniya Rajamaha Viharaya.’

These reports left me confused and unconvinced about Charles Thomas’ real designation and his religious mission, as well as about  what actually happened or was allowed to happen at the particular Rajamaha Viharaya  involving that variously described character. The Sinhala medium Lanka Leader account of the episode on which I am mainly based for this essay seemed to me to offer the most reliable account. The other three English language YouTube channels might be among the plethora of such ephemeral websites launched at short notice to beef up the current blitzkrieg of subversive disinformation against the unitary Sri Lankan state and its age-old Buddha Sasanaya or the foundational Buddhist religious establishment, which is very tolerant and accommodative towards adherents of non-Buddhist faiths. The two (unitary Sri Lanka and Buddha Sasanaya) are organically connected like a tree and its bark. The one will not survive without the other.  The interdependence of unitary Lanka and Buddha Sasanaya is a historical fact, which poses no threat to any other ethnic or religious community. 

The civilised world today is facing violent forms of extremist religious totalitarianism of apocalyptic proportions as never before, surreptitiously weaponized by certain hegemonic global superpowers in pursuit of their mutually hostile agendas. In Sri Lanka, Buddhism provides a protective umbrella of humanism and humaneness from that menace for all its diverse ethnicities and religious identities without any discrimination.   . 

What did General Ratnayake say that people found so defamatory of the Mahanayakes? During his speech on the occasion mentioned, presumably as an invited guest, the retired military officer  was reported to have said,  ‘වන අලින් ගම වදින විට බල්ලන් බිරුවාට අලියා කලබල නොවී වගාව කා දමන බව’ ‘When wild elephants raid villages, dogs bark; but they eat up the crops unperturbed’. That is as close a literal rendering as I can manage, but it doesn’t convey what the speaker really meant, to people not very familiar with the Sinhala language or with Sri Lankans’, especially Sinhalese Buddhists’ (often tragic) love-hate relationship with elephants in their natural habitat. These elephants raid adjacent human settlements for food. The Sinhala term ‘වන අලින්’ ‘vana alin’, which I have translated as ‘wild elephants’ is an elephant friendly euphemism meaning ‘forest dwelling elephants’ as distinct from the domesticated ones that are nowadays almost exclusively used for ceremonial purposes. 

The celebrated war hero’s clever remark seems to have stirred up a hornets’ nest of angry objections from some well intentioned but ill informed individuals who tend to embrace foes as friends through their inexcusable ignorance and naivety, like the Viharadhipati in this case. (But the monk’s apparent audacity in ignoring the Mahanayake Thera’s advice suggests that he  could well be a crook enticed by filthy lucre). The intelligent ones in the audience wouldn’t have missed the point that the retired general was trying to make, if they were listening to him attentively. (Sorry. I am anticipating things here. Please, see below.)

To be concluded