KAMALIKA PIERIS The first census of Ceylon of which there is a record is the census of 1824. That was an incomplete census which grouped the population by caste.  The first complete population census   of Ceylon was the census of 1871.  This census left out ‘caste’ and introduced ‘race’ and ‘nationality’,   two European   concepts which […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The government of Sri Lanka took much trouble over the development of the north after the Eelam war ended. The government called it development initiatives to improve the quality of life for conflict affected returnee communities in the North.” Mahinda Rajapaksa initiated many improvements such as houses, roads and bridges. 15,000 wells were […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Throughout the thirty year period of the Eelam war, the aid coming into the country was exclusively for the north and east. This was well known.  Once the war ended, the north became the favored community with the blessings of the government.  Foreign countries offered assistance. These offers accelerated during the Yahapalana period […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The army took care to remove all possible LTTE monuments once the Eelam war was over. They knew that otherwise these monuments would become shrines. The only LTTE ‘monuments’ at the time were the LTTE cemeteries such as the cemetery at Chaaty Beach near Jaffna. The army bulldozed all of them. The Tamil […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 25.10.21 Tamil Separatist Movement got a new lease of life under Yahapalana rule of 2015 – 2018. Tamil Youth Organization and Canadian Tamil Congress hoisted Eelam flag and homage to Prabhakaran on internet in 2015.  ‘Tamils for Obama’ and ‘American Tamil Forum’, asked Washington to arrest Gotabaya Rajapaksa who is visiting the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 25.10.21 The Tamil Separatist Movement is very much in existence today, in the Pohottu period. The webinar Sri Lanka: Quest for Justice, Rule of Law and Democratic Rights”, co-hosted by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice – New York University, Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 25.10.21 The government of Sri Lanka did not follow up on the victory and as a result, the Tamil Separatist Movement   continued, with greater strength than before. Eelam War IV crushed the LTTE but not the Tamil Separatist Movement. The TNA said, this is not the end of Tamil Separatist Movement, thought […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The government of Sri Lanka     defeated the LTTE and declared victory on 19. May 2009.  The military victory in the final war was total, said analysts. However, Sri Lanka did not follow through after the victory. The government did not declare the Eelam war as a civil war and it did not take […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The government of Sri Lanka issued a new gazette on elephants in 2021. It is titled    Fauna and Flora (Protection, Well-being and Regularization of Registration of Tamed Elephants) Regulations No. 01 of 2021”. This replaces Registration and Licensing of Tuskers and Elephants Regulations, 1991 published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 662/4 of 14. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Elephant activists in Sri Lanka say keeping elephants in captivity in private premises is a form of animal cruelty. What they have in mind is Buddhist temples and devales. They plan to take legal action if elephants in custody are returned to temples. They point out that countries like the USA and UK […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised   12.10.21 There is a strong pro-elephant lobby in Sri Lanka which says the elephant must not be domesticated. It must be left alone, to wander in the forest. There are no forests left for it to wander in, since those forests were converted to tea estates during British rule.  Therefore the elephant […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 12.10.21 Certain elephant NGOs have focused exclusively on the perahera elephant. It was reported in 2044 that the donation of mature male elephants to selected temples had met with loud protests from NGOs. Ven. Deranagama Kusaladamma of Sri Sambodhi vihara, Colombo said the Viharaya has been prevented from holding its seventh annual […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Regulations on the registration of tame elephants were first issued in the Registration and Licensing of Tuskers and Elephants Regulations, 1991 published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 662/4 of 14 May 1991 in accordance with Sections 71 and 22a of the Wildlife Conservation Ordinance. In this gazette elephants are not allowed to be […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS In 2021, to the dismay of the anti-Buddhist NGOs, there was a reversal.  Pohottu government issued a gazette, the Fauna and Flora (Protection, Well-being and Regularization of Registration) of Tamed Elephants Regulations No. 01 of 2021 which allowed for the registration of un-registered elephants. The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) then informed the Colombo […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The elephant features prominently in the annual Perahera conducted by Buddhist temples all over the island. The biggest perahera is the Esala perahera conducted by the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy. Well over a hundred elephants used to participate in this Perahera. . There are similar Peraheras in many provincial towns, during Esala. However, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The elephants in the Esala Perahera got star billing in an entertaining piece published by two animal rights NGOs in August 2016.  The essay is full of howlers and is probably the silliest piece ever written on the subject. Are you planning to go and see the Kandy Esala perahera, the NGOs wrote, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 12.10.21 Jayewardene carried out a survey of domesticated elephants in 1997. This survey revealed that there were about 214 domesticated elephants in Sri Lanka at that time. Of these, 107 were males and 107 were females. There were domesticated elephants in 15 of administrative districts in the country. The districts that had […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 12.10.21 When British rule ended and Sri Lanka became independent, the elephant regained its position as an important animal in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) was recognized as one of three subspecies of the Asian elephant and native to Sri Lanka. The elephant became a protected animal, once […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 12.10.21 In the Udarata kingdom, the forests in the central highland were a protected reserve where elephants lived undisturbed. British and European writers have given us information on these habitats. The districts, in which the elephants most abound, are all hilly and mountainous, they said. There was not a mountain or a […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Dhanesh Wisumperuma has researched into Religious Use of Elephants in Ancient Sri Lanka (Gajah 37 (2012) 16-21). He provides the following information. Elephants were first used in Buddhist ceremonial processions, to receive and transport Buddhist relics from one place to another.  King Devanampiyatissa   used the state elephant to carry   relics to be enshrined […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 12.10.21 When the Portuguese captured the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka they found a flourishing export trade in elephants, developed   over the centuries by the Sinhala king. The Portuguese  , who had never seen an elephant before,  found that the Ceylon elephant was superior, compared to elephants from other countries, and traders […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 12.10.21 There was a strong elephant culture in ancient Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has had a long association with elephants and as a result a lasting affinity has developed between the two, observed Jayantha Jayewardene .  Knowledge of elephants” was one of the skills listed in the medieval Sinhala literature. . The […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Jaffna public library was rebuilt twice. The library was fully renovated in 1984, with donations from well-wishers around the world.  But the LTTE took up residence inside it and it was bombed. At the start of the project, the Municipal Council of Jaffna decided not to repair the burnt building, but to […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS LTTE was also a suspect in the burning of the Jaffna library. What was the LTTE doing while the Jaffna library was burning” someone asked on social media. Came the reply, In 1981, LTTE was not as strong as it became in later stages. They were just using hit and run tactics. So […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS ( Continued from B4) TNA has had  continuous contact with the USA. Rajiva Wijesinghe recalled that, during Eelam war IV, he met Sampanthan in close conclave with the US Ambassador and the European Union representative, at the resident of the Political affairs Officer of the US embassy. In 2011, a delegation of TNA […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  (Continued from B3) TNA has always had links with the UK government. In 2016, TNA met Baroness Anelay when she visited Sri Lanka, to seek her intervention to get rid of the army, have an international probe on war crimes and other such issues. Baroness Anelay was UK’s Minister for the Commonwealth and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS (Continued from B2) Western delegations have made it a point to meet and speak with the TNA, when they visit Sri Lanka. These are not secret discussions. They are   proudly reported in the newspapers. Sampanthan’s discussion with these foreigners covered the full spectrum of Tamil Separatist Movement concerns, such as the National question, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 18.9.21 The Tamil Separatist Movement was not crushed by the Eelam defeat. They knew it was going to happen and were ready for it. The Movement created two new organizations after the war ended, ‘Transitional government of Tamil Eelam’(TGTE) and the ‘Global TamilForum’ (GTF). TNA is the local representative in these two […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was formed in October 2001. TNA consists of four parties:   Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, (ITAK), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), and Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). These are separatist parties and the last three TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF were active […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 18.9.21 TNA became the dominant Tamil separatist party once the LTTE was eliminated at end of Eelam war IV. It is remarkable how quickly the Tamil National Alliance moved into this new phase, said Chandraprema. The war ended in May 2009 and by the end of that year, the TNA had taken […]