KAMALIKA PIERIS This essay  is on the findings of  Ven Ellawala Medhananda.Ven. Ellawala Medhananda paid special attention to the Buddhist archaeological remains in the North and east. He explored as much as he could in these two provinces, using his own resources He found that the north and east had many Buddhist ruins and many […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Medhananda also went on exploration to the Northern Province and wrote his findings in his book Pacina passsa, uttara passa, nagenahira palata ha uturu palate Sinhala Bauddha Urumaya”. Ven. Ellawala Medhananda was not able to explore the North as much as he would have liked, due to LTTE control. The Northern Province consists […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna was created by Rohana Wijeweera, whose real name was Patabandige Don Nandasiri Wijeweera. He was a member of Sri Lanka’s Communist Party   (Moscow wing) led by S.A. Wickremasinghe and in 1962 was awarded a scholarship to Lumumba University in Moscow, to study medicine.  In Moscow, Wijeweera had apparently changed […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS OBSERVATIONS OF SENATOR S. NADESAN Senator S. Nadesan (1904-1986) made a speech in the Ceylon Senate on 14 and 15 of May 1971 regarding the JVP insurrection of April 1971. This speech was published as a booklet in 1988, by the Nadesan Centre for Human Rights. Suriya Wickremasinghe in her introducitn to the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Central Intelligence Agency of the USA, CIA was popularly seen  as a bungling agency, responsible for the many failures of US  policy abroad. But  it also has many successes to its credit. CIA  was powerful abroad.  CIA is responsible for planning, carrying out and providing cover-ups for USA assassinations.  CIA  can legally […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS USA was ready to take over as the centre of the capitalist world, at the end of World War II. The US President was spoken of as ‘Leader of the free world’.  But the USA   never had the easy run into a global power that Britain had. The USA was never able to […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 16.7.20 The first US intervention in the 1970s, though not recognized as such, was the JVP insurgency of 1971. This was USA’s first attempt at destabilizing the state. It was premature and it failed.  It had jumped the gun .N.M.Perera straightaway said this was a CIA activity. Apart from this, US found […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lanka is now in approaching its fourth round of western rule, this time under the United States of America. When the British left Ceylon in 1948, USA was ready to take over, but in the euphoria of independence, this went unnoticed. Britain had anticipated that its empire would end some day.   It […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ven. Ellawala Medhananda has spent decades exploring the forgotten temples and monasteries in the Eastern province. His explorations have shown that there was an extensive spread of Buddhist monasteries and forest hermitages in the east in the ancient and medieval periods.  Medhananda discovered hitherto unknown monasteries, forest hermitages, temples, caves, and inscriptions. The […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 20.6.20 Ven. Ellawala Medhananda has drawn attention to the damage done by ‘non-Buddhists’ (Hindus and Muslims), to the Buddhist monasteries, hermitages and ancient ruins in the north and east. Medhananda says that more than five hundred sites with ancient Buddhist ruins are either destroyed or are being destroyed in the north and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ven. Ellawala Medhananda has explored the Buddhist ruins in  the North Western  Province. The North western Province consists of two districts, Puttalam and Kurunegala. Puttalam which is a coastal  district, contains Wilpattu and Pomparippu. Medhananda   has visited both places. Medhananda found a large monastery complex at Pomparippu, in ruins. This area is now […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ven. Ellawala Medhananda paid special attention to the Buddhist archaeological remains in the North and east. He explored as much as he could in these two provinces, using his own resources He found that the north and east had many Buddhist ruins and many explorations were needed, before they could be fully examined […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised  20.6.20 Medhananda also went on exploration to the Northern Province and wrote his findings in his book Pacina passsa, uttara passa, nagenahira palata ha uturu palate Sinhala Bauddha Urumaya”. Ven. Ellawala Medhananda was not able to explore the North as much as he would have liked, due to LTTE control. The Northern […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 21.6.20 Historians agree that between the rule of King Devanam Piyatissa (247-207 BC) and king Dutugemunu, (161-137) there was a separate kingdom in Ruhuna. The founder of this Ruhuna kingdom was king Mahanaga, brother of Devanampiyatissa. Mahanaga left Anuradhapura after a disagreement with his brother and set up a separate kingdom in […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 21.6.20 Medhananda has shown, through his explorations and his writings, that the Eastern Province had a vibrant Buddhist civilization in the ancient and medieval period.  He has also shown that it had special features, such as hillside monastic complexes and a series of ‘Muhudu Maha vihara’. Monastic complexes Medhananda found evidence of […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 27.6.20 Ven. Ellawala Medhananda made a special effort to find and record stone inscriptions from the archaeological sites he explored. Medhananda had been very successful in this venture. He says he has found over 500 ‘new’ inscriptions. This can be accepted as Medhananda has been engaged in archaeological explorations for over 35 years. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised . 27.6.20 The inscriptions found by Medhananda have helped to confirm known historical facts and also advance our knowledge of the Sinhala Buddhist civilization of ancient and medieval Sri Lanka.     The inscriptions Medhananda   found refer to a wide range of Sinhala kings. This indicates the extent of Medhananda‘s explorations. Here is […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 7.6.20 Ven. Rambukwelle Siddhartha has played a significant role in the preservation of indigenous culture in Sri Lanka. But his contribution has not been recognized and not much is known about him. I searched the literature for references to Ven. Siddhartha, and also asked a friend in Kandy, to find out something […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 22.6.20 Medhananda told his biographer that he had thought, when listening to lectures at Vidyodaya, as a student, that it would-be good to investigate some of the things   mentioned in the Mahavamsa. He had joined a Vidyodaya archaeological trip to look at Neelagiri seya. Ven.  Handupelpola Punnaratana, who was teaching at Vidyodaya, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 26.6.20 Medhananda did not hold back his archaeological findings, hoping some day to put it all into one magnificent book. He wanted to communicate his findings to the public as soon as possible.  Therefore he wrote up his archaeological findings in newspapers and periodicals as soon as he could. For each exploration […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ven. Rambukwelle Siddhartha has played a significant role in the preservation of indigenous culture in Sri Lanka. But his contribution has not been recognized and not much is known about him. I searched the literature for references to Ven. Siddhartha, and also asked a friend in Kandy, to find out something about Ven. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ven. Ellawala Medhananda was very active politically. He took an active part in settling Sinhalese in Maduru Oya, in the 1980s, when Accelerated Mahaweli” started, Gamini Dissanayake; Minister for Mahaweli had asked Ven. Medhananda to do a study of the history of the Mahaweli region. While engaged in this, Medhananda had met Ven.  […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS After ordination, Ven. Medhananda continued to live at Sri Sumangalaramaya, Napawela, Getahatta.  That remains his permanent address today. When Medhananda first went there,   the temple was very new. It had an image house but no image. Loku Hamuduruwo, Ven. Soratha got a stone mason down from India and   had a Buddha statue made. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 27.6.20 Ven. Ellawala Medhananda was born on 28th January 1937. He was named Piyaratne. His father was Ellawala Imiyahami Punchi Mahatthaya and his mother was Hapurugama Kiri Ethana. Father was a person of some standing in the village. He owned considerable land.   He was a building contractor and had 12 or so […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 6.5.20 The third nikaya to emerge in Sri Lanka was the Ramanna Nikaya.  Ramanna nikaya was started byAmbagahawatte Saranankara. (b. 1832) He had received the Kalyani Upasampada of the Siyam Nikaya from Benthara Atthadassi,   but later found that this ordination was suspect. Instead of joining Amarapura nikaya, Ambahawatte Saranankara decided to go […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The first clash within the Sangha was between the Udarata Siyam and Pahata rata Siyam. Udarata monks ridiculed the Pahata rata monks. I think they saw them as ‘polluted’ since the Pahata rata was under Dutch rule. Pahata rata monks were not crushed by this. They in turn, watched the sima debate between […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka during the time of the Buddha in the 6th century BC. The Maha Sangha however, was established 300 years later, when by prior arrangement, Arhat Mahinda brought in the Upasampada to the island. Arhat Mahinda was directly linked to Arhat Upali who had presided over the first Buddhist […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS There are three categories of objects which are venerated by Buddhists, said historian Lorna Dewaraja. Firstly, the charred bodily remains of the Buddha which were collected and distributed after his cremation.   Secondly, objects which came in touch with the Buddha in his life time, such as the Alms Bowl and the Bodhi tree. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS This essay lists some of the many changes and improvements made by the MEP government of 1956.  These changes, carried out between 1956 and 1958 have not got the recognition it deserves. UNP government followed an anti-communist and pro western foreign policy. The MEP government, on the other hand, swung to a non […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 17.3.21  In 1956, SWRD formed his last ‘party’ the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP). The MEP consisted of Sri Lanka Freedom Party led by SWRD, Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party (VLSSP) led by Philip Gunawardene,   the Samastha Lanka Sinhala Bhasha Peramuna led by W. Dahanayake and an ‘Independent Group.’ These were the four […]