Senaka Weeraratna

I am Sinhalese. I am Sri Lankan. I am proud to be both. 

As a Sinhalese I am conscious and proud to be an heir to a heritage rich with a unique history, a deep connection to Theravada Buddhism, remarkable ancient engineering, and a vibrant culture that has endured for over 2,500 years

The key reasons for my pride include the following historical facts:

Ancient History and Civilization

• A Long, Recorded History: The Sinhalese have one of the world’s oldest continuously recorded histories, chronicled in detail in ancient texts like the Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa, dating back to the 6th century BCE.
• Advanced Engineering: Ancient Sinhalese kingdoms, such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa were known for remarkable feats in engineering, including extensive irrigation systems and colossal reservoirs (tanks) like the Parakrama Samudra, which earned the island the name “Granary of the Orient”. The sophisticated use of hydraulic principles, such as the bisokotuwa (valve tower), is a testament to this ingenuity.
• Architectural Marvels: The construction of massive stupas (dagobas) like the Jetavanaramaya and Ruwanwelisaya, which were among the tallest brick buildings in the ancient world, and the intricate rock fortress of Sigiriya (often considered the eighth wonder of the world), showcase advanced architectural and artistic skills. 

Culture and Values

• Theravada Buddhism: The Sinhalese identity is deeply intertwined with Theravada Buddhism, which was introduced in the 3rd century BCE and has been preserved in its original form in Sri Lanka. This faith has shaped the culture’s core values of mindfulness, compassion, and respect for all living beings.
• Unique Language and Literature: The Sinhala language is an Indo-Aryan language that developed a unique script and literary tradition solely on the island, distinct from other mainland Indian languages. Ancient literary works like the Sandesha Kavyas (poetry) are highly regarded.
• Arts and Traditions: The culture boasts vibrant traditional arts, including intricate temple paintings (e.g., Sigiriya frescoes), sculpture, traditional dance (Kandyan dance), music, and martial arts like Angampora, many of which are inspired by Buddhist beliefs. 

Humanitarian and Social Contributions

• Pioneering Healthcare: Ancient Sri Lanka, under kings like Pandukabhaya and Buddhadasa, established some of the world’s earliest known hospitals and veterinary hospitals as far back as the 4th century BCE.
• Environmental Stewardship: The establishment of the world’s first recorded wildlife sanctuary at Mihintale in the 3rd century BCE reflects a historical value for conservation and harmony with nature and animals (wild life).
• Hospitality and Community: Sinhalese people are traditionally known for their warm hospitality, strong community bonds, and deep respect for elders and teachers. 

These elements collectively have contributed to a strong sense of pride in the resilience, unique identity, and historical depth of my Sinhalese heritage. 

The glory of the Sinhalese of Ancient Lanka

I have genuine concerns that my race Sinhalese and my religion Buddhism are currently endangered and face an existential crisis in Sri Lanka. The Government and the people of Sri Lanka must make every effort to negate these fears.

Acknowledgements

The following information is extracted from a website called ‘ My Sri Lanka Holidays’. Full credit is due to them for collating and compiling the information. I am only circulating as a matter of duty and loyalty to my race and country what they have collected and published. I am inspired by Thero Mahanama who wrote the Mahavamsa ( Great Chronicle) in the sixth century AD. 

Mahanama Thero explicitly stated that the Mahavamsa was written in the interest of piety. The concluding stanza of every chapter in the chronicle states that it was compiled for the “serene joy and emotion of the pious” (or “for the glorification of Buddhism”).  The purpose of the Mahavamsa was primarily religious and moral, intended to inspire a sense of joy (pasada) in the Buddha’s doctrine and a sense of urgency (samvega, or revulsion from worldly misery) in readers. While it serves as an invaluable historical source, its explicit, stated goal was to promote Buddhism and record the good deeds of kings who were patrons of the Mahavihara monastery. 

Mahanama also mentions in the introduction that he intended to correct the “repetitions and shortcomings” of earlier chronicles (like the Dipavamsa or the Sinhala Atthakatha), creating a more coherent and elegant epic poem suitable for memorization. The work’s focus is largely on royal acts of devotion, such as building stupas and viharas, to the exclusion of certain secular matters like statecraft or the economy, which further highlights its pious intent. ( AI Overview) 

Beginning

“When the Guide of the World, having accomplished the salvation of the whole world and having reached the utmost stage of blissful rest, was lying on the bed of his nibbana; in the midst of the great assembly of gods, he, the great sage, the greatest of those who have speech, spoke to Sakka’ who stood there near him: “Vijaya, son of king Sihabahu, is come to Lanka from the country of Lala, together with seven hundred followers. In Lanka, O lord of gods, will my religion be established, therefore carefully protect him with his followers and Lanka. When the lord of gods heard the words of the Buddha he from respect handed over the guardianship of Lanka to the god who is in colour like the lotus.“

History: 2550 years of unbroken recorded history beginning from 543 BC
Ancient kingdoms: Anuradhapura (437 BC-845 AD), Polonnaruwa (846 AD-1302 AD) (entire cities are UNESCO World Heritage Sites)
Ancient citadels: The Lion Rock citadel (Sigiriya) (479-496 AD) (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Medieval Kingdoms: Kandy the Royal City (1469-1815 AD) (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Invaders: Dravidians from South India (Intermittent invasions 161 BC-1236 AD), Portuguese (1505- 1655), Dutch (1656-1795), British (1796-1814)
Colonialist ruler: the British (1815-1948)

Cultural triangle: Mihintale, The Lion Rock citadel (Sigiriya) (WHS), Golden Dambulla Rock Temple (WHS), Anuradhapura (WHS), Polonnaruwa (WHS), Kandy the Royal City (WHS). Since five centuries prior to the birth of Christ, Lanka, Taprobane as Ptolemy called it, has been a throbbing isle of vitality and a well-ordered civilization of advanced network of irrigation engineering, rainwater management, hydraulic achievements & river basin management which made it the Granary of the Orient with trade relationship with the Roman Empire.

Cities, castles, palaces, fortresses, tens of thousands of rain water reservoirs, parks, temples, monasteries, monuments of art bear testimony to the character, imagination, culture, philosophy, faith & nature of the people of the Resplendent Isle. The vestiges of this ancient civilization, which are abundantly extant today, substantiate the ancient history recorded in the ancient chronicle of Lanka, Mahawamsa.

Epigraphica Zeylanica

The University of Cambridge, England has 274 volumes of ‘Epigraphica Zeylanica’ with over 3000 inscriptions from Ceylon (that is more inscriptions than the whole of mainland China has, even though Sri Lanka is only 1/2 the size of the state of New York), including one dating back to 6th century BC. Over 2000 of these have been deciphered, indicating the consistent development of the Sinhalese language.

Irrigation

“Neither in the lands of their (i.e. of the Indo-Aryan settlers) origin nor in South India did there develop an irrigation system of the magnitude or the complexity of that which the Sinhalese afterwards constructed in Ceylon; nothing comparable & contemporaneous (i.e.1st century A. D. – 12th century A. D.) with the ancient dam, canal & tank system of Ceylon, mingling the water of rivers flowing in different directions is known in continental India“
(A Short Account of the History of Irrigation Works, C. W. Nicholas, JRASCB 1960, 43-69)

“In no other part of the world are there to be found within the same space, the remains of so many works of irrigation, which are, at the same time, of such great antiquity, & of such vast magnitude as Ceylon. Probably no other country can exhibit works so numerous, & at the same time so ancient & extensive, within the same limited area, as this island“
Colonial Governor of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Sir Henry Ward (1885-1860)

Architecture

“The constructive & artistic genius of the Sinhalese race proceeded in the following century (i.e.2nd century B. C.) to develop the design to an extent not found elsewhere. The most important examples erected in Ceylon are comparable with the greatest pyramids of Egypt. The two largest dagobas at Anuradhapura surpass in contents, three exceeded in height all but the two enormous pyramids Khufru & Khafra at Gizeh“
(Ancient Ceylon, H. Parker, 262)

Literature

“One of the greatest contributions of the Sinhalese people to the cultural development of South & South East Asia & to world literature is the creation of historic literature. It is well-known that on the Indian sub continent before the invasion of the Islamic conquerors virtually no historic literature had developed… Sri Lanka tells a different story. In the Dipavamsa & Mahavamsa & in various other Sinhalese texts, we are given an account of the political & cultural history of the island from earliest times until the present time“
(Wilhelm Geiger – His Life & Works, Heinz Bechert, 2nd ed., 69)

Colonization

“The Sinhalese voluntarily surrendered their island to the British Sovereign with full reservation of their rights & liberties. They may thus claim to be one of the few ancient races of the world who have not been conquered.“
(Sketches of Ceylon History by Sri Lankan-then called Ceylonese-Tamil scholar Ponnambalam Arunachalam, 1906)

“The Sinhalese people are not, in my opinion, happier or better than they were in the eighteenth century. Talk of progress, & reality, are not the same. Civilization is supposed to advance by the creation of new desires, to gratify which the individual must endeavour to improve his position. But it is not quantity, but quality of wants that may be taken as evidence of progress in the Art of Living. No one acquainted with modern Sinhalese taste will pretend that it gives evidence of any improvement in the quality of wants. Indeed, it is sufficiently obvious that quantity, variety, & novelty are not compatible with quality.“
Mediaeval Sinhalese Art: Sri Lankan – then called Ceylonese – Tamil scholar Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1908) comparing the period prior to British rule with the period of British rule.

Buddhist Bhikkus (monks)

“Go and talk to the yellow robed and tonsured recluse – not of course through an interpreter, or out of a book of phrases: you must know not only his language but something of Buddhist ideas; and you must speak to him as man to man, not as the wise to the barbarian. You will certainly be courteous; for whatever else a Buddhist Bhikkhu may be, he will be sure to give proof of courtesy and a dignified demeanor. And it will be strange if you do not find a new world of thought and of feeling opening out before you.“
Rhys Davids, Professor of Pali in the University of London at Manchester during 1882-1904

Creation of an Island

Mount Meru or Mount Sumeru is a sacred mountain in Hindu mythology considered to be the center of the universe. It is believed to be the abode of Brahma and other deities. The mountain is said to be 80,000 leagues (450,000 km) high and located in Jambudvipa, one of the continents on earth in Hindu mythology. Many Hindu temples & Angkor Wat, the principal temple of Angkor in Cambodia, have been built as symbolic representations of the Mountain. Legends say that Mount Meru and the wind god Vayu were bosom friends. However, the sage Narada approached Vayu and incited him to humble the mountain. Vayu blew with full force for one full year, but Meru was shielded by Garuda with his wings. However, after a year Garuda took respite for some time. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Vayu unleashed an assault with all his might. Thus, the apex of the mountain was broken, and it fell into the sea and created the island of Lanka.

The capital of Lanka too was then called Lanka. It is said to have been built of gold by Viswakarma, the architect of the gods for the residence of Kuvera, from whom it was taken by king Ravana.

Naming an Island

The island was renamed Sri Lanka, meaning “resplendent land” in Sanskrit, in1972.
In Hindu epic Ramayana the island was known as Lanka.
Sri Lanka was known in many names:
Ratnadivpa (i.e. the island of precious stones),
Lanka & Lankadweepa (in Hindu epic Ramayana)
Heladiva (island of Hela=island of Sinhalese)
Tambapanni (Copper-coloured beach)
Simoundou, Taprobane by the Greeks & Romans (from Sanskrit Tambapanni)
Serendib (from the Sanskrit Sinhaladvipa, i.e. the island of the Sinhalese)
Si-lan by Chinese, Seylan by the Arabs
Celao during the Portuguese era, Zeilan in the Dutch era
Ceylon during the colonization by the British.

Edward Barbosa, a Portuguese captain who visited the island in 1515, tried to persuade his countrymen to adopt Tenasserim, which in an ancient Indian language meant “Land of Delights”, but they had already settled on Celao. To Marco Polo it was “a land like no other”.

Cosmas Indicopleustes, the Byzantine author of “Christian Topography” twisted the Arabic into Sielediba, but the 18th century English novelist Horace Walpole stuck to the original for his fairy tale, “The Three Princes of Serendib”, & used it to coin the term “serendipity”, meaning discovery by happy accident. 

Sinhalese

The Sinhalese are the indigenous people in Sri Lanka, and have lived on the island for over 2550 years. ‘Sinhala’ or ‘ Sinhale’ means ‘of lion blood’, because the prince who first settled in the island (with 500 followers in 6th century BC) was believed to have had a lion for a grandfather. The Sinhalese are of Indo-Aryan descent, and speak ‘Sinhala’, the oldest of the living Indo-Aryan languages. The Sinhalese have the oldest, continuously recorded history in the world-the story of the Sinhalese is traced back to 2550 years.

Ancient Sinhalese irrigation

The ingenuity of the Sinhala irrigation engineers is best exemplified by the invention of the “bisokotuwa” which literally means “queen’s enclosure” signifying “out of bounds”. The Bisokotuwa is the equivalent of the valve-pit (sluice gate), which functions in the regulation of the outward flow of water & is therefore essentially an invention made by the Sinhala irrigation engineers more than 2200 years ago, 1000 years before the rest of the world, and are considered to have built the most sophisticated irrigation systems in the world according to British excavation engineers. It has remained essentially unchanged since then. “it was this bisokotuwa invention alone which permitted the Sinhalese to proceed boldly with the construction of reservoirs that still rank among the finest work of its kind in the world” (Parker, 1981) Minneriya tank, was the first great rainwater reservoir ever constructed in the world, if the great lakes of Egypt, which are immense natural hollows into which streams were turned, are not considered. This was built by King Mahasena (276-303 AD)

The first recorded hospital in the world

The history of medical care began early, for in the fourth century BC King Pandukabhaya (437-366 BC), in the course of sanitizing the town, constructed an Ayurvedic hospital.

At Mihintale there is found the Ayurveda Medicine trough, a ruin of a hospital built in the ninth century AD. In the fourth century AD King Upastissa the second provided quarters & homes for the crippled & the blind.  King Buddhadasa (337-365 AD) himself a physician of great repute, appointed a physician to be in charge of every ten villages. For the maintenance of these physicians, one tenth of the income of the fields was set apart. He also set up refuges for the sick in every village. Physicians were also appointed to look after the animals. Animal Welfare influenced by Buddhist tenets commenced in Sri Lanka. King Kassapa the fifth (914-923 AD) founded a hospital close to the southern gate of Anuradhapura. General Sena in the tenth century is believed to have built a hospital close to the ceremonial street (Managala Veediaya).

The oldest recorded tree in the world: Sri Maha Bodhi (Sacred Bo-Tree)

A sapling of the sacred Bo tree (Peepal) (Ficus religiosa) in the shelter of which Prince Siddhartha Gauthama attained supreme enlightenment & became Buddha (6th century BC) was brought to Sri Lanka by Buddhist nun Sanagamiita, as a gift from her father Mauryan Buddhist Indian Emperor Asoka in the 3rd century BC. Today, the huge specimen of this Ficus religiosa has no rival to the claim of being the oldest historical tree (i.e. having the longest recorded written history) in the world. It has been protected by an uninterrupted series of Buddhist monks since it was planted.

The world’s first museum

The world’s first museum was built in Sri Lanka 2200 years ago. It housed the parts of the ship that brought the Bodhi sapling to Sri Lanka from India in the 3rd century BC. Sri Maha Bodhi (Sacred Bo-Tree).

The world’s first recorded (247 BC) wildlife and nature reserve

Sri Lanka was the setting – Mihintale being the site – of the world’s first recorded (247 BC) wildlife and nature reserve, established by King Devanam Piya Tissa, deeply influenced as he was by the inspirational message of the Buddha imparted to him by Arahat Mahinda. Further evidence of this deep-rooted concern for wildlife and the commitment to conservation is found in an inscription engraved on a stone slab at Anuradhapura’s majestic millennia-old Ruwanweliseya Stupa. The inscription attributed to the 12th Century King Nissankamalla of Polononnaruwa, forbade the capture, killing or commercial trafficking of any animals, birds and fish within a radius of 7gau (4 miles) from the city. References to royal protection and preservation of wildlife are extant throughout the Mahavamsa and this traditional care and concern for creatures of the wild continues to this day.

Most possibly the oldest steel plant in the world

The earliest evidence of steel making in the ancient world, dating back to 300 BC, has been found in the Samanalwewa reservoir area. In comparison, England’s first steel making occurred in 1491. The early furnaces were ingeniously powered by natural draught-the monsoon winds-rather than the forced draught (bellow-operated) method employed elsewhere. Recent excavations found the ruins of a steel plant (built circa 300 BC) manned solely by wind power. Sri Lanka did indeed export high quality steel to Persia to make the famed Persian swords. The internationally reputed ‘ Damascus Sword’ is said to have its origin in ancient Sri Lanka. Such was the skill and talent of the Sinhalese craftsmen and iron workers. 

Ancient Sinhalese ships

At one time, the Sinhalese ships were the biggest at Canton harbor (Chinese records). Chinese historians and scholars even to this day  say that the Chinese then living in Canton used to look forward to the arrival of Sinhalese made Ships because they brought goods and delightful material in short supply in China.  History records a time when the Sinhalese Ambassador to Rome sat on the right hand side seat of the Roman Emperor Claudius Caesar.

Elephants of Ancient Lanka

The excellence of elephants of Sri Lanka was well known to the Greeks as far back as 3rd century BC, in the time of Alexander the Great. Onescritus, an admiral of the fleet of Alexander the Great has stated that the elephants of Lanka “are bigger, more fierce & furious for war than those of India” Greek writers Megasthenes (300 BC) & Aelian (44AD) corroborate this. Sixth century writer Cosmos Indicopleustes says that the elephants from Sri Lanka were highly priced and valued in India for their excellence in war.

The Ancient Maritime Sea route (250 BC-250 AD)

In Topographia Christiana of the 6th century AD, Sri Lanka is referred to as an important sea trade center on the Maritime Silk Route. Sri Lanka is also mentioned in The Periplus Maris Erythraei, a guide to trade on the Red Sea & India, written by an author in Alexandria, supposedly around 40 AD. The Ancient Maritime Sea Route (250 BC-250 AD) extended from Alexandria to China: Alexandria – Nabataean Kingdom – The Red Sea – Himyarite Kingdom (Yemen) – The Arabian Sea – Satavahanas Kingdom (India) – Ruhuna Kingdom (Sri Lanka) – Malacca – Don Song Kingdom (Cambodia) – China.

One & only monument of the world built in honor of a fallen enemy

Sri Lanka is the only country in the world known to have a monument built in honor of a fallen enemy (2nd century BC). The Tamil invader Elara was killed in the epic war by the Sinhalese prince from Ruhuna who rose to become the hero of the nation. The victorious King Dutugamunu of Lanka decreed that anyone passing the monument pay homage to the dead king, who even though an invader and enemy. Furthermore, a Kandyan Sinhalese Chieftain and Nobleman, Keppetipola Disawe, did so at the cost of his life as recently as 1815, while fleeing from the British who were at his heels. Keppetipola handed over to the British occupiers the weapons he had with him before switching sides. Had he retained and fought with British weapons in the Great Rebellion of 1817 – 1818 against British colonial Rule the history of Sri Lanka might have taken a different turn. The ancient Sinhalese believed neither in being ruled by foreign powers nor the contrary. Whenever there were invaders, they were successfully overthrown, but once the kingdom was won back, these very same invaders were ‘allowed to live as they pleased‘ (ancient inscriptions). The Kings even built religious monuments for these very same invaders, some of which exist to this day. The Sinhalese have never conquered foreign lands as a matter of State Policy as Western Conquerors have done sometimes with the blessings of the Vatican and its Missionaries. The ancient concept of tolerance of the Sinhalese has been inspired by the gentle sway of Buddhism. 

Awe-inspiring ancient monuments. Ancient yet sophisticated vast Irrigation network consisting of well over 10,000 massive Rainwater Reservoirs (fervet opus = the work seethes) which to date irrigate the island making it self sufficient in Rice. The Island was called the Granary of the Orient during the reign of King Parakramabahu the Great (1153-1186) who proclaimed that “not a single drop of rainwater should flow into the sea without serving the purpose of man“. 

Serandib, the island of Gems, attracted the Moorish traders, who were then called upon to compete and  battle it out with the invading Portuguese & Dutch & the British. They joined the Sinhalese in the defence of Sri Lanka ( Seethawaka and Kandyan Kingdoms) for 300 years. Serendib in Arabic, Ceilao in Portuguese, Ceylon in English. All stem from the Pali word Sinhala or Sinhaladipa.

Ancient Inscriptions of Sri Lanka

The earliest archaeological remains connected with the Sinhalese, which are still preserved without alteration in later times, are many hundreds of caves with inscriptions engraved on their brows, found in various parts of the island. These caves are found among the numerous boulders which litter the sides of hills in certain places like Mihintale, Ritigala, Dambulla & Situlpahuwa & at other sites.

The artificial improvements effected to these caves consist mainly of a drip line cut along the brow, so as to prevent rain water flowing into them. Some of these caves were provided with walls as well as the face of the rock inside, were covered with a coating of lime plaster & painted in some instances. In most of the caves, an inscription has been incised below the drip line.

The script of these records is the same as that of the most ancient historical inscriptions in India. The edicts of Emperor Asoka are in the same script. Closer examinations of the script of these records reveal that the forms of the individual letters were imperceptibly undergoing change during the period in which they were being written. A comparison of the letters in these records from Sri Lanka with the forms in Asoka inscriptions & others in India, to which definite dates can be given, enables us to conclude that these cave inscriptions have been made in dates ranging from approximately the last quarter of the century B.C. to about the end of the first century A.C.

Like the script, the language of these documents is akin to that of the earliest records found in India. These various dialects belong to a family of languages-namely the Indo-Aryan of which the most highly cultivated is the Sanskrit, & to which belong the languages spoken today in North India as well as by the Sinhalese. A study of the language of the records in the caves in Sri Lanka enables one to conclude that it has, by gradual changes following natural phonological laws, risen to the Sinhala that is spoken today. The Aryan languages are spoken today in the North of India. The Languages of South India is included in a different family, the Dravidian. These inscriptions thus collaborate to the literary tradition according to which the Sinhalese migrated to this island from Lala, a region in North India. Considering that there is, between Sri Lanka & the regions in which the Aryan languages are spoken in India, an extensive area in which the language spoken by the people are Non-Aryan, the original Sinhalese, as their traditions testify, have arrived in this island by sea-routes.

The oldest Sinhalese inscriptions are found in the North as well as in the South of the island, in its western regions as well as in the East. They are also found at sites in the hill country, though the majority of sites containing early Sinhalese inscriptions are found on the plains. These inscriptions bring forth testimony to the fact that the Sinhalese have occupied practically the whole of the island.

The inscriptions dated in the reign of the Kings of the Lambakarna dynasty (65 AD-432 AD) are numerous. They are sometimes of considerable length, & are generally in agreement with the chronicles. There are inscriptions which furnish us with genealogical information not given in the Chronicles, & indicate the dynasty’s continuity where the Chronicles would lead us to conclude that there was a break. These records register the donations made to the religious institutions by kings & nobles, but do not refer to political events directly. The records however, furnish us with valuable data concerning the land tenure, revenue system & the administrative, economic, social & religious conditions of the time. They also enable us to understand the gradual evolution of the Sinhalese language.

Historical chronicles of Sri Lanka

Mahawamsa

Uniqueness of Mahawamsa

The Mahawamsa is one of the most remarkable histories in existence, unrivalled-with perhaps the sole exception of the Shu King records of the Chinese emperors.

But then again, while Mahawamsa is a continuous narration of unbroken civilization & history of 2550 years, Shu King is simply a collection of historical memoirs over a time span of 1700 years, but on no connected method, & with frequent & great gaps between them.

Accuracy of Mahawamsa

The accuracy of the Mahawamsa as historical record of ancient Sri Lanka is generally accepted by means of other numerous local & Indian edicts (for eg., King rock edict of Indian Emperor Asoka & records of Roman historian Pliny), inscriptions, historical works, literary works as well as by way of ruins, renovated historical & Buddhist monuments, ancient yet sophisticated irrigation networks, which extend the lifeline to date, consisting of intact & renovated massive rainwater reservoirs & canal systems.

Humanity of Mahawamsa

Kings who rescued the Sinhalese race, the island & Buddhism from marauding Dravidian armies (of powerful South Indian kingdoms) hell bent on plunder & pillage, murder & mayhem, sack & ruin with sword & fire were given due credit. Kings who performed deeds of piety, who made the country self sufficient in rice by way of irrigation engineering, promoted Ayurveda medicine & medical practice, build Buddhist temples, stupas & reigned with efforts to follow Dasaraja Dharma (tenfold righteous path of a king, according to Buddhism) were showered with praise. Even prior to the advent of Buddhism, Lanka had much more than its share of benevolent rulers.

Mahavamsa chronicles represent King Bhatikabhaya, the Sinhalese king who presumably was responsible for sending the embassy to Rome during Emporer Caludius’ reign, as a benevolent ruler. His conduct was narrated by Pliny to stand in opposition to that of the Roman principate. The idea of Taprobane (Sri Lanka) as a utopia, which was to become commonplace among Roman writers, occurs first in Artemidorus of Ephesus (fl 104-101 B.C) (as cited by Pliny N. H. V11 2.30)

The Buddha’s discourse in the Cakkavatti Sihanada Sutta, found in the Digha Nikaya, describes the duties of a “Righteous King” or “wheel-turning monarch”. It states that a righteous ruler’s responsibilities include providing protection and shelter for all beings, including humans of different classes, as well as for birds and animals. This principle is foundational to the concept of a ruler governed by Dhamma (righteousness or law) and has influenced the rulers of Sri Lanka to care for both human and animal welfare. 

Compilation of Mahawamsa

Language: compiled in Pali, the language of Theravada Buddhism
Form: Verse
Material: Ola leaves
Period: From the advent of Vijaya in 543 BC to Lanka’s greatest betrayal of the nation in 1815; by the hill country (Kandyan) chieftains to the British, who were ruling the lower country plains.

4th century AD
Dipavamsa (Island Genealogy or Dynasty). Believed to have been written by two Buddhist nuns Sivala & Maharuha from India.

6th century AD
Mahawamsa (Great Genealogy)
Classic adaptation of earlier Dipavamsa by Buddhist monk Ven. Mahanama Maha Thera (an uncle of King Dhatusena (461-478 A.D.), who lived in the Dighasanda Senapathi Privena, which belonged to the Maha-vihara Fraternity in Anuradhapura. His works ends with Ch. 37:50

The rest of the Mahawamsa is known as Culavamsa, especially after Prof. Wilhelm Geiger, who is said to have made the division.

12h century AD

Culavamsa (Lesser Genealogy)
Main body of Mahavamsa written by Buddhist monk Ven. Dhamma-kirti Maha thera who lived during Dambadeniya period (1220-1293)

17th century AD

Additions by Ven. Tibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Buddha-rakshita Maha Thera who lived during the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747-1778) & Ven. Panditha Yagirala Sri Pragnanada, the Chief Sangha nayaka of Gonagala Sudharma-kara Pirivena.

18th century AD

Culavamsa expanded by Buddhist monk Tibbaootuwawe Sumangala Thera
Year 1815: Chapter 101 was added as a supplement by Buddhist monk Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera
Year 1877 Chapter 101 was expanded by D. A. de Silva Batuwantudawa Esq.

Rosetta Stone of Sri Lanka & translation of Mahawamsa

Year 1826: Ceylon’s Rosetta stone was found; ola parchment at Mulgirigala that led to deciphering of classical Pali scripts, & the translation of the Mahavamsa.

A provincial agent of British colonial rulers named George Turnour ( the prestigious Royal College Turnour Prize inaugurated in 1846 was named named after George Turnour ) was burrowing in a temple on top of a 200-meter rock called Mulkirigala on the south coast when he came across a stack of palm-leaf parchment that provided the clues that enabled him to decipher the archaic pali script of ancient Sinhalese chronicle Mahavamsa.

From an Indian perspective, it is viewed as an invaluable text for historians, since it often relates to contemporary royal dynasties in the Indian subcontinent.

Mahavamsa: official translation by Dr. Wilhem Geiger in 1912
Chulawamsa: official translation by Dr. Wilhem Geiger in 1930

The first English translation of Mahavamsa from Dr. Geiger’s native German was done by Mrs. Mabel Haynes Bode. Overall, the chronicle has over 200,000 words of text in about 960 pages. Dr.Geiger called the first part (Chapters 1-37) the Mahavamsa, the second part (Chapters 38-79) the Culavamsa 1 & the third & final part (Chapters 80-101) the Culavamsa 2.

Other ancient chronicles of Sri Lanka

Rajawaliya
Pujawaliya
Attana-galu Vihara Vamsa
The Dhatuvamsa
The Elu-Attangaluvamsa
The Elu-Bidhivamsa
The Maha Bodhivamsa
The Thupavamsa
The Daladavamsa
The Viharavamsa

References

• Codrington, H. W.: A Short History of Ceylon, New Delhi 1994 (Reprint.
• De Silva, Chandra Richard: Sri Lanka – A History, New Delhi 1987 (2nd,
• De Silva, K. M.: A History of Sri Lanka. New Delhi, Penguin, xvii, p.
• Johnson, B. L. C., and M. Le M. Scrivenor.: Sri Lanka Land, People and
• Knox, Robert: An Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon in the
• Mendis, G.C.: Ceylon Today and Yesterday, Colombo 1957 (3rd edition
• Smith, Vincent A.: The Oxford History of India, Oxford 1958 (4th
• Williams, Harry: Ceylon Pearl of the East, Robert Hale Limited, London, Great Britain, 1950.

The Sources – My Sri Lanka Holidays – The Glory of Ancient Sri Lanka ( http://www.mysrilankaholidays.com/ancient-glory.html) and 

AI Overview                             

Gamaya TV

This program discusses in detail the invasion of the Pandyan kingdom of South India by King Parakramabahu the Great, who ruled Sri Lanka during the Polonnaruwa era. This program does not distort or change any information mentioned in history. Disclaimer: 1. This video is intended for educational and informational purposes only. All information, stories and everything shared on the videos of GAMAYA TV channel is based on information collected from various sources like books, newspapers and internet. GAMAYA TV does not create or claim authenticity of any of the information provided in this channel. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is unintentional and purely coincidental. We do not intend to hurt any religious sentiments of our viewers. Some parts from this video like music, pictures and videos are sourced from the web. GAMAYA TV does not declare any ownership and is ready to give the rights to whoever it is due. 2. Multiple sources like books, newspapers, blogs and internet have been referred to create the content and stories for the videos and we try our best to use content with owner’s permission and under ‘fair use’, however, if we happen to use your copyright material without the permission, please reach out to us at dilki2k15@gmail.com and we will remove your copyright materials. 

Source : AI Overview

TheMahavamsa of Mahanama Thero is widely considered the single most important literary work of Sri Lankan (Sinhala) origin and a major achievement on the world stage due to its unique historical and literary significance.  The combined work (Mahavamsa and its continuation, the Culavamsa) provides one of the world’s longest continuous historical records, spanning over two millennia.

Written in the 6th century AD, its significance extends to a world stage because it is a valuable source for historical data on ancient South Asia and has been recognized by UNESCO for its outstanding universal value. Its translations into various languages have also contributed to its global reach and importance. 

Every chapter of the Mahavamsa ends by stating that it is written for the “serene joy of the pious”. 

The first part of the Mahavansa was written in the 6th century AD by Ven. Mahanama Maha Thera, an uncle of king Dhatusena (460-478), who lived in the Dighasanda Senapathi Pirivena, which belonged to the Mahavihara Fraternity in Anuradhapura. His work ends with Chapter 37:50. His work was greatly influenced by the Dipavamsa written five centuries earlier. It describes the foundation of the Sinhalese monarchy with the consecration of King Vijaya and continues to the end of King Mahasena’s rule in the 4th century AD.

Importance and significance

• Historical significance: The Mahavamsa provides a detailed chronological account of Sri Lanka’s history, making it a crucial source for historians studying both Sri Lankan (primarily Sinhala) and Indian rulers. It has been instrumental in corroborating information about the Maurya emperor Asoka, for example.
• Cultural and religious importance: The chronicle is a fundamental document for understanding the history and spread of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. It details the transformations in the local society and culture following the introduction of Buddhism.
• Literary and linguistic importance:  Written in elegant Pali verse, it is considered the most important epic poem in the Pali language, influencing chroniclers and artists across Southeast Asia.
• It was translated into several European languages ( including English and German) in the 19th and 20th centuries, making it accessible to a global audience of scholars and historians. 
• Global recognition: The Mahavamsa has been included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, acknowledging its outstanding universal value. 

Context and evolution

• The original text covers the period from the legendary founding of the Sinhala kingdom up to the 4th century AD.
• Subsequent continuations of the chronicle, such as the Culavamsa, extend the history up to the 16th century.
• The first English translation was published in 1837 by George Turnour, and a German translation was completed by Wilhelm Geiger in 1912. 
• The Mahavamsa stands as a foundational and unparalleled historical and cultural epic of global historical and literary importance. 

• Source : AI Overview ( https://share.google/aimode/4qGAM29tOY4DDdcFm)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Nov. 18 (Daily Mirror) – The Chief Incumbent of the Sri Sambuddha Jayanthi Bodhiraja Viharaya in Trincomalee, Venerable Kalyanawansa Tissa Thera, has filed a writ petition before the Court of Appeal seeking an order to prevent the demolition of a section of the temple premises.

The petition names the Director General of the Coastal Conservation Department, the Secretary to the Ministry of Environment and the Minister of Environment as respondents.

According to the petition, the temple was officially registered in 1951 under the Amarapura Nikaya in accordance with the Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance. It further noted that on June 6, 2014, then President Mahinda Rajapaksa granted a valid deed to the temple during the tenure of Venerable Mahinda Wansama Tissa Thera, who served as the chief incumbent at the time.

The petitioner also states that the Trincomalee Municipal Council previously issued a letter indicating it had no objection to the development of the land bearing No. 57/TG, which belongs to the Viharaya.

Venerable Kalyanawansa Tissa Thera maintains that any attempt to demolish part of the temple premises is unlawful and seeks a court order to prevent such action.

SEPAL – short clips

SEPAL – short clips

Borella Handiya

Balangoda Kassapa Thero

Shenali D Waduge

Dr. Geewananda Gunawardana’s recent article Religious barriers to information” attempts to paint Sri Lankan religious leaders, parents, and child-protection advocates as ignorant,” fear-driven,” and obstacles to progress.”

Religious barriers to information

No, Dr. Gunawardana.

The barrier is not religion.

The barrier is Sri Lanka’s refusal to accept failed Western social experiments repackaged as education.” now being exported to developing nations after collapsing in their own countries.

Before lecturing Sri Lankan society, readers deserve to know who is speaking and whose interests he represents.

1. Dr. Gunawardana’s Big Pharma link cannot be ignored

Dr. Gunawardana hides a critical fact from the public.

According to his professional profile on LinkedIn/ResearchGate, Dr. Gunawardana previously worked at Array BioPharma, a U.S. pharmaceutical company later acquired by Pfizer. This context is relevant for understanding his perspective on child sexuality and gender issues.

Array BioPharma, is a U.S. pharmaceutical company later acquired by Pfizer, the same Pfizer that:

• is one of the world’s largest corporate funders of LGBTQIA activism, DEI ideology, and school-based SOGI programming
• funds multiple Western NGOs that export CSE/SOGI to developing countries
• produces a pipeline of hormonal interventions, including drugs being repurposed worldwide for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone protocols

These are not accusations — these are documented facts.

Dr. Gunawardana’s professional background includes employment at Array BioPharma, a U.S. pharmaceutical company later acquired by Pfizer, which is relevant context for understanding his perspective on child sexuality and gender issues.

So when a scientist with direct professional lineage to a Pfizer-acquired company pushes Sri Lanka to embrace:

• CSE-SOGI-DEI ideology
• childhood gender identity theory
• removal of religious barriers”
• sexuality content for minors

Sri Lankans are entitled to ask:

Readers may question whether this is public health guidance or promotion of imported ideological models

• Dr. Gunawardena accuses Sri Lanka’s Religions of Blocking Information” — But ignores the real Global Block

The article falsely claims that:

• Sri Lankan religious leaders block children from vital information.”
• This is dishonest.
• Religious leaders are blocking only one thing:
  the entry of Western ideological products disguised as education.”

Dr. Gunawardena conveniently fails to mention that even the West have rejected the very ideas he wants Sri Lanka to adopt.

Let us remind Dr. Gunawardena

The West has already reversed the same experiments he promotes

• UK:Tavistock shut down; puberty blockers banned; Cass Report exposed unethical experimentation on children.
• Sweden:Gender-affirming care for minors stopped; labelled unsafe.”
• Finland:Reversal; mental health first, hormones restricted.
• France:Leading paediatricians warn gender ideology is an ideological capture of medicine.”
• US:More than 25 states banned gender ideology in schools and banned child hormones.
• Norway:Official medical board declared childhood transitioning lacks evidence.

These are the very models he cites as progressive.”

If the countries that invented these systems are abandoning them, why must Sri Lanka import them?

Yet this is what Dr. Gunawardana is promoting.

Why?

Even the LGB community are now coming out against the TQIA+++ community and a global trend is unfolding.

• Misrepresenting CSE and SOGI as basic sex education” is dishonest

Dr. Gunawardana;s article claims CSE is simply: information children need.”

Dr. Gunawardena confuses:

• Traditional, age-appropriate sex educationalready taught in schools (which every society supports)
  with
• UNESCO/UNFPA-style CSE, which introduces:
  • sexual pleasure to minors
  • gender identity ideology
  • questioning of biological sex
  • material not aligned with Sri Lankan constitution, penal code, culture, or religion
  • removal of parental authority
  • isolating the child away from parents, family
  • discouraging marriage & having children
  • normalization of multiple gender identities”
  • no parent raises a child to think they are an animal & behave as such!
  • no parent wants their grown up son to think he’s a baby & wish to wear diapers. This is why upto 1990 even WHO considered homosexuality a mental disorder & the classification was removed only due to activist & funding pressure not based on any science.

Sri Lanka already teaches age-appropriate sex education.
What we reject is:

ideological content imported under false labels.

Sri Lanka does not have a wave of ‘transgender children.’

We have tomboys and tomgirls, as every society has had for generations.
Children who prefer certain clothes or hobbies do not suddenly become candidates for identity conversion.

International evidence shows over 80% of minors with gender confusion naturally outgrow it after puberty.

Neurology also confirms that the human brain — especially the part responsible for judgement and understanding long-term consequences — does not fully mature until about age 25.

This means children and teenagers are simply not biologically capable of making irreversible decisions about their bodies. A child who cannot legally drink, vote, drive, or sign a contract cannot consent to puberty blockers, hormones, or lifelong medicalisation.

Even Elon Musk — one of the world’s most influential technologists — publicly revealed that experts” emotionally manipulated him into believing his son would commit suicide unless he agreed to signing gender transition approval for son.

He later called this a psychological operation on parents”
— the same pressure tactic now being exported to Sri Lanka.

If this can happen to one of the world’s richest, most informed parents, what chance do ordinary Sri Lankan parents have if CSE/SOGI ideology enters our schools?

This is exactly why Sri Lanka refuses to allow Western psychological manipulation to be packaged as education.

We do not oppose science.

We oppose ideology smuggled into classrooms, disguised as sex education,” but in reality is sexuality education” with the ultimate goal of:

• confusing normal children,
• creating an artificial category of gender nonconforming youth,”
• and pushing them toward lifelong medical pathways profitable to the same global networks.

This distinction — between education and ideological grooming — is precisely what advocates like Dr. Gunawardana deliberately hide from the public.

• Direct Response to Misrepresentations in Article

Dr. Gunawardena’s article claims:

Religion denies science.”

False.
Religion protects children from pseudoscience and corporate-driven ideology, not from biology.

Sri Lanka must remove religious filters to progress.”

Progress does not mean importing the West’s regretted mistakes.

Children need sexuality information early.”

No Sri Lankan parent wants their 8-year-old exposed to SOGI-driven sexual content.

Religious leaders promote fear.”

They promote caution, which the West now admits it failed to do.

Children should understand gender as fluid.”

This idea is collapsing worldwide.
It is not science; it is a Western ideological product.

Sri Lanka must not isolate itself from global norms.”

These so-called norms are being repealed in the very countries that created them.

He accuses religious leaders of creating barriers” — but in reality, they are the final defence line protecting Sri Lanka’s children from imported ideological colonization.

• Religious Leaders are not the Problem – They are Sri Lanka’s Moral Defence Line

Dr. Gunawardana paints religious groups as barriers.”

Let us be clear:

• Buddhismemphasizes restraint, discipline, mindfulness, and protection of children.
• Christianityupholds parental guardianship, moral teaching, and timeless natural law.
• Islamcentres family structure, purity, and responsibility.
• Hinduismprotects childhood innocence and duties of parents.

The religions of Sri Lanka have a 5,000-year-old record of safeguarding children and society.
Certain Western ideological experiments, sometimes funded by networks linked to pharmaceutical interests, have documented negative impacts over the past 15 years.

Which track record should we trust?

Those who do undergo medical transitions often later regret it: a growing number of LGBTQIA detransitioners are returning to their faiths, seeking psychological and spiritual healing after the harm caused by rushed, ideologically driven interventions.

• Sri Lankan Children are not Laboratory Rats

Sri Lanka will not be the testing ground on children using:

• puberty blockers
• cross-sex hormones
• Western gender pedagogy
• DEI-based identity politics
• CSE/SOGI curriculum infiltration
• globally funded ideological campaigns
• NGOs trying to access children without parental consent

Sri Lankan children are not the pipeline for future hormonal consumers.

• The Real Question: Why the Desperation to Push CSE/SOGI Into Sri Lanka?

When a Western-linked academic who once worked for a company tied to Pfizer insists that Sri Lankan children must be taught CSE-SOGI and advanced sexuality concepts, the country must ask:

• Who benefits if more children identify as gender diverse”?
• Who profits when gender-confused youth are placed on lifelong medical pathways?
• Which global corporations fund SOGI and transgender activism?
• Why is Sri Lanka being targeted when the West is already reversing course?

This is not about religion blocking information.”

This is about Sri Lanka defending itself from ideological colonization.

Follow the money.
The answers are not complicated.

• Message to Dr. Gunawardana:

Sri Lanka will not:

• dilute its culture
• surrender its parental rights
• abandon its religions
• allow ideological grooming
• risk the mental and physical health of children
• become a dumping ground for failed Western social experiments

Just because the West made a mistake does not mean Sri Lanka must cut & paste it.

Sri Lanka Rejects the West’s Failed Models of Child Sexuality Education

Dr. Gunawardana can promote Westernised gender ideology if he wishes.

But he cannot demand that Sri Lanka sacrifice its children’s mental health, cultural identity, or biological reality to satisfy global ideological programs funded by the same pharmaceutical ecosystem he once worked within.

Sri Lanka’s message is simple:

• Your failed Western experiment ends at our borders.
• Our children are not ideological material.
• Sri Lanka will protect them — without apology

Shenali D Waduge

National Development Bank PLC

National Development Bank PLC (NDB) hosted its quarterly Analyst Earnings Call recently to discuss the Bank’s financial performance for the nine months ended 30 September 2025. This follows the release of the Bank’s nine months’ financial results to the Colombo Stock Exchange, where NDB reported a post-tax profit of LKR 7.5 billion, marking a remarkable 65% year-on-year growth and the highest ever achieved on a normalized standalone basis.

The call, held virtually from the Bank’s Head Office in Colombo 02, was led by the Director/Chief Executive Officer, Kelum Edirisinghe, along with members of the senior management team. During the session, the CEO presented a comprehensive overview of the Bank’s performance, highlighting robust growth in core profitability, disciplined margin management, and continued improvements in asset quality and liquidity.

The CEO elaborated on the Bank’s steady loan growth, particularly in the SME sector, the expansion of its deposit base, and the enhanced contribution from non-fund-based income streams, which collectively underscored the Bank’s operational strength and resilience.

Furthermore, insights were shared on the Bank’s Strategic Roadmap spanning up to 2030, developed in partnership with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). With Sri Lanka’s economy regaining momentum and financial activity picking up, NDB’s solid capital base and strong governance place it in the right position to lead the next phase of growth.  This Strategic Road Map will build on this position to further accelerate business expansion, improve profitability through greater efficiency and productivity, and sharpen NDB’s competitive advantage – creating a more agile, customer-centric institution and unlocking sustainable long-term value for shareholders.

Following the presentation, a Q&A session was held, during which participating analysts and investors had the opportunity to engage directly with the CEO and senior management. The dialogue covered a range of topics including portfolio diversification, interest rate trends, credit quality management, and the Bank’s future growth outlook.

The event was well attended by representatives from local and foreign investment firms, research analysts, stockbrokers, and fund managers. It was organised by NDB’s Investor Relations Unit as part of the Bank’s continued efforts to maintain proactive engagement with the investment community. NDB has been hosting quarterly and annual investor calls since 2014, reflecting its longstanding commitment to transparency, accountability, and stakeholder trust.

Through consistent performance and strategic focus, NDB continues to demonstrate financial stability and resilience, reinforcing its position as one of Sri Lanka’s leading banking institutions dedicated to delivering sustainable value for all stakeholders.

Senaka Weeraratna ( with AI Overview assistance)

Take an Oath as follows:

” I proudly embrace my identity as a Sinhalese and my identity as a Sri Lankan. Both are priceless facets of who I am, and I believe wholeheartedly that they can and do co – exist peacefully.

My Sinhalese heritage connects me to a rich tapestry of history, language, culture, and traditions that have shaped this beautiful island for millennia. It is a source of great pride and a deep well of cultural roots.

Simultaneously, my Sri Lankan identity unites me with all my fellow citizens, regardless of their own backgrounds. It represents our shared nationhood, our common future, and our collective responsibility to build a peaceful, prosperous, and harmonious country for everyone who calls Sri Lanka home.

These identities are not in conflict; they are complementary. They weave together to form the vibrant and diverse fabric of our beloved nation, Sri Lanka.” 

Being a patriotic Sinhalese and being a patriotic Sri Lankan are both cherished parts of a rich, shared national identity, and they absolutely can flourish together without conflict. It’s a beautiful thing when these identities intertwine to create a stronger, more vibrant Sri Lanka.

Yes, it is possible to be a patriotic Sinhalese and a patriotic Sri Lankan simultaneously, as national identity can be inclusive and respect diverse affiliations

. True patriotism involves celebrating the shared good of the nation, which includes acknowledging and strengthening the “we” of all Sri Lankans 

Co-existing identities: A patriotic Sri Lankan can also hold a strong sense of Sinhalese identity without one negating the other.

see also

Ensuring the primordial Sinhala Buddhist Identity in National Identity Cards and Passports

Ensuring the primordial Sinhala Buddhist Identity in National Identity Cards and Passports

Courtesy The Daily News

While the ongoing crusade against drugs in Sri Lanka showing amazing results all round, Indian intelligence agencies made an alarming revelation of a new alliance forming between the Islam fundamentalists in the subcontinent and remnants of the dreaded terrorist outfit, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Indian sleuths say the new nexus of drug-lords and terrorists now known as D-syndicate is using South Indian and Sri Lankan routes to expand its drug trade after suffering major losses in western and northern India.

The LTTE, once considered one of the most ruthless and sophisticated non-state armed groups in the world, financed its separatist campaign primarily through an extensive international network of illegal activities. Among them, narcotics trafficking emerged as a key revenue source—linking the LTTE to the global drug trade and creating a nexus between terrorism and organised crime. Although the LTTE was defeated militarily in 2009, networks associated with the organisation and diaspora-linked operatives remain active, keeping the drug-terror pipeline a continuing concern for South and Southeast Asia.

The Indian intelligence reports say that the D-syndicate, long known for its narcotics and smuggling networks, has been hit hard in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and other northern states due to increased law enforcement action. Seeking new ground, the group is now tapping into the LTTE’s old network across Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka to transport drugs.

It is not clear yet whether last Monday bomb blast near the Red Fort in Delhi, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 20 has any connection with the drug syndicate, the Delhi Police invoked the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Act and the National Investigative Agency has been assigned the investigation of the case. Investigators suspect that a man identified as Umar, absconding in a related explosives case in Faridabad,

Smuggling Infrastructure

Looking at the emergence of terrorist-drug dealers link, Sri Lankan terrorist investigation department has confirmed that even after the LTTE’s defeat, remnants of its international financial and smuggling infrastructure did not fully disappear. Two types of groups remain a concern. Former LTTE financiers and diaspora fronts involved in narcotics and smuggling as profit motives independent of ideology and pro-LTTE cells abroad attempting to revive extremist networks using drug trafficking money.

Sri Lankan and Indian security agencies continue to report arrests of individuals with LTTE links engaged in narcotics transport, especially along the North-East coastal belt.

With the exodus of large number of refugees in the aftermath of 1983 communal riots in Sri Lanka, the LTTE operated largely through diaspora fundraising and donations from supporters. However, as the war intensified and expenses rose for procurement of weapons, maintaining fighters, overseas propaganda, political lobbying. Hence LTTE bigwigs Prabhakaran, intelligence Chief Pottu Amman and financial head Kumaran Pathmanabhan explored the possibility of turning the movement to illicit funding streams. Thus, the LTTE cadres graduated from Padmanabhan bank robberies to drug trafficking, which was particularly appealing because it generated large, fast profit margins.

Over the years the LTTE established cross-border maritime logistics. They also used diaspora networks to launder and reinvest profits.

Indian and Sri Lankan law-enforcement agencies began detecting links between LTTE operatives and South Indian drug cartels by the early 1990s.The LTTE have participated not only as a transporter but also as a regional facilitator.Most maritime trafficking was done by LTTE naval units (Sea Tigers), which ran fast boats capable of evading coastal patrols. They used covert shipping routes from Tamil Nadu, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia facilitated heroin and precursor chemical movements. Vessels used for arms smuggling often doubled for narcotics transportation.

Overseas Propaganda

LTTE-linked operatives in India, Europe, and Canada were accused of dealing heroin to fund overseas propaganda and procurement. The Tigers also established front businesses such as shipping firms, travel agencies, import-export companies for laundering drug-earned money. Although they did not indulge in ground-level drug sales they provided protection and transit for other drug syndicates by providing rented safe passage in waters it controlled, charging fees to trafficking groups.

The LTTE’s drug network grew beyond South Asia. In Canada and the UK, the authorities detected known diaspora hubs where law enforcement connected LTTE-linked groups to narcotics distribution and money laundering. Indian intelligence also found out that heroin originating from the Golden Crescent was trafficked through maritime routes involving LTTE logistics networks. They also cooperated with crime groups in Thailand and Myanmar, including suppliers from the Golden Triangle.

Although concrete evidence varies due to the secretive nature of these crimes, international agencies, including Interpol and Indian intelligence units, have repeatedly noted LTTE footprints in drug-related investigations.

The drug-terror nexus between LTTE and drug syndicates was not ideological but strategic. Both require finance procurement of arms, explosives, communications technology, to pay cadres, maintain infrastructure and overseas offices, bribe local and international facilitators and sustain propaganda machines and foreign lobbying groups. As the LTTE became globally designated as a terrorist organisation in many countries, legal fundraising options shrank, pulling it deeper into black-market economies.

The scenario changed after the defeat of LTTE in 2009. Post-conflict, while the early period of post-conflict, the militant structure was dismantled. After a decade of lull period the fragments of the narcotics-financing networks rebuild raising concerns for regional security, organised crime, and drug trafficking.

In recent weeks, Indian intelligence operatives intercepted communications that members of the D Syndicate were in touch with former LTTE operatives and sympathizers. These contacts are helping the syndicate gain access to key maritime and land routes once controlled by the LTTE during its peak.

According to intelligence reports the LTTE cells grabbed this opportunity because this partnership offered a financial lifeline to them at a time when the group’s remaining cadres are struggling without leadership or funds. India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe earlier indicated that former LTTE members were attempting to withdraw money from foreign banks, possibly to fund new operations.

NIA report stated that by joining forces with the D-syndicate, the LTTE gains access to significant cash flow. These funds could be used to recruit new members and purchase arms. However, the NIA rules out the possibility of a full-scale revival of the LTTE’s separatist movement in the near future.

It is a win-win situation for both sides as the D-syndicate brings money and international reach, while the LTTE contributes deep local knowledge. Former LTTE operatives are familiar with the coastal routes along the Palk Strait, which separates India and Sri Lanka. This expertise makes it easier for smugglers to move drugs between the two countries and into southern India.

During the recent escape by suspects like Iresha Sewwandi who were involved in drug-related murder plots was helped by coastal Tamil operatives. Indian authorities fear this partnership could help the D-gang dominate the southern drug market and establish new supply chains reaching the rest of India. The combination of D Syndicate leader Dawood Ibrahim’s capital and the LTTE’s logistics is a major security concern, NIA report stated.

LTTE Leaders

Indian media also recalled that three years ago, Indian agencies foiled an attempt by LTTE-linked operatives to smuggle arms and drugs from Sri Lanka to India. Two men from Tamil Nadu—identified as Suresh Raj and Soundarajan—were arrested. They confessed that they were acting under the orders of LTTE leaders based in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.

Reports also indicated that over the decades, the LTTE also laundered drug profits into legitimate businesses abroad, especially in countries like Canada, UK and Norway, where Tamil diaspora networks remain active.

The NIA reports revealed that Indian intelligence units are closely tracking communications and financial flows between suspected operatives. Indian security forces have tightened maritime patrols around Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the Lakshadweep islands. Authorities are also monitoring Tamil diaspora networks that might channel money into the alliance. It is essential for Sri Lankan intelligence services to enhance cooperation with their Indian counterparts considering the threat not only to Sri Lanka but also its affects to the delicate issue of regional security.

Source – AI Overview

The ancient Sinhalese people were known as the ‘Aryavamsa’ (Noble Race) by neighboring countries due to their high moral standards, especially their unique tradition of compassion towards animals, largely inspired by Buddhist principles. 

Sri Lanka led the world on moral leadership in ancient times. It was the world’s leading country on Animal Rights.

Compassion and Moral Leadership

Ancient Sri Lankan society, guided by the Buddhist tenets of metta (loving-kindness) and karuna (compassion) toward all sentient beings, incorporated animal welfare into state policy and moral conduct. 

• Royal Decrees and Inscriptions: Following the introduction of Buddhism by Arahant Mahinda in the 3rd century BCE, King Devanampiyatissa was counseled that “the birds of the air and the beasts have as equal a right to live and move about in any part of this land as thou. The land belongs to the people and thou art only the guardian of it”. This ethic led to the establishment of some of the world’s earliest animal sanctuaries and reserves, with rock inscriptions bearing witness to the state’s responsibility for animal health and protection.
• Moral Governance: Chronicles like the Mahavamsa recount stories of rulers who exemplified this compassion. King Buddhadasa (4th century CE) was a skilled physician who established hospitals for both humans and animals, showing “compassion for animals like a father to his sons”.  This is one of the earliest examples of institutionalized veterinary care in the world.
• King Elara, known for his commitment to justice, is said to have executed his own son for accidentally killing a calf, demonstrating the value placed on animal life.
• Buddhism’s Influence: The Dhammapada states that a person who has “laid aside the cudgel that injures any creature whether moving or still” is called an Arya (noble person). This moral ideal was a cornerstone of personal and national identity. 

Historical sources, primarily the Mahavamsa and Culavamsa chronicles, extensively document a strong tradition of animal welfare in ancient Sri Lanka, which was a core aspect of the society’s moral leadership. 

• Royal Decrees: Several ancient kings implemented laws and decrees ensuring the safety and preservation of life for all creatures, on land and water. Animal Sacrifice was banned in Sri Lanka.
• The Buddha

outspokenly condemned animal sacrifice as a “huge, violent sacrifice” that yields no great fruit. He advocated for non-violent, compassionate treatment of all sentient beings based on the principle of ahimsa (non-violence). 

• Here are key quotes and teachings attributed to the Buddha regarding animal sacrifice and general animal welfare:

Condemnation of Animal Sacrifice

The Buddha directly critiqued the elaborate and violent sacrificial rituals of his time, as recorded in various texts, including the Sutta Pitaka: 

• “Horse sacrifice, human sacrifice, the sacrifices of the ‘stick-casting’, the ‘royal soma drinking’, and the ‘unbarred’—these huge violent sacrifices yield no great fruit.“
• “The great sages of good conduct don’t attend sacrifices where goats, sheep, cattle and various creatures are killed.“
• He encouraged a “non-violent sacrifice” that involves giving alms and fostering a good family tradition, which is truly abundant and even pleases deities.
• When a man was preparing an animal for sacrifice to please the gods, the Buddha is said to have offered his own life instead, demonstrating that if a life was required, a human one would be considered more valuable, shaming the man into abandoning the practice.

Compassion and Non-Violence

The core of Buddhist ethics on this matter stems from the first precept: to refrain from taking life (Pāṇātipātā Veramaṇī). The Buddha taught that all beings fear death and pain and desire happiness, just as humans do. 

• “All living beings are afraid of the stick, All living beings fear death. Comparing oneself to others, Don’t hurt or cause another.“
• “When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble.“
• “And so, with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.“
• “If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.” 

Rebirth and Karma

Buddhism emphasizes the spiritual interconnection between humans and animals through the cycle of samsara (rebirth), which further discourages harm. 

• “There are no beings who have not been one’s mother, who have not been one’s sister through generations of wandering in beginningless and endless saṃsāra… one’s own flesh and the flesh of another are a single flesh, so Buddhas do not eat meat.” (Lankavatara Sutra, Mahāyāna text)
• He taught that someone seeking happiness through torturing another being will not find happiness in this life or the next, according to the law of karma. 

These teachings clearly demonstrate the Buddha’s strong stance against any form of harm or killing of animals, particularly for ritualistic purposes. 

” Buddhism ought to be an animal rights religion par excellence.  It teaches the unity of all life.  It has long held that all life forms are sacred and considers kindness and compassion the highest virtues”.

Norm Phelps

The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights. Lantern Books, New York, 2004. 240 pages. 

https://archive.org/details/greatcompassionb0000phel

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51646.The_Great_Compassion

The glory of the Sinhalese of Ancient Lanka

Sinhalese are an endangered nation.

http://www.mysrilankaholidays.com/ancient-glory.html

www.mysrilankaholidays.com

Source – AI Overview

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia Dr. Saman Weerasinghe has been awarded the Order of Friendship (Orden Druzhby) by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a ceremony held at the Kremlin in Moscow recently. Dr. Weerasinghe speaks to Daily Mirror about the achievement and its significance as far as Russia –Sri Lanka ties are concerned.

QWhat does the Order of Friendship mean to you personally and diplomatically?

The Order of Friendship is awarded to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to strengthening international relations, cultural exchange, and humanitarian cooperation. For me, it is both a personal affirmation and a diplomatic milestone. Personally, it acknowledges decades of work, beginning with my education in Moscow and culminating in years of service as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Russia. Diplomatically, it signals Russia’s recognition of Sri Lanka as a trusted partner in Eurasian affairs. I am deeply humbled to be the only Asian recipient of this honour in 2025.   

QHow did your education in Russia shape your worldview and career?

I graduated with honours from the Moscow Medical Academy, but my education extended far beyond the classroom. Russia taught me discipline, resilience, and the value of strategic thinking. Living among Russian peers, I developed a deep appreciation for their culture, history, and intellectual traditions. These experiences shaped my diplomatic style respectfully and focused on long-term outcomes. When I served as Ambassador from 2015 to 2018, I drew upon this foundation to navigate complex negotiations and foster genuine partnerships.   

QWhat are the current pillars of Russia-Sri Lanka bilateral relations?

Today, our bilateral relations rest on three strong pillars:   

Educational and cultural exchange: Thousands of Sri Lankan students have studied in Russia, creating a bridge of understanding and mutual respect. Russian language programs and cultural festivals continue to flourish in Colombo and beyond.   

Economic cooperation: Russia remains a key market for Sri Lankan tea, while Russian tourists increasingly visit our island. Joint ventures in energy, agriculture, and infrastructure are expanding.   

Scientific and humanitarian collaboration: Through the Centre of the Russian Geographical Society in Colombo, we are working on launching joint research projects in climate resilience, disaster management, and cartography.   

These pillars are reinforced by shared values; sovereignty, mutual respect, and a commitment to peace.   

QHow have Russia and Sri Lanka supported each other in global diplomatic forums?

Russia has consistently demonstrated principled solidarity with Sri Lanka in multilateral forums, including the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), where it has stood firmly against politically motivated resolutions and external interference in Sri Lanka’s domestic affairs. At critical junctures whether during post-conflict reconciliation debates or human rights reviews, Russia has upheld Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, advocating for constructive engagement over punitive measures.   

Sri Lanka, in turn, has extended its support to Russia in international platforms, guided by a foreign policy rooted in non-alignment, mutual respect, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. We have consistently refrained from aligning with adversarial blocs or sanctions, choosing instead to promote dialogue and cooperation.   

QWhat does the Order of Friendship signify in the broader context of Eurasian diplomacy?

The Order of Friendship is emblematic of Russia’s commitment to fostering peaceful and constructive relations across continents. For Sri Lanka, this honour reflects our strategic relevance in Eurasian diplomacy and our role as a bridge between South Asia and the wider region. It affirms that our contributions whether in education, culture, or humanitarian service are recognised and valued at the highest levels. The award also reinforces our shared vision for a multipolar world grounded in dialogue, respect, and cooperation.   

QWhat is your vision for the future of Russia – Sri Lanka relations?

My vision for the future of Russia – Sri Lanka relations is one of deepened economic partnership and sustained intellectual exchange. While our historical ties have been rich in cultural and diplomatic goodwill, the next chapter must be defined by bilateral trade, investment, and educational collaboration.   

We must work toward establishing a robust economic corridor between our nations, facilitating the export of Sri Lankan tea, spices, apparel, and technology services to Russia, while welcoming Russian expertise in energy, agriculture, and industrial innovation. A bilateral trade framework, supported by chambers of commerce and diplomatic facilitation, would ensure mutual benefit and resilience.   

Equally vital is the expansion of educational cooperation. Russia has long been a destination for Sri Lankan scholars, particularly in medicine and engineering. I envision a new generation of exchange programs, joint research initiatives, and institutional partnerships that elevate our academic and scientific standing.   

This vision is grounded in mutual respect, shared development goals, and a commitment to peace. It is my hope that our two nations will continue to stand together economically, intellectually, and diplomatically as partners in progress.   

Closing Remarks…The Order of Friendship is a testament to the enduring spirit of diplomacy. It reminds us that international relations are not solely the domain of governments, they are built by educators, artists, scientists, and citizens. They are sustained through dialogue, empathy, and shared purpose. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Government of Russia, to my colleagues in Sri Lanka, and to my family and friends, whose unwavering support has been my foundation. May this honour inspire a new generation of bridge-builders, those who see beyond borders and believe in the transformative power of friendship.   

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Nov. 17 (Daily Mirror) – Mahanayaka Thera of the Amarapura Chapter, Most Venerable Karagoda Uyangoda Maithrimurthi Thera, in a letter addressed to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has expressed his dismay at the incident at the Bodhiraja Sambuddha Jayanthi Viharaya in Trincomalee.

The police have violated Article 9 of the Constitution by assaulting Buddhist monks and removing the Buddha statue at the Viharaya. Buddhism has to be safeguarded as per Article 9 of the Constitution. The injured monks have been admitted to hospital as they needed urgent treatment. The Buddhist population in the area have been saddened by this move. It is questionable as to who directed the police to act in the way they did. This alone is a blatant violation of Article 9 of the Constitution,” the Maha Nayaka Thera said in his letter to the President.

We request you to focus on this matter and see to it that the Viharaya is safeguarded and the initial plan to demolish some of the buildings is suspended,” he wrote.

He said that this Viharaya had existed at this site since 1951, and in 2014, the land ownership had been conferred on the temple authorities by a Presidential decree in 2014. Therefore, he said it is regrettable that resident monks are subjected to various forms of harassment today.

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‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

Standard Chartered Withdraws from Retail Banking in Sri Lanka as US & England Escalate Covert Terror in South Asia e-Con e-News 09-15 November 2025

Chosen as Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2024, and honoured for the ‘Best Catwalk’, Melloney Dassanayaka, a Standard Chartered Bank (SCBSL) employee, was then selected to represent Sri Lanka at the Miss Universe 2024 pageant in Mexico. An ‘active’ participant in SCBSL’s ‘various extracurricular activities’, she was also a member of the bank’s ‘Diversity & Inclusive Council’ and ‘Women’s Association’. We wonder about how ‘included’ Dassanayaka now feels in the London bank’s decision this week to sell off its ‘wealth & retail banking business’ in Sri Lanka to DFCC Bank. Did she appreciatively purr, ‘Meow!’

‘One of the worst things ever done was the privatization of the development banks – NDB (National Development Bank) & the DFCC (Development Finance Corporation of Ceylon) … I was actually involved in this whole discussion about the NDB & DFCC being privatized, and at the time the IMF representative – it’s many years now so I can say this openly – he told me, It’s a war of ideas, Howard, we need the privatization of development banks. We cannot allow any more East Asian success stories…’– Economist Howard Nicolas (ee 16 May 2020)

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On January 6, 2020, the then-new Central Bank Governor WD Lakshman said Sri Lanka needs a development bank. Well, we know what was done to him. He has now been silenced (no autobiographies are forthcoming) while the newest ‘independent’ CBSL governor cannot keep from frothing about what a great job he is doing, lying prone under the heavy breathing of the US Treasury.

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Miss Universe contests have been getting bad press lately, so we will not ask that queen of the catwalk about their treatment of women. However, SCB employees in Sri Lanka have known, since March this year at least, that SCB was going to sell off their more troublesome segments (see ee Quotes, Bankers’ Repo Rip-offs). A few days before their announcement, SCBSL hosted their prestigious annual awards ceremony, themed Hall of Fame: Celebrating Excellence, at the Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo, on 22 March 2025, where SCB declared their ‘unwavering commitment to empowering its employees through recognition and appreciation of their hard work and dedication’.

 A few days later, SCB announced they would be looking for a buyer to whom it could ‘divest its wealth & retail business in Sri Lanka, which includes priority banking, credit cards, retail lending, deposits and Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) portfolios. SCB assured their priority clients customers, they would continue to serve them as usual… Your deposits & monies remain safe.’ Priorities to whom? We don’t have to guess. Boru Shoke indeed! They declared, We have a rich legacy in Sri Lanka spanning over 130 years, and we remain committed to a strong presence in the country through our Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB). They promised SCBSL’s wealth & retail banking employees would be ‘provided comparable roles and opportunities to continue to grow and further their careers with the new buyer’. SCB said the bank will look after their ditched clientele, during the transition period, which was expected to take 15-18 months. The deal is expected to close by March next year.

  Well, efficient as they are, they seem to have wrapped things up in 6 months, with the ‘deal to be completed by early 2026,’ pending approval from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The deal follows the global trend of banks exiting retail banking in emerging markets. ‘Emerging’ markets, like ‘developing’ countries, are countries which never emerge or develop!

  On 24 September, HSBC (HongKong & Shanghai Banking Corporation) announced they would sell their Sri Lankan retail banking business to Nations Trust Bank (NTB) for Rs18billion. We then compared these moves to the role the English banks gave to certain ‘minorities’ – Chettiar, Afghan (Baluchi), etc – to perform as buffers to lend to local, mainly Sinhala, borrowers (see ee 27 Sept 2025, HSBC Withdraws). The comparison remains true for SCB & DFCC. SCB says they are instead going to ‘focus more on corporate and institutional clients’. In April SCB’s parent company in London said they were committed ‘to concentrating resources where the group has the most distinctive client proposition’. We wonder what such euphemisms are supposed to mean: they have been big promoters of Sri Lanka’s import-export frauds, enabling such clients to launder their dollars and pounds into ‘safe havens’.

     In September of 2020, the CIA-linked International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) dropped a ‘bombshell investigative report on money laundering by international banks.’ The ICIJ investigation was based on secret documents ‘leaked’ by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a unit of the US Treasury. The documents showed that 5 multinational banks – JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, & Bank of New York Mellon – kept profiting from ‘powerful & dangerous players’ even after US authorities fined these financial institutions for earlier failures to stem flows of dirty money. Dangerous? One of the complaints by multinational banks about retail banking in Asia & Africa have been increased surveillance of their activities related to money laundering, etc. So, they now wish others to take ‘the fall’.

     England, with its ‘significant economic footprint’ in the country, claims to be Sri Lanka’s ‘2nd-largest export destination’, which includes profiting off the extraction of mostly raw materials and the flooding the country with consumer goods. Over 100 England-related companies make huge profits here, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, Unilever, Ceylon Tobacco, ICI-CIC, M&S, London Stock Exchange Group, De La Rue Currency, Tesco, and Next (which was in the news recently for ditching their ‘garment’ workers: there’s been little coverage of these workers’ terms & conditions since).

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Staff are reviewing the published budget documents

to evaluate whether the 2026 budget is in line with the

program parameters. – Julie Kozack, IMF Communications

Director, to reporters in Washington (see ee Economists, IMF)

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     SCB – despite loud & regular virtue-signalling, like other multinationals claiming to be for ‘gender equality’ & a ‘best place to work’ – has a mass graveyard of many-gendered skeletons buried in its vaults. SCB’s origins may be traced to England’s chattel slave trade and mining in Africa, and their Indian-grown opium trade to China. But we need not go back that far.

     In November 2024, a former SCB worker, writing a letter to the editor in a prominent daily newspaper under the pseudonym ‘Geriatric Non-Pensioner’, demanded: How about getting Standard Chartered to pay the Monthly Pension to all those employees who were sent home on forced retirement 25 years ago? First time in Sri Lanka’s history, employment of Pensionable Permanent Employees at Standard Chartered Colombo were terminated, whereas there was a Trust called the Standard Chartered Colombo Local Employees Pension Trust Fund.’ Stealing pensions, huh?

     This week’s sale, which will cost DFCC Rs3.7billion, will be ‘funded entirely through internally generated capital’, says DFCC. DFCC Bank (Development Finance Corporation of Ceylon Act No 35 of 1955) and the National Development Bank (NDB) were started over 70 years ago as development banks, but their industrial functions were neutered under pressure from the IMF. This week, DFCC said: the sale was part of its strategic growth agenda to strengthen its retail and & management franchise. Is this ‘development’? They should rename themselves IFCC – Import Finance…

     It was less than 2 weeks prior to announcing the selloff that the SCBSL hosted a visiting ‘Jerry Zhang, Global Co-Head of Financial Institutions (FI) Coverage, and Regional Head of Financial Intuitions [sic!] Prashant Shah’, who promised to ‘strengthen Standard Chartered’s presence in this important market. They met CEOs of leading financial institutions and senior government officials, including Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe’. A few days later, on March 11, SCB expressed optimism about Sri Lanka’s economic outlook, highlighting ‘renewed confidence among portfolio investors’. So much for ‘confidence’. They then announced their intention to sell off retail… In May this year SCB even announced ‘their strong commitment to driving financial innovation in Sri Lanka. Perhaps these commercial shenanigans are what they mean by ‘financial innovation’.

     The US Fitch Ratings Agency, which operates as another policing division in the country along with other ‘monitors’, had hinted that trouble was brewing: SCBSL’s small size, only about 0.1% of SCB’s total assets, implied that support, if needed, ‘would not be a burden to the head office’. Support for what?

     Earlier SCBSL’s native chieftain declared that the country’s ‘big-ticket foreign direct investments (FDIs) remain weak with private-sector deals averaging around $20million – well below the half a billion dollar transactions required to make a meaningful economic impact’.

     Along with other multinational corporations (MNCs), their economists decry supposed ‘populism’ (that has somehow ensured the continued colonial domination of the country by an import-export plantation economy) and keep demanding ‘policy stability’ complaining that Sri Lanka has historically altered key policies such as investment laws, land regulations and tax structures – every few years as Governments changed, deterring long-term investors. Investment in what?

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‘For the first time since 1977, Sri Lanka has

a government that believes in a manufacturing base.

– Deputy Industry Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe

(see ee Economists, National Cleaner Production Centre

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• The last ee concluded Chapter 3 of SBD de Silva’s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, where he dispensed with such fallacies as Sri Lanka having too small a market to industrialize. He showed how the principal difference between the wealthy settler-colonial countries and the impoverished non-settler countries was the domicile of the investors. Resident inside the country, they invested long-term in the local and regional home market and at first vigorously protected their nascent industries.

     This ee Focus begins Chapter 4, examining concrete examples of the differences between adjacent countries in Southern Africa. He shows how settlers were ‘generally inwardly oriented’, producing for the local market, displacing imports; how dividends were not transferred out but reinvested, and were then spread into ‘different lines’. The settlers detached from the metropolitan economy & society whiletransforming ‘social relations and production technology’, producing ‘a high proportion of intermediate & capital goods, with imports ‘mainly of raw materials & equipment’ to advance production and not consumption. Even midst war, they doubled their industrial workforces. Their iron & steel industry was changed from imported scrap iron to local ore. What mattered more was the ‘pattern of investment’. Cultivation was maintained ‘on a small scale’. The capacity to finance their expenditures on modern production was partly due to the retention of export proceeds within the country. Meanwhile, the interests of expatriates in non-settler colonies like Sri Lanka, were transitory, narrow & inflexible; with their investments owned & controlled abroad. The ‘dominant economic activity’ was narrow and wholly extractive…

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So how did Kerala, with both arms tied behind its back,

rid itself of poverty? The answer is the only weapon

that the powerless have at their disposal: organisation

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• Indices that truly measure the state of the economy are almost made non-existent – instead we are engulfed by fake measures such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product), PCI (Per-Capita Index), CPI (Consumer Price Index), etc.  Confronted with such estimates as PCI, the great scientist DD Kosambi once quipped, ‘It is the rare Indian who eats the grain assigned to him by the statistical averages.’ In this ee Focus, Shiran Illanperuma confronts the ‘rattle’ of feel-good numbers thrown at us after the budget, largely to please their white masters in Washington, who stand guard over the still colonial economy. He illustrates with the white guard’s (World Bank’s) own doctored numbers of the existence of the ‘extreme’ impoverishment around us (we abhor the Elizabethan construct of ‘poor’ which was a Frenchified derivative from the Latin pauper, to whitewash the horror of throwing the English peasantry off their ‘commons’ by ‘enclosure’). Illanperuma notes Sri Lanka’s earlier high ranking among the socialist giants, for social advances (health, literacy, etc) and the recent declaration by Kerala, the first Indian province to pull free of such a curse as ‘extreme poverty’. Despite being sabotaged by their own central government in Delhi, he details the steps taken by Kerala’s communist leaders – organizing social change: land reform, public health & education, and women’s empowerment. He examines why a purported party, parading as Marxist-Leninist, has been unable to challenge the disgusting rule of merchants & moneylenders, right here.

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During the White Encirclement of 1919,

the US deployed troops to Russia, alongside

English, French & Japanese forces, fighting the

Red Army directly, with over 500 US casualties.

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From 1931-41, as Japan carved up China,

Western banks maintained their offices in Tokyo,

Western oil fuelled Japanese warships, &

Western scrap metal became Japanese bullets

(US provided 90% of Japan’s scrap metal until 1940.

US metal became Zero fighters, battleships & bullets.

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‘I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion’

– Winston Churchill

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US priorities were clear: better a fascist Europe than

a socialist one. Better Japanese domination of Asia

than Chinese liberation & the expansion of socialism.

• The whites divided the world into3: democracy, communism, and fascism. It turns out that the world in fact has long been divided into 2 – Communism vs Fascism. Roy Singham in a powerful, line by line, footnote by footnote, exegesis, dismantles & takes down the myths bellowed & blasted into our skulls by Hollywood, BBC, Reuters, carefully tearing away the masks of such cardboard heroes as England’s Churchill and the USA’s Roosevelt etc, to expose their true & horrific role in those wars called worldly, such as WW2, which began not in 1939 as many a tinselled Hollywood flick has saturated us with, but in 1931, with Japan’s invasion of China. (see ee Focus)

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• ee Focus also continues Gustavus Myers’ History of Tammany Hall, which details the relationship between corporations and the buying of legislators, to promote friendly legislation and kill laws hostile to private corporate control of national resources. This excerpt examines the graft practised by insurance and other companies. He here exposes the importance of sacrificing certain colleagues to proclaim reform, – an ostentatious sop to public opinion – and the ‘secret of colonizing voters & carrying elections’ , including the buying & installing of opponents. This required funds to be collected from mining, realty & transportation companies, so as to retain lawyers. It needed the learning of the arts of knowing ‘the ways of legislators’ & how to ‘approach them properly’.  Such arts also included the installation of friends in offices that regulated industry, finance and trade,as well as controlling judges in the courts.

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‘The recent explosion in Delhi, reportedly linked [by India]

to the Pakistan-based militant outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM),

the decision of the Sri Lankan cricket team to cut short its tour

citing security concerns, & the travel advisories issued by England

& the US all reveal how quickly the regional temperature is rising.’

– ee Security, The Shifting Landscape of Global Extremism

• Silences about silences, is how Island correspondent Shamindra Ferdinando describes the eerie quietude by almost all political formations surrounding some of India’s demands on Sri Lanka, to prevent questions about fishing invasions or fathering the LTTE. But it is not just about India’s role in funding & training terror and causing injury to the economy in Sri Lanka, it is also about the resounding silence about what right England (& Holland & Portugal) have to lecture us about human rights, when they have failed to repair the 500 years of damage, instead further hobbling us to enable the ongoing colonization of Sri Lanka by their North Atlantic master, the white-settler colony now known as the USA.

     These resounding silences have much to do with the shared secrets that make for honor among thieves. While parties continue to trade insults & accusations on who was responsible for the April 2019 terrorism that shook the country, the US President this week sought to enlighten us yet again by inviting to the White House on November 10, former Al Qaeda & ISIS leaders who have helped them destabilize Syria. This week saw terrorist attacks on the capitals of 2 of the most populous countries in the region, both of which wield nuclear weapons, just as the US (with their satrapies in West Asia, including the UAE & Israel) escalate war on the Sudan, while moving military forces into the Caribbean Sea and encouraging terrorist subversion. They are also kindling wars in Southeast Asia, as between Thailand and Cambodia, and in Myanmar. The USA & England’s recent travel & investment advisories about Sri Lanka are all aimed at exacting further economic & military concessions, while whining & whingeing about how corrupt or difficult we are…even as they bomb us – this is the ruling sound of their music. The bombings in India & Pakistan, do not have to be by ‘opposing’ nations. They have agents in all our countries, of all types. Russian President V Putin is due to visit India on 6 December. Their aim is to prevent the ongoing attempts to unify countries that have suffered for too long under imperialist rule…So, what about our aim??

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Amnesty for All – ‘With such a history, the government should

seriously explore all possibilities of Restorative Justice, starting with

a blanket Amnesty for all associated with the Insurrections

& Armed Conflict and extending it beyond to restore the livelihood

& the wellbeing of the survivors in all communities’

– Neville Ladduwahetty, (see, ee Sovereignty,

The scope of Sri Lanka’s commitments to accountability0

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Contents:

Standard Chartered Bank Withdraws from Retail Banking in Sri Lanka as US & England Escalate Covert Terror in South Asia