Dr. Sudath Gunasekara B.A. (Hons) PhD. Retired Permanent Secretary to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayaka.
In this essay, I propose to the Government of Sri Lanka to set up a Memorial Museum of Patriotic wars of Kandyan Sinhalese (1505-1848) and an International Post graduate Institute of Research on Colonial crimes in Sri Lanka” at the old Bogamabara Prison site, in memory of the brave Kandyan Sinhalese patriots who sacrificed their lives in tens of thousands in battle against three barbaric and savges sea pirate European invaders of the Atlantic civilization, Portuguese, Dutch and English, for almost three and half Centuries, confining them to a narrow coastal belt for 310 years to save their Motherland, the Sinhala Nation and the Buddha Saasana.
Although the Kandyan Kingdom was ceded to the United Kingdom on a mutually agreed Convention between two sovereign Governments, the Kandyan Kingdom of Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, on March 2 1815 the British openly violated it and threw the Convention in to the dustbin of history by issuing the Royal Proclamation of Nov 21st 1818. Thereafter they ruled this country as one of their colonies captured in war until Feb 4th 1948, under their own system of Government of oppression, repression and merciless exploitation continuing the same colonial rule started first in the coastal belt in 1505 up to 1815 by the Portuguese, Dutch and the British and thereafter by the British.
The proposed Museum is designed to tell this pathetic story of the Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom, that had once thrived in the East as one of the greatest nations in the world for over 2500 years, standing in par with the Great ancient Empires and Kingdoms such as the Greek, Roman, Egyptians Persian, Indian and Chinese, as one of the greatest pristine human civilizations in the world.
The proposed Museum will narrate the cruel saga of these colonial invasions and also highlight the savages’ crimes committed on this country and its people by these three successive Western invaders (Portuguese, Dutch and British) with special focus on the 1817-1818 Uva Wellassa patriotic rebellion and the 1848 Matale uprising. Attention will also be paid to the draconian laws, barbaric and uncivilized methods they deployed to rob the country’s riches for the enrichment of their empires, while trying to destroy the 2500 year old Sinhala Buddhis civilization in this country and consolidating their geopolitical, strategic and economic power together within the Indian ocean, and the far east by taking control of Trincomalee, the gateway to their power in the Indo pacific region, as both Napolean and Lord Mount[S1] Batton had once said.
Apart from the political, economic, social, physical and the cultural devastations they have done in their invasions it will also display how these sea pirate invaders flooded the land of the Sinhalese with south Indian Malaba coulees, historically the sworn adversaries of the Sinhala nation, from the 2nd century BC to the 13th century, to change the demography of the Island and weaken the native Sinhala Buddhist nation with the power of their guns and swords together with barbaric and inhuman torcher inflicted upon the natives followed by their subversive religious conversions with the assistance of the Wesleyan Methodist Mission (1879), with the ultimate objective of annihilating the Sinhala Buddhist civilization from the surface of this Island. Their first mission was to divide this country in to two countries to be designated as Sinhalese and Tamils districts, to destroy the 2500-year-old Sinhala Buddhist civilization in this age-old native Sinhala Kingdom. It was these American missionaries who first named these Malabar immigrants as Tamils, although they were officially designated as Ceylon Tamils only in1901 by Ponnambalam Arunachalam, who was selectively appointed as the first Registrar General in 1887 by the British.
All these events clearly show how the British and the Catholic Church had designed and manipulated the division of this land of the Sinhala people in to two countries as Sinhala and Tamil, with the idea of creating an eternal political hotch-potch right at the center of the Indian Ocean as the lounging pad for them to enable their empire building in South East Asia.
Malaba immigrants were brought by them in large numbers as coulees firstly, to be settled in the North and East starting from 1760 s to 1797 by the Dutch and subsequently by the British in order to colonize the North and the East with Malabar Tamils. Secondly, again by the British after1815 first, as sepoys to suppress and kill the Native Sinhala Kandyan freedom fighters, who rebelled against the repressive British rule in the 1818 and 1848 national rebellions. Thirdly, starting from 1840 through the latter part of the 19th century up to 1910, they imported nearly 1.2 million indentured South Indian coulee labour to work on the newly opened up coffee and Tea plantations in the central hill country, started on lands forcibly taken over from the native Kandyan Sinhalese in 1840 under the Crown land Encroachment Ordinance,1853 Temple Land Ord and 1897 under the Wasteland Ord, by removing Kandyan Sinhalese by mass murder of all males over 18 years under orders from Governor Brownrigg to Major Mac Donald. Brownrigg fought the Great Rebellion of 1817–18 and managed to defeat that, aided by reinforcements from India, by enacting martial law. He strengthened his power in the Kandyan Kingdom by issuing a special announcement on 21 November 1818, which contains 56 statements, curtailing the power of aristocrats. Thereby he blatantly violated the Kandyan Convention of March 02. 1815.Those survived, men, women and children fled in to the valley bottoms and far away eastern jungles to save their lives.
It is interesting to note that at the same time the British built up a fabricated and a diabolical lie, starting with a fairy tale, invented by Cleghorne (a Dutchman) in his famous minute, submitted to Governor North in 1799, often quoted by the Tamil separatist politicians stating that this country had two nations called Sinhala and Tamil (misquoting the Sinhalese have come from Thailand) fabricating that there were two Ratas ( they called them districts) in this country from time immemorial. According to them the Tamil country started from Putlam and extended through the Northern Province and beyond, covering the entire Eastern Province up to Walave Gannga. This refers to the narrow coastal belt where Malabar migrant labour brought from South India by the Dutch after 1765 and by the British after 1799 to work on their projects North (including toddy tapping in the Jaffna district) and East in the narrow coastal belt occupied by them. The Sinhala country according to them extended only from Walawe Ganaga to Puttalam covering the interior of the country.
This was a blatant and diabolical travesty of the 2500 years history of this Island nation, contradicting all available accepted native historical sources like the Mahavansa, local epigraphic and literal sources and also writings by all foreigners starting from the Greek, Roman, Persian and Egyptians and Chinese down to the Portuguese, Dutch, British, German and Italian historians, scholars, discoverers and travelers alike.
Based on the Cleghorne minute this was how Governor North had conveyed that fabrication to the home government in Britain in 1813 even before the 1815 Kandyan Convention was signed on march 1815 march 2nd.
This in brief gives the well-planned long-term colonial intrigue and the conspiracies first, to concur this Island nation and then to weaken the native Sinhalese and empower the Tamil immigrants brought by them as their Malaba coulees and then subsequently erase the Sinhala Buddhist civilization from this paradise on earth, which they had made their Motherland from time immemorial. The invaders considered Sri Lanka as the most important geopolitical hub in the Indian Ocean, strategically, geo politically and economically as well, that is very crucial for the expansion and consolidation of the Atlantic civilization in the Indo- Pacific region.
It is to unravel and display these colonial intrigues and crimes committed on the native Sinhalese by the invaders on the one hand and the bravery displayed by our ancestors, the Kandyan Sinhala Warriors on the other, that I propose to set up this monumental Memorial Museum and the Research Institute in Kandy at this central place, I deem as the most appropriate place in this country for such a historic feat.
The proposed Museum will also portray the different methods of indigenous warfare’s of Sinhalese, their artillery and techniques’ like guerrilla warfare including the world’s first Kamikase at Wagolla adopted by the Kandyan Sinhalese and the Balana massacre to defeat the enemy invaders and to defend their Motherland by forcing them to limit the enemy’s sway to a narrow coastal belt around the Island for 310 years, (1505-1815) in spite of their mighty gun power.
In addition, it is also proposed to set up an International Institute of Higher Studies and Research in the field of colonial invasions between 16th – 20th centuries by the Atlantic colonial invaders specifically in this Island and the Afro-Asian region in general.
The sad story of the Bogambara Prison
This was built by the British in 1874 as the second largest Prison in this country (next to Colombo) on the model of the famous Bastille Prison in Paris. Bastille was built to imprison and suppress those who rose against the Feudal French Monarchy in the famous French Revolution 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Bogambara did the same job in Sri Lanka to Sinhalese, what the Bastille did in France to punish French feudal aristocracy. With regard to savages’ crimes committed to humanity it is said that there was little difference between what happened in Bastille in France and Bogambara in Sri Lanka. Moreover, it was built by the colonial invader British to imprison, summarily shoot dead, hang or banish those native Sinhala patriots who revolted and rose against the British colonial Government to save their Motherland, the Sinhala people and the Buddha Sasana from the enemy.
‘The Bogambara prison is eyesore”.
Native patriotic Sinhalese were being imprisoned, shot dead and some were hung frequently here, not for any crime they had committed but for the valiant resistance they had successfully displayed during the colonial rule against the invaders to save the bellowed motherland and their supreme religion Buddhism up to 1948.
Thereafter the same colonial prison was used by the so-called independent Governments up to 1976 both for imprisonment and hanging. Hanging was stopped thereafter as the government has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since then. But the governments continued to have this institution in the heart of Kandy, the sacred City, that is sanctified by the Sacred Tooth Relict of Lord Buddha, up to 2014 as an ugly colonial monument.
At Last, the Bogambara Prison was closed in 2014, and it was shifted to Palekele. It took 66 years after the so-called Independence in 1948 to remove this ugly colonial symbol cited in front of the Sacred Daladhaa Maligawa by the British, right at the center of the commercial hub of the central province and the historic cultural city, the last capital of the 2566-year-old Sinhale Kingdom, after years of public agitation.
The following quotation from an article I wrote way back in 1977 to the Daily News 29th of August was the first agitation made in this regard, by anyone.
The Bogambara Prison located right at the center of the present day prime Sacred Buddhist city of the Sinhala nation,Kandy, where the Daladaa Maligawa that houses the Lord Buddhas sacred Tooth Relic and the two highest Buddhist Headquarters, Malwatta and Asgiriya are located, is a shame even after 77 years of a fake Independence given to this country on Feb 4th1948, is an eye sore and a national disgrace. Men and women who are supposed to have committed crimes are imprisoned and some of them hanged here even after Buddhism was declared the State Religion in 1972 by the countries’ Constitution. We still continue to have this institution in the heart of the Kandy city. It is not late even now for those in Authority to shift this eyesore to a distant place away from the sacred town-to a place like Pallekele.
I wrote this article as the Founder President of the Mahanuwara Jathika Kalamandalaya, found in 1977” (Daily News Monday August 29 1977)”
But nobody in authority at that time, took any notice of my request then. However, I am happy now that at last it was shifted to Pallekele in 2014, as I had suggested in 1977. With that shifting the tragedy of having a prison right at the center of this sacred city came to an end at last. This closed the first part of the Bogambara Prison tragedy. In addition, I would also like to mention here for record purposes, the most important contribution I made to the preservation of the religio-cultural value of the Kandy Perahera and that of this historic city by compelling the Temple Authorities to ban the construction of Perahara viewing seats at the Mahamaluwa in 1977. Those seats were constructed purely for non-Buddhist foreigners and local privileged class including those of the DN to view the Perahara, seated at a higher level than that of the Sacred casket mounted on the royal tusker, thereby denigrating the most sacred of object of the Sinhala nation and its supreme cultural values. I deem it as the most important contribution I did to preserve the value of this heritage city, again as the President of the Mahanuwara Jathika Kalamandalaya. How I did that is a matter to be elaborated in a separate article.
Now I come to the second part of the Bogamabra Prison saga. perhaps even a more tragic and deplorable political and administrative bungling.
For example, although the prison inmates were transferred to Pallekele and the Bogamabara Prison was officially closed in 2014, after 137 years of its inception, no final and meaningful plan to make use of this historic and valuable site has been made up to now, even after 11 years of its closing in 2014.
Although 11 years have passed since this prison was closed down and five Governments since then have come and gone and a lot of public funds have been wasted nothing has been done to convert this this historical site for a meaningful purpose. Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinha and a number of Ministers, of these governments and officials of different institutions have visited this site many a time. Much public funds have already being wasted on these public shows and many a report have been published, spending millions of public funds without any substantial development to be seen, for 11 long years. Apart from real development isn’t it a tragedy that even after 11 years, there is no unanimity among the political masters or the officials entrusted with the job, on what really, they are going to do here.
This appalling failure on the part of our governments and the bureaucracy reminds me the miracle of one man, Lee Kuan Yew, who converted a tiny City State of just 281.3 square miles (or 728.6 square kilometers) with zero resources infested with slums in 1965 , from a third world country to a First World country within few years, making Singapore attractive as a destination for investment as well as the focus on drawing world class manpower; building state of the art infrastructure and excellent air and sea linkages; a low and transparent tax regime; clean and efficient bureaucracy; a strong regulatory and legal framework; a neutral diplomatic policy which has ensured it is an ally of the US as well as China; and developing a clean and green city, have ensured Singapore’s stupendous economic success.
Isn’t it a shame to us with 25,332 SQ km land area with enormous natural resources on land and sea around it, with 2500 years of glorious history and a pristine culture that was the second richest in Asia by 1950 and a country hailed as the paradise on earth by many a foreigner in history, has today plunged in to the depth of poverty and misery. The main reason for this deplorable situation as I see it is the absence of missionary leaders of the people with a far-reaching vision like Lee Kuan Yew. The failure on the part of five Governments for 11 years to take a decision as to what they should do on the old Bogambara prison site alone, I think bears glaring witness to the quality of our politicians and the public service, their dedication and commitment to nation building.
Going by what they have done for 11 years, I have no doubt that they will not take any decision until this 151 years old outer walls of the Bogamabra Prison collapse down to the ground.
This picture of the old prison wall, surviving (watch tower?) I think narrates the story of the criminal neglect for the past 11 years of the Bogambara prison site, in mute terms by the politicians and the officials for which they alone will be held responsible for the posterity.
Photo by Nimal
According to the UDA Final Report: Vol.2 (2019-2020) ‘the redevelopment plan is not finalized yet”
Looking at the long delay in converting this historic place, located right at the center of the world heritage city Mahanuwara (Kandy), the Great City /The Capital, of the last Kingdom of Sinhale, a glistering jewel of the 2500 years old Sinhala Kingdom, to a meaningful purpose and more over lack of clarity in the minds of those who are in charge of the subject as stated in the UDA report, which says Currently, no decision has been made on who will redevelop the major part of the prison buildings” is really very puzzling and appalling. I wonder as to what 5 successive Governments have been doing for 11 years with so much of talking and public displays. Just like the successive governments, the management also has been entrusted to different parties, going from hand to hand (Central Engineering Consultancy Services and UDA, the Prison Dept and dept of Archaeology) with different priorities and expertise that are far from the historical, cultural, political, realistic value of this site and its environs.
In this state of confusion, I am convinced that this will be never converted to a functional and a useful level at least for anotherr10 years, as already 11 years have gone waste, under five Governments since 2014. Different Ministers, have come out with different, with stale utopian plans. Neverthelss, still it is at ground level after 11 years, as stated by the UDA. I remember once Minister Malik Samarawickrama of the Yahapaalanaya government said he will convert this place into a five-star Hotel to attract foreign tourists. His plan is now gone for good, along with him as another mad Minister, fortunately.
Prime Minister Ranil also declared open a so-called Cultural Park outside the Prison wall included in the2016 plan. This event was attended by 6 Ministers 2 Ambassadors, Thailand and Japan and about 10 officials. At that time, it was under the Central Engineering Service and UDA. But very little activity is seen around the place since then. Surprisingly for a layman like me, it looks a ghost prison site now, where the spectators awaiting to see the collapsing historical prison walls very soon before anything worthwhile happens.
At one stage Champika Ranavaka, Minister of Megapolis visited the place and declared that he will develop this place as a major tourist attraction. This plan was dropped in 2021 May, as the Minister also got dropped, and the Department of Prison also declared it will open a five-star Prison Hotel (a crazy idea) here. Champika’s fairy plans were also disappeared in the air along with him and the Yahapalanaya Government.
Then famous” Minister Keheliya Rambukwella on a tour conducted on 21.7.2021 weekend declared that plans were afoot to develop the old Bogambara Prison buildings and its land as a prominent tourist attraction for both local and foreign visitors to the heritage city of Kandy, the Minister said. Sri Lankans, particularly the Kandyan traditional craftsmen and artistes, would be given the opportunity to display their goods within the premises, the Minister said.
Meanwhile the State Minister Ministry of Heritage, Vidura Wickramanayake who visited the place on August 2. 2021, emphasized that a very special mixed project will be established in the premises of the Bogambara Prison and that priority will be given to artefacts of cultural and artistic value which have been protected up to now centered on the last kingdom of Kandy. He also has said the speculations that the old Prison building will be demolish is untrue. As such everything seem to be eternally Mixed” As I see it the Prison building and its protective walls are all already fast crumbling down due to neglect.
State Minister Wickramanayake further has said that the environment required for artisans who engage in creations highlighting traditional arts which is hereditary to Kandy, will be set up within these premises. He said that the programme will be launched together with the Urban Development Authority, the Department of Archaeology and the Prisons Authority.
The UDA that is supposed to be in charge of this rehabilitation Project (as opposed to doing something novel) on the other hand in their GREATER KANDY URBAN PLAN, Final Report: Vol.2 says.
Main Text Plans ready to develop old Bogambara Prison Complex has said they are planning to convert it to a develop old Bogambara Prison Complex that will be turned into a mixed-use building with public open space in front as tourist attraction center (Details not given. Bu that proposal also looks very vague. As they say it will me a mixed project. The details of the composition of the mixture are not reveled).
Scanning through all these Mixed stories” overall, it looks to me now, that it is like Alice in Wonderland. I wonder whether all the people who visited the site have fallen through the rabbit hole and still all of them are lost in the Alice’s Wonderland. On the overall al these talks have got disappeared in the thin that reminds me the story of the 7 Andis and the kanji pot.
My observations in retrospect
Looking at all these news reports it is more than clear that even after 11 years there is no final plan or a final decision of development or rehabilitation, or whatever they call it, on a definite Project. Isn’t this another glaring example where all speakers have highlighted only the conventional, but rather stale, tourist promotion. There is nothing in their minds on Kandyan Arts and Crafts. None of them seems to be aware of the existence of the Laksala and the Department of Small Industries, with the Kundasale Sri Narendra Sinha Arts and Crafts Colony” to which I gave a new lease of life in 1971-76 period, when I was Assistant Director of Small Industries in Kandy, and a large number of private shops with a massive Kandyan Arts Center (Incidentally for which I laid the Foundation in 1972 again as the Asst. Director of the Department of Small Industries Kandy, at that time.) just in front of the Kings Wood College, to take care of this sector from late 1950 s.
All these lose talks prove that even after 11 year none of them seems to have a clear idea as to what should be the best overall plan of development for this historic site of a great nation of the East. None appears to have any idea as to for what purpose this site had been used for 137years. Its historical, sociological and academic values seem to have been completely forgotten or not understood at all. Therefore, it is still floating in the speculation stage, most of them groping in the dark, politicians taking the center stage, as a display of cheap political propaganda to attract the votes only. In my view it has been a cheap political merry-go round and an administrative musical Chair display only, at public expense, with no concrete result.
In this back drop, as I see the Bogambara prison site has become a mere theater for politicians for regular cheap political media shows, to deceive the voters, just as they had done in all other fields for the past 76 years, by pretending that they are seriously interested in developing this place on a multifaceted development fairy tale, like the Midsummer Night Dream of Shakespeare, without a clear idea as to what they are going to do with this historically, academically and economically valuable site. The fact that each politician who visited the site had a different approach and a different perception of future development on this site explains the confusion and lack of purpose and clarity as to what the Government is going to do here or in other words it does not have a concrete plan at all in hand and it has just boiled down to a dirty political game only. All of them are still groping in the dark.
Even after 11 long years of fairy tales, no one, either a politician or an official, expected to advise them, has said anything sensible up to now. Also no one has seen or thought of the historical, political and academic importance of this prison site that marks one of the darkest chapters of Sri Lankan history, where many a conspiracy and crimes had been hatched and committed against the Sinhala Nation and similarly about the light it can throw on the atrocities of expansion of Colonialism and the spread of religion at gun point by the war minded hungry European invaders in the Middle Ages, with no mercy on any human being outside their complexion.
Talking about the Prison per se, it is a pity that none has taken in to account the importance of the historical and political role played by this prison during the time of repressive colonial administration in designing a plan that display the sacrifices made by the Kandyan peasants and their Guardians of the nation like Ven. Wariyapola Sumangala and Kadahapola Thera and their patriotic leaders such as Ahelepola and Keppetipola, who sacrificed their lives on behalf of the motherland and the Saasana, the battles they fought and how valiantly they kept all the invaders locked in to a narrow coastal belt for 310 long years until the British succeeded in annexing the Island to the British Empire by shrewd and cunning intrigue only in1815.
None of these politicians or the officials have had the slightest idea of the important role played by the Kandyan peasants, who suffered and died inside these walls helplessly, for fighting against the enemy, and their unique braveries in defending the motherland and the Sinhala nation for 310 years, not only in protecting the Kandyan Kingdom but also the whole country and the Sinhala nation surrounded by the mighty Indian Ocean, restricting enemy’s sway to a narrow coastal belt of this Island nation for 310 years a nation that had been an independent, sovereign and highly respected and accepted nation in the ancient world, in par with mighty empires like the Roman Greek and Egypt.
In fact, in my view the new project that is to come up here should be dedicated to the memory of that great people, who are now completely forgotten and even their descendants criminally betrayed by everybody, including all government since 1948, the politicians who are clueless about what their ancestors had done to save their motherland its 2500 years old Sinhala Buddhis culture and the civilization for us and moreover their own pristine heritage as a world class nation. These politicians and officials who live and fly high in an empty European made air balloon taking this country and the Sinhala Nation to imminent disaster, do not know that they had a glorious past, one of the best in the world.
So how can a set of unpatriotic and ungrateful people like that, who do not know their own history, their land their religion or their own civilization ever conceive a meaningful plan to make the best use of this wonderful historic site?
The best example I can quote to prove the ignorance, disregard, the callousness and jealousy the present- day politicians have towards these great people (Kandyans) who saved the country and the Sinhala nation from Western Colonial invasions for 310 years (1505-1815) is the abolition of the Department of Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation and the Kandyan Area Development Authority in Jan 2014 by the then Minister of Finance Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, who still have double allegiance by being a dual citizen ( America and Sri Lanka) to establish his pet Project Divineguma in 2014. by closing down three important institutions started by the previous governments namely, a) The Kandyan Peasantry Commissioners Department and the Kandyan Area Development Authority, betraying nearly 1/3 of the native Sinhala people called Kandyans (Hill Country Dwellers) landless, unemployed and high and dry as a set of refugees on their own motherland, that had been developed and protected for 2500 years by their own ancestors against all foreign invasions, from the 2nd century BC.
Proposed Museum and the Research Institute
I also suggest that this Memorial Museum should be divided in to three separate sections to demonstrate each colonial period separately vide; Portuguese Wing, Dutch Wing and the British Wing to enable the visitors to see the scales of crimes committed by each colonial power to this country and its native people. Such a division will make it easy to compare and contrast the crimes each power had done to this country and its people.
At the same time any project designed to this site should be able to highlight the braveries of the patriotic Kandyan Sinhalese who sacrificed everything they had including first, their own lives, wives and children to protect our motherland and second, to expose the darker side of the barbaric, inhuman and savages’ European colonialism that were in action only, against the native Sinhalese over a prolonged period of 310 years.
Preserving the Kandyan architecture.
All other interlined sections like public Parks, Libraries, tourist shops, cafeterias, Cinema Hall, Conference Hall, Exhibition Halls and lecture theaters should be cited separately, on nicely landscaped terrain. All the new buildings should be designed in the traditional Kandyan Architecture to preserve the indigenous Sinhala architectural designs.
In my view the development of this place should expand beyond the stale and common tourist promotion mania of politicians and the average men. It should be designed to give a new lease of life to the present-day decedents of their brave Kandyan ancestors, so that they will immerge as a vibrant, brave and patriotic new Sinhala nation, keeping in mind the braveries of their ancestors, who had put this little Island in the fame list of the ancient world.
I suggest that it must also encompass a broader academic scope, both graduate and post graduate. So that it could be a gold mine and a treasure house for researchers and students of different types of colonialism in one place, both medieval and the present times, so that it could turn out to be an academic center par excellence not only in the Indian ocean but in the whole world, making this country once again the door to the East and the West as it had been, throughout history from ancient times. So that it will attract thousands of researchers and scholars from all parts of the world both the West and the East, and the north and the South, thereby opening a super highway, both by air and sea for earning Foreign Exchange as well.
I also recommend that this should be affiliated to the University of Peradeniya, The Institute of Fundamental Studies and the Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy (SIBA Campus) Pallekele and the two Head Quarters of Asgiriya and Malwatta, the Supreme Seats of Theravada Buddhism in the world. But education here should not be free. As far as possible it should be converted to a self-generating revenue earning institution.
None of the politicians or the officials suffering from the tourist mania has realized the unlimited potential national and international benefits of such a project.
None of the politicians or the officials involved in this project so far, seems to have noticed the unlimited potential benefits the country and the academic world can get by converting this site in to a Memorial Museum of Patriotic wars of Kandyan Sinhalese (1505-1848) and an International Institute of Research and post graduate studies on Colonial crimes in Sri Lanka” on the line I have stated above.
I am confident such a broad-based Institute will attract academic interests the world over, in the fields of medieval colonialism, trade, geo politics and studies on medieval colonial expansion. It will also demonstrate how medieval colonialism has transformed and changed this world and how colonialism was responsible for the present day socio-political, economic and social mess and conundrums in Asia Africa due to exploitive and suppressive colonial policies towards the victimized nations and how to find a workable solutions to such ailing manmade problems due to the perpetuation of the same medieval colonialism in a different form even at present through their multifaceted and interlinked financial and legal institutions like the World BANK, IMF, UNO and its affiliated organizations such as the UNHRC and arrest the expansion of neo-colonialism intruding in different forms into the affairs of the exploited countries in Africa, Latin Amerika and Asia like Sri Lanka and India. This research institute should also explore ways and means of preventing any colonial pursuits in a future world.
As such the establishment of an International Museum and a Research Institute as proposed could also turn out to be a world-famous research center and a treasure house for scholars and connoisseurs the world over, in studies on colonialism and how it has changed the world civilization. This will also be the first of its kind in the world with international standards, making Sri Lanka the Head Quarters of such academic studies.
It will also provide a window to see how colonialism has imposed and implanted the aggressor’s form of government, religion, language and culture, upon the victim nations by the gun, sword and the Bible destroying the indigenous civilizations and cultures the world over, that were indigenous and country specific. The proposed research and higher study center might be able to come out with workable solutions for reconciliation and peaceful coexistence between different nations where each nation respects the other man’s culture and see every one as equals that might have far reaching effects on our co-existence on this planet that would pave the way for a Brave New World San the present-day global tension and unrest arising from practicing the ‘Matsya nyaaya preached by Kautillya, where the stronger swallows up THE WEAKER, thus destroying global diversity leading to uniformity that goes against nature and makes the world artificially monotonous destroying natural diversity.
I suggest that the proposed Memorial Museum and the Research Institute complex should have the following components to begin with.
- Memorial Museum of Patriotic wars of Kandyan Sinhalese against the colonial invaders (1505-1848) displaying all leading personalities and events like the 1818 Uva Rebellion, 1848 Matale Rebellion and the Balana, Wagolla and Randenigala battles against the British and the Sithavaka Rajasinha victory over the Portuguese
- Memorial Museum of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial crimes against the Sinhalese Buddhists displaying the major personalities and events. together with the positive British marvel like the Colombo Badulla railway line.
- An International Institute of Research on Colonial crimes in committed against the native Sinhalese”
- A library to house all books and correspondence between 1505-1948, Portuguese, Dutch and British
- A theater to display cultural and historical events like the first Dalada PeraHara by Sri Meigavanaa in the 3th century BC at Anuradhapura, Mahanuwara Perahara and a conference hall
5. General building with the Administration Branch, lecture rooms. Labs and any other facilities required for the Institute
The entire site of 14 acres should be nicely landscaped and all buildings should reflect Kandyan Architecture
Visuals of brutalities committed by colonial invaders to be displayed
murder, arson, vandalism, destruction of religious places slaughter of cattle, wanton destruction to the environment, large scale deforestation on the hill country, destruction of irrigation canals, village Tanks, destroying home gardens and setting fire to paddy fields about to be harvested, disbanding judicial and social institutions like the Gamsabha, plundering of arts and crafts, valuable books, ola leaves, science and indigenous knowledge base like Ayurveda. discrimination against Sinhalese while giving special privileges to Malabaa settlers in the Jaffna peninsula and the plantations and Muslims (like the 1915 Muslim riots) such as Thesawalame for Jaffna Malaba settlers and Muslim law to Muslims all over the island while imposing the Romana Dutch Law of the invader in 1852 on the Native Sinhalese in place of their own Law. Settling Malabar immigrants in the North and the East along the coastal belt planting Indian nationals right at the center of the country, the geographical heartland of this Island thereby giving rise to a new Indian Tamil civilization right at the center of this country to change the demographic balance and to change the political map of this Sinhala country. Destruction of the primeval forest cover of the Central hills that decides the survival of the entire life system and the civilization in the country due to the loss of the physical stability of the central highlands that will result in drying up all the 103 rivers that have their sources on these hills.
Allowing the minorities to have their own laws while denying the natives their own and imposing Roman Dutch Law on them from 1852. Robing the native land by repressive legislation like Encroachment on Crown lands Ord of 1840, Temple Lands Ord of 1853 and the Wasteland Ordinance of 1897. Brownrigg also issued a special gazette order under Royal proclamation no 1 of 1818 asking all males over 18 years of age to be killed, paddy fields and orchards bearing fruits to be destroyed, all irrigation works to be destroyed and all the cattle to be slaughtered
They also destroyed the age old native political, legal, administrative and social institutions and replaced them with their own systems, completely alien and inappropriate to the traditions of the natives.
This is only an outline of a proposal as it came to my mind.
The Govt must get a committee of experts in fields like history, native warfare, medieval colonial invasions, Archaeology and Architecture, Landscaping, construction engineering, Research etc to prepare a detailed Master Plan for this Project within 3 months.
If accepted and established this could also be the first of its kind on studies on colonialism in the whole world.
Some of the personalities with a brief description on each one of them I suggest to be displayed in the Memorial Museum
Wariyapola Sumangala and Kadahapola Thero and Welivita Sangharaja Thero,Ahelepola Adikaarama ,Plimatalavve, Keppetipola, Meegasthane Adiikaarama, Keppetipola Disava walking with a hunch back looking for Independence of his motherland as displayed in Mauritius Isle in conversation with his French care taker Puran Appu. Gongalegoda Banda, Saradiyal, and Devendra Mulaacharya the Architect of the Octagon and the Walaakul Bamma. Ananda Coomaraswamy (Author of Medieval Sinhalese Art and Tennakoon Wimlananda, Nittawela Gunaya and Thittapajjala Suramba, and Sirima Bandarnayaka (A Kandyan lady who was the First Woman Prime Minister in the world any other historic personalities as recommended by the special Committee that is proposed to be set up to draw up the final plan.
Architecture and painting
All buildings should be in Kandyan style with a mixture of Anuradhapura style as well. The lay out of the whole project, its buildings, art work landscaping and roads etc should be decided by a Pannal of experts in Architecture, landscaping, history, engineering and Aesthetics
I also suggest
1.We use the traditional Temple painting technique in narrative form for Wall Paintings in order to depict our traditions of Kandyan arts and crafts and village life.
2.Miscellaneous items that could be incorporated to enhance the historical and cultural values that awaken patriotism and love for the motherland, religion and our cultural values.
3 All displays should be arranged in a way that pays the nation’s highest gratitude and respect to its heroes who fought against the enemies to defend the Motherland and the Sinhala nation and their religion and sacrificed their loved ones and everything they had and finally their lives in the name of the motherland and its people, during one of the darkest chapters of Sri Lanka’s history
4.Exhibit Sinhala weaponry and war techniques they used in battle against the invaders
5. A fully equipped library to House documents pertaining to the 1505-1848 period with a competent library staff. Works by both local and foreign authors should be made available here.
6 A research unit in collaboration with the Peradeniya University the Institute of Fundamental Studies and The International Buddhist University Pallekele.
Foot note
Step1: Accepting the Proposal by the Government
Step 2 Selecting and appointing the panel of experts to prepare the final Report giving details of buildings lay out, landscaping, administrative authority, staff, equipment’s and machinery, revivals, Staff, and the Budget
Step 3 Preparation of the draft Act for the Memorial Museum of Patriotic wars of Kandyan Sinhalese (1505-1848) and an International Institute of Post Graduate Research on Colonial crimes in Sri Lanka” at the old Bogambara Prison site and getting it passed by Parliament
Step 4. Setting up the machinery of Administration and making appointment to the Authority. Under a Director General and two Directors, one to be in charge of the Museum and the other to be in charge of the Research and Post Graduate Section and the required staff under them
Step 5. If the Government accept the Proposal in Principle, the Cabinet can appoint an interim Board of management to operate with a Mini staff that can start the work from the bungalow of the Prison former Commissioner until the new building complex is completed so that the Director General can coordinate the expeditious completion of the building complex by on-the-spot supervision, in order to expedite the completion of the Project
.Meanwhile the Government can get the Act passed by Parliament concurrently, so that the new management can start operation in full swing.
Finally, I also propose to set up a Special Committee of experts in Sri Lankan and Colonial wars pertaining to the period mentioned (1505-1948) with a mixture of experts in Sri Lankan History, Architecture, Kandyan State Craft and Kandyan Law, Sinhala Legal system and Indigenous war fare, weaponry, 1818 and 1848 rebellions and the art of war with the assistance of the Peradeniya and other universities may be sought in selecting the most competent scholars and scientists for this panel as suggested above.
Special note.
This proposal of mine is only an outline of a Project Proposal to be drawn up by a Pannal of experts.
I give below few names I propose as experts to be included in that Team, subjected to revision,
Emeritus Professor Gerald Peiris, Shoba Janaki Senaviratna (Architect and Member Sri Lanka Council of Architects) Mr Samantha Ratwatte (Presidential Council ),Mr. L.K.N Perera (Lawyer and retired Judge and Author of EELAAM EXPOSED), Mr. Nalaka Wijesinha Retired colonel Sri Lanka Army and an Activist on Kandyan affairs , Mrs Asoka Badarage*, (expert of International Affairs) Senali Waduge (Jounalistm and Patriot), Palitha Ariyaratna, (journalist and Activist on national and religious Affairs), and Activist on Kandyan Affairs, Dr. Mahesh Premarathna IFS (Biotechnologist) and young Activist in many innovative fields)
My services are also available free for the Preparation of the Final Report on this subject, as the proposer of this Proposal)
This institution should be administered by a Board of Governors. Appointed by the Head of the State.
Some of the members listed as experts below may also be included on the Bord of Governors
Ex-Officio members of the Board of Governors
Governor CP, GA Kandy, Mayor of Kandy MC, two scholarly Representatives from Malwatta and Asgiriya Sects (nominated by the Mahaanayka Theras), Diyawadana Nilame, of the Sri Daladha Maligava,Vice Chancellor of Peradeniya University or his /her nominee, The Head of Pallekele International Buddhist University or his /her nominee, Head of the IFS or his/her nominee, The Four Basnayaka Nilames of the 4 Devalas, a Representative from the UDA, he Secretary to the Ministry of Heritage and cultural Affairs; Nominee by the Secretary to the Treasury.
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