{"id":105363,"date":"2020-08-10T16:17:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T23:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105363"},"modified":"2020-08-10T16:17:07","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T23:17:07","slug":"buddhism-in-present-day-eastern-province-pt-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/10\/buddhism-in-present-day-eastern-province-pt-4\/","title":{"rendered":"BUDDHISM IN PRESENT DAY EASTERN PROVINCE PT 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Malinda\nSeneviratne, the respected journalist,   went to Budubava in 2020 and observed that\nthe Buddhist ruins in Eastern Province were getting destroyed. The jungles\naround Panama are full of Buddhist shrines. There are remains of stupas and\nmonastic complexes. There are hundreds of caves. [They are now being\ndemolished]These were not destroyed by the elements, said Malinda. How else\ncould a place like Budubava have stupas razed to the ground?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wildlife\nDepartment, the Forest Department, the Special Task Force, the Irrigation\nDepartment and the Archaeology Department have jurisdiction over these jungles.\nCould all these institutions be in the dark about the vandalism that is taking place?\nAll of them, all the time and together? asked Malinda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medhananda\nhad plenty to say about the way ruins were getting destroyed in the Eastern Province.\nStone pillars at Pulukunava were\nbroken into pieces. This vandalism is not natural it has been done by persons,\nsaid Medhananda. Four siripatul from\nPulukunawa Maha vihara have been taken away as miris gal.   The\nViharakadu region close to Dighavapi has been leveled recently using machinery.\nAt Dighavapi itself, a bulldozer had gone \u2018by mistake\u2019 through the\ntemple. In\n1972, they were planning to shoot and destroy the Buddhist ruins\nat Niyankullukama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nilaveli\nhas Mahayana Buddhist ruins. the vihara\nwas known as Kanikaravelli vihara. The\nstupas were there in 1966, they had disappeared by 1978.  The stupa and    arama of Okanda vihara were in good\ncondition in 1978.They have now disappeared. At\nRugam too, the ruins have been deliberately destroyed. Jayarampala, a few miles north of Karanda\noya consists of many Buddhist ruins. These have been vandalized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veheragala\nvihara near Araganvila is a monastery on a huge rock. All buildings, including\nstupa have been destroyed. Inscription shows that kings worshipped here. Veheratenna which had ruins dated to 5th<\/sup>\ncentury AD was heavily destroyed. Taravakulam\nruins have been   damaged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galkulama had ruins stretching all the\nway to Kiliveddi. An Inscription there showed that its name was Girimahalaka\nMaha vehera and it had been built by Dutugemunu. This place has been completely\ndestroyed, said Medhananda. Its stupa\nhas been destroyed and bricks scattered for miles . Sunetra wewa (Tirumangala)  had Buddhist ruins for 5 acres or so. They have been deliberately destroyed. Kalladi puda bima, in Batticaloa was\ndiscovered and protected by the armed forces during the Eelam war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Buddhist remains\nwere destroyed, rock inscriptions<\/strong>\nwere specifically targeted. They were sought out and deliberately destroyed.\nMundikulammale Ampara had rows of caves with inscriptions. <\/strong>these had been shot and destroyed. The damage done is extensive. Buddhist ruins at Niyankullukama were shot and destroyed, while Medhananda was\nthere, exploring in 1972. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhist ruins at Niyankullukama were shot and destroyed, while Medhananda was\nthere, exploring in 1972. Mahagirilla\nSavarankeligala had a unique inscription relating to a \u2018pase budun\u2019. This was\nrecorded by the Department of Archaeology. Medhananda found the stone\ncontaining the inscription smashed to pieces and the inscription destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kadolupotana kanda, Eravur had three\ninscriptions which showed that this area was under Kavantissa. These\ninscriptions have been destroyed.   Mundikulam malai site in Ampara, had an\ninscription, discovered by Medhananda, which stated that Vihara Maha Devi lived\nthere after she became a nun. The rock and the inscription had been broken up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Inscription\nat Dimbulagala cave dated to 2 century BC was found mutilated in 1980. Only two\nwords remained. Eeratiperiyakulam   ruined vihara. Parker found an Inscription\nsays that arachchi vila donated to Thihadaya arama. This inscription has disappeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kurundammalai known earlier as Kurathgama had an\ninscription dated to Mahinda III (801-804) which said that the king had come to\nsettle a problem about water. C.W. Nicholas had seen this inscription. <\/strong>When we went it was not to be seen\u201d,\nannounced Medhananda.  Inscription\nat Dimbulagala cave letters were mutilated in 1980, only two words remain.  Nilaveli had       a Sanskrit inscription,  a sloka, dated to 6 AD. By\n1981 the inscription had been tarred over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two inscriptions\nat Lahugala, the Akuru ketu gala inscription   on Karapavata vihara, and Galhitiode\ninscription on Ayapavata vihara were\ndestroyed. Thannimuruppu wewa\ninscription at Kurundammalai is now destroyed.\nA Sanskrit Mahayana inscription at Kucceveli Maha vihara was defaced in\n1981, said Medhananda. Kumachola inscription at Eravur   said that the eastern coast was administered\nin king Vasabha\u2019s time (67-111 AD) by minister Asigira. some\nletters in this inscription were erased. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bodhi trees were\nalso considered religious objects which should be demolished. The Bo tree and shrine room at Sambaltivu in\nTrincomalee was cut down and destroyed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Vardhana\nBodhi of Kiliveddi. Is In Muttur is about 150 yards from Kiliveddi ferry. When Medhananda\nvisited in 1952 he   found a large Bodhi\ntree, with stone pillars, moon stone, step slabs, etc. they were there\nthen\nI went there again in 1965. When he visited in 1977 the tree and the ruins\nwere gone. Tamils living\nnear Tirumangala wewa moved to Kiliveddy and destroyed its Buddhist ruins and built\na kovil near the Bodhi. They  extended this close to the Bodhi, and then cut\nthe branches of the Bodhi, supposedly for telephone wires. Then cut the\nbranches so that the trunk was affected. The\nmoonstone that I saw in 1965 was destroyed by 1977.  Now there are no Buddhist ruins\nthere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stupas\n<\/strong>have been\ndestroyed systematically. The stupa at Nilaveli was there in 1966, it had\ndisappeared by 1978.Medhananda saw a huge stupa, 300 by 33 feet, on the\nTrincomalee- Kantalai road, near 246 km post. This has been cut in two and\nbricks scattered all over the teak plantation nearby. Teak has been planted on\ntop of the stupa, as well, reported Medhananda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vilankulam stupa\nwas also   huge   150 ft in circum, and 35 in height. This too\nhad been deliberately destroyed and bricks scattered all over. When I saw it in\n1978, Sellappa Nalliah and Inamuttusamy had built a house at the top of the\nstupa, with toilet and well, said Medhananda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>The\nstupa near Kinniya wells vanished after the Ceasefire agreement of 2002. The media reported in 2002 that senior monks\nof Seruwila and Tamankaduwa had said that the bricks unearthed while levelling\na mound near the hotwells at Kinniya belong to Anuradhapura era and the mound\nwas a stupa. This has been levelled to put up a Hindu temple. The monks had\ncomplained to the authorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddha\nstatues<\/strong> were also\ndamaged. Statues at Mudu Maha vihara, Panama seen in 1990 have disappeared,\nsaid Medhananda.  Kucceveli Maha vihara\nhad Mahayana statues \u2018in pleasing form\u2019 when Medhananda visited in 1966.\nWhen   Medhananda visited in 1978 the\nupper parts of most of the statues were destroyed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Buddha statues at Daluggala Raja Maha\nVihara was damaged and the pilima head taken as a lip galak. At Ridikanda the\nstatues had been dragged down from the hill and destroyed.  Due to this, the Buddha statue found\nParavankandam was removed to the Police station for safety, and is now in\nAmpara museum, said Medhananda.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main strategy used to suppress Buddhism in\nthe north and east, was to promptly substitute Hindu kovils<\/strong> for the destroyed Buddhist ruins. Hindu kovils have been built over many of the\nBuddhist shrines, said Medhananda.Many ancient Buddhist buildings have been\ndemolished and devala belonging to various Hindu gods have been built over\ntheir ruins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kankon isvarna kovil, at Kokkadicholai ,\nhas been built over a Buddhist aramaya and the signs\nare still there. There are guard stones, parts of stupa. There was an inscription\n Medhananda  was told by those living there, in 1968, but\nit has been destroyed.  Kovil started\nsmall and now enlarged. There is a second Pullaiyar kovil too.   Tamils only there now.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I visited\nSembumalai in 1978, the Buddha statue seen earlier was missing. Many ruins were\npurposely damaged and a Hindu kovil has been established. The Poosari\u2019s\nstatements that it was built in 1938 cannot be accepted as the materials used\nfor the kovil were   new. There\nis a kovil at Palamottai with a notice giving its \u2018history\u2019 in Tamil.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rahatgala had        30 acres of Buddhist ruins including an ancient two\nstoried building.   It is today known as\nShanthamalai, it has two kovils.\n<\/em>The huge stone\nansana and asanaghara at Viharagalkanda has been deposited there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kandakudichci aru\nruins. There is now a Hindu kovil there. Used the stupa altars, one as a step\nand the other as an altar. Okanda\ndevale at Panama has been renamed Murugan kovil.  Sangaman kanda,   was a Buddhist  site, with two \ncave inscriptions  . Now it is a\nSiva kovil.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ridikanda ruins. Media\nreported in 1978  that the statues had\nbeen pushed off the hill  dragged down and   destroyed. A\nShiva devale is set up here, called  Sembir\ndevale .  Tamils said it was set up in 1938. Ruins\naround the kovil had been destroyed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Tirumangala \nthe kovil   had a Buddha statue.  Ancient bricks, columns,  stone tiles, \nhave been used for the kovil .There are Buddhist  ruins for 5 acres or so with moonstone and\nimage stand. Taravakulama \nin Batticaloa had a  Buddhist  vihara which is now converted to Hindu kovil.\nToppigala also now has a Hindu kovil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some kovils the Buddhist link is visible.\nAt Tirumangala the kovil had a\nBuddha statue.   Kantakonishwaran\nkovil near Vellavali, built on a   huge,\nancient Buddhist monastery, has used the ruins as  altars. the \nhuge stone ansana and asanaghara at vihara gal kanda   had been taken to Santamalai where a Hindu\nkovil had been set up on the Buddhist site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Kandakudichchi aru  where \nthe stupa was replaced by a kovil, one  mal asana gala was   placed before the Hindu statue  and the other was used as a step.  Villagers\nin Veheragoda, Ampara,  said that the\nstone door frame belonging to the stupa had been taken away to a kovil at\nMandur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been\nknee jerk reactions in Colombo, to this kovil building. The media  reported in 2002  that \nAll Ceylon Buddhist women\u2019s Congress, \nNational council of Buddhist women and Success, Colombo jointly appeal\nto the President, PM and Minister for Buddha Sasana to immediately order an\ninvestigation into the alleged destruction of the ancient Samudragiri vihara in\nIlankathurai. Our information is that this temple has been torn down and its\nstone pillars used to build a new Hindu kovil,. However, Medhananda observed in\n2003 that stupa and pilimage at Samudragiri vihara,\nLankapatuna has been destroyed and the kovil set up. Samudragiri will be\ncompletely destroyed very soon, he predicted. ( continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Malinda Seneviratne, the respected journalist,   went to Budubava in 2020 and observed that the Buddhist ruins in Eastern Province were getting destroyed. The jungles around Panama are full of Buddhist shrines. There are remains of stupas and monastic complexes. There are hundreds of caves. [They are now being demolished]These were not destroyed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}