{"id":115813,"date":"2021-07-05T15:50:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T22:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=115813"},"modified":"2021-07-05T15:50:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T22:50:28","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-16-a3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/07\/05\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-16-a3\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 16 A3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The\nLTTE had a deep hatred of Buddhism and showed it in repeated attacks on\ntemples, bhikkhus and   worshippers. The\nthree high profile attacks were the Dalada Maligawa, Sri Maha Bodhi and\nArantalawa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE wished to\ndestroy Buddhist temples. The truck bomb attack on Dalada Maligawa in 1998 is\nwell known. But the LTTE attacked the historic Somawati vihara in Polonnaruwa district\nin the 1980s. Somawati vihara is believed to have been built in the reign of\nKavantissa and enshrines the right canine  tooth of the Buddha<\/a>. Somawathi is therefore older than Ruwanwelisaya<\/a>, Mirisawetiya <\/a> or Jetavanaramaya<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Somawathi vihara was attacked twice. The first was in 1985, the second in 1987. In 1987 the LTTE\nhacked to death one Bhikkhu and seven civilians.  The second shooting\nwas done to discourage\npilgrims coming to the temple on Esala Poya.<\/strong>  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were other sporadic\nattacks. A bomb killed 23 and injured 70 at a\nBuddhist temple in Batticaloa<\/a> during Vesak\nin 2000.  The bomb that exploded in an\nAnuradhapura-Kandy private bus at Dambulla in 2008 was to be exploded at\nRuwanveliseya when a \u2018pichchamal pujawa\u2019 was in progress with thousands of\ndevotees taking part in the ceremony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE also attacked Sri Lankan Buddhist temples\nabroad. In 2009 LTTE attacked Kingsbury Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist\ncentre in London at 3 a.m and smashed seven windows using bricks.  One of the CCTV cameras had been removed\nearlier. The Buddhist\ntemple in Paris was also attacked in 2009 and LTTE was suspected to be behind it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE killed bhikkhus. Kudakongaskada Wimalagnana,\n Chief priest at Tantirimale gave support\nto the villagers when LTTE attacked.  He\nwas like an unofficial division commander for the border villages in\nAnuradhapura, said Kamal Gunaratne. He\nwas killed by a hand grenade inside the temple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ven. Kithalagama\nSri Seelalankara, Dimbulagala hamuduruvo, was a remarkable bhikkhu. He was a\npioneer in restoring the ancient Buddhist monastery Dimbulagala Raja Maha Vihara<\/a> in the 1950s\nand was the chief incumbent of the monastery for almost four decades. On 12\nJune 1979, Seelalankara was appointed as the Chief Sanghanayaka of the North\nand East Tamankaduwa Provinces. In June 1967 he established Dimbulagala Maha\nKashyapa Pirivena. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dimbulagala Hamuduruvo\nwas a fearless monk. He went to every village in border areas, helped the\nvillagers and tried to ensure their protection, said Kamal Guneratne.  He\nestablished a village school with the Sinhala-speaking people in Sorawila,\nwhich later become Sorawila Maha Vidyalaya. He was ambushed and killed by LTTE\non 26.5.1995 on his way to a farm belonging to the temple. (Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The LTTE had a deep hatred of Buddhism and showed it in repeated attacks on temples, bhikkhus and   worshippers. The three high profile attacks were the Dalada Maligawa, Sri Maha Bodhi and Arantalawa. LTTE wished to destroy Buddhist temples. The truck bomb attack on Dalada Maligawa in 1998 is well known. But the […]<\/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-115813","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\/115813","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=115813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}