{"id":154626,"date":"2026-02-10T15:13:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=154626"},"modified":"2026-02-10T15:13:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:13:55","slug":"chief-prelate-urges-president-to-release-monks-over-trincomalee-buddha-statue-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/02\/10\/chief-prelate-urges-president-to-release-monks-over-trincomalee-buddha-statue-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief Prelate urges President to release monks over Trincomalee Buddha statue dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Hiru News<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.hirunews.lk\/Data\/News_Images\/202602\/1770717128_6314475_hirunews.jpg\" alt=\"Chief+Prelate+urges+President+to+release+monks+over+Trincomalee+Buddha+statue+dispute\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The government-led intervention involving allegations over the placement of a Buddha statue at the Trincomalee Bodhirajarama Temple is a deliberate crime against the Sasana.<br><br>Most Venerable Dr. Ittapane Dhammalankara Thera, the Chief Prelate of the Kotte Sri Kalyani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha Sabha, conveyed this view in a letter addressed to the President.<br><br>The Chief Prelate points out that the opposition to the statue&#8217;s placement originated from a group including a member of the Tamil Diaspora and a member of the current government, rather than from any other ethnic or religious community.<br><br>He believes the issue arose because the police acted arbitrarily and followed certain political instructions.<br><br>The letter expresses deep regret regarding the imprisonment of ten individuals, including Buddhist monks, in connection with the incident.<br><br>Placing a very small Buddha statue on the foundation of the old sermon hall destroyed by the Tsunami does not cause any harm to the location.<br><br>Describing the reconstruction of a building on the original site as a &#8220;new construction&#8221; is an ignorant act.<br><br>The monks placed the statue on sacred land protected and offered to the Sasana by ancient kings; they faced assault for attempting to place a Buddha statue and not for committing any crime.<br><br>The details in the letter are based on media reports and information gathered by a delegation from the Kotte Sri Kalyani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha Sabha sent to the site.<br><br>While national and religious issues existed in Sri Lanka during certain eras in the past, such problems are non-existent today.<br><br>Therefore, the Chief Prelate requests the President to intervene and take steps to immediately release the ten individuals, including the monks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Hiru News The government-led intervention involving allegations over the placement of a Buddha statue at the Trincomalee Bodhirajarama Temple is a deliberate crime against the Sasana. Most Venerable Dr. Ittapane Dhammalankara Thera, the Chief Prelate of the Kotte Sri Kalyani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha Sabha, conveyed this view in a letter addressed to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154626","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=154626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154627,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154626\/revisions\/154627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}