{"id":156076,"date":"2026-05-06T14:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=156076"},"modified":"2026-05-06T14:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:48:21","slug":"to-take-the-law-into-ones-own-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/05\/06\/to-take-the-law-into-ones-own-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"TO TAKE THE LAW INTO ONE\u2019S OWN HANDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

RANJITH SOYSA<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

At Tissa Viharaya, Jaffna, on the days significant to the Buddhists, the unruly individuals of another faith gather at its gates and create disruptive scenery disturbing the religious environment. This is the ugly truth the Buddhists devotees must face regularly. Such an unenviable situation was prevailing for the last one year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History of Tissa viharya goes back to BC 307 when King Devanampiyatissa was the ruler of Sri Lanka. He became a Buddhist after listening to Ven Mahinda thero. After embracing Buddhism, the King built several temples and in Nagadeepa,-name used for Jaffna peninsula- according to Mahawamsa  Jambukola,Tissa viharya and Pachnaramaya were built during the period<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the reason behind the puerile behaviour in the proximity of such a reputed place of Buddhism? Some of the agitators are political agents who are keen on creating tensions and expecting angry reactions from the devotees so that their agenda can be activated to create divisions within the community of Sri Lankans to attract the attention of public. Some participants are said to be \u2018the owners\u2019 of the land occupied by the temple and they want to canvass their grievances and force the authorities to handover the land back to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the law enforcement authorities are ignoring this act of public nuisance which can lead to a serious breach of peace and possible physical damages to the buildings of the temple, there is a simple and a practical method of settlement of this unruly situation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If some of the agitators claim the temple has by force occupied their land, the best method of recovery would be to seek legal remedy by submitting their deeds to the court of law and requesting settlement. So far, no one has sought this clear and simple method. But we have heard from the temple management that they are in possession of valid deed for the land occupied by them and if the other party\/parties come before the courts, they will prove that the temple is built on a legally owned land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently. when the temple land was surveyed too, the intruders came in and created trouble and stopped the related work which was useful to the settlement of this vexed issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country is watching the steps taken by the Government and the law enforcement authorities prompt intervention with interest as the religious freedom of the Buddhists too are important to foster a harmony among the Sri Lankans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RANJITH SOYSA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RANJITH SOYSA At Tissa Viharaya, Jaffna, on the days significant to the Buddhists, the unruly individuals of another faith gather at its gates and create disruptive scenery disturbing the religious environment. This is the ugly truth the Buddhists devotees must face regularly. Such an unenviable situation was prevailing for the last one year. History of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ranjith-soysa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156076","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=156076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156077,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156076\/revisions\/156077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}