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Home Tamil Eelam History Sri Lanka - The State Against The Tamils
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Sri Lanka - The State Against The Tamils - part 4

State Sponsored Destruction and Desecration of Hindu Temples

Extracts from ‘Destruction of Hindu Temples in Eelam and Sri Lanka’ Published by Federation of Saiva (Hindu) Temples UK
Ceylon, now Srilanka has been an ancient seat of Hinduism and Saivaism. Buddhism was subsequently introduced into the Island in the third century B.C. during the rule of Emperor Asoka in India. It found ready acceptance among Sinhalese who were struggling to find their own identity in the face of a resurgence of Tamil culture and the growing might of the Hindu Pallawa and the Pandyan empires in south India. In time this gave to a historical myth, make-believe that identified the Sinhalese as a chosen custodian of Buddhism and the Island a place of special sanctity blessed by the Buddha. This interlocking of land, religion and race, was to become an intoxicating mix in the minds of the Sinhala-Buddhists through the centuries; their unwillingness to let go this cushioning fantasy (for fear of losing their identity) is the root cause of this prevailing strife in the Island to this day. That also explains their ingrained hostility against Tamils, Tamil culture, Hinduism, India and whatever they feel could be a potential threat to their existence within that special cocoon they had created for themselves. This jingoistic believe is nourished and nurtured by few writings like the Mahavansa and other inventive interpretations with strong religious bias.

Thus the state sponsored terrorism leading to the destruction and desecration of the Hindu Temples could be explained as a violent expression of the extreme hostility the Sinhalese have against the Tamils and not as antireligious. Hindus constitute only about 15.5 % of the Islands population as against 70 % Buddhists. Yet the sway of Hinduism is Islandwide-from the deep south of the Island which houses the prehistoric shrine of Kathirgamam (Katragama) dedicated to Lord Skanda or Lord Muruga and the entire width of the Northeastern Tamil homeland. Hinduism as an electric religion comprising many metaphysical systems and all embracing in outlook has an appeal to the Sinhala Buddhists themselves. In fact, Buddhism in Srilanka at the popular level embraces the worship of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Thus it is the illusory fear of losing their identity and even their existence that has created this institutionalised hatred against whatever is Tamil.

In Tamil Eelam the culture and civilization of the Tamils, which has a long, rich and valuable history is undergoing destruction on an unprecedented scale.

Tamil Eelam was once strewn with thousands of temples, churches, mosques, libraries, schools and statues of great symbolic importance. To the Hindus religion forms part and parcel of their daily life. Temples stand not only as places of worship but are also embodiment of cultural life. music, dance, drama, education medicine and many other essential aspects of life evolve around the temples. Today many of them have been razed to the ground and others in a dilapidated condition and many important temples are rendered inaccessible as a result of army occupation in and around the temples.

All five renowned Hindu shrines that existed long before the advent of Buddhism in Ceylon – Thiruketheswaram, Muneeswaram,Naguleswaram, Thirukoneswaram and Thondeeswaram are all now under the control of the Sinhala Buddhist oppressors. The first three are under the direct control of the occupying armed forces of the Srilankan state that are made up entirely of Sinhala Buddhists except for a handful of Christians and Muslims.

Thiruketheswaram in Mannar and Thirukoneswaram in Trincomalee, both have always attracted devotees from India.Saints Thirugnasampanther (7th century A.D) and Saint Suntharar (9th century A.D.) have sung hymns in praise of these temples. Today Thiruketheswaram is in ruins. This historic Temple was desecrated and all valuables in the Temple have been plundered by the state armed forces. The Srilankan army forced out residents living in the neighborhood. Priests and devotees were not allowed into the temple vicinity and from August 1990 soldiers in their thousands have occupied the temple and its surroundings. According to a letter from the secretary of the Thiruketheswaram Temple Restoration Trust the most heinous and unforgivable part of the vandalism is the disfigurement and the gouging of the Third Eye of the icon Somaskanda (Lord Siva).A letter from the Assistant Secretary of the Society, read that “not a single civilian is found within a radius of about three miles from the temple.” “It is crystal clear that it was the army which caused all the destruction and wanton damage to the buildings around the temple.”

Thirukoneswaram known as the Southern Kailasam is another ancient Hindu Temple that the Portuguese has blasted it into the sea. Ruins of the temple are still lying on the seabed. During the British rule, devotees were permitted to worship at the Swamy Malai(Fort) In 1953 the structure for a new temple was laid and it was completed in 1963.But the Hindu devotees were in constant fear that the state army occupying the fort where the temple is situated , will either destroy it or harass the people on their way to the temple. In 1969 a Tamil minister requested the Government in which he served to declare the temple premises a sacred zone. This was at a time the Government was declaring the temple precincts to be sacred zones. But the Government refused to accede to his request and the minister had no option but to resign from his ministerial post. There after this temple too was vandalised several times.

In the early part of 1993 the temple was partly destroyed by Sinhala Buddhists. The front door of the temple was burnt and statues and utensils were damaged. The premises of the high priest too were damaged. Many army camps were put up around the temple area and devotees were not allowed to enter the Fort. Later after great persuasion by the northeast provincial council officers, the former President of Srilanka, Mr. Premadasa, allowed access to the temple for the priest, the holder of the temple keys, a cleaner and three or four devotees only. This access was allowed once a day and the army at the temple premises had to agree to it. No praying rituals were performed, only lambs lit by the priest. The other devotees had to stand miles away from the temple and they would pray facing the Swamy Malai(Fort).

In May 1996 the state army restricted the number of devotees entering the temple during the festival period to between thirty-five and fifty people only. When the chairman of the Town Council protested, he was badly beaten up.

The intensity of the Buddhist fundamentalism was visible in another incident that needs mentioning. The statue of the God Pillaiyar (Ganesh), worshiped not only by Hindus but also sometimes by Sinhala Buddhists was removed from the temple by a Sinhala Buddhist and thrown into the sea. The vicious person later scribbled on the wall of the temple:” God Ganesh has gone for a bath”.

It is this type of barbarism and intolerance that exists in a country claming to have been visited by Buddha, the symbol of compassion, tolerance and love.

Unlike the above two temples, Nagulaswaram temple at Keerimalai in Jaffna was subjected to a different kind of treatment. The state army dropped deadly bombs on this temple. On the 16th of October 1990 at about 4 p.m. three bombs were dropped. The first one fell on the front of the temple destroying two chariots of the temple and other buildings, the second fell on the southern courtyard of the temple destroying the premises of the priest, and third one fell on the northern courtyard destroying the Thurka Thevy temple and other buildings.

The Air Force came again after two days, on 18 October 1990,about 2.30 pm, and dropped two more bombs on the very same temple. It was a special day and almost a thousand devotees were in the temple area at that time. They all fled in different directions trying to save their lives. Many got injured in the stampede. The temple and its magnificent Kopuram, the halls, the library with its valuable palm leaf manuscripts, books and many statues were damaged by the bombings. All this happened in spite of the unmistakable temple identification flags which were flying on all four corners of the temple, as instructed by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Naguleswaram is not the only temple destroyed by the bombing carried out by the state forces. The Thurga Devi temple at Tellippalai, Jaffna, a center of great veneration, was also bombed in May 1992 resulting in deaths and destruction.

The destruction of temples is one aspect of the Srilankan’s Government’s grand plan to destroy the Tamil peoples’ culture. There are many other methods, such as arrest of Hindu priests, removing their sacred thread, beating them up, or keeping them incarcerated as Tiger suspects; firing shells on the devotees gathering at the temple on festival days so that no festival can be conducted; arresting and detaining devotees on their way to temple on festival days so that no festival can be conducted; desecrating the temples and prayer halls of Ramakrishna Mission by the police entering with their boots on etc, etc.

At this juncture the inevitable questions arise: why does a large number of people following a religion which preaches love, compassion and tolerance act in complete contrast to these Buddhist principles.? How do they become so imbued with such deep-seated racism? Why do the members of the Sanga including the prelates of Asgiriya and Malwata actively involve themselves in fostering and promoting Buddhist fundamentalism? Why does the Maha Sanga donate money to the Government’s war fund?

It is quite clear that the Sinhala Buddhists are making every attempt through out the world fellowship of Buddhists to portray the national liberation struggle of the Tamils as a religious conflict to make it appear as the actions of a bunch of religious fanatics. Their aim is to sap the strength and power of the liberation struggle and thus destroy it. Their other aim is to use this false portrayal to seek the help of Buddhists all over the world pretending that Buddhists and Buddhism are being persecuted by some Hindu fanatics.

We can go on giving a long list of crimes committed against our houses of religious worship. The annexure gives some particulars of some of the important Hindu shrines destroyed by the Sinhala Buddhist military.

Oppression and religious persecution of the Hindus takes place not only in violent forms but in other subtle and sophisticated ways as well. Below are some of those methods adopted:

1) Buddhists Sinhala symbols, the stupa and bo-tree, are made use of to give legitimacy to Sinhala settlements in Tamil areas. The method normally adopted is to find a bo-tree in a Tamil area, erect a Buddhist idol underneath it overnight, stealthily build a vihara around it or near it with an incumbent Buddhist monk, and then the process of Sinhalisation of the area begins culminating in the claim that the region was an ancient Buddhist area.

2) Sudden discoveries are made of such symbols in archeological excavations in sights historically known to have been that of Hindu shrines, and thereafter the process of converting the areas into Sinhala Buddhist areas begins as aforesaid. Cyril Mathew, a former minister and a henchman of President Jeyawardena, and rabid chauvinist was the chief architect of this scheme. He and his gang “discovered” over “100 ancient Buddhist shrines” in the Eastern Province. The gang then decided that there should be only Sinhala Buddhists living within the limits of the area in which the peeling of the bells of the newly erected Buddhist viharas could be heard; and by means of mob violence and stare terrorism they sought to implement this rule.

3) The declaration of sites of Hindu shrines as archeological reserves to undertake excavation operations, posing a danger to the temple, apart from bringing out false claims based on misinterpretation of findings to “prove”ancient Sinhala Buddhist settlements. The Muthumariamman temple in Kilivetty, in the Trincomalee District, is a case in point. A gazetted order for the excavation in the lands belonging to the Temple still hangs like the sword of Damocles over it, although the excavation process was suspended because of vehement protests by the former member of parliament. The inhabitants of this area have now been forcibly evicted by the armed forces.

4) Government notifications being issued that certain ruins are Buddhists ruins, as in the case of the historic Samanalankulam Pillaiyar temple in the Vavuniya District that has now been converted into Buddhist ruin.

5) Erecting imposing Buddhist statues in close proximity to ancient Hindu temples as in the case of Thirukoneswaram of Trincomalee, is yet another method adopted to ultimately wipe out Hinduism in Ceylon.

6) Forcible take over by Buddhist monks of Hindu shrines hitherto venerated and maintained by Hindus are not unheard of. Such take overs have taken place at Sellakthirgamam, near the main Murugan temple in Kathirgamam, and at the temple in the holy peak of the seven hills of Kathirgamam.

7) The pilgrim’s rest at Kathirgamam managed by the Ramakrishna Mission of Colombo with its headquarters in Calcutta and which gave free board and lodging, to all pilgrims irrespective of religion , was taken over by the state and handed over to the Buddhist monks. Earlier the Hindu Mutts were razed to the ground in the move to declare a sacred area.

8) The Cultural Triangle Project funded by the UNESCO and presently undertaken in the Anuradhapurqa and Polonnanaruwa Districts, is madeuse of for the restoration of Buddhist shrines only, to the complete exclusion of the ancient Hindu temples in those areas. Under this project, in Anuradhapura, the Kathiresan Temple, once venerated by Swamy Vivekananda himself, is to be dismantled and re-erected elsewhere.

ANNEXTURE
Jaffna District Island Area.
No. Place Temple

1. Nainathivu Nagapoosani Amman Temple damaged 2 “Chithira cars”, 1 “Chapparam” Manjam (worth several lakhs of rupees) Chief priest was also attacked by the army.
2. Kayts Sivan Temple.
3. Karainagar Buvaneswari Amman Temple.
4. Karainagar Elaththu Sithamparam Temple.
5. Mandaitivu Thiruvankaaddu Sithy Vinayagar Temple
6. Pungudutivu Maariamman Temple
7. Naranthanai Thanthontrieaswarar Temple.

Jaffna District Vadamaradchy
No. Place Temple

1. Valvattituri a) Muthumari Amman Temple
b) Sivan Temple
2. Puloy Pasupathy Sivan Temple
3. Nagarkovil Kottuvasal Amman Temple
4. Vallipuram Vallipuram Aalvar Temple
5. Selva Sannathy Murugan Temple
6. Atchuvely Pillaiyar Temple

And in all about 140 temples were damaged.

Further in 1994 the car of the temple known as “Chithrath Ther” was set fire to. In 1995, when the Maviddapuram Kandasamy Temple was subject to bombardment, the temple priest lost one of his legs in that attack.

Jaffna District Thenmaradchchi
No. Place Temple

1. Puloppalai Murugan Temple
2. Vettilaikerni Vinayagar Temple
3. Iyakachchi Murugan Temple

And sixty other temples were damaged.

Mannar District
No. Place Temple
1. Thiruketheeswaram Sivan Temple
2. Manner Murugan Temple
3. Thalaimannar Vinayagar Temple

About 20 temples in all were damaged in the district.

Vanvuniya District
No. Place Temple
1. Omanthai Vinayagar Temple
2. Omanthai Kannaki Amman Temple
3. Nedunkerni Murugan Temple

Twenty temples in all in this district were affected.

The particulars of the destructions and damages caused to temples and temple properties in the North-East Province by aerial bombardments as well as, mortar shelling are appended below.

Jaffna District Valigamam
No. Place Temple

1. Keerimalai Nakuleswaram Temple
2. Theillippalai Durga Amman Temple
3. Maviddapuram Kandaswany Temple
4. Mathakal Murugamoorthy Temple
5. Ponnalai Varadharajah Temple
6. Alaveddy Kumpilavalai Vinayagar Temple
7. Sandilippai Irraddayarpuran Vairavar Temple
8. Avarangal Sivan Temple
9. Punnalaikadduvan Ayakkadaval Vinayagar Temple
10. Nallur Kandaswany Temple
11. Chunnakam Kathiramalai Sivan Temple
12 . Manippay Maruthady Vinayagar Temple
13. Navally Murugan Temple
14. Jaffna Fort Muniappar Temple
15. Columbuthurai Murugan Temple
16. Villundy Kandasawany Temple

And more than 800 temples in all damaged in the Valikamam area. In addition in 1989, during the “Mahotshava” ceremony of the Suthumalai Amman temple, the assistant priest of the temple was killed on the spot by aerial bombardment.In 1992, a priest of the Maviddapuram Kandasamy temple lost his limbs due to bombing.

Mullaitivu District
No. Place Temple
1. Vattappalai Vattappalai Amman Temple Car (Ther) burnt (1990)
2. Ottaysuttan Ottysuttan Thanthontreaswaran Temple bombarded (1991)
3. Thanneeroottu Thanneeroottu Pillaiyar Temple Car (Ther) destroyed by bombardment of the temple.
4. Karaichchikudiyiruppu Karaichchikudiyiruppu Pillaiyar Temple

In all eighty temples were damaged.

Kilinochchi District
No. Place Temple
1. Kilinochchi Kilinochchi Kandasamy Temple
2. Iranamadu Iranamadu Kanagambikai Amman Temple
3. Paranthan Kumarapuram Murugan Temple
4. Pallangkany Pallangkany Pillaiyar Temple
5. Vattakachchi VattakachchiPillaiyar Temple
6. Uruthirapuram Uruthirapuram Sivan Temple
7. Pulliampokkanai Pulliampokkanai Nagathambiran Temple
8. Ponnakari Ponnakari Kottai Muniappar Temple
9. Poorikadawai Poorikadawai Amman Temple

Trincomalee District
No. Place Temple
1. Koneswaram Thirukoneswaram Temple
2. Thambalakamman Thambalakamman Sivan Temple
3. Villuntri Villuntri Kanadaswamy Temple

In all one hundred and twenty temples were damaged.

Batticaloa District
No. Place Temple
1. Kokkatticholai Kokkatticholai Sivan Temple
2. Anaipanthy Anaipanthy Vinayagar Temple
3. Arayampathy Arayampathy Murugan Temple
4. Kallady Kallady Uppoddai Vinayagar Temple
5. Porativu Porativu Pathirakali Amman Temple
6. Mamangam Mamangam Pillaiyar Temple
7. Akkaraipattu Akkaraipattu Nageswara Temple

In all two hundred and forty temples were destroyed.

Amparai District
No. Place Temple
1. Kerativu Kerativu Kannaki Amman Temple
2. Mandoor Mandoor Kandaswamy Temple

In all forty temples were damaged in this area.

Kandy District
No. Place Temple
1. Kandy a) Pillaiyar Temple, 24 figures of the deities desecrated.
b) Hindu Wedding Hall burnt down together with the Pillaiyar Temple building on 25.01.1998.

PARTICULARS OF DAMAGES CAUSED TO HINDU TEMPLES IN THE NORTH- EAST PROVINCE
(Up To December 1990)
SUMMARY
District No. of temples Registered with the Department No. of temples damaged Total estimated Cost for repairs/ renovations (Rs)
AMPARAI 118 147 30,648,100
BATTICALOA 463 283 26,660,739
TRINCOMALEE 101 199 33,470,500
VAVUNIYA 155 136 15,706,000
MANNAR 61 37 6,969,000
MULLAITHIVU 57 131 39,744,000
KILINOCHCHI 25 33 2,100,000
JAFFNA 627 513 127,792,953
Total 1607 1479 283,091,292

Courtesy: Report issued by the office of the Hindu Religious and Cultural Affairs 4.10.1993

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