A Sinhala Buddhist monk has issued a call for increased intervention in the North-East, urging religious leaders to act against what he described as a loss of Buddhist symbols in the region, in remarks that openly promote further colonisation of the Tamil homeland.
Galagama Kusaladhamma made the comments during an interview with an online platform, where he alleged that Buddhist symbols in the North and East were being encroached upon by supporters of Tamil Eelam and by what he termed extremist elements. He claimed that unless urgent action is taken, these sites may no longer be “reclaimed”.
Calling on the Mahanayake Theras to intervene, Kusaladhamma said they must treat the issue with the same urgency as past interventions in education. “If such intervention does not take place, we may be forced to lose many places in the North and East. A situation could even arise in the future where it becomes impossible for us to travel to Jaffna and Trincomalee,” he warned.
His remarks come amid ongoing controversies surrounding Buddhist structures in the Tamil homeland, particularly at Kandarodai Vihara. Kusaladhamma claimed that steps were being taken to convert the site into an interfaith centre, with assistance from the Sri Lankan Department of Archaeology, and that construction was underway to build boundary walls separating areas used by monks from zones where ancient viharas are said to exist.
“We personally visited the site and released a video to explain these developments to the public and the authorities. However, no one spoke about it. By now, everything has already been carried out,” he said. He further complained that conditions at Kandarodai were such that a monk could not reside there, adding, “As Buddhists, we are compelled to bow our heads in shame,” and questioned whether these developments were taking place beyond the control of the government.
Tamil civil society groups and activists have rejected these claims, arguing that they invert the reality on the ground. They point out that it is Tamil language, culture, heritage, and historical identity in the North-East that continue to face systematic erosion through state-backed Sinhala Buddhist colonisation. According to them, archaeological claims, religious construction, and the renaming or reclassification of Tamil sites have been repeatedly used to marginalise Tamil history and assert Sinhala Buddhist dominance.
