A Sinhala Buddhist monk whos is the Nagadeepa Temple Chief Incumbent Navandagala Padumakiththi Tissa has announced his supportfor Tamil people in their struggle for land rights in Thaiyiddy, Jaffna, where he stated an illegal Buddhist vihara has been constructed.
His statement is a response to the recent protests by members of the public, opposing the illegal construction of the Tissa Raja Maha Vihara on the lands of people in Kankesanthurai.
Speaking on the history of the area, Padumakiththi Tissa said that the Tissa Raja Maha Vihara was an old temple that was initially situated on land belonging to the Nagadeepa Temple in Thaiyiddy. Due to armed conflict, the temple was abandoned but the land remained untouched. Six years ago, the secretary of the regional council completed a survey of the land and declared that the land belonged to the temple. However, the construction of the existing Tissa Raja Maha Vihara was completed on encroached land, which is owned by Tamil people who fled the area during the armed conflict and returned to discover that their land had been illegally seized.
Having lived in the northern province for many years, the monk said he witnessed Tamil residents move away from Thaiyiddy, seeking safety in other parts of the island and abroad, to escape the violence from the conflict. Following their return to their hometown, they discovered that their land was illegally seized for the construction of Tissa Raja Maha Vihara.
“Without fear I can say that this Buddhist temple [Tissa Raja Maha Vihara] has been built on the land belonging to Tamil people, and they have the deeds to prove it. The owners of the land are the ones protesting and they have the right to do so because the temple was built without their permission”, said the Chief Incumbent.
In a separate interview with The Morning LK, the Chief Incumbent clarified that the land allocated for the rebuilding of Tissa Raja Maha Vihara is untouched and the name of the original temple was sold for the construction of a new Buddhist temple in Kankesanthurai. He also stated that the army was responsible for the illegal construction of the Buddhist temple as they had seized the land from Tamil owners without permission.
“The Tamil people aren’t wrong here. These are innocent people; they are only asking for their land. I am on their side,” he said.
“The Tamil people had not encroached on that land, despite the long years of war,” he continued. “The one-and-a-half acres belonging to us is untouched, but they have sold the name of the original temple for these new constructions on encroached land. It was supported by the Army; they are the main supporters of this construction on other people’s land."
“I told the public representatives in this area to stop it when they were starting it, warning that a problem would arise someday. They waited until it was built to protest. I was against it from the beginning."
“There was an Army camp there before. These monks are not from this area; only I was in this area. They have parachuted here and it is a business. How is the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) giving electricity to those new buildings when they don’t have deeds to the lands? That has been obtained by showing the power of the Army."
A meeting was held between the government, the Tamil land owners and members of the People’s Alliance for Right to Land (PARL) to discuss the matter. At a press conference held before the meeting, the Commissioner of PARL and University of Jaffna lecturer, Mahendran Thiruvarangan, pressured the National People’s Power (NPP) government to take action to release the lands to the Tamil owners in accordance with their promise to promote national reconciliation and non- discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, religion and culture.
Thiruvarangan also spoke further on illegal land seizures in the North- East committed by the military and other State departments, under the guise of conducting archaeological research, protecting forest reserves and wildlife protection.
“The land belongs to the people, and they have the deeds with them. Now the Government has to honour its promise by returning the lands to the rightful owners. The people have also made clear they are not against Buddhism or the Sinhalese; they are simply demanding their own lands.”
“All this was done with the help of the military. Both Tamil and Muslim communities have lost their land due to these hegemonic land grabs with the aid of the State. Therefore, there is now a responsibility with the new Government to address this issue and give justice to those who have lost their lands,” he pointed out.
In February 2025, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) MP Ganjendrakumar Ponnamblam raised the issue of the growing Sinhalisation in the Tamil homeland in Parliament, blaming the military for it’s “counterinsurgency mode”, making it an “institution that is against the Tamil people, against Tamil interests”.
He stated, “a classic example of that phenomenon is how the military has been involved in building the illegal Tissa Vihara in Thaiyiddy. When we heard that the Army Commander at that time had come and laid the foundation stone and that it was being built on private land, the matter was discussed at the District Coordinating Committee (DCC) meeting within a few days of the foundation stone being laid."
“It was confirmed that it was being built on private land and that the land did not belong to any temple. Despite the fact that a ruling was made at the DCC meeting that any construction process must stop immediately, the military went ahead and built the illegal temple.”
Ponnambalam said the matter was raised twice more at DCC meetings, one of which took place in January 2025 and was chaired by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The military was also present at both meetings and all those present agreed that the land was private owned by Tamil people and the construction of the Buddhist temple had been built illegally without any formal legal process.
