In Kilinochchi I saw this Buddhist monk who spoke in fluent Tamil. I don’t know what he was saying, but I was quite impressed. At the same time, I met a former government servant who was assiduously documenting Buddhist sites in the North for southern tourists. I asked him gingerly if he thought that might offend or at least hurt some Tamils, and he just shrugged it off. I guess Sri Lankan Buddhism has those two sides.
Dude was showing me some photos of Prabhakaran’s bunker and the hangar where they stored those planes. It was all very interesting, but then he casually told me that Tamils weren’t allowed to visit that place. I don’t know if that’s true. Every time I’ve gone north it’s been with a mix of races and I would certainly raise a fuss. But this gentleman (and he was a nice guy) seemed to take this discrimination nonchalantly, like it wouldn’t offend anyone. But it does.
Back in Colombo, I was listening to TNA MP Sumanitharan at this Heal Lanka Forum. He asked, ‘does the land belong to you, or do the people belong to you as well?’ (paraphrase). Brigadier Perera was clear that the people are what matters, but I think for some people it’s not.
As a Buddhist, for me a Buddhist site is someplace I can sit down without getting disturbed or bitten. But I also have a great reverance for the Temple Of The Tooth and Sri Maha Bodhi, et cetera. It’s hard to meditate there, but I can sit for hours just watching the people reverently pass by. I get Buddhist sites and I think they’re important.
However, archaelogy can be intimately tied with land, with history, with dominion over land. There is a great interest in finding Buddhist sites in the north, and in building stupas everywhere, and I get it, but there is also a material aspect as well. It’s a bit like saying we were here, we are here, and I think for many Tamil people that ‘we’ doesn’t feel like them.
For example, the government is building stupas in every province. This is fine, I like stupas. However, are they building kovils next to the stupas, as we traditionally do? Are they supporting churches and mosques to a similar extent? I have slept in kovils and sheltered in mosques and I think they’re just as much of our shared culture as stupas. Is there that sensitivity to land and place?
What the TNA MP said has stuck with me. It’s a serious question, because most wars are about land, and this war to be remotely worth the lives lost has to be something more. Brigadier told another story about a wall in the Jaffna University where the last Sinhalese students had written – ‘We lived us brothers once, we will live us brothers again.’ I like to think our future is that, that this was the point, but sometimes the differences in culture are striking. I don’t think people looking for Buddhism in the north are inherently racist or looking for dominion, but I also don’t think they’re being super sensitive. And I think that’s got to hurt.
So it’s there. The bad parts of Buddhism, the material parts, the attachment, which leads to suffering. It’s there in the north, and people seem quite happy to dig it up. At the same time, however, I see people like the monk above and I have some hope. I don’t know what he’s saying, but he’s saying it in Tamil. I got the parts about Buddhist, Tamil, Christian, Muslim. I think he’s talking about peace, respect, and living together. I dunno. I project, please translate if you can.
Peace to me is all I’m really looking to find. If you dig deep enough you find dirt, which we’re all buried in, which we all return to. We all get there soon enough and I wish we could just chill and be respectful while we’re above ground.
I mean, I’m hopeful, I still think that what’s wrong with Sri Lanka can be fixed with what’s right. I still think Buddhism and yes, Sinhala Buddhism is a force for good. But when it comes to Tamils being offended or scared that we’re in it for the land, I’m sorry and I understand. It’s not true and there’s enough people working to make it not true, but I understand how things might look. There are things we need to change.
IMO for the last 30 odd years Tamils have been building their religious edifices FREELY in areas where the government of Sri Lanka held control. The south of the country has kovils at every nook and cranny, with new ones being built every other week. Freedom of religion for the Tamils was never impinged upon. On the other hand, the Sinhalese and Muslims were locked out of large areas of their own countries for decades. They were not allowed to build their religious edifices or practice their religion freely. This included government-controlled Jaffna. Buddhists, for example, were locked out of their sites of pilgrimage such as Nagadipa, and many mosques belonging to the Muslim community were taken over the LTTE and used as bases or stolen by members of the Tamil community and claimed as their own (ie squatting).
Good on the individual who is documenting Buddhist history and archaeological sites in the north, god forbid they be destroyed by Tamil extremists to claim their “Tamil homeland”. The Tamil nationalist brigade live in morbid fear of Buddhist archaeological sites in the north because it would suggest that the Sinhalese were once living there. In order to combat this, over the last few years they have come up with a wonderful new theory that Tamils were all once Buddhist and that every single Buddhist site in the north and the east (conveniently fitting into colonial borders) belongs to them.
I believe the north of the country needs to become as multi-ethnic and multi-religious as the south of the country. For too long it has been a mono-ethnic and mono-religious landscape dominated by Tamil extremists who would exterminate all the non-Tamils in order to maintain the “purity” of the place and set the stage for the emergence of an independent Tamil state without the problem of a non-Tamil minority. Folks like that TNA MP will need to learn to accept Buddhist temples in their midst just as how the Sinhalese accept Hindu kovils in their midst. There can be no other way. If they are opposed to Buddhist temples/mosques being built, then in all fairness they should remove every single new kovil that has been built outside the north and the east over the last 3 decades. Will they do so? Somehow, I don’t think so. Basically people like that TNA mp want the Sinhalese to be accommodating, open-minded and tolerant, but want the north and the east to be exclusively Tamil. Sad.
I’m not sure how documenting Buddhist cites should be perceived as offensive to anyone. TNA has this bullshit idea that ‘colonizing’ the north with sinhalese is some sort offense. That’s racism.
Agree. What the TNA wants is to keep the north (and the east) as an exclusive Tamil -only area even after the defeat of the LTTE. This ideology is not only limited to the TNA, it is shared by Tamil nationalists of many hues – the Sinhalese are to be discouraged from entering and living in these areas by all means necessary. Even Sinhalese just visiting the north as tourists is being made out to be as something that offends Tamil sentiments. Maybe the Sinhalese should be offended with Tamils visiting and living in the south? Does that sound reasonable? I also do not see how the act of documenting Buddhist sites in the north could be remotely considered to be offensive. Are we to be offended if, say, a Tamil group documents kovils in Colombo, Galle, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa (oh wait, the archaeological department has already done that in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa and they are remarkably well preserved).
nice post. especially like this:
‘Peace to me is all I’m really looking to find. If you dig deep enough you find dirt, which we’re all buried in, which we all return to. We all get there soon enough and I wish we could just chill and be respectful while we’re above ground.’
I think the separation between church and state is necessary. The state should not be involved in religion and should not be promoting religion. It should up to citizens do believe or not as the case may be. Religion is a matter of belief. A state is a collective administrative machinery, like a company. It cannot possibly believe. Since the state is meant to serve its citizens and since beliefs vary from individual to individual they are best left to the individual.
If individuals want to put up some place of worship, it should not be a problem, but the state should not be doing so, because then they, in effect promote one group at the expense of another, using funds collected by taxpayers of all groups. The state was not erecting Kovils or Mosques but they are erecting Buddhist temples. When a war has just concluded that was fought by two groups of different religions and the religious institutions of the victor, along with the military establishments of the victors are erected then the message sent is clear: it is a symbol of victory, an affirmation of the victors over the vanquished.
This is resented. If one is genuinely interested in reconciliation then creating new sources of resentment is probably not the best thing to do.
For further reading see:
http://transcurrents.com/news-views/archives/9639
The ICG has no credibility in my eyes. They’re spurting what ever bullshit they can to further their little agenda
The ideal would be a secular government. But it’s unfair to say that the government only builds buddhist temples in the north. There are many hindu kovils that are being built by the government. In fact some were even built by the Army.
“It was all very interesting, but then he casually told me that Tamils weren’t allowed to visit that place.”
This is shocking. I read this in that ICG report, but I’m with dodo on its credibility at the moment. Is this really true?
I find it shocking too, but that’s what I heard from someone who’d been.
Some examples would be nice…thanks
Your idealism is nice. But the truth is there is no such thing as a secular state. It exists only on paper if at all. The United States for example, favours Christianity and Christian groups over all other religions. Millions of dollars are given to Christian Aid groups, and when the US talks about “religious freedom” it really means the religious freedom of Christianiaty and US missionary groups – in effect, Christianity is promoted over all other faiths and given a position in American society that is not afforded to other religions. Basically, religion of the majority will always have an influence on the state above and beyond that of minority religions.
From a legal point of view, the Sri Lankan government is mandated, by the constitution, to preserve and promote Buddhism. It is given the foremost position in the island. It is not mandated to preserve and promote Hinduism or Islam, though it does so by funding the Ministry of Hindu Affairs (through which government money is used to upkeep and build new Hindu temples) and through the Ministry of Muslim affairs (through which government money is used to upkeep and build new mosques). One could well argue that the latter two ministries are unconstitutional. So the majority Buddhists are also paying, through their taxes, for the protection and promotion of Hinduism and Islam. It works both ways.
But your post claims that someone told you this first hand, that you witnessed it yourself.
Brilliant response Jack Point. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. State being part of this whole equation is the cause of resentment of people in the north.
Don’t quite understand the issue with credibility on the ICG report.
They cite their sources, mostly published and their comments do not seem to differ radically from what info is generally available.
Yes I agree, that there are problems with preserving the required separation between church and state and I would hope that the determined campaigning of the secular movement will prevent any further erosion, especially in the US. As Isaac Asimov put it, the rise of the religious right is the most disgusting phenomenon on the North American horizon.
Returning to the issues at home, the general problem of state involvement in religion is compounded because of the face that a conflict was fought with the two main protagonists divided on religious as well as ethnic lines. Therefore the issue is more sensitive than in the US or the EU.
Gross ignorance on your part, there is an entire ministry that does this. And I’m sure people have seen the army working on that kovil on the road to nilaveli resort.
And one more thing. Even in that ICG report nowhere does it say the state goes around building temples everywhere. All it says is that temples are being built near army camps & settlements.
It also goes onto to say that there is a fear that archaeology department, which is apparently run by sinhala nationatists, will set up buddhist temples at newly discovered sinhala archaeological sites. WTF!
Jack,
I think they really sensationalised the whole ‘Sinhalisation’ thing well beyond the actual evidence. The casual reader is led to believe that monstrous Stalinesque population shifts are being engineered, but many of the ‘facts’ seem to amount to little more than suspicions.
I also think that they reveal a certain bias when they cite an article like this to bolster the credibility of these suspicions:
http://groundviews.org/2012/02/25/history-after-the-war-challenges-for-post-war-reconciliation/
I wonder if Alan Keenan, the author of the reports, might himself feel that he may have overdone it, since he seems to soft-pedal the issue in this podcast:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/multimedia/podcasts/2012/sri-lanka-keenan-sri-lankas-north-recipe-for-renewed-conflict.aspx
Whatever the difficulties, I think we need to at least aspire to a secular state in Sri Lanka. Nothing has had such a malign influence on Buddhism and its institutions in this country as government patronage.
Even Britain is not a secular state and it has had a culture of democracy for such a long time in comparison to many other countries. Neither is Norway, Denmark or Sweden which are very liberal democracies and often top HDI indicators. It is absolutely silly to except Sri Lanka to be a secular state at this juncture.
What the TNA is referring to is the Government supported colonizing of sinhalese. Why is the government supporting the sinhalese? That is discrimination and racism! This problem has been around since the 1950s that’s what we want stopped. The government did not support Tamils when we moved to Colombo. So why is it doing this with the sinhalese? Because they want to claim this mythical buddhist island concept. Besides who said that only sinhalese are buddhists? There were Tamil buddhists as well at one time, just like Buddhism was there in Tamil Nadu, etc.
issue here is the false claims being made by government officials on behalf of Buddhism. Sometimes they are purposely burying Buddhist artifacts in the North and claiming that they are 2,500 years old(MP Sumanthiran’s report to Parliament). This is what we are against. The sinhala-buddhists know that there are no buddhist artifacts as old as 2,500 years hence they have to doctor stuff. In a place called Illangaithurai in Trincomalee district a former hindu temple has been destroyed and replaced with a Buddhist stupa.
Let’s not forget what is happening in Kathirgamam (Kataragama) a place of pilgrimage for Tamils, not only from Sri Lanka, but also India has now been taken over as a sinhala-buddhist thing.
We want the state (government) to stop supporting sinhalese and sinhala-buddhism and favouring it. That’s discrimination. Tamils are not offended if Sihalese visit but sometimes they have been drinking alcohol near Hindu Kovil areas, which has offended Tamils. I’m sure that is understandable to any devout person of religion.
Please stop misrepresenting the truth. Thank you.
What ministry are you talking about? Ministries come and go. Don’t talk say ” I’m sure people have seen…” Have you seen for yourself? The government disproportionately supports the building of Buddhist sites. That’s the issue here.
They definitely are more secular than most countries. Besides those governments are not trying to push mythical christian islands or lands concepts. Those governments are NOT trying to push a false history. Unfortunately the Sri Lankan government is. That’s the problem.
Lol! there is nothing racist about the government supporting sinhalese to move anywhere. How on earth is it racist. If those people want to move into the north east, frankly, they should be encouraged to. And they should be provided as much assistance as possible. Myil do you have any issue with sinhalese wanting to move into the north & east?
The “purposely burying Buddhist artifacts” is just yet another lame claim being put forward lately by Tamil politicians. They just cannot accept the fact that 8 times out of 10 when an ancient archaeological site is found in the north or the east that it is Buddhist, and not Hindu. I mean, where exactly are the Tamil Hindu equivalents of Anuradhapura or Polonnaruwa? Even the hallowed Nallur Kovil, is a recent production in comparison to Sri Lanka’s ancient history. The truth is, the Tamils have no archaeological civilisational remains that can compare to those of the Sinhalese, at least in the island of Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu certainly does, but that is where the Tamils originated from. The other fantastic claim is that all Buddhist sites in the northern and eastern province (provinces arbitrarily decided by the colonials a few hundred years ago) are all Tamil productions and the Sinhalese had nothing to do with them. It just goes to show how desperate Tamil nationalists have become when their theories of a Tamil homeland are faced with evidence to the contrary.
Kataragama is a site sacred to the Sinhalese as much as to the Tamils (as well as to some Muslims). It is situated in an overwhelmingly Sinhalese district. It does not belong exclusively to Tamils, I am sorry. Buddhism and Hinduism exist side by side here, and I’m afraid if Tamils have a problem with that, while being quite unfortunate, there is nothing they can do about it. Many Sinhalese have no problem following an amalgamation of Buddhism/Hinduism and worshipping Hindu gods and goddesses – in this case God Kataragama – but it appears as if from your comments it is the Tamils who do not want to share a religious place or accept Buddhists. So exactly who is being narrow minded and exclusivist here?
The government has every right to support Buddhism because it supports Hinduism as well through the Ministry of Hindu affairs. So why don’t you complain about that? Get the government to first stop supporting Hinduism and then ask it to stop supporting Buddhism. Does that sound fair?
The Sinhalese (and the Muslims) have been ethnically cleansed from northern Sri Lanka and parts of eastern Sri Lanka by the “sole representatives” of the Tamils – the LTTE. For close to 30 years they were locked out of large portions of their own country for the crime of not belonging to the Tamil ethnicity. Not a peep of opposition was heard from Tamil society in general against this blatant racism and violation of human rights. In the meantime, Tamils were free to move and live throughout all of the island, even in the deep south and even speak ill of the Sinhalese. Consequently, the south has become more multi cultural and multi religious and multi lingual (and more dense with population) while the north was kept as an exclusive Tamil-only preserve where only Tamil culture, religion and language was allowed to flourish. This has to change. The Sinhalese should be openly encouraged and supported to visit and or live in northern Sri Lanka, an area that has for too long been mono-cultural and mired in racism and bigotry. The north should become as multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual as southern Sri Lanka. I don’t think many Sinhalese will voluntarily go and live there because of the history of violence, racism and hatred that has been directed against them by the “sole representatives” of the Tamils. IMO they should be supported by the government of Sri Lanka. If Colombo can be a majority Tamil speaking city without the Sinhalese screaming about it from the roof tops why can’t Jaffna become a majority Sinhala speaking city?
Nonsense Myil – Norway, Denmark and Sweden have Christianity as their OFFICIAL religion where you automatically become a member of the official church when you’re born. Britain requires the head of state to be Anglican Christian – not only can’t non-Christians become the head of state, but even non-Anglican Christians like Catholics can’t either. All the above countries provide official recognition and public holidays exclusively for Christian holy days like Christmas and Easter. You won’t find Thai Pongal/Deepavali/Maha Sivarathri being given official holidays there. You can argue the population in these countries by and large are less religious, but that does not mean the structure of the state is secular.
http://www.hindudept.gov.lk/
And oh myil, something like 70% of Sri Lanka’s population is Buddhist and around 15% is Hindu. That 70% pay more tax than that 15%. So what exactly is so “disproportionate” if the government supports the building of more Buddhist sites over Hindu ones?
The bigger problem in becoming head of state in Britain than religion (anyone can convert to Anglican Christianity) is that one has to be heir to the throne! :D
Dear Rajivma,
For some of us who know a little more about the truth it is NOT SHOCKING, This is the Sri Lankan government and this is the cause of our ethnic problems.
Finally you heard it from a Sinhala-Buddhist himself that this Sri Lankan government allows only Sinhalese to certain areas in the Northeast! But some of you will continue to give excuses since you can’t accept the truth.
You can talk about agendas and bias and so on, but in the end Indi himself has confirmed what the ICG said about “sinhalese only being allowed to certain sites in the Northeast”.
At least the ICG is correct on that, hence they maybe correct on a lot of other things as well.
How come you don’t question the rubbish spurted out almost daily from the government of SL?
I guess it is your nature to live among the lies.
Not sinhala archaeological sites but rather Buddhist archaeological sites! There is a big difference here. The sinhala nationalists are trying to claim Buddhism = sinhala, which in reality is not the case.
Are the sinhala nationalists claiming Buddhists, in China, Thailand, Myanmar, Japan, Cambodia, etc, are also sinhalese?
There were Tamil/Dravidian Kings who did a lot for Buddhism. Take for example Sri Vijaya Rajasinghe of Kandy who built many Buddhist statues and in fact turned the Esala Perehera, which was for Hindu gods into a mainly Buddhist event. Which the sinhala-buddhists of today are making a lot of money from such originally Hindu ceremonies.
That is the whole point, that people in those countries are less religious. It is about the people. And people in those countries are more secular. Even the holidays that you talk of, while they have a christian founding, are mainly celebrated as holidays and not as Christian events. The religious significance is largely absent in today’s context. But in Sri Lanka that is not the case. Poya days are used to propagate Buddhist sermons and chanting, etc over loudspeakers in a lot of places, even where there are mainly Hindus, Christians, Muslims, for example Wellawatte. There is a Bo Tree down a lane in Wellawatte and under the Bo Tree there is a Buddhist statue and attached above the statue is a loud speaker to blare out Buddhist sermons during Poya days.
Don’t you think Buddhist sermons should be given to those who want to listen to them? Buddhists and others who want to listen should go to a Buddhist temple to listen to such sermons. Why use this unethical conversion method?
Do you really need loudspeakers to give Buddhist sermons? Did the Buddha give sermons through loud speakers 2500 years ago?
You can see how all this has gotten out of hand and have become State Propaganda tools.
what about all the hindu processions that take place on galle road. or the prayers coming from mosques, via loud speakers. these are all government sanctioned. I wonder what the propaganda message they are giving out.
They are having issue with buddhist temples being built there and with monks taking permanent residence. This has nothing to do with claiming whether sinhalese built them or dravidian kings built them.
They are not Sinhala archaeological sites. They are Buddhist archaeological sites. There is a difference. Please stop referring to Buddhist sites as Sinhala sites. Thank you.
eh! Stop side stepping the issue. I frankly don’t care if they were built by sinhalese, tamils or martian kings. it’s all the same to me. The issue is how the ICJ considers the following a genuine grievance:
There are also fears that the government’s
archaeological department, long under the influence
of Sinhalese nationalists and heavily lobbied by
influential Buddhist groups, would use “discovered” ancient
Buddhist sites in the north around which could be
established new Buddhist temples staffed by monks and
ultimately lay workers and families.
It sounds like they’re pandering to petty xenophobia & petty ethnic exclusivity.
Not all 70% pay taxes. And don’t forget corruption. Besides I said DISPROPORTIONATELY. Hope you understand that term. Government is propagating buddhism around 90% of the time, shall we say, now that is disproportionate.
It is not a ministry it is a department. And how did you find it? through Google?
This Hindu Dept is the same as the Ministry of Human Rights, which we had during the previous term. And what did that get us? Abductions, disappearances, white van terror, etc.
It’s all a joke.
Once again an ill informed and misguided response showing your racism and prejudice . Thamil people are not the majority in Colombo city. The Muslims and Thamil people together form about 55% of the population. The rest are Sinhalese. In fact the Sinhalese are the biggest ethnic group in Colombo, even though minorities put together make up the majority. Anyway even if Thamil people were the majority we our unable to get around Colombo speaking in Thamil. Why is that? Because the administration is run overwhelmingly by Sinhalese. I couldn’t even get an EPF form in English or Thamil. So much for multiculturalism and multilingualism. All a huge joke.
The Sinhalese and Muslims are the only communities that have increased in number while all other groups have dwindled. Why is that? Because the South is so multicultural? Why did the 83 riots take place? Because the South has embraced multiculturalism? It’s because the Sri Lankan government is pushing a Sinhala-Buddhist culture and a false history to back it up. And only the Muslims have been able to preserve their identity since they are not a target group. But even among mixed marriages Muslim men who married Sinhala ladies have taken on the Sinhala name. Why is that? Because the government pushes a Sinhala-Buddhist culture.
Thamil people were not the ones who burnt the houses of sinhalese and killed them. It all started with, once again, the Sri Lankan government pushing a sinhala only agenda.
The history of violence and racism seems to be more true in the South. Where have the riots originated? Way back in 1915 the Buddhists attacked Muslims and it was a Thamil Hindu, Ponnambalam Ramanathan who helped to get the Buddhist leaders released from the British. And what about the murder of a foreigner in Tangalle and the killing of Buddhist priests and rape of girls in Matara by Army deserters? What about the first political assassination carried out by a Buddhist priest?
You are sadly misinformed. Please don’t let your racism lead to another war.
The fact that Buddhist sites are there in the Northeast is a credit to the fact that the LTTE did not destroy them. But the point is why is Buddhist sites being considered Sinhala. If you really look at the inscriptions there is no mention of a Sinhala people until around the 10th century AD!
According to Dr. Paul E. Peiris, there were 5 ishvarams of Lord Shiva around the island, Naguleshwaram in Jaffna, Thirukethivaram in Mannar, Munneshvaram in Chillaw, Tondesvaram in Matara and Thirukoneshwaram in Tricomalee. And these received veneration from Indians as well. These are considered to be far older than any of the Buddhist sites. Anyway what were the people of this country before Buddhist came to this land? Hindus! are you willing to accept that? Before arahat Mahendra (Mahinda in pali) brought Buddhism what did people in this country practice as their religion? Very likely Hinduism. That’s why you get Buddhists venerating Hindu temples as well.
Kathirkamam or Kataragama was mainly venerated by Thamils until the 1940s when Sinhalese started to pay more attention to it. Now it is considered multi-religious area but that is not the history of it. So my question is why were there Hindu temples in the South? Because the people would have been Hindus and could also have been Thamils who converted to Buddhism and adopted the language that formed from the Pali language in which Buddhist scriptures were written in?
Tamils are not being exclusivist. But why are the Buddhists trying to takeover Tamil areas of worship and consider it sinhala-buddhist?
I think we need a Independent International Investigation into the history of this country.
The Sri Lankan government is refusing to sing the national anthem in both Sinhala and Thamil. This tells the whole story about sinhala-buddhist chauvinism.
Those processions are in season NOT every month. Besides they are not preaching it is a ritual.
The Mosques call to prayer is for Muslims and is in Arabic, you can’t seriously call that propaganda.
But what happens during poya days with Buddhist monks preaching on ethnic issues can be considered propaganda. For example, one sermon went into how buddhists were accommodating the Portuguese Burghers and how good they were. Now what is the truth in this case? Is it not true that Buddhist monks have been involved in murders and looting during the 1983 riots and beyond. Buddhist monks and the Armed forces have probably the most racists stacked in them. I have heard journalists talk about Buddhist monks praying for the armed forces so that they can kill the Tamils, etc.
The sad reality of Sri Lankan Buddhism is Racism and Violence!
The oldest people of the island worshipped their dead ancestors, as I believe the veddahs still do. The Hindus, Buddhists, everyone except the Veddahs are foreign immigrants. It’s obvious that the majority of the immigrants who formed the great hydraulic civilisation were from the North east of India, as it’s that culture that dominates the period according to available archaeological evidence. I’d really like to know if there’s any evidence I’ve missed. I’m just interested, I’m not a Buddhist.
If as you say Tamil Hindus converted to Buddhism, and adopted Sinhala as their language what’s wrong with the descendants of these people continuing their Buddhist traditions in those areas? According to you, they’re Tamil inside. Dont they have the freedom to adopt the language and religion of their choice?
Myil, I dont undertand why you object to Sinhala people visiting Kataragama. Can’t Buddhists and Hindus share the shrine peacefully? The oldest name for Kataragama that I’ve heard is Kajaragama, and “gama” is a word of North indian origin, specifically of the area of modern Orissa, I believe.
In the case of the national anthem, I dont see any reason why it cant be sung in Tamil if there’s a greater number of Tamil speaking people at a gathering.