Extremist Buddhist monks are taking the law into their hands': Federation of Saiva Hindu Temples (UK)

The Federation of Saiva (Hindu) Temples UK made a public appeal to the heads of all four religious faiths in Sri Lanka to take steps to address the progressing extremism, citing the case of Buddhist monks destroying a Hindu temple in Kanniya, Trincomalee.

"We note with considerable concern that extremist Buddhist monks are taking the law into their hands and undermining the very constitutional safeguards to illegally construct a Buddhist shrine by destroying a popular Hindu temple for Ganesha in the land owned by Hindus in Kanniya in Trincomalee with the backing of the exclusively Buddhist Archaeological Department," said the statement released on Sunday.

The destruction of the ancient Hindu temple by the Kanniya hot wells, a place of spiritual significance for Tamils which has become disputed due to the Sri Lankan state’s Sinhalisation of the Trincomalee district, especially its historic and touristic sites.

See the full text of the statement here.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button