By Vipula Wanigasekera –
Dr. Vipula Wanigasekera
In the Pāli canon, the Buddha taught: “Yo dhamman passathi, so man passathi” — “He who sees the Dhamma, sees me.” This is not merely a metaphysical statement; it is a call to clarity. The recent dispute in Trincomalee — over the removal and rapid reinstatement of a Buddha statue — demands precisely that kind of discernment rather than emotional or ethno-political agitation. On the night of 16 November 2025, police removed a Buddha statue from a makeshift shrine on Trincomalee’s Dutch Bay beachfront, citing security reasons and unresolved land concerns. Less than twelve hours later, the statue was reinstalled under a special police protection plan after pressure from nationalist clergy and lay groups. (Northeastern Monitor; Tamil Guardian; LNW Lanka News Web)
Photo credit: Shabeer Mohamed
Tamil political representatives condemned the reversal, arguing it reflected not vandalism threats but political expediency. They described it as a capitulation to Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist sentiment. Tamil Guardian M. A. Sumanthiran of ITAK went further, calling for the resignation of Tamil NPP MPs and accusing them of abandoning principles of equality. (Tamil Guardian)
At the centre of the dispute lies legality. Reports indicate that the monks who constructed the shrine had not obtained approvals from the Coastal Conservation Department (CCD), the municipal council, or the Urban Development Authority. Tamil Guardian; Northeastern Monitor. Media personnel and CCD officials who attempted to inspect the site were reportedly obstructed, and the land itself is said to be under a court order prohibiting development. (Northeastern Monitor; Tamil Guardian)
In this context, the speed with which the statue was reinstalled suggests that legal processes were overridden for political optics. Minister of Public Security Ananda Wijepala justified the reversal by citing a “possible threat of vandalism” and announced that the statue would receive permanent police protection. (LNW Lanka News Web; Tamil Guardian)
For critics, this was not a principled defence of heritage but a concession to nationalist pressure at the expense of due process.
This episode reopens older wounds. For many Tamils, Trincomalee symbolises long-standing concerns over Sinhalisation — including state-supported Buddhist encroachments on historically Tamil areas. (Tamil Guardian). Thus, the incident raises a key question: can legal institutions protect minority communities when political will bends towards majoritarian sentiment?
Conversely, many Sinhala Buddhists view the removal as an attack on their heritage and a failure of the state to protect Buddhist identity. For them, the reinstatement is a symbolic reaffirmation of their place in the national narrative.
But this tug-of-war undermines the very teaching the Buddha offered: if we truly “see the Dhamma,” we do not turn symbols into weapons. Nor do we treat religious icons as tools in demographic contests. Where disputes arise, legal remedies must be sought over sentiments — an essential safeguard in a multi-ethnic society with a fragile history.
Sri Lanka has seen the consequences of acting on emotion rather than evidence. The campaign against Dr. Shafi — later proven baseless — stands as a reminder of how narratives can outrun truth. The tragic violence of 1983 remains another warning of how quickly communal tensions can escalate when fuelled by fear and grievance.
Yet it is equally important to acknowledge that, despite several subsequent attempts to recreate the conditions of 1983, the Sinhala Buddhist community has not responded with violence. This collective restraint reflects a societal maturity that must be recognised and strengthened if we are to prevent the past from repeating itself.
Yet a countercurrent offers hope. Many Buddhists today are gravitating towards supra-mundane teachings that emphasise non-attachment, compassion, and ethical clarity. The Buddha’s message was not one of siege, fear, or cultural conquest; it was one of inner freedom.
If the Trincomalee incident is to yield a positive outcome, it should be a renewed collective commitment — from leaders, clergy, and citizens — to look beyond symbols and into meaning. Upholding due process, seeking legal remedies rather than emotional confrontation, resisting misinformation, and choosing restraint over reaction are essential steps toward national healing. In doing so, we may honour the Buddha’s call: to see the Dhamma, and through it, to see ourselves.
*Writer is a format Diplomat, Head of Tourism Authority, Currently a lecturer in Business studies, Youtuber, Author and Reiki Healer
References
1. Trincomalee Buddha shrine controversy explained. Tamil Guardian, Nov 17, 2025.
2. Sinhala Buddhist monks illegally construct temple on Trincomalee beach. Tamil Guardian, Nov 16, 2025.
3. Illegal building at Trinco Buddhist shrine: officials and media harassed. Northeastern Monitor, Nov 16, 2025.
4. Trincomalee Temple Land Dispute Prompts Investigation. Newsfirst, Nov 17, 2025.
5. ‘Resign immediately’ – Sumanthiran slams Tamil NPP MPs over Trincomalee temple row. Tamil Guardian, Nov 17, 2025.
6. ‘You have betrayed the Tamils’ – Ponnambalam slams government over Buddha shrine in Trincomalee. Tamil Guardian, Nov 17, 2025.
7. Buddha statue installed with police protection in Trinco. Northeastern Monitor, Nov 17, 2025.
ramona therese fernando / November 22, 2025
They are from Google Scholar, LS, which have peer reviews and citations.
Please read them with an open mind. There are many such articles out there……I have little time to find more of them other than a brief glance.
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Lester / November 23, 2025
Ramona,
You may have to visit rural Kandy for a personal consultation. Skyscraper, sorry straw hut #37.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
LankaScot, your question is answered in this paragraph!
AI Overview:
How old is Hinduism and how it all started
Hinduism began in the Indus Valley region of the Indian subcontinent between 2300 BCE and 1500 BCE, but its origins are ancient and difficult to date precisely due to its development over a long period rather than from a single founder. It is considered one of the world’s oldest religions, and many Hindus believe its traditions are timeless, with its roots blending with the Vedic period, which started around 1500 BCE.
Ancient roots: Many scholars trace the origins of Hinduism to the Indus Valley Civilization, which existed between 2300 and 2000 BCE in the area of modern-day Pakistan and northwest India.
Vedic period: This was a period from approximately 1500 BCE to 500 BCE when the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, were composed.
Gradual evolution: Hinduism did not have a single founder and evolved over time as a fusion of various beliefs and practices.
Early texts: The earliest Hindu hymns are found in the Rigveda, with a timeframe of 1700 to 1100 BCE.
Ongoing development: The religion continued to develop through periods that saw the rise of worship of deities like Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi, the writing of texts like the Bhagavad Gita, and the spread of its influence throughout Southeast Asia.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
But your convoluted politics in the question need to be explained further. Langkang Sinhalese complained that Britain favored Tamils. They got the authority in their hands. Passed laws to suppress Tamils. Made changes. But the economy which should be at $2T has come to $110 economy. Civil war, crime, drugs, money laundering, menial works in unknown lands, poverty…….. These results of suppressing Tamils. Onetime, 80% of the but was in one family hand. 2,000 family members were in government service. $2oT of family money was in foreign banks…. All what the Sinhala Buddhist wanted was, as per Junius Richard, was putting Tamils hungry to please Sinhala Buddhists. To hide this destruction, UNP-SLFP Union are talking and playing all kinds of games. By 2000BCE, India was shinning on the sky even brighter than sky. The economy, culture, towns’ architecture, engineering, so many things! But the Jewel on the crown was the religion they started more than 6,000 years ago. They had explained it brought home everything. But those were captured by Aryan hoarse faring pirate community. It was not that the Aryan pirate was not able to build any more buildings, but they did not know from where they started to remove a brick stone from those buildings. They remained as they are until British railway companies started to remove bricks from those buildings for their railway paving.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
It took more than 1,000 years to learn a new language from the newly captured slaves. They copied the Dravidian Hinduism from slaves and added racism to that. Ric Veda is a hard-core racial material. The rest of the Three Vedas followed that example. Until, letter Hunts, Greek, Persian started to bring some new thing India was an internally boiling soup pot.
None of the things relevant to Dravidian Hinduism existed outside of India at the time of Dravidians, though Dravidians did very extensive trade and cultural communications with Sumerian and others in that area. Dravidian town’s structure suggest that those were ruled by educated religious, people’s representatives, so there were no Royal buildings or dictators’ exclusive compounds found in their towns. These educated priests were called “Periyavan” (Brahmin). They came from all technical classes like, Smiths, Carpenters, Cloth decorators and washers, Potters and clay workers. There is information that, after these Potters were enslaved, Ayrian masters keep one potter tied to their carts wherever they go because they did know a solution for the problems arose around in the town. There are suggestions that the Dravidian Brahmins were mostly recruited from potters. They were identified as priestly kings. They managed building and towns. Because of their education, they controlled businesses and designed and produced the seals system employed by the Dravidians.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
It is suggested the difficulty of reading Dravidian language is because these who handled the seals were well-trained for many years. They used this language (Similar to a high-level programming language) for commerce and diplomatic uses only. This gives an understanding, by similarity, that why it was rulers, traders and priests only learned Sanskrit in the olden days. It was that pattern Sanskrit followed, for Sanskrit is believed it was never used for speaking. The walls there appear only to be flood barriers, not as fortresses. But Afghanistan, from where Sanskrit’s predecessors came to India, still much behind on modern civil ideas of democracy or women rights or science and education too. Apparently, Aryans introduced slavery to India. Tamil do not have proper word for slavery, it was Sanskrit used Dasas, and Caldwell translated it as Dravidians in English. There is no point in boosting a barbaric community that invented the sophisticated religion and its associated Cosmological inventions, geometry and algebra for such magnificent building, ax exclusive language for diplomatic and commercial use, while the Aryans used language did not have a grammar part with it. ……… Their Roads, square buildings, their measurements, square and round shapes suggest that they handled the surveying and architecture with some kind of their own mathematics, probably did not get a chance to pass to the next defeated generations.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
With all the Dravidians up there as artifacts of their life, Indian Aryans and the West attempt to tell the world that North India was a ghost land, completely cleaned by some unknown natural disaster. I have to explain so many things for readers to understand the“ A day in the life of a Dravidian in their plutocratic towns”, which are described as those days’ Manhattans. If I keep going without supplying the necessary coordination, the readers only wonder what the heck I am talking about. So I must move to other lighter details.
Western Aryans (Scotland, UK, America…..), in defense of their Indian Aryans, saying the people lived in those towns just vanished, leaving the buildings intact, because of the natural disaster. But for the explanation and description of that disaster, they want to take some more time to think and frame that excuse. Mohenjo-daro, like towns faced within the past 6,000 years, four disasters and the building shows evidence of having rebuilt over the old towns each time. But just before the Aryans walked in, the Western experts creating stories of those disasters completely wiped them out from there, so the people had gone somewhere -that theory cannot be satisfactorily explained, even by the Florida Lab experts.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
This joke happened not for one or two Mohenjo-Daro or Harappa, already more than 1,000 sites of highly civilized populations’’ towns’ remaining are identified, and the Indian government is discouraging further explorations for new sites. The 80% of the Indians, who are these Dasa, as per Ric, cannot remember any evidence of their connections to this luxury life… no memory of religion, science, measurement, science…….Wow…. The only explanation could be is they were removed from the seats , Aryans did not figure out it, all were drop down in an expectable speed. These towns are all supposed to be in the area where the Anti-Dravidian communities controlling area. Further, Indian government stopped TN State officials releasing the Keeladi like area’s founding which indicated the Brahmi letters found there were as old as 800 BCE, saying there must be something wrong in the reports, (not on the dating). I believe that matter is in court. It is because of these Gil marts, recently I started to suspect that the Tamils should be as old as 50,000 as per their legends and Indian, American government like final authorities must be having evidence of it but hiding.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
Now, knowing these discrepancies and challenges clearly, the Indian Aryan communities are claiming that it was they who took their Sanskrit connection outside. This lie became a need for the local Aryans because the Western pundits’ denial that the Dravidians’ 1000s of towns’ civilization was run over by the invaders and named Dasus, slaved the captured by introducing caste systems. Caste system did not exist in Dravidians and still in the modern Western culture, Caste system (Lords -commons) and Varna (Black-white) system exist. Use of slaves (Dasus) and inhuman handling of animals for food and work are Western culture. That is why in the West veganism and anti-animal cruelty laws are developing faster than the Original Vegetarian “Hindu, Buddhist Jains population country India “. If you look at animal cross-breeding or mixing, never experimented in the Indian subcontinent because they think this is a sinful practice. Sacrifice and feasting on meat was introduced by Aryan communities. Other than Diwali, an Aryan culture celebration, on no other celebration day any meat is consumed in the subcontinent. 80% of India is Dravidian blood. Where did these people’s original culture go, if everything in India was created by the invader population? Considering the resistance to conversion in Ceylon from Hinduism, please explain how the whole Indian community was changed into Hindus by the incoming Aryan community, unless they had been butchered in billions?
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
Everything in India is Dravidians, who are 80% of India. They were coerced and slaved by invaders. The world’s biggest lie is that when an environmental disaster struck, the people who were at the civilization of the world vanished in the thin air without even picking their Amude. Unless how is that at the time the Aryan just walked in the ghost town. Then the last land started to become lush and flourish. Graceful Aryans stitched Amude for hiding Dravidian hiding in the air, brought them out, and made them a lower caste and kept them as slaves. If you are not willing to accept this story, you need to give artifact proof to LankaScot. Otherwise, you may be expelled from CT or something…… Are these talks any good to fool any human being hearing it in the 21st century?
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
LankaScot asked me to show the god, but only after so many times I explained that the Dravidian Hinduism is not a cane and carrot God religion, only about individuals’ internal achievements. There is nothing in Hinduism to prove anything to anybody outside. So, I said to him that he needed to sit and meditate until you achieved it. In response, he brought back something that the Sinhala Buddhist Buddha said, that meditating numbs the brain. Sad if you never asked those who said that to you for archaeological evidence, but blindly you succumbed to it. But these days, all Western doctors prescribe medication for all physical and mental illnesses. In the West, these days, there is ample reception to Yoga, which was used by eventual Hindu sages to achieve a high-end meditation practice. You are refusing to meditate even for health reasons, where it is medically studied and tested, not a blind belief. As a man from Scotland, and a sister community of England, try to remember the saying “When in Rome do as Romans do”. Please talk only about the Indian subcontinent Hinduism when you are talking with Ceylonese about Hinduism. It is obvious that there is a substantial deficiency in your perception about Indian Hinduism.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
Though the word Hinduism you talk about is in English, Hinduism is not a religion at all in the sense of English attempt to portray. In Western sense, it is sometimes referred to as culture. The English word Hinduism may apply in that sense. What Hindus in the subcontinent do is try to achieve a super status, something familiar to you from Buddhists. Just like one might be doing a PhD in a Western style university. I am not referring here to the Old Indian, Guru-Disciple system, it is an exact replica of the Western universities. But the enlightenment has nothing to do with the GURU-Disciple relationship, though it could be a starting process to that, self-attainment. A university PhD study goes up to the final object; Enlightenment is a completely independent job of the disciple’s achievement; it has no share for Guru. Remember, if the Guru was professionally not trained in mathematics, students still may get PhD. But it does not happen with the Guru, he/she did not have the enlightenment. Ramakrishna once said it is a job of blowing air to wet wood, when the wood is not suitable to catch fire. Once the Guru sets fire to the student, it is not the Guru’s part to burn. But in earning a PhD, Guru has to be with the disciple to finish burning to get the PhD.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
The student who went for the librarian class brings the fuel to burn within him, by repeatedly taking birth on the earth. The liberation class with the guru is only formality. Guru and disciple recognized who they two are. So, education and enlightenment externally appear to have some similarity, but internally not so. Dravidian Hinduism was set to reach the target. But when Aryan rowdies came in, they corrupted the system and changed the process. They reserved the Brahmin castes for them, which was obtained by reaching a status in the society. It was not caste based or birth based. Buddha revived the old Dravidian system in many issues. But when it was about “authority” he could not influence that. Buddha was a Dravidian Hindu; Lived as Hindu; obtained Nirvana as Hindu. As we will see later, Hinduism has four paths to achieve Nirvana (Moksha). But Buddha advocated only one for his students, i.e. meditation, Gnana Markam. But he accepted that those in the Family can use the other paths. He did not like and support women getting into search of Nirvana. He did not like the Aryan Brahmins engaging in killing and eating as a special right for them. But it seems he did not fix that problem created by Aryans.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
Indra-Brahma-Rudra feasted, day and night, and rang Somapanam, believing that they were getting enlightened by that dope. They indulged in women; Indra was badly punished for his sex addiction. They showed jealousy and repeatedly lied…. Buddha taught self-control; and corrected Aryan’s philosophies, which completely ignored the Dravidian established social practices. Veda, from Ric, slipping from quality and at Atharvanam, it is treated as a magician’s black art book. Still, village exorcists study Atharvanam to send evil spirits On enemies for a fee. The sages started to call it the Kaliyuga when these crowds wandered in the towns without any restriction. Accordingly, for Kaliyuga behaviors to end and return to Hindus Valley Culture, it is supposed to take 500,000 years, (the Kaliyuga end). That time, the souls will not have difficulty achieving enlightenment. So, King Yudhishthira fought with Kandahar Aryans, to create a “just society”. With Krishna’s guidance, Arjuna and brothers attempted to clean the entire infected society, leaving behind only women and children. All men died, other than the five brothers and the Ashwathama. But it did not clean the society. Disappointed king Udistra left with his brothers, to Moksha leaving others to suffer in the Kaliyuga. The Aryans who were defeated by Yudhishthira’s team were luring for opportunity. Their main interest was Krishna, the smartest Dravidian king and diplomat.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
Krishna knew that, so he went and built his castle in the sea. His unluckiness while Aryans were waiting for him on the seashore, earth sent a tsunami and wiped out his sea fortress. Escaped ones swam to the mainland shore and wandered there without food or water. Aryans captured all of them and finished them. Krishna’s especially talented men and extremely beautiful Gobies wiped out the earth. A.L Basheem, the British colonialist’s high employee, was asked to write the 2nd account of Indian Culture which is a continuation of a book completed by true editors. Basheem seems to not consider that he was a comparable writer for that. So, he collected 22 prominent essays and wrote the preface and presented it as the 2nd edition. In the preface, he describes how to locate Dravidians in Indian society. He used his office’s travel experiences in the book. He had given an unbelievably magical, charming description of the Dravidians’ appearance and intelligence. It is pointless to search for Dravidians in society that keep mixing for past millennials. But in the southern high professional societies, the chiseled faced, carved body shaped people wandering in those towns are representatives of the Dravidians, who built the towns which were abandoned millions of years ago. The entire Yathawas were killed, on that Tsunami eve, on the shore of Gujarat’s sea, by Aryans.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
But for Krishna, they did not like to have an easy death. They seem to have cut his feet and threw on the shore’s hot sand. He might have died by blood loss, heat extortion and pain. Beyond Krishna’s extreme intelligence and cunningness, Dravidians who were living the four five floors building, never faced a war from the time of 11 millennia ago they came from western plains like Sumerian-Egypt, never faced a desperate emergency, never thought of inventing or making any savage waring tools, with open luxury homes-always a heaven to looters, no fortified Chinese wall ……surrendered to barbarians, town after town, like never ending Arabian Night tales. Very easily, like a needle going through a banana, succumbed to Nomadic, fight hardened, horse faring stealing pirate race. Those days skyscrapers left doors open from those days until today … ..probably forever for the human race lasting on the earth. ….., No more wars in the legends between Aryans and Dravidians. Once more, the Tamils were begging the world’s highest organization, the UN, to protect them from the horrible war. UN did all the calculations and perfectly using Vijenambiar and tricked the Tamils. Shed crocodile tears, made itself as the only one investigated forever for Genocide of Ceylon Tamils. Blocked out the criminals’ names and leaked a report to avoid reporters questioning. Used it to stop the Israel-Hamas war.
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Mallaiyuran / November 24, 2025
But humanity did not learn any lessons from cruelties. The only reason the UN said for not trying to save Tamils was that Tamils are not part of the UN, but as a member of that Union, Sinhala Buddhist government had UN protection. An enlightenment person’s death is Moksha for Shaivites. But Buddhism calls it Parinirvana. The Hindus’ purpose of life, one time in the future, in one birth reaching the Lord Shiva. Ric Veda adopted some goods from Dravidian religion and mixed with what they brought from their barbaric land (if there was anything). Sanskrit emerged from the Aryan language, superimposing the frame of Tamil. Conquered 80% denied their religion little by little, by the terrorists working with Aryans as consultants. Many Hindu mythologies give many identifiable characters of these double agent’s figures. So actually, Vedanta was intended to deviate from Aryan corruption of “Dravidian Hinduism”. The cleaning process kept continuing. Buddha and Mahaveera are the earliest ones who attempted to continue; the cleaning process did not take place as a transitional justice for the conquered. Conquerors wrote the rules over the conquered as new Aryans Hinduism. The work could not move forward because Manu, like the ones who corrupted systems, attempted the fixing. Buddha as a past king had the hand and the tongue to fix the system. He is considered as an avatar of Krishna.
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