H'pathana: winning polls the PA way

By Themiya Hurulle

Themiya Hurulle, North Central Provincial Councillor and UNP Chief Organiser for Horowpothana gives a first-hand account of the People's Alliance's armed violence and intimidation before and during the recently-held parliamentary election.

Horowpothana is a typical North Central dry zone agricultural farming area located mid-way between Anuradhapura and Trincomalee. The inhabitants are a simple folk, eking out an existence amidst threats of drought and attacks by the LTTE.

I as the accredited representative of the UNP for the electorate had been entrusted the responsibility and task of carrying out the election campaign in this area to benefit the Party with minimum inconvenience to the public and to ensure the safety of UNP activists at the same time.

From the day that nominations were accepted for the election I knew it would be tough going for us since the PA setup in the electorate had made it known to UNP supporters that they would win 'by hook or by crook' (in Sinhala it was known as 'Gahala Gannawa/Hondin ho Narakin' etc). True to their words the intimidation, assaults, and other methods of demoralising were in full swing, with the law enforcement authorities shying away from booking the PA offenders. The crises hit a peak with a serious incident which was directed at me, which as a result affected the morale of the UNP supporters in the electorate at the election.

The day in question was October 9, the day prior to the election. I for myself was thankful and relieved that an arduous campaign had ended on October 7 and that now it was the period of the moratorium of 48 hours when no public meetings, and related publicity activities were allowed.

It was around 4 p.m. when I, with my wife Shalini accompanied by a few helpers left my residence in Horowpathana in a jeep and van for a private discussion in Galenbindunuwewa area to ascertain the progress and selection of UNP polling agents for the next day's election. This done and being uneventful, we proceeded towards Kahatagasdigiliya town and turned off to get to the isolated Muslim village of Mukiriyawa, from where I had previously been informed that unidentified, armed persons had threatened UNP supporters and activists to desist from political work and that they should not go to vote on election day.

On our arrival at Mukiriyawa, the villagers irrespective of party politics met us. They stressed upon the need to vote and the right of the voters to vote for any party of their choice. The discussions were held privately in a house of a villager. All of a sudden we heard gunfire and the loud noises of vehicles approaching with people shouting abuse at us and the UNP. However, I kept the people calm and requested them not to react in anyway.

In a flash a local PA Provincial Minister in a convoy of 9 state vehicles, loaded with around 60 persons, with 11 of them, carrying T-56 automatic weapons stopped their vehicles in front of the house and started hurling abuse at us and the party. To prevent our getting away they blocked our exit route with their vehicles. Some of the persons carrying automatic weapons were masked and all were in civilian dress. Since there was no telephone in the village to alert the local Police station, sensing a dangerous situation I detailed two of my loyal helpers to proceed on motorcycle to the nearest town and inform the police to come to the village. This was done in the nick of time. In a flash the gunmen, 11 in all had completely encircled us. There was no way of escape. The rest of the villagers gathered at vantage points to witness what was happening.

All of a sudden the PA Provincial Minister screamed giving instructions to his gunmen and thugs saying, "Gahapalla! Marapalla! "mama vayasaka minihek, kohomawath langadee marenawa" (Hit! Kill! I am an old man and will die soon anyway). More words of abuse (which are unprintable) were hurled at us but all of us managed to stay calm.

Thereafter, luckily for us during the offensive, an elderly PA person who accompanied the leader of the gang said, "Vedak ne, api mehen yan yanda" (it is useless, let's leave this place) and tugged at the shirt of the Provincial Minister. He relented. He appeared to be heavily under the influence of liquor.

However, some of the PA gunmen and thugs did not want us to go 'scot-free'. They surrounded our jeep and van and bayoneted the tyres thus making us immobile.

The bayonets were fitted to the T-56 weapons they were carrying. (Later I was made to understand that T-56 weapons with bayonets are issued only for ceremonial purposes in the Police and Armed Services). So it could be construed that the weapons were either stolen from the Police or Armed Forces or had been issued by some authority for intimidation of anti PA activists and supporters.

This stand-off lasted for 40 minutes after which time the PA gangs left the village in the convoy of 9 vehicles to continue their process of intimidation in the electorate. All this was done while the Police and other law enforcement authorities looked on helplessly, due to political pressure and due to fear of transfers or losing their positions. The convoy proceeded towards Galenbindunuwewa town shouting and threatening UNPers while at the same time were shouting "api Themiya Hurulleta Wedak Dunna! UNP Kaarayo Kawuruth Heta Chande Danna Yanne Ne! Giyoth Thopila Balagenai" (We have given the works to Themiya Hurulle! No UNPers are to go to vote tomorrow! If you go to vote you'll be in trouble!).

The local police arrived at the scene of the incident 10 minutes after the hooligans had left. They too were helpless although they were sympathetic towards us. We were left with the melancholic task of fitting new tyres and lodging our complaint with the police for which the offenders have not been questioned even to date.

N.B. Prior to the parliamentary election on 10. 10. 2000 and on the day of the election around 32 instances of assault, intimidation, damage to seven vehicles, shooting at houses with T-56 weapons were brought to my notice. In some instances complaints have been made at relevant police stations, while some complaints have not been entertained by police. In the third instance UNP victims have not reported to police due to lack of confidence that action will be taken even now. (The writer is a UNP North Central provincial councillor)

A monk for and of our times

By Susantha Goonatilake

A few days ago Ven. Mapalagama Vipulasara, the chief incumbent of the historic Parama Dhamma Chetiya passed away. The Parama Dhamma Chetiya played a historic role in the rejuvenation of the country and in the spread of Buddhist ideas around the world. Ven. Mapalagama Vipulasara's incumbency and life signalled the maturation of this process. His life represents a particular strand of this global reach. He was a monk of our times.

In the 19th century, after the failure of anti-colonial insurrections, it was once again a few Buddhist monks who came forward. Ven. Walane Sri Siddhartha established in 1841, the Parama Dhamma Cetiya at Ratmalana. This became the centre of Buddhist revival. Of those who studied there, two founded key institutions. Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala established the Vidyodaya Pirivena in 1873, and Ven. Ratmalane Sri Dhammaloka established in 1875, the Vidyalankara Pirivena.

These events and the role of monks like Hikkaduwe Sumangala, Polwatte Buddhadatta and Waskaduwe Subhuti were part of a local renaissance. They corresponded widely around the world and laid the ground for the international Buddhist movement, subsequently led by Anagarika Dharmapala.

Their fruits are now there to see, a global presence of Buddhism especially among the intelligent Western middle classes. Its key action, meditation is now part of many "medical" practices and at times, of Christian worship. It influenced many recent Western thinkers in many fields. One area, which recent research shows, is the impact of Buddhist ideas, especially those emanating from the Sinhalese Buddhist renaissance on modern physics. Today for their part, Sinhalese monks are seen all over the world. They carry the torch lit in the 19th century.

On visits to Ven. Vipulasara's temple, I have seen the usual stream of lay and monk visitors. This close association with the laity of Buddhist monks is a contrast to prelates in Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Governor Maitland had written, "The influence of the monk is very great, even greater in many instances than that of the mudaliyars themselves." And in Vipulasara Thera's room, three phones rang and the fax machine whirred continuously. In his case, his dealings were with people in the immediate Ratmalana town as well as in the global village.

Vipulasara Thera's "career" spanned two fields, sculpture and global Buddhist work. In the pursuit of the first, he had researched art and sculpture and global Buddhist work. In the pursuit of the second, he had researched art and sculpture in Sri Lanka, Japan , China, Italy and Germany. His statues and frescoes adorn numerous temples in Sri Lanka. His Buddha statues are found in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, India, Cambodia, Hong Kong and China. Ven. Mapalagama Vipulasara created, in spite of protests, the stages for the two Papal visits to Sri Lanka in 1970 and in 1995. This was an ironic contrast of traditions between freedom of conscience in Sinhalese Buddhism and those of the Pope.

Ven. Mapalagama Vupula-sara had been the president of the Sri Lanka Buddhist Congress, the president of the Sculpture and Painting panel of the Arts Council, an advisor to the Archaeological Department and the Buddhist Encyclopedia, founder of the Sri Lanka Free Medical Centre, and patron of the Tagore Society of Sri Lanka. Internationally, he held an equal number of important posts. He was the president of the Maha Bodhi Society of India (founded by Anagarika Dharmapala), the general secretary of the World Buddhist Sangha Council, co-secretary general of the World Buddhist Supreme Thathagatha Followers Assembly, and vice president of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace. He was one of the co-sponsors of the 1993 parliament of the World's Religions held in Chicago, the centenary follow-up for the 1893 Parliament.

He followed Anagarika Dharmapala's attempts to bring all Buddhist traditions together. He devoted efforts to fulfil another dream of Anagarika Dharmapala, the restoration of the Bhikkhuni sasana. In his temple, one could find monks or nuns from China, Korea, Cambodia, India and Nepal.

Literally speaking, today he could have been in a remote village in the South, tomorrow in Seoul, next week in Moscow and Delhi, and the week after in Chicago. While travelling, he kept in contact with his work through a secretarial staff that was constantly receiving and sending phone calls and faxes from within and outside Sri Lanka, and working on his computer.

One was reminded of Vibhuti Thera who in the 1890s was one of the earliest Sri Lankans to possess an electric torch, a wristwatch, an electric bell and a phonograph. And Ven. Vipulasara kept the tradition of those 19th century monks who corresponded with Western orientalists, Japanese and Thai royalty, and had monk students from Burma, Cambodia, Thailand and China.

A modest person, Vipula-sara Thera would privately mention his ignorance of the deepest Buddhist philosophy. But his style treated commoner and royalty alike. I have seen him informally recalling with Prince Ranariddh their friendship in Cuba several decades ago, the only two Buddhists there.

I also recall the King, Norodom Sihanouk remembering the king's own visit to Parama Dhamma Chetiya in 1956 with his daughter. The king mentioned how later Pol Pot had killed his daughter.

After Pol Pot was chased away, Vipulasara Thera was part of a delegation in 1979 that helped restore Buddhism. Later when Cambodia was opening up in the 1990s, he helped with other Sri Lankans stop the old tactics of the tough dictator who was then beginning to buy souls at $20 a piece. It was a similar process to how the buying of souls was being stopped in Korea and Taiwan in the 1990s by friends of Vipulasara Thera. The tide has now turned in Asia, as it did in Sri Lanka in the 20th century.

In the 19th century, there was a band of Sinhalese who boldly went out and wrought much changes locally and globally. It is this group's action that has been derided by the foreign funded journal Pravada as "the so-called Buddhist renaissance in the Western and Southern provinces in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries". This journal edited by Jayadeva Uyangoda, Charles Abeysekera and Shani Jayawardene is part and parcel of the same anti-national tradition whose roots go back to the arrival of the Portuguese. It is this same tradition that has given us such books as how to "Unmake the Nation". It is this general tradition that the American Professor Edmund Perry denounced when he mentioned a Christian "conspiracy to convert the Buddhist monk from public leader to disengage recluse". By such means, colonials and present neo colonials dispossessed the Bhikkhus of their reputation and influence on the population. But Vipulasara Thera illustrates how these attempts have been foiled.

The Sinhalese tradition divided monks into two categories, town dwellers "gramavasi" and forest dwellers "vanavasi". The latter devoted themselves to meditation and Buddhist practice. The former learnt the texts, designed viharas and buildings, where sculptors, painters, ambassadors, practitioners of medicine and acted as the scientists of their time. Ven. Vipulasara belonged to this former tradition. He was of our times, a "gramavasi" monk supreme.

Beastly acts of the Sinhabahu parapura

By Sumedha

That the mountains of Sinhela (Sri Lanka) may have been among first of its kind to surface from the ocean when earth was evolved is a little known fact to many. Anthropologists say that the skeletal remains of man found in the Balangoda caves are over 28,000 years old and that the skeletal remains of the Buttala man may be twice that old. Therefore the possibility of the existence of several highly advance civilizations such as the Tharaka, Mahabali and Ravana in this island may not be just legendary.

Ancient statues sculptured in stone of King Ravana, have several heads on one body. He wears a crown on each head. It is difficult if not impossible to believe that King Ravana had several heads. It is more likely that the crowned heads is an indication that he did reign over several countries from Lankapura, the then capital city in Heladiva.

The Mahavamsa updated by erudite Buddhist monks from time to time in its complete form deals with the history of Sinhela (Sri Lanka) from the advent of King Vijaya, the first of the long lineage of Sinhala sovereigns in 543 B.C. down to 1935, the year of the dissolution of the first State Council without a single breach and comprises of 114 chapters. It is undoubtedly a unique record of human activity of nearly 2500 years unparalleled anywhere in the world and may be the greatest contribution to the literary advancement of mankind. Beyond this unique period of recorded history the information available is purely legendary. King Ravana is reputed to be from the Yakkha clan and there is a school of thought that this island first known as Heladiva was later known as Sivuhela as four clans or tribes of Hela people were its inhabitants. The four were Yakkha, Raksha, Naga and Deva tribes. Vijaya and his band of invaders from the Sinhabahu clan blended with the people of Sivuhela and the country was subsequently referred to as the Sinhela.

A legendary belief is that this Sinhabahu clan originated from a man whose father was a lion and mother was a human. Science has proven beyond reasonable doubt that such a union is genetically impossible. It is therefore logical to infer that this clan may have originated from a man who behaved like a lion, the king of beasts.

The offspring of this lion and human union was named Sinhabahu. It is recorded in Chapter VI of Mahavamsa that Sinhabahu killed his own lion father with a bow and arrow and was crowned king by the Vengas after the demise of their king who was Sinhabahu's grandfather from the maternal side. He left his kingdom with his own sister Sinhasivali whom he married subsequently and built a new city by the name of Sinhapura. The eldest of his sons was Prince Vijaya. He was of evil conduct and his followers were no better. They committed many intolerable deeds of violence. The people demanded the king to kill his own son Vijaya. Instead King Sinhabahu banished Vijaya and seven hundred of his followers with half of their heads shaven from Sinhapura. The ship in which they were banished from Sinhapura sailed the Indian Ocean and arrived at the harbour of Thambapanni in Sivuhela.

Prince Vijaya befriended a Yakkhini Princess and with her help defeated the Yakkha army and himself adorned the garments of the Yakkha king. He made Kuvanna the Yakkhini Princess his mistress but after she gave birth to a son and daughter through him betrayed her and was to take the daughter of the King of Madhura as his queen. This is the first betrayal recorded in Mahavamsa and many others were to follow. As King Vijaya had no children from his queen from Madhura, a reason attributed to the curse of Kuvanna, his brother's youngest son Panduvasudeva succeeded him. King Panduvasudeva married Princess Baddakaccana from the Sakya clan of Siddharta Gauthama, the Buddha. Princess Ummadacitta, the daughter of King Panduvasudeva and Queen Baddakaccana was to give birth to Prince Pandukabhaya through a relationship she had with Dighagamani, a Hela warrior.

Pandukabhaya whose father was a Hela leader and mother who was a descendent of Sinhabahu and Sakya clans was crowned the fourth king of Sinhela. He was indeed a king who could claim ancestry to the Hela, Sinhabahu and the Sakya clans. There is a possibility that the Hela people were a highly civilized lot. It is believed that the Buddha visited Heladiva thrice and on one occasion had preached deep Buddhism or Abhidhamma to the inhabitants. It is difficult to believe that the advanced hydraulic technology at its best during the reign of King Mahasena (334 to 362 A.C.) over 1600 years ago evolved gradually after the advent of Vijaya.

The possibility is that this highly advanced hydraulic technology used during King Mahasena's reign of less than 30 years was an improved version of the Hela hydraulic technology. The ancestors of Vijaya who lived in India had little or no knowledge of hydraulic technology and it is proved that this technology was taken to India from Sinhela during a later era.

Mahavamsa records the beastly instincts of the Sinhabahu ancestry during different periods of history. King Dathusena (460 to 478 A.C.) only second to King Mahasena on his achievements in ancient irrigation works built Kalawewa and linked it to Nuwarawewa with a unique canal called Yoda ela having a gradient of one foot to a mile, a feat difficult to achieve even with modern technology. His own son Kassapa killed him. The next case of patricide was when Rajasinghe the 1st killed his own father King Mayadhanu (1521 to 1581 A.C.). The two incidents mentioned above are examples to show that patricide first committed by Sinhabahu with his bow and arrow seems to repeat itself.

It is indeed ironical that the new party formed to protect the heritage of the Sinhela people chose as its symbol the bow and arrow used by Sinhabahu to commit patricide. This new political party used to claim during the election campaign that they were descendants from the Sinhabahu parapura. They claimed they would fight side by side with the security forces if necessary for the defence of Jaffna.

Most people are now aware of this true Sinhabahu parapura's beastly actions after the central committee meeting of the Sihala Urumaya on October 12, when a mob manhandled Professor Indraratne, a Deputy President of the party. At a subsequent central committee meeting of the party held on October 16, the President of the party, three of the four Deputy Presidents, the Deputy General Secretary and three Committee members resigned in disgust. The General Secretary of Sihala Urumaya who failed to implement a unanimous decision of the central committee taken on October 12 to recommend the President of the party to the only parliamentary seat won by Sihala Urumaya at the general elections, is now a member of Parliament occupying the seat that was unanimously allocated by the central committee to the President.

I was reading in the newspapers of an attempt by a man to sacrifice himself to the lions at the Dehiwela Zoo. The lions, be they from the Sinhabahu parapura or from the Dehiwela Zoo are all deadly beasts who will tear its prey apart.

I sincerely hope that such will not be the fate of the Sihala Urumaya. One must not fail to recognize the disciplined and civilized people of the Hela origin from the indisciplined and uncivilized people of the Sinhabahu origin.

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