“The Tamil people aren’t wrong here. These are innocent people; they are only asking for their land. I am on their side,” says Nagadeepa Temple Chief Incumbent Ven. Navandagala Padumakiththi Tissa Thera about the struggle for land rights in Thaiyiddi, Jaffna.
According to him, a temple was situated on about one-and-a-half acres of land belonging to the Nagadeepa Temple in Thaiyiddi. With the outbreak of ethnic tensions in 1958, the temple was abandoned but the land remained. “The Tamil people had not encroached on that land, despite the long years of war,” the monk told The Sunday Morning.
However, in 2019 a new monk had arrived and had started constructing a new ‘sanghawasa’ (abode of the monks) on the land surrounding the original temple.
“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 some day. 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,” charged the Chief Incumbent.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, P. Sarujan, one of the owners of the land that the new temple has been constructed on, said they had accepted the existence of a small temple on the land near theirs in the 1940s.
“The Sinhalese people who worked at a nearby cinnamon factory had also worshipped there. But the new temple has been built on private lands belonging to us. We left those lands and went to Jaffna town in 1986 due to the war. After the war finished and we returned in 2015, the lands were occupied by the Army.”
Maliyadalan, another owner of the land, said that Covid-19 had worked to their disadvantage as it had prevented them from knowing about and protesting the illegal constructions that were taking place on their lands.
“We have proof related to our ownership of the land. If the land really does belong to the temple, tell the Army to present the evidence.”
‘Govt. must honour promises’
A group of owners of the land along with members of the People’s Alliance for Right to Land (PARL) met the Government last week regarding the matter.
At a press conference held before the meeting, PARL member and University of Jaffna Lecturer Mahendran Thiruvarangan urged the Government to take steps to release the lands to the people as the National People’s Power (NPP) Government came to power with the promise of national reconciliation and non-discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or culture.
“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,” he pointed out.
Thiruvarangan further said that Thaiyiddi was not the only such struggle in the north and east. Under the guise of archaeological research, protecting forest reserves, and wildlife protection, people’s lands have been taken away from them by the military and other State apparatus like the Department of Archaeology and the Mahaweli Authority.
“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 asserted.
Raising the issue in Parliament in February, Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) MP G. Ponnambalam blamed the military’s ongoing “counterinsurgency mode,” which had made it an “institution that is against the Tamil people, against Tamil interests”.
“A classic example of that phenomenon is how the military has been involved in building the illegal Tissa Vihara in Thaiyiddi. 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,” he said.
According to Ponnambalam, the matter was brought up twice more at DCC meetings, including one in January which was chaired by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. On both those occasions, the military had also been present and “everyone had agreed” that it was private land and that constructions had taken place illegally without any formal legal process.
‘With the support of the Army’
The Sunday Morning spoke to Ven. Ginthota Nandarama Thera, the monk residing at the allegedly illegally-constructed temple. He said he had arrived in Thaiyiddi in 2019 from Bentota in the Galle District and had constructed the new temple with “the support of the Army”.
“This land was under the Army camps. I can’t accept the allegations,” he said when questioned about the accusations being raised by both the Nagadeepa Temple Chief Incumbent and private landowners.
When asked whether he had evidence that the land he was on belonged to him, he directed The Sunday Morning to speak with the Dayaka Sabha (Board of Lay Trustees) of the new temple.
When contacted, the Board’s Secretary, Emeritus Professor Nimal de Silva, who was also the former Director General of the Central Cultural Fund and Cultural Triangle, was also unable to provide evidence that the land belonged to the new temple. “I don’t have photos [of the documents] at the moment,” he said.
“The lands were given to the monk by the Army,” he said when questioned about how they had obtained the lands to engage in constructions.
He said they had historical maps proving the existence of a temple in the area and added that the Chief Incumbent of the Nagadeepa Temple was “envious” of the new constructions happening in the area.
He further attributed it to the fact that the two monks were from different ‘nikayas’ (Buddhist schools/sects), which had led to allegations from the Chief Incumbent of the Nagadeepa Temple.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Army Media Spokesperson Brigadier Waruna Gamage said that land under the control of the Army had not been given out to anyone. He further said that the Army provided protection to any religious place in Sri Lanka, regardless of religion.
Multiple attempts to contact Deputy Minister of Defence Maj. Gen. Aruna Jayasekara regarding the matter proved futile.
Meeting at the ministry
Minister of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Hiniduma Sunil Senevi said he had been informed of the problem when the owners of the land and PARL members came to meet him the previous week. He has informed them to make a formal request to the ministry about the matter while acknowledging that the ministry did not have the power to settle land issues.
“The land settlement authority and the Ministry of Land are there for that. However, that doesn’t mean I can stay silent because trust would then be broken. They did not request that the temple be removed, accepting that the old temple was always there. Their only request was that we do not break their trust and that they needed their land rights.
“I will give prominence to the correct stakeholders from the District Secretariat to the Governor and the lands authorities and undertake a visit there as well. People who have the real ownership must gain access to the land. But I cannot go against the law and what the law states about the ownership of a particular land,” he said.
Senevi added that they were not interested in promoting ideology based on ethnicity and race to divide people: “We don’t want to promote that ideology by keeping Buddhist statues in unnecessary places. The people who came to meet me humbly requested that we not trick them this time.”
A Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) report in August 2024 maps land conflicts in eight districts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Noting that 15 years after the end of the civil war, Sri Lanka has failed to address the root causes of the ethnic conflict, it observes the continuation of the “decades-long problem of land” in the post-war setting. The report highlights how land has been used to create an asymmetry of power in the north and east, with a growing trend of intrusive methods being employed, triggering fear amongst local communities.
Ethno-majoritarian hostilities are intensified by non-State actors such as the clergy, assisted by the military and the Police, the report has found.