According to Udaya Gammanpila, the leader of Pivithuru Hela Urumya, attorney at law Mr. Udaya Gammanpila said that the Commissioner General of the Department of Archeology, Mr. Anura Manatunga, refused to implement the President’s illegal orders and submitted his resignation letter.
He stated this while joining a press conference held at the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya party office. The leader of Pivithuru Hela Urumya further commented as follows.
A video of the President lecturing the Commissioner General of Archeology on history is doing rounds on social media these days.
The Department of Archeology is not able to implement only the decisions of the Cabinet as the President says. The primary responsibility of the Department of Archeology is to implement the Archeology Ordinance. But the President advises the Archaeological Commissioner not to decide that 275 acres of Kurindi temple site is archaeologically important. That’s too much. Neither the President nor the Cabinet can decide how many acres are archaeologically important in a particular place. According to the Archeology Ordinance, it is a work that archaeologists should do on the basis of archaeological evidence. Therefore, that order is illegal. The Commissioner General of Archeology has submitted his resignation because he cannot get into trouble by implementing illegal orders.
The President goes there to demonstrate his knowledge of history and demonstrates his ignorance. According to him, Kurundi temple was built by Tamil Buddhists. Kurindi Vihara was not built by Tamil Buddhists. According to Mahavamsa, King Khallatanaga who reigned from 110 to 103 BC built the Kurindi temple. Kurindi composed Sinhala Atta Katha in this Pirivena. Also, this temple has the only padmakara dagaba in Sri Lanka.
In the appeal sent to UNESCO in 1983 by Minister Cyril Mathew, who was the political leader of the current president in the 1977 election, Kurindi Viharaya is mentioned as an archaeological site being destroyed by extremists. I invite the President to read the book written by the political teacher of the current President.
The President declares that the Kurindi Vihara cannot be bigger than the Maha Vihara. Kurindi Viharaya is a regional temple complex and shrine. Maha Viharaya is an urban temple built in the center of Anuradhapura capital. Even today, despite their importance, urban temples in the middle of cities are smaller in size than rural temples. Therefore, the Kurindi Vihara complex may be larger than the Maha Vihara. And Kurindi is not just a temple. A temple complex. So it is bigger than the Great Temple anyway.
Thirdly, the Maha Viharaya of Anuradhapura is a place where archaeological excavations are almost complete. Therefore, it can be decided which area should be designated as archaeological reserve and which area can be exempted. Due to the fact that ruins were found over 275 acres of Kurindi area, the area has been marked as an archaeological reserve. Archeological excavations in Kurindi have not been done properly yet. Land release can be done only after the survey is completed. If land is released before then, thousands of years old world heritage may be destroyed forever. Can you give the president a guarantee that these antiquities will not be destroyed the way the two thousand year old Kilaveddi Bodhi in the north was done on July 29, 1976?
Also, when the MPs of the Tamil Alliance lied that the people of this area had been farming for nearly a hundred years, the President accepted those lies without asking the officials.
It must be because the President has read the wrong books about the Kurundi Vihara and told a string of lies that he thought were true. Therefore, I invite the President to read this book, “Kurundi Buddhist Heritage”, which contains recent discoveries of archaeological evidence.
Pivathuru Hela Urumaya Colombo District Organizer Shirantha Jayalath and Central Colombo Constituency Organizer Menaka Niranjan also participated in this press conference.
Meanwhile, Mr. Jayantha Samaraweera of the National Freedom Front also took steps to condemn this incident by calling a press conference.
