Tissa Viharaya – A Proposal to pull the chestnuts out of the fire
After King Devanampiyatissa became a Buddhist listening to Mahinda Maha thero’s Dhamma talk around 307 BC, he built many viharas including Tissa Viharya in Jaffna according to the Great Chronicle – Mahavamasa-. The survey department’s 1959 one-inch map of the area clearly shows the location of Tissa Viharya. in Tellipilllai in KKS.
Of late, an unruly gathering of Tamils led by well-known Tamil politicians assemble at the entrance to Tissa Vitaharya and attempt to aggressively confront the pilgrims who attend the temple to perform religious activities at the temple. This has become a common feature leading to a breach of peace at the entry point of the Vihara.
The main demand of the agitators is that the Vihara is built on land owned by a few Tamil persons and they have the deeds to prove their ownership and the temple MUST vacate the land concerned and handover the claimed land to the Tamil persons who are the legal owners.
But, the temple authorities deny such claims by stressing that the Vihara has the deeds going back to 1950s and further cites that the temple is legally occupying land surveyed and approved by the Department of Survey in their official documents.
This is a clear case where the parties should go to the law and have the law on the guilty party. My earnest request and I am certain that I have the backing of the right thinking people of the country, to the Tamil persons who claim the land of Tissa Vihara is to produce their deeds and to institute legal action to settle the issues and claim their demand .
The courts will be able to deliver the justice which is acceptable to all and will put a stop to the ugly and dangerous confrontation of Buddhists pilgrims at the temple by unruly gatherings
All will agree with me if I say that there are hundreds of Kovils in Sinhala- Buddhists dominated areas in the Island and similarly a Buddhist Vihara should be allowed to function peacefully in Tamil dominated North too.
RANJITH SOYSA
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