An opening ceremony which consisted entirely of Sinhalese cultural performances was held to open a new path leading to the Kanniya (or Kinniya) Hot Wells and the Buddhist temple there.
Kanniya in Trincomalee is a historically sacred site for Tamils but ongoing Sinhalisation has diminished Tamil presence in the area and militarisation has meant that the Sivan temple is disused and unavailable for worship.
Father Prabhakar, a civil society activist from Trincomalee, recently said in Geneva that Tamils in the region were increasingly fearful of Sinhalisation and the erasure of Tamil history, noting the changes to Kanniya as a particular example.
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