The Sri Lankan Buddhist clergy and key Buddhist organisations urged the Sri Lankan president and prime minister to ensure that the new constitution gave Buddhism the foremost place, reported the Daily Mirror.
They also called for the constitution to ensure the duty of the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana.
"Article 9 of the present Constitution, which ensures that Buddhism be given the foremost place and also guarantees that it is the duty of the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, should be included in the Constitution of Sri Lanka without any amendments," the organisations said in a letter outlining their proposals to the Sri Lankan leaders.
"Sri Lanka should remain a unitary state. Supporting, advocating, or encouraging the establishment of a separate state or a federal state should be prohibited by law," the letter went on to state.
"The National Flag or the National Anthem should not be changed. However, Tamil speaking people may have the right to sing the National Anthem, which is in the 3rd Schedule of the present Constitution (Sinhala version), in the Tamil language, without changing the meaning of its words or its music."
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