Northern Province Governor defends building Buddhist viharas in Tamil North-East

Sri Lanka’s Governor of the Northern Province defended the building of Buddhist viharas in the Tamil North-East, stating that it should be welcomed instead of being objected to.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the government-appointed governor s questioned as to why Tamils across the North-East have objected to the rapid construction of Sinhala Buddhist places of worship.

“Big Hindu kovils are being built and many Christian denominations have come up with their buildings. But there are only 13 Buddhist temples in the entire Northern Province,” Mr Cooray claimed. “We don’t object to the Hindu kovils and Christian churches coming up,” he added.

Our feature on Trincomalee this week also found that Hindu temples have been destroyed or left dilapidated, whilst Buddhist viharas continue  to be constructed.

Much of the construction of these viharas is being carried out by the Sri Lankan military, as demonstrated by the latest vihara development on landing belonging to a Hindu temple in Kilinochchi.

Referring to a specific case in Mullativu, the governor added the vihara “has the support of hundreds of Sinhalese families living there”.