Sri Lanka's Brahminical Buddhist Monks

Sinhala Buddhist Monks are the Brahmins of Sri Lanka!

Yes. You read it right. Sinhala Buddhist monks are the Brahmins of Sri Lanka. They identify themselves as Aryan and uphold the concept of Varnasrama Dharma in their own Sinhalised way. The Buddhism currently practised in Sri Lanka is a heavily sanskritised organised religion. Its institutions are casteist and its guiding principle is not based on dhamma, but on a worldview based on a racist chronicle called Mahavamsa.

The largest and the most dominant Sangha/ Buddhist institution in Sri Lanka is called the Asgiriya/Malwatta chapter and almost 50% of the Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka belong to this monastery. Only Sinhala Buddhists from the Sinhala dominant caste called Govigama are allowed to be members of this monastery. A non-govigama/Dalit/Shudra is till date prohibited from becoming members in this monastery.

Does the Buddha you know call for the creation of Sanghas/Institutions that only allowed the dominant caste? If so then Sri Lanka’s Buddhism is the right Buddhism for you. This Brahminism that is prevalent amongst Sinhala Buddhists is not a sudden manifestation. It is part of the Sinhala Nation’s national character.

Only a Sinhala-Buddhist can be a true Buddhist in Sri Lanka’s version of Buddhism. The Sinhalese see themselves as a race created to protect Buddhism. They see themselves as the custodians of the religion. This is the national character of the Sinhala Nation.

The Sinhala Buddhist Monks have for thousands and thousands of years, used this national character of the people towards building their dominance in every aspect of a Sinhala person’s life. The Buddhist monks' relationship with the Sinhala State and its rulers is no different to the Brahmin-Kshatriya relationship that is preached by the Manu Dharma. 

 

Sri Lankan Archeologist and Epigraphist Senarath Paranavitana even has in many of his works mentioned the influence of India's Manusmriti in the Kingship heritage of the Sinhala Nation.

I would like to reproduce a few paragraphs of a story from Mahavamsa(a Sinhala chronicle) that i read in a CPA report here:

The Mahavamsa’s narration of the battle between King Dutugemunu (also known as 

Dutthagamani) and King Elara (or Ellalan) in the second century B.C.E. is of special significance in the history of the Sinhalese 

Elara is described as a Tamil Chola King from South India who ruled the Anuradhapura Kingdom and was defeated by Dutugemunu, son of King Kavantissa of the Ruhunu Kingdom, following which the island was united into a single kingdom. 

When Dutugemunu expressed remorse for all the people who had been killed, he was informed by some monks that he should not worry as non-Buddhists were “not more to be esteemed than beasts”:

“And thereon the king said again to them: 'How shall there be any comfort for me, O 

venerable sirs, since by me was caused the slaughter of a great host numbering millions? 

From this deed arises no hindrance in thy way to heaven. Only one and a half human beings 

have been slain here by thee, O lord of men. The one had come unto the (three) refuges, the other had taken on himself the five precepts.

Unbelievers and men of evil life were the rest, 

not more to be esteemed than beasts. But as for thee, thou wilt bring glory to the doctrine of the Buddha in manifold ways; therefore cast away care from thy heart, O ruler of men! Thus exhorted by them the great king took comfort.”

This glorification of violence has been used by Buddhist nationalists as a source of encouragement for conflict with non-Buddhists. 

As Tisaranee Gunasekera notes, “with a single story, the unscrupulously brilliant author of Mahavamsa created a nexus between war, race and religion and consecrated the task of protecting the faith as the raison d’être of kingship.

Sri Lanka's Buddhism has always seen non-buddhists as beasts and inferior species.

That tradition continues till date.

Even recently, in the year 2019, the Sri Lankan Government issued stamps to honour their exorcism ritual. One of the stamps carried a caricature of a Tamil person with the name Tamil Demon or “Demala sanniya”. 

The stamp depicts a dark-skinned, moustached man, with Vibhuti - Hindu sacred ash - on his forehead, dressed in traditional Tamil clothes.The bottom of the stamp reads “traditional Sinhalese exoticism ritual”.

You can read more about it in this Tamil guardian report

Not just that. The person considered to be the father of Sinhala Nationalism Anagarika Dharmapala is a celebrated Buddhist monk in India and Sri Lanka.

How many of you know that Anagarika Dharmpala is the one who championed Aryan supremacy theories amongst Sri Lankan Buddhists and it was his writing and speeches that started the Anti-Muslim and Anti Tamil riot culture in Sri Lanka?.👇

Infact the International Buddhist flag also was created by a group of Sinhala Buddhist monks who come from the Sinhala Govigama dominant caste, and it was these monks who were also responsible for the anti-christian Kotahena riots of 1883.

The 1883 anti-christian riots of Kotahena was one of the early riots of Sri Lanka perpetrated by the Sinhala Buddhists. 

On 28 May 1885, the Buddhist monks who were responsible for the riots hoisted the Buddhist flag for the first time in Kotahena where the riots took place. The flag was created by Sinhala Buddhist casteists and racists monks and it was first used to assert dominance over non-buddhists. This was no different to hoisting the saffron flag in Babri masjid.

The Tamil Genocide and Rohingya Muslim Genocide are two ongoing genocides in South Asia, and the perpetrators of these genocides are States which has Buddhism as its State Religion or driving force. It is the Buddhist monks who are in the forefront of these massacres. They are committing this genocide in the name of Buddha and Buddhism.

Dalitism is the ideology, identity and politics of the oppressed. As people of the Tamil Nation who are oppressed by Sinhala Buddhist State sponsored terrorism and as a Nation which carried out an armed struggle against a genocide, we stand in solidarity with the Dalit cause too. The Tamil resistance/armed struggle in Tamil Eelam(The Tamil homeland currently occupied by Sinhala Military) also criminalised caste and it has caste abolishment as one of its political mission.

I request our fellow Dalit brothers and sisters in India to not blindly endorse or support Sinhala Buddhism without understanding it true oppressive nature. Your Buddhism is one that liberates us from the chains of oppression. But Sinhala Buddhism is one that justifies our enslavement and upholds casteism. Never forget that

-@mrpaluvets

7/10/23