Buddhist monks appropriate 100 acres of land in Akkaraippattu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 September 2012, 22:05 GMT]
A group of one hundred Buddhist monks, backed by the Sri Lankan state in Colombo, visited Moddaik-kal-malai in Akkaraippattu division of Ampaa'rai district five days ago, declaring 100 acres of Tamils land surrounding the rock as a ‘sacred zone’ of Buddhists. Tamil civil officials in the area complain that Colombo and its Buddhist monks were planning to create a Sinhala colony in the lands that belong to Tamils.

The visiting Buddhist monks have claimed that the image of Lord Buddha is carved out in the rock in the area.

However Hindus in the area, disputing the claims by the Buddhist monks, say that the image is of Lord Vishnu and not of Lord Buddha.

The Saivite organisations in the three districts of Eastern Province have been complaining that the Sinhala Buddhist state in Colombo is waging an accelerated campaign of Sinhala Buddhist colonisation by destroying historic Hindu shrines in the East.