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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000140 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INSB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM CE
SUBJECT: FONSEKA ARREST PROMPTS BUDDHIST CLERGY CONCERNS FOR 
DEMOCRACY 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Fonseka arrest has led to a rift between the 
Rajapaksa leadership and the four mahanayakas (chief monks) of the 
largest Buddhist sects.  The arrest sparked the monks to raise 
broader issues of democratic governance and to call a Sangha Sabha 
(council of clergy) to discuss the situation.  But the council was 
indefinitely postponed after the monks received bomb threats. 
Government apologists retaliated by promising that 500 temples would 
be split off from the main Buddhist sect and re-aligned with a 
lesser-known sect from the Rajapaksas' home region in the south. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
MONKS' STATEMENT CALLS ARREST UNJUSTIFIED 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) On February 14, Mahanayake of Asgiriya Rev. Udugama Sri 
Buddharakkitha, Mahanayake of Malwatte Rev. Thibbotuwawe Sri 
Sumangala, Mahanayake of Ramanna Nikaya Rev. Weveldeniye 
Medhalankara, and Mahanayaka of Amarapura Nikaya Rev Divuldena 
Gnanissara in a joint statement said the arrest of Fonseka was 
unjustified and unacceptable.  The rough way the arrest of Fonseka 
was conducted prompted the mahanayake of Asgiriya (Temple of the 
Tooth) chapter to say "he (Fonseka) has done much for the country, 
and the way it was done cannot be approved."  The mahanayaka of the 
Malawatte Chapter went further to criticize attacks on journalists 
and the current state of democracy in the country. 
 
¶3. (SBU) These statements were followed by a call for a Sangha Sabha 
(council of clergy) by monks of all four sects at Kandy on February 
18, which was to have assembled hundreds of monks from temples 
across the island.  (NOTE: In the recorded history of over two 
thousand years of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, there have been very few 
such councils of monks.  A Sangha Sabha was summoned only when the 
king exceeded his limits, and the monks felt duty-bound to ask for 
good governance.  END NOTE.) 
 
THREATS FORCE CANCELLATION OF MONKS' COUNCIL 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Statements by the monks criticizing the Fonseka arrest and 
warning that democracy on the island was at risk reportedly enraged 
the Rajapaksas.  Two days before the Sangha Sabha was to open, 
Buddhist contacts from the provinces informed us that temples had 
been told that bombs would be hurled at buses transporting monks to 
the council.  On February 16, the mahanayake of Malwatte announced 
the assembly had been indefinitely postponed due to security 
concerns.  General Secretary of the main opposition UNP Tissa 
Attanayake claimed government ministers were directly involved in 
threatening the mahanayakas to stop the Sangha Sabha. 
 
RAJAPKSAS SEEK OWN BUDDHIST SECT 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Government apologists then made it known that the 
government would retaliate against the Malwatte chapter (its 
mahanayaka led the call for convening the Sangha Sabha) by removing 
500 southern province temples (of the central province-based 
Malwatte chapter) and re-aligning these temples with the 
lesser-known Rohana sect of the south (the political home turf of 
the Rajapaksas).  They also discussed the creation of another major 
Buddhist sect with its loyalties to the Rajapaksas. 
 
BACKGROUND ON BUDDHIST SECTS 
---------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Siyam Nikaya (high-ordination clergy of the Asgiriya 
and Malwatte chapters) has been the guardian of orthodox Buddhism 
for over a thousand years.  The Asgiriya chapter is the older and 
holds the Kandy tooth relic of the Buddha, which was regarded as the 
symbol of sovereignty of Sri Lankan rulers.  The Malwatte chapter is 
the largest Buddhist sect in Sri Lanka.  Both the Asgiriya and 
Malwatte chapters permit higher ordination only to those of the 
Govigama caste (to which the Rajapaksas belong).  The Amarapura and 
Ramanna Nikayas were founded in the late eighteen century to open 
 
COLOMBO 00000140  002 OF 002 
 
 
higher ordination to those of the non-Govigama caste (to which 
Fonseka belongs).  These two nikayas were founded on the initiative 
of Colonel Henry Steele Olcott of the United States, a theosophist 
who led a Buddhist revival in colonial Ceylon. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Contacts have told us that the monks' rebellion against the 
Rajapaksas was unprecedented insofar as the monks disregarded their 
traditional caste differences to come together against what they saw 
as abuses by the Rajapaksas.  The significance of this step can 
hardly be over-estimated.  President Rajapaksa has often made highly 
publicized visits to temples and has relied on the support of the 
mainstream Buddhist clergy.  That the clergy now has so publicly 
registered its dissatisfaction with the country's governance is an 
indication of the deep rifts within the Sinhala majority community. 
Religious-freedom experts told us that the Buddhist clergy was 
perhaps closer to the pulse of the rural masses than anyone.  "They 
summoned a Sangha Sabha with the full knowledge of the hurt feelings 
of the Sinhalese.  They have only postponed the Sangha Sabha." 
 
BUTENIS