Thaiyiddy – History of the struggling people
Story | North East Narrative | Picture | Sanjula Pietersz
“I am now living in the eighteenth house, brother. We were displaced from this place when I was 33 years old. Now I am 78. Even now, our land has not been released. Though I am a woman, I struggled hard and built a house, and today it lies reduced to nothing but a mound of earth. I do not want money. I do not want another land. Just give me back my land,” cried Kanapathippillai Omeshwary, an elderly mother, standing among the protesters demanding the release of land in Thaiyiddy. Speaking before the cameras, she wept like a child, raising her voice in anguish along with the gathered crowd. The plea of that mother is, in fact, the collective demand of everyone who has joined the protest there.
This is the demand of protesters who are struggling to reclaim their land, which was seized by the military in collaboration with a Buddhist monk in the name of Buddhism, even on the sacred Buddhist worship day of Poya (Full Moon Day). Kanapathippillai Omeshwary stands as a representative of that collective demand.
The Context of Thaiyiddy
Thaiyiddy village, also known as Thaiyur, is located in the small town of Kankesanthurai in the Valikamam North region of Jaffna. Many residents of Thaiyiddy, a village marked by red soil that carries the scent of agriculture, have now been displaced and forced into migration. This displacement has occurred due to the war that took place in the country, the prolonged failure to release their lands as a consequence of it, and ongoing threats. Despite all this, one of those who continues to fight for his land even today is Kanagasabai Mathiyazhagan from Thaiyiddy. Mathiyazhagan has some knowledge of the history of how a Buddhist temple came to be established in Thaiyiddy.
The Construction of the Tissa Vihara
He explains the story of the emergence of the Buddhist shrine there as follows.
“This Buddhist temple is not an ancient shrine. A person who lived in Thaiyiddy had mortgaged his land to the owner of a business establishment in Kankesanthurai. The shop owner later permanently transferred that land to a manager who worked at the shop. That manager then donated the land to a Buddhist temple in Kalutara. Accordingly, the relevant document was drawn up around the year 1946. In 1945, a small shelter was built on that land, and a Buddhist monk came to reside there. While staying there, the monk taught Sinhala to Tamil students from the neighboring areas. In 1956, due to the violence carried out by the Sri Lankan government against the Tamil people, Sinhalese who had been living in the North for employment and educational purposes left the area. In this context, the Buddhist monk who had been residing in Thaiyiddy also left the place. Even after that, elders used to say that the building remained on that land. However, from the time I became aware and even during the years when I went to school, I had only heard that there was once a Buddhist place of worship there—I had never actually seen it. By that time, it had already been destroyed. I clearly remember that after 1985, there was nothing there at all. People used to say that it was land belonging to a Buddhist temple, but I never saw a Buddhist shrine there myself. In 1990, due to military operations carried out by the Sri Lankan army, all of us were displaced from Valikamam North, including Thaiyiddy. We returned to Thaiyiddy only in 2016. Even then, there was no Buddhist temple there.”
Echoing and reinforcing Mathiyazhagan’s recollections is the story of Thambirajah, who is originally from the village of Thaiyiddy.
“I was studying in Grade Nine when we were displaced from here. But up until that time, I had never seen a Buddhist temple here. Our elders told us that whatever existed had already been destroyed in clashes even before 1977. It was not a large temple either. They worshipped by placing a Buddha statue. At that time, Sinhalese workers employed at the Kankesanthurai cement factory and bakeries used to come here for worship,” said Thambirajah, one of the landowners, as he recounted his life experience.
In 1991, the military forcibly evicted the people who were native to Thaiyiddy in a single night and declared large parts of Valikamam North, including the village, as a High Security Zone. When the army took control of Thaiyiddy, there was neither a Buddhist temple nor a Buddha statue there.
The people who were displaced in 1991 were not allowed to resettle there until 2014. It was only during the tenure of Maithripala Sirisena, who became President in 2015, that some parts of Valikamam North were handed back to the people.
It was against this backdrop that Thaiyiddy was also released. Within the area of Thaiyiddy that had not been handed back to the people lay the land allocated in 1946 for a Buddhist temple. On 22.08.2018, the then Governor of the Northern Province, Reginald Cooray, laid the foundation stone for the construction of a Buddhist temple on this land. Following the laying of the foundation stone, strong opposition emerged, and as a result of protest resolutions adopted at divisional and district coordinating committee meetings, the construction of the temple was temporarily halted.
In 2019, as the world froze in fear due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, former tri-forces commander Savendira Silva laid the foundation stone for a new Tissa (Buddhist) temple. Instead of using the land that had been voluntarily granted in 1946 to the Buddhist monk from Kalutara, construction for this new Buddhist temple began on land that rightfully belonged to the Tamil people.
Since then, a single Buddhist monk has resided there. A military guard was stationed to protect him. Members of the army from nearby camps worked day and night to construct what became Sri Lanka’s second tallest Buddhist temple.
The Struggle for Justice
For all this time, the owners of the 150-acre land, which has been seized for the Buddhist temple, have been actively protesting to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. They have met with government officials, pressing for the release of their land. They have spoken with military commanders, petitioned members of Parliament, and participated in Jaffna District Development Committee meetings. They have held media briefings to officially assert that the land belongs to them. Despite all these efforts, the land has still not been returned. Meanwhile, the Buddhist temple continues to expand. At the same time, the protests, arrests, inquiries, and legal cases initiated by the Tamil people to reclaim their rightful land have been increasing day by day.