Some monks should be chased out in their loincloth
By Zahrah Imtiaz- January 21, 2014
Deepening the rift between him and some quarters of the Buddhist clergy, Prime Minister, D.M. Jayaratne, launched another attack at his detractors, and said, some cheewaradhariyas (men in robes) should be chased away in their loincloth.
"Ruthless people who have descended from nowhere seem to be wearing robes and making irrelevant statements. That is why I wanted to introduce laws to stop frauds from donning the robe. We need to remove their robes and make them sail along the Mahaweli River on a boat with their loincloths wrapped around them," Jayaratne said at a public meeting in the Central Province recently.
While talking of 'fake' monks, the Prime Minister had referred to, "an indecent man from Sinhapitiya, a cheewaradhariya, has five children, but I am not sure how many women he has. It would be certainly more than two."
Premier Jayaratne further said that when he wanted to develop Gampola town with new innovations, the monk who hailed from Sinhapitiya had said that the programme was being initiated by a heroin dealer.
"That cheewaradhariya who is a horayaka said this is a programme by heroin dealers. I have not seen heroin; perhaps he has, and he may even use it but I have no idea of what it is. The only poison I am aware of is arrack, whisky and brandy which I have seen, but not heroin," he said.
The Prime Minister ended his speech saying: "There are devils such as the one in Sinhapitiya but we cannot do anything as they hide behind their robes."
By Zahrah Imtiaz- January 21, 2014
Deepening the rift between him and some quarters of the Buddhist clergy, Prime Minister, D.M. Jayaratne, launched another attack at his detractors, and said, some cheewaradhariyas (men in robes) should be chased away in their loincloth."Ruthless people who have descended from nowhere seem to be wearing robes and making irrelevant statements. That is why I wanted to introduce laws to stop frauds from donning the robe. We need to remove their robes and make them sail along the Mahaweli River on a boat with their loincloths wrapped around them," Jayaratne said at a public meeting in the Central Province recently.
While talking of 'fake' monks, the Prime Minister had referred to, "an indecent man from Sinhapitiya, a cheewaradhariya, has five children, but I am not sure how many women he has. It would be certainly more than two."
Premier Jayaratne further said that when he wanted to develop Gampola town with new innovations, the monk who hailed from Sinhapitiya had said that the programme was being initiated by a heroin dealer.
"That cheewaradhariya who is a horayaka said this is a programme by heroin dealers. I have not seen heroin; perhaps he has, and he may even use it but I have no idea of what it is. The only poison I am aware of is arrack, whisky and brandy which I have seen, but not heroin," he said.
The Prime Minister ended his speech saying: "There are devils such as the one in Sinhapitiya but we cannot do anything as they hide behind their robes."
