MONDAY, 12 DECEMBER 2011 
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said in Parliament today that there is archaeological evidence to prove that ‘Tamil Buddhists’ lived in certain areas of the northern province.TNA MP S.Sritharan said that Buddhist archaeological sites had been discovered in the North after archaeological excavations.
“Some elements try to prove that these were the settlements of Sinhala Buddhists in history. Actually, they were the settlements of Tamil Buddhists,” Mr. Sritharan said.
The TNA MP emphasised the need to preserve Hindu religious sites in the North instead of trying to impose the hegemony of one cultural group on another.
He charged that the statue of God Shiva had been removed from a Hindu temple in the North recently.
“We do not accept attempts to establish cultural dominance,” he said. (Kelum Bandara and Yohan Perera)
