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KPI Congress 15 th

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On 2 March 2004, the JHU monks and lay supporters marched to the Tooth
Relic Temple, Kandy from Kelaniya Temple (the site of the Buddha’s third visit to
Sri Lanka, according to the Mahãva sa I.71-84) in the midst of thousands of Buddhi
st monks and lay people who shared the noble mission of restoring Buddhasãsana
(Buddhism in the form of institutionalized religion) and promoting Buddhism in Sri
Lanka. The selection of both—this particular date (2 March) and the place (Kandy)—
are quite significant in historic and symbolic terms. The 2 March symbolized an
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important historic event that took place in 1815: the day that Sri Lanka lost her
independence to the British under the Kandyan Convention. Another important patriotic
event related to it also happened on the same day in Kandy; that episode of a martyr
is still in the ears of the Sri Lankan nationalists and Buddhist pious: on that day in
Kandy, when the British raised the union jack before signing the memorandum, the
monk Kud?pola protested against it and he was shot dead there. Unveiling of the
JHU’s political manifesto at the site of the Tooth Relic Temple in Kandy on a
symbolic day at a large gathering thus invokes both religious and national sentiments.

The JHU launched its political manifesto in the hope of restoring the weakening
status of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. In an interview with the Sunday Observer (28
March 2004), Venerable Ellawala Medhananda, former leader of the JHU, stated the
4
aspiration for a dharmarãjya:

Present day politics is rude, uncivilised and brusque. It is shameful and
degrading…. People who look for gentlemanly politics look to us, with the trust
that we could bring about a change. Our mission is to do that.… We have no
petty political agenda. We have no party politics. We have a noble aim. Our aim
and aspiration is to make this country a place for all to live in brotherhood, in
peace and harmony. We strive to serve the country, the nation and the Buddha
Sasana.… Looking at the way we are treated here being the majority of this
country we have come to a point that we have to actively engage in
politics.…Our effort is to build a ‘Dharma Rajya’ and we are committed to do
that.

The monks of the JHU had a clear agenda and ambition of purifying the political
process from corruption and abuses. The JHU manifesto included 12 points as
principles for constructing a righteous and just state (dharma rãjyayak udesã vU
pratipatti pUjãva). These were conceived as foundational principles of dharmarãjya.
Each item in the manifesto included more than one principle and the Sinhala version 5
was more comprehensive than the English rendering appeared in the media. International panel discussion

4 http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2004/03/28/fea07.html
5 For the full Sinhala version of the manifesto see http://www.jayasanka.org/dharma_rajjya.jpg and
http://www.jathikahelaurumaya.org/Index1.html. For an abridged and incomplete English version see
http://www.srilankanelections.com/manifestos/HJU-EngManifesto.html