Historical sites:
False beliefs cause for destruction
Priyanka Kurugala
False beliefs of people have caused the desecration and destruction
of ancient and historical sites of the country, Archaeological
Commissioner and Director General Senarath Dissanayake said.
Media has published and has been publishing false information about
artefacts. An example is about finding a “real gold Buddha statue”. This
kind of wrong information has led to the destruction and desecration of
the national heritage, he said.
Artefacts and monuments have only an antiquity value, though many
people think that these items have a currency value. Damaging or
destroying these heritage is a loss to the whole world, he said.
Ancient people had carved symbols of animals such as dogs, crows,
rats snakes and cock foot prints on rock surface.
These are the guidelines to find out the borders of lands that
belonged to temples. The meaning of these marks is important.
These marks mean that if someone uses lands that belong to temples
they will be born as animals in their next birth. Symbols of Watapata
had been carved to identify lands belonging to monks, he said. In
certain other places pictures of sun and moon had been carved. This
means that these lands will last as long as the sun or the moon or until
the end of the world, Dissanayake said.
”In ancient times the country was very prosperous and rich. Rulers
had developed and made a lot of sculptures. This means we could have
numerous statues of the Buddha and a lot of stupas which had contained
the Sacred Relics of the Buddha and the Arahath Theras. Bronze was used
to create metal statues, and they had painted them in gold,” he said..
Treasure hunters destroy ancient statues and stupas in search of
antiques and gems or gold. Nevertheless the Archaeological Department
has never found gold or gems. We have also never found any treasure
underground,” Dissanayake said..
He said there is an ancient ola-leaf work called the Nidhan Wadula.
It is also a mythical concept that hails from the Kurunegala period. “It
is fiction. This is the harsh truth. The concept of a Nidhan Wadula has
vastly contributed to the destruction of artefacts of the country,”
Dissanayake said. |