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.