Paradise Lost: the bombing of the Temple

of the Tooth - a UNESCO World Heritage

site in Sri Lanka
& NICKLEWER*
ROBINCONINGHAM
The bombing of the Temple of the Tooth at Kandyin 1998 provides the focus for an
analysis of the political targeting of heritage in Sri Lanka.

Key-words: Sri Lanka, Kandy, terrorism, Buddhist temple, UNESCO

Introduction historical context and to discuss the island’s

That archaeology has played a significant role
in the creation of nation-states around the globe
is well attested (Diaz-Andreu &Champion 1996;
Kohl & Fawcett 1995; Gathercole & Lowenthal
1994).From Smith’s manipulation at Great Zim-
babwe (Garlake 1973) to Mussolini’s second
Roman empire (Guidi 1996)and the Nazi quest
for homelands (Arnold 1992), archaeology has
been used to legitimize expansion. Physical
remains have equally been used to support the
dismemberment of larger units as illustrated
within the former USSR (Kohl & Tsetskhladze
1995; Puodziunas & Girininkas 1996). Whilst
the past has also been used internally within
nation-states to promote one social grouping
to the exclusion of others (Jones & Pay 1994;
Silberman 1989), a worrying recent phenom-
enon is the destruction of monuments which
are perceived to represent the past of others.
Such attacks have been met with widespread
condemnation as illustrated by the response
to the demolition of monuments in former
Yugoslavia (Chippindale 1992; 1994;Chapman
1994), the obliteration of the Babri mosque at
Ayodhya (Mandall993) and the Taliban threat
to the Bamiyan Buddhas (SPACH 1997). In stark
contrast, the bombing of one of Sri Lanka’s
holiest Buddhist shrines, the Temple of the
Buddha’s Tooth in Kandy, on 25 January 1998,
has attracted little comment despite its UNESCO
World Heritage status (FIGURE 1). The purpose
of this paper is to place the targeted site in its
* Coningham, Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, England. Lewer,
Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 l D P , England.
Received 15 October 1998, revised 20 January 1999, accepted 18 February 1999, revised 9 June 1999.
ANTIQUITY7 3 (1999): 857-66
military and political background in order to
understand its selection for destruction.
The political and military context
Over the last 25 years the Government of Sri
Lanka has faced challenges from two sources:
firstly i n 1971, and again in 1988/89, the
Sinhalese Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) a
revolutionary Marxist organization which also
mixed elements of Sinhala chauvinism. The JVP
were effectively destroyed in a bloody fight with
the security forces in 1989 (Gunaratna 1995;
Chandraprema 1991). Secondly, from the early
1970s, and with an increasing degree of feroc-
ity, militant Tamil groups have been fighting
for an independent country, Tamil Eelam or
‘Tamil homeland’, to be established in the north
and east of Sri Lanka. Tamils represent 18% of
the island’s population and Sinhalese 74%, the
balance being made up of Muslims and Burgh-
ers (Tambiah 1986: 4). Whilst most Sinhalese
are Buddhist and most Tamils Hindu, there are
minorities of Christians within both (Tambiah
1986: 4). It should be stressed, however, that
this conflict is not necessarily a religious war
but certainly one of secession from a state which
is perceived to be dominated by the Sinhalese
and Buddhism (Tambiah 1986: 1 2 6 ) .
One Tamil group, the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam [LTTE), now dominates this bat-
tle (Gunaratna 1994; Swamy 1994). A turning
point in the conflict occurred in 1983 when
858 ROBIN CONINGHAM & NICK LEWER
anti-Tamil rioting, prompted by the killing of
an army patrol by Tamil militants, caused many
deaths and the displacement of thousands of
Tamils, both iiiteriially and to the Indian state
of Tamil Nadu. Whilst most of the fighting, fre-
quently characterized by acts of cruelty on both
sides, has been concentrated in the Northern
and Eastern provinces, the LTTE have carried
out assassinations and the bombing of civilian
and economic targets in the capital Colombo
which have resulted in large numbers of civil-
FIGURE 1. Detail of the
damage to the Temple
of the Tooth in Kandy
(courtesy of
Popperfoto
REUl0449710C).
ian casualties and damage running into mil-
lions of dollars (FIGURE 2). Recently these have
include the killing of President Premadasa (1993)
and the bombing of the oil storage depots
(1995), the Central Bank (1996), a commuter
train (1996) and the World Trade Centre (1997).
The LTTE was also blamed for an attack on
the sacred Bodhi Tree at the ancient city of
Anuradhapura, and the murder of 3 0 Bud-
dhist monks in the Trincomalee district
(Wickremeratne 1995: 2 7 5 ) .
 PARADISE LOST: THE BOMBING OF THE TEMPLE OF THE TOOTH 859

Since the mid 1970s there have been numer-

ous political and military attempts at ending
the conflict, both from inside and outside the
country. In 1987, under the auspices of the Indo-
Lanka Accord, an Indian Peacekeeping Force
(IPKF)was dispatched to Sri Lanka. This ended
in disaster in March 1990, when almost 100,000
troops of the IPKF were ‘de-inducted’from Sri
Lanka after heavy losses. In August 1994, after
a long period of government by the United
National Party, the coalition Peoples’ Alliance
was elected into office on a peace platform, with
a pledge for constitutional and labour reform.
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumuratunga became
President and negotiations with the LTTE started
in October. However, as had happened fre-
quently in the past, the peace process broke
down and in April 1995 the LTTE withdrew
from the talks and attacked the naval base at
Trincomalee. After this, the war escalated with
the Government pursuing the twin-pronged
strategy of ‘peace through war’. It published a
devolution package, in which it was planned
that Sri Lanka would become a ‘Union of Re-
gions’, with plans for the Northern and East-
ern provinces to become one administrative unit
with considerable autonomous independence
for Tamil populations (ICES 1997).But the plan
drew opposition from many places, Sinhalese
and Buddhist nationalists claiming that it was
conceding too much and Tamil parties insist- 2. M a p of Sri Lanka.
FIGURE

FIGURE 3 . View of
Kandy.
860 ROBIN CONINGHAM & NICK LEWER
ing that it did not go far enough. On the war
front Government forces recaptured the Jaffna
Peninsula, which the LTTE had been control-
ling as a defacto state, and with the Operation
Jaya Sikurui offensive attempted to open the
main A9 road between Colombo and Jaffna. At
the time of writing they still had not succeeded
in the latter.
The Temple of the Tooth
The Temple of the Tooth, or Dalada Maligawa,
stands at the centre of the 17th- and 18th-
century AD complex of Kandy, Sri Lanka’s last
FIGURE 4. The royal
palace.
FIGURE 5. The faCade
of the Temple.
pre-colonial capital (Duncan 1990;
Seneviratna 1983; De Silva 1994). Kandy com-
prises three zones, the outer city, the inner
city and the complex containing the royal
palace and Temple of the Tooth. Although
modern development has altered the outer
zone, the inner zones are well preserved (FIG-
URE 3). The outer city was divided into blocks
by cardinal roads and housed nobles and
commoners whilst the inner city still consists
of shrines dedicated to Vishnu, Natha and
Pattini. The innermost complex, separated by
two walls and a moat, comprises the king’s
 PARADISE LOST THE BOMBING OF THE TEMPLE OF THE TOOTH
FIGURE6. The
octagonal tower.
7 . The
FIGURE
entrance to the Relic
Shrine.
palace (FIGURE 4) and the Temple (FIGURE 5).
Access to the Temple is across this moat by
means of a bridge which leads to a monu-
mental entrance porch. The rectangular two-
storied outer buildings are then reached by
turning left through a vaulted corridor beside
the octagonal tower known as the Pattirippuwa
(FIGURE6). These outer buildings consist of
subsidiary shrines, offices and a drumming
hall laid out around a courtyard in which
stands the two-storied pavilion containing the
Tooth Relic (FIGURE7 ) . The Relic is stored
on the upper floor of this 18th-century AD
861
building. The complex is dominated by a
three-storied extension to the east of the shrine
built in AD 1956 and a modern golden roof
suspended over the central pavilion.
There is a symbolic element to the layout of
the city through which the king could ‘place
his capital, and by extension himself, at the
centre of the universe’ (Duncan 1990: 98). He
did this by creating a model of the cosmological
topography of the city of the gods within his
own capital and thus created a microcosm
within which he identified himself as Sakkra
-the king of the gods (Duncan 1990: 98) (FIG-
862 ROBIN CONINGHAM & NICK LEWER

B
FIGURE8. Diagram showing the epicentre of the bomb in Kandy (after Ministry of Foreign Affairs et al.
1998) (not to scale).
A Kiri Muhuhuda (ocean of milk); B Biyareli Bemma (wave swell wall];C Ganges (moat];D Walakulu
Bemma (cloud drift wall); E Pattirippuwa (octagonal tower]; F royal audience hall; G Vishnu, Natha and
Pattini shrines; H St Paul’s Church.

URE 8). Under this design the Kandy lake was
renamed the Kiri Muhuhuda (FIGURE 8A) after
the ocean of milk which surrounds Mount Meru
- the axis m u n d i on whose summit Sakkra
lives - and whose waters were churned to
produce life-giving elixir. The wall on the west-
ern side of the moat is known as the Biyareli
Bemma (FIGURE 8B), or ’wave swell w a l l , and
represents the cosmic oceans breaking on the
flank of Mount Meru (Duncan 1990: 107). The
moat is thought to represent the celestial Gan-
ges (FIGURE 8C) which flows down the side of
Mount Meru and the moat’s inner wall is called
the Walakulu Bemma (FIGURE8D), or ‘cloud
drift wall’, and represents the clouds on the
sides of Meru (Duncan 1990: 111).The shrine
complex represents the celestial city on the
summit of Meru and suggests that the Bud-
dha, as represented by the Tooth Relic, is ruler
of the city, kingdom and universe. This sim-
ple microcosm was enhanced by Sri Vikrama
Rajasimha (r. AD 1798-1815), the last king,
who added the tower (FIGURE 8E). This struc-
ture, from where the king could address
crowds in the square below, is octagonal in
plan. Duncan suggests that it symbolizes the
eight cardinal points and Mount Meru itself,
a liminal point from which ‘a cakravarti (world
ruler) could dominate the world’ (Duncan
1990: 111).
Events prior to the attack on the Temple of
the Tooth
The celebrations for Sri Lanka’s 50th anniver-
sary of independence were planned to be held
on 4 February 1998 in Kandy on account of its
historical and religious significance. In the weeks
leading up to this event there was a huge build-
up of security in the city, with thousands of
troops and soldiers drafted in. The Prince of
Wales had agreed to attend as guest of honour.
Elsewhere in the country fighting was still go-
ing on along the A9 road, and there were in-
creasing incidents in the East. In Jaffna the LTTE
were attacking Government forces and disrupt-
ing local elections and had attacked pro-gov-
ernment Tamil groups who were fielding
candidates. There was a general air of expect-
ancy that something big was likely to happen.
On 25 January about 6 a.m. a truck drove to-
wards the Temple at high speed. Breaking
through a barrier it came to a halt outside the
main gateway and seconds later blew u p in a
massive explosion. Initial figures put the number
of dead at 1 7 with more than 20 injured.
The damage
The epicentre of the bomb was directly in front
of the main porch of the Temple and was marked
by a crater some 4 m in diameter and 2.5 m
deep. Whilst the bomb destroyed a substantial
 PARADISE LOST: THE BOMBING OF THE TEMPLE OF THE TOOTH
length of the Diyareli Bemma and the entrance’s
elephant guardian figures, moonstone and bas-
reliefs, the thick walls of the porch and the
Walaknlu Bemma shielded the relic shrine from
the direct blast. The foundations of the outer
wall of the complex have been displaced, caus-
ing the appearance of large cracks in the ceil-
ings and the collapse of its timber roof. The
foundations of the Pattirippuwa have also been
affected causing a number of the structural
members to snap. Throughout the complex
devotional murals have been severely damaged.
Whilst the blast was directed at the Temple of
the Tooth, it also affected a number of the neigh-
bouring monuments including museums, the
royal audience hall (FIGURE 8F), royal palaces
and the Vishnu, Natha and Pattini shrines (FIG-
URE 8G) as well as destroying the island’s old-
est stained glass in St Paul’s Church (FIGURE
8H). Emergency work began immediately to
assess the damage and, with the assistance of
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scien-
tific and Cultural Organisation), ICOMOS (In-
ternational Council on Monuments and Sites),
ICCROM (InternationalCentre for the Study of
the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural
Property) and ICOM (International Council of
Museums), the Sri Lankan authorities have
launched a multi-million-dollar restoration. This
programme will monitor the stability of the
building, restore the murals, consolidate the
buildings as well as installing metal detectors,
fire-extinguishing systems and generally im-
proving stewardship.
The historical context
Kandy represents more than the location of the
Tooth Relic; to many it is also the last capital
of the Sinhalese Buddhist state which had ruled
the island for two millennia. According to the
Mahavamsa and Culavamsa, Buddhist chroni-
cles of the island, Sri Lanka was first colonized
by an expedition of north Indians on the day
that the Buddha passed away (Geiger 1929a;
Geiger 1929b).The chronicles record that these
pioneers built cities and that later, during the
reign of king Devanampiya Tissa (1. 250-210
AD), established links with the Mauryan em-
pire. The Mauryan Emperor, Asoka, responded
by sending gifts and his son, Mahinda, to con-
vert the island to Buddhism. As a result,
Devanampiya Tissa and his court were converted
and Buddhism became the state religion. Bud-
863
dhism flourished in the island kingdom and
its capital, Anuradhapura, became a pilgrim-
age centre with the establishment of Buddhist
monasteries and the collection and enshrining
of the Buddha’s alms bowl relic, his collar bone,
a cutting from the Bodhi tree under which he
had obtained enlightenment and one of the eight
shares of the Buddha’s remains from the stupa
of Ramagrama.
The Tooth Relic is a late-comer, having been
brought from Kalinga, present-day Orissa, in
the 4th century AD (Hocart 1931: 1-4). The
importance of this relic was soon confirmed
with its installation within the first of a suc-
cession of Daladages, or ‘Tooth Relic Temples’
during the reign of king Dhatusena (r. AD 455-
473). In AD 1017 Anuradhapura was abandoned
in the face of military expeditions from south-
ern India for a site further south. This site,
Polonnaruva, also fell to the southward expan-
sion of these Hindu kingdoms and the capital
shifted in succession from Polonnaruva to
Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Kurunagala, Kotte
and finally to Kandy. During this unsettled time
the Relic, housed in Temples in successive capi-
tals, became the symbol of sovereignty and,
when it and Kandy were finally captured by
the British in AD 1815, it was said that ‘the
English are indeed masters of the country; for
they who possess the Relic have a right to gov-
ern four kingdoms: this for 2000 years, is the
first time the relic was ever taken from us’ (Davy
1821: 275). Such was its importance in legiti-
mizing British rule that the Governor took the
role of the king in ceremonies until AD 1846
when this was stopped as it was thought to
demonstrate the ‘countenancing of a heathen
religion by a Christian Government’ (Hocart
1931: 4).
Aftermath
The LTTE had successfully attacked one of the
holiest places for Buddhists in Sri Lanka on
the eve of the island’s half-century celebration
of independence: ‘What was hit was the heart
of Sinhala Buddhist identity and pride’ ( T h e
Independent 2 February 1998). Kandy was sup-
posed to be on the highest security alert in the
build-up to the independence celebrations. The
attack, which many had feared for years, showed
u p serious weaknesses in security, not only for
the Temple itself, but also for the planned cel-
ebrations at which Sri Lankan and international
864 ROBIN CONINGHAM & NICK LEWER
dignitaries were to be present. Immediately after
the explosion, the President appointed a three-
man Commission of Enquiry which, despite
initial objections from some Sinhalese that two
of the Commissioners were Christian ( T h e
Observer (Sri Lanka) 1 2 February 1998), found
the police negligent and neglectful of duty (The
Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) 31 May 1998). The
Government also responded by proscribing the
LTTE and, after an initial assertion that Inde-
pendence Day celebrations would still be held
in Kandy, the President announced on 28 Janu-
ary that the event would be moved to Colombo
where more effective security measures could
be provided. So the LTTE had managed to dis-
rupt independence celebrations, stopping the
visit of the Prince of Wales and other dignitar-
ies to Kandy. The Government also reorganized
the activities, closing schools and cancelling
the participation of school-children and a pro-
cession of floats, on more than 50 lorries. Bomb
attacks continued within the island and on 6
February, only a few hours after the Prince of
Wales had left, an LTTE suicide-bomber killed
herself and eight others and seriously injured
many civilians. On 5 March another huge ex-
plosion killed at least 30 people and injured
200 more near a train station in Colombo.
Unlike previous LTTE attacks, the bombing
did not provoke a backlash of violence by
Sinhalese against Tamils, although isolated
incidents were reported in Kandy. If this had
been a motive of the LTTE, they had failed.
However, there was considerable political back-
lash. Commentators in Sri Lanka, especially
those from opposition parties, stated that it
demonstrated again that the Government was
unable to protect even the most sensitive of
places, and that the event should be seen in
the context of its inability to bring Operation
J ~ Y QSikurui to a successful conclusion by In-
dependence Day, an objective promised by
Assistant Minister of Defence Ratwatte. Tamil
reaction to the bombing was mixed, and whilst
the majority condemned the action and the
suffering it caused, some commentators argued
that the event had legitimacy. The Tamil Monitor
reported that it blamed the ‘pivotal role played
by the Buddhist religious establishment in pro-
moting “Sinhala chauvinism” which underpins
the conflict and the enthusiastic historical sup-
port given to this by many of the country’s
Sinhalese leaders’ (Tamil Monitor 30 March
1998).Indeed, in the minds of some Tamil groups
attacks on religious targets were justified be-
cause of the close links between the Sri Lankan
state, which is seen as ‘Sinhalese’, and the
Sangha or ‘Buddhist order’, of which sections
vigorously oppose devolution and any dialogue
with the LTTE. Furthermore, some scholars have
identified the development of a new grouping
of Buddhists, both Sangha and laity, associated
with a nationalist, neo-traditionalist and aggres-
sive interpretation of Buddhism (Bond 1992).
As a result some commentators stated (Tamil
Monitor 30/3/1998) that:
While the bombing of the Temple of the Tooth ought
to be condemned because it has caused civilian
deaths, the targeting of the temple, a symbol of Bud-
dhist chauvinism is the unfortunate consequence
of militant Buddhism.
Conclusion
This statement begins to identify the LTTE’s
criteria for the selection of the Temple as a tar-
get and is linked with the growing polariza-
tion of elements within the island’s pluralistic
society into Buddhist Sinhalese or Hindu Tamil
communities (Tambiah 1986: 4-5). These po-
lemic characterizations can be taken further with
the recognition that Sinhalese belongs to the
Indo-European language family and Tamil the
Dravidian family (Tambiah 1986: 4-5). Whilst
many identify the roots of the present conflict
i n the ancient past, as described in the
Mahavamsa and Culavamsa, Tambiah believes
that ‘These regimentations owe more to the ideas
and polemics of contemporary “nationalist”
ideologues and the politics of nation making
and election winning than to earlier concerns
and processes’ (Tambiah 1986: 7). Indeed, it
has been suggested that the early history of the
island, as seen through the chronicles, can be
portrayed in a different fashion (Coningham
1995; Coningham et al. 1996).In the late 19th
century AD the island began to witness the be-
ginnings of a Buddhist revival which had been
dormant since the failure of the anti-British
uprising of AD 1817-18 (de Silva 1981: 343).
The Sinhalese dominance in population, com-
bined with a feeling of under-representation
within education and the professions, led af-
ter independence to the landslide victory of
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike on a Sinhala national-
istic platform, as de Silva (1981: 512) has stated:
 PARADISE LOST THE BOMBING OF THE TEMPLE OF THE TOOTH
The emphasis on the sense of uniqueness of the
Sinhalese past, and the focus on Sri Lanka as the
land of the Sinhalese and the country in which Bud-
dhism stood forth in its purest form, carried an emo-
tional appeal compared with which a multi-racial
policy was a meaningless abstraction.
His policies led to the exposure of factors such
as the fact that the use of English in adminis-
trative and legal affairs had excluded as many
as 90% of the population, but they also led to
a feeling of marginalization within Tamil com-
munities, isolation which was to metamorphose
into militant sectarianism.
The role of the past, and its physical remains
in this process is also apparent. Whilst links
between Buddhism and the state were officially
cut in the 1840s, some survived. Indeed, in the
1870s, partly in response to the Buddhist re-
vival and partly to the interests of the Royal
Asiatic Society, the Governor, Sir William
Gregory, aided the restoration of the Buddhist
Ruvanvelisaya stupa at the ancient capital of
Anuradhapura, donated two lamps to the Tem-
ple of the Tooth (de Silva 1981: 344) and es-
tablished an archaeological survey of the island
(Bell & Bell 1993). Thus the process of the
curation of the island’s most visible monuments,
which are mainly ancient Sinhalese capitals
or Buddhist monasteries and stupas, was be-
gun in the 19th century AD and expanded with
the creation of an Archaeological Survey in AD
1890. This process was strengthened in the late
1950s when S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the cur-
rent President’s father, ordered the destruction
of the modern administrative capital of
Anuradhapura which had been built amongst
the ruins of the ancient capital.
Whilst archaeological investigations contin-
ued under the auspices of the Archaeological
Survey, the scale and speed of research altered
radically with the creation of the UNESCO Sri
Lanka Project of the Cultural Triangle by Presi-
dent J.R. Jayewardene in 1980. This project
undertook to excavate, conserve and present
the ancient cities and Buddhist monasteries of
Anuradhapura, Polonnaruva, Sigiriya, Dambulla
and Kandy to pilgrims and tourists. The first
three sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World
Heritage list in 1982,followed by Kandy in 1988
and Dambulla in 1991. This list, managed by
UNESCO’sWorld Heritage Centre in Paris, aims
to ‘encourage the identification, protection and
preservation of cultural and natural heritage
865
around the world considered to be of outstanding
value to humanity‘ as defined by the statutes
of the UNESCO 1972 Convention Concerning
the Protection of the World Cultural and Natu-
ral Heritage (Pressouyre 1996). The project was
continued under Jayewardene’s successor, Presi-
dent Premadasa, who inaugurated the restored
Mirisavatiya Buddhist stupa in Anuradhapura
in 1993 AD. Tambiah (1986: 126) has noted that
these sites celebrate only the past of the
Sinhalese Buddhist majority and that whilst
the Government must feel
free to sponsor the restoration of Buddhist monu-
ments . . . It would also behove a Sri Lankan gov-
ernment to recognise at the same time that there are
monuments, archaeological remains, and literary and
cultural treasures that are neither Sinhalese nor
Buddhist as these labels are understood today.
Regardless of the representative nature, or
otherwise, of conserved sites within Sri Lanka,
the deliberate targeting of a UNESCO World
Heritage Site requires complete condemnation
as do attacks on similar sites around the world.
Furthermore, it is a serious challenge to the
UNESCO 1972 Convention Concerning the Pro-
tection of the World Cultural and Natural Her-
itage, the UNESCO 1954 Hague Convention for
the Protection of Cultural Propertyin the Event
of Armed Conflict, the UN 1997 International
Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist
Bombings, the ICRC 1949 Geneva Convention
and the ICRC 1977 Additional Protocols I & II
which protected it. Condemnation of the at-
tack on the Temple was swift, with clear state-
ments from a number of international authorities
(ICRC 1998: Press Release no. 98/04):
The ICRC strongly condemns this deliberate attack
on civilians and a place of worship. This constitutes
a serious violation of the rules of international hu-
manitarian law, which forbid indiscriminate attacks
against the civilian population. Humanitarian law
also specifically prohibits the targeting of cultural
monuments and places of worship.
(UNESCO 1998, Press Release no. 98-14):
I am deeply shocked by this act of blind violence
perpetrated against a place of meditation, joy and
peace. All religions are based on love and respect
for life. Attacking a holy place means striking at the
very best in humanity, undermining its innocence
and purity. Those who attack people through their
faith can only be condemned. Religious differences
866 ROBIN CONINGHAM & NICK LEWER
can absolutely not be justification for conflict, and
places of w o r s h i p should in no case be used as tar-
gets.
The visiting dignitaries to the island’s Inde-
pendence Celebrations also voiced their feel-
ing - the Prince of Wales calling the attack ‘a
References
ARNOLD, B. 1992. Germany’s Nazi past: how Hitler’s archae-
ologists distorted European prehistory to justify racist
and territorial goals, Archaeology JulyiAugust: 30-37.
BELL,B.N. & H.B. BELL.1993. H.C.P Bell: archaeologist ofCeylon
an d the Maldives. Denbigh: Archetype Publications.
BOND,G. 1992. The Buddhist revival in Sri Lonka: religious
tradition, reinterpretation a n d response. New Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass.
CHANDRAPREMA, c. 1991. sri Lanka: the years of terror. The
JVP insurrection 1987-1989. Colombo: Lake House.
CHAPMAN, J. 1994. Destruction of a common heritage: the ar-
chaeology of war in Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina,
Antiquity 6 8 : 120-126.
CHIPPINDALE, C. 1992. Editorial, Antiquity 66: 1-4.
1994. Editorial, Antiquity 68: 1-9.
CONINGHAM, R.A.E. 1995. Monks, caves and kings: a reassess-
ment of the nature of early Buddhism in Sri Lanka, World
Archaeology 27.2: 222-42.
CONINGHAM, R.A.E., F.R. ALLCHIN, C.M. BAR & D. LUCY. 1996.
Passage to India: Anuradhapura and the early use of the
Brahmi script, Cambridge ArchaeologicalJournal6.1:73-97.
DAVY,J. 1821. An account of the interior of Ceylon. London:
Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown.
DE SILVA, K.M. 1981. A history of Sri Lanka. Berkeley (CAI:
University of California Press.
DESILVA, N. 1994. Kandy: a worldheritage citji. Colombo: Deveco
Designers & Publishers.
DIAZ-ANDREW, M. & T. CHAMPION. 1996. Nationalism and ar-
chaeologyin Europe. London: UCL Press.
DUNCAN, J.S. 1990. The city as text: the politics of landscape
interpretation in the Kandyan kingdom. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
GARLAKE, P.S. 1973. Great Zimbabwe. London: ‘Thames& Hudson.
GATHERCOLE, P. & D. LOWENTHAL (ed.). 1994. The politics of
the past. London: Routledge.
GEIGER, W. 1929a. The Mahavamsa. Colombo: Ceylon Govorn-
ment Information Department.
1929b. The Culavamsa. London: Pali Text Society.
GUIDI,A. 1996. Nationalism without a nation: the Italian case,
in Diaz-Andreu & Champion: 108-18.
GUNARATNA, R. 1994. Indian intervention in Sri Lanka: the role
of India’s intelligence agencies. Colombo: South Asian
Network on Conflict Research.
brutal and malign act, and one which we all
join in condemning. The Temple of the Tooth
is part of the world’s heritage; it is not just Sri
Lankan nor just Buddhist’ (Ministry of Foreign
Affairs et al. 1998: 10). Let us hope that the
bombing of this UNESCO World Heritage Site
will not form a precedent for others.
1995. Sri Lanka. a lost revolution: the inside story of the
JVP. Kandy: Institute of Fundamental Studies.
HOCART, A.M. 1931. The Temple of the Tooth in Kondy. Co-
lombo: Archaeological Survey of Ceylon.
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR ETHNIC STUDIES. 1997. sri Lanka:
the devolution debate. Colombo: ICES.
ICRC. 1998. Press Release no. 96/04. Geneva: ICRC.
JONES, S. & S. PAY.1994. The legacy of Eve, in Gathercole &
Lowenthal: 160-71.
KOHL, P.L. & C. FAWCETT (ed.). 1995. Nationalism, politics a nd
the practice of archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press.
KOHL, P.L. & G.R. TSETSKHLADZE. 1995. Nationalism, politics
and the practise of archaeology in the Caucasus, in Kohl
& Fawcett: 149-74.
MANDAL, D. 1993. Ayodhya: archaeologyaffer demolition. New
Delhi: Longman Orient.
MEYOR, F. 1998. Press Release no. 98-14. Paris: UNESCO.
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, MINISTRY OF THE BUDDHASASANA
& MINISTRY OF CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUSAFFAIRS.1998.
Sacrilege a t the most sacred Buddhist shrine and UNESCO-
designated
v
World Heritaee Site. Colombo: Ministrv of
Y
Foreign Affairs.
PRESSOUYRE, L. 1996. The World Heritage Convention, twenty
years later. Paris: UNESCO.
PUODZIIJNAS, G. & A. GIRININKAS. 1996. Nationalism doubly
oppressed: archaeology and nationalism in Lithuania, in
Diaz-Andreu & Champion: 243-55.
SENEVIRATNA,A. 1983. Kandy. Colombo: Ministry of Cultural
Affairs.
Silberman, N.A. 1989. Between past ond present: archaeol-
ogy, ideology a nd nationalism in the modern Middle East.
New York (NY): Henry Holt.
SPACH (Society for the protection of Afghanistan’s cultural
heritage). 1977. Newsletter 3.
SWAMY, M.R. NARAYAN. 1994. Tigers of Lanka: from boys to
guerrillas. New Delhi: Konark Publishers.
TAMBIAH, S.J. 1986. Sri Lanka: ethnic fratricide and the dis-
mantling of democracy. New Delhi: Oxford University
Press.
WICKREMERATNE, A. 1995. Buddhism and ethnicityin SriLanka.
Kandy: International Centre for Ethnic StudiedNew Delhi:
Vikas Publishing.