Every country, every nation, and every race in the world possess a small group of individuals who have a strong yearning for their motherland and its symbols of identity. We are a small group of such individuals in the tiny island in the Indian Ocean that is Sri Lanka, which boast of an extremely rich cultural heritage that has survived invasion after invasion by destructive forces over three millennia.

With three decades old Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka coming to an end and vast land areas in the eastern and northern parts of the country are being liberated, we were keen to see the state of the nearly three thousand ancient Sinhala (predominantly Buddhist) ruins scattered throughout these regions. Some of us were startled to see the destruction caused to these national monuments which are also the heritages of the civilised world. But for others among us who were aware that the destruction of these sites had its roots in the two separate extremist movements (one Tamil and the other Muslim, which strive to cleanse the Eastern and Northern provinces of Sri Lanka of the Sinhala civilisation), it only provided a hint of the unbelievably rapid evolution and progression of these two extremist movements.

Some of us had been witnesses to the process of the Tamil extremists destroying the ancient Buddhist temples and building Hindu shrines on top of the rubble, even a long time before the separatist war began in the country. However, it came as a shock to see the rapidity of the second wave of destruction caused by the Muslim extremists, where they have encircled the ancient Buddhist temples with newly created Muslim villages. Where once stood majestic monuments, a testiment of a civiliztaion, have become lands to graze goats and cattle plus many thousands of year old Buddhist temples in to Muslim mosques. This situtaion is not exclusive to the Northern and Eastern province, as you can see from the picture.

Kuragala in Ratnapura.

We were also acutely aware that most of the millions of fellow Sinhalese, both in and out of Sri Lanka, are totally ignorant about these movements which will eventually lead to wiping out all the evidence of ancient Sinhala civilisation in the Eastern and Northern provinces. We also knew that no action to safeguard these sites was possible until a large majority of the people are concerned of and aware of the consequences of these extremist movements. This comprehension led us to get together on “FaceBook”, the popular online social network, to create awareness among the fellow Sinhalese and Others throughout the Buddhsit world.

We created a FaceBook group by the name of “Restore & Protect Sinhala Heritage of North & East - Sri Lanka....!!”, and attempted to draw the attention of the Sinhalese in this social network to the destruction caused to our ancient heritage. This group provided a forum to discuss the issues related to this destructive process as well as to create awareness among the members. However, our consciences screamed that we were not doing enough.

It was then the idea of creating a website on the World Wide Web that can be accessed by any interested person was put forward. Long hours were spent on discussing the nature of the website and how it should serve the purpose. The end of this painstaking process saw the launch of "sinhalaheritage.org" website.

During the construction of this website we made a conscious decision to made it slightly different from the Face Book group. In Face Book, our focus was limited to Eastern and Northern provinces of Sri Lanka. However, we were also aware that the same process of destroying ancient Sinhala cultural heritage sites and building Hindu shrines or Muslim mosques was going on unhindered in other parts of the country as well. As a result we decided to devote this website to protect the Sinhala heritage sites in all parts of the country.

We are still not content. We know that while we keep on educating and creating awareness among the public, the destruction of our rich heritage goes on, uninterrupted and with immense political support. We also know that we are fighting a formidable foe. But, we are bound by the same sense of responsibility that swirled in the minds of our forefathers who risked their lives and families to safeguard the motherland, nation, and culture. We know that we have the blessings of their souls, while we strive to protect the civilisation that they scarified their life for. This is only the beginning. There are mountains to climb, rivers to cross, and demons to fight with.

We hope that our motherland has at least few thousands of courageous sons and daughters who will join us in this endeavour.

Thank you.