‘No bail for preying on ancestry’

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

They put our only chance to converse with our ancestors at risk. Today you get to hear and read about them more often than you used to. They are treasure hunters, but definitely not of Indiana Jones or universal mummy movies fame of the movies.

Treasure hunting is illegal. Even in movies, it is only OK as long as the artefacts go into a museum. The local artefact thieves are not even private collectors who love antiquities.

According to consummate Archaeologist Pura Vidya Chakrawarthi Ven Ellawala Medhananda Thera, the so called 'nidan horu' or antiquity thieves carry out their illegal digging operations based on unconfirmed information gathered from some uneducated villager or some 'kattady raalas' (black art practitioners).

These sneaky scoundrels find a victim who would believe one of their well-knitted treasure stories, usually about a treasure trove hidden by a king under a landmark in the area. To locate this spot they talk about 'Kada Im Poth.'

"'Kada Im Poth' are those used in ancient times to mark land divisions with stone posts. There are no treasures buried under these landmark posts, although some fools still seem to believe so," explained Ven Medhananda Thera. There is a brand of antiquity thieves who base their illegal excavations on the information of the 'Nidan Wadula'.

"This book has no author. It is more akin to 'Arabian Nights', consisting various horrific tales collected over many years by various authors. It contains stories told by villagers. They had dreams of finding wealth by way of unearthing hidden treasures. So they told these stories as in the 'Arabian Nights' or any other fiction."

As pointed out by Medhananda Thera, what really happens is that those who seek to amass wealth by unearthing hidden treasures, take these stories to their hearts because they are blinded by greed.

Illegal digs

The artefact thieves and treasure hunters have bored holes in ancient Dagobas with mechanized backhoes, broken up century's old Buddha statues, crushed stone inscriptions and cracked ancient paintings and pots, all to make a potential lucky strike of some gemstones, jewels or gold nuggets inside them.

Treasure hunting has left a long trail of damaged Dagobas across the island, especially so in isolated forest areas in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. They have become bold enough to threaten Buddhist monks in isolated forest temples before they illegally dig near or at that temple.

They even carry out well-engineered heists at national museums.

The recent artefact theft at Colombo National Museum was one of them. Police is yet to trace the suspects even after having offered a reward of Rs 1 million to a person who would provide correct information about the theft.

Treasure hunters are a major threat to archeology in Sri Lanka, they are a menace to the country's national heritage. According to Police spokesperson Ajith Rohana, for the period up to May this year alone, Police have arrested 360 persons in 107 cultural artefact theft cases.

They were arrested while they were illegally excavating at protected archaeological sites.

We asked Museums and Maintenance Deputy Director M A J R Madagammana of the Archaeological Department about the situation. "There is a need to intensify the security for archaeological sites in Sri Lanka with over 200,000 archaeological sites throughout the country," he said.

Imprisonment mandatory

The Department of Archeology is currently taking steps to make imprisonment unavoidable for any person who wilfully destroys, injures, defaces, trades or tampers with objects of archaeological importance, he said. Ellawala Medhananda Thera has made a proposal to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Department of Archeology to introduce a law to confiscate properties of artefact thieves.

Madagammana said, the Department is seriously looking into these proposals. "The Department has stepped up action to amend the Antiquities Ordinance to make a jail term mandatory against artefact thieves. "We have already prepared proposals in this regard on National Heritage Minister's instructions. The draft is now with the Legal Draftsman," said Madagammana.

People who get arrested for treasure hunting, are usually village folk. They are said to be from low income families, yet they pay fines of up to Rs 250,000 when they are produced before courts for their offenses. How can this be possible?

"This is because they have moneyed bosses who would spend on their behalf. The key operators of artefact thieves seem to get away after paying fines for their workers. We expect that this would stop once we make imprisonment mandatory against antiquity thieves."

When Egyptian museum in Cairo was robbed last month during a violent protest, the authorities at the museum said that nothing was stolen. In the case of the Colombo Museum artefact theft, the authorities announced that the artefacts were stolen and revealed the list of stolen pieces. Egypt took steps to secure their archeological storehouses by deploying troops thereafter.

Upheaval

Just as Egypt's upheaval provided an opportunity to artefact thieves to harm the museum in Cairo, Sri Lanka's political upheaval in the Northern and Eastern Provinces has provided local treasure hunters an opportunity to dig ancient heritage sites in the jungles. Madagammana said, they feel the need to take additional measures to protect those archaeological sites, which are hidden in the jungles and the forests in the North and East.

"Treasure hunters have destroyed most of the monuments. These are priceless monuments they destroy to quench their lust for wealth. Most of them do this thinking that they will eventually lay their hands on a Count-of- Monte Christo scale treasure," he explained.

"I have known no one who has ever come to that, except those who try have perished for the last 40 years that I have worked at the Department of Archeology," he pointed out. "They have hollowed out ancient Stupas, destroyed priceless Buddha statues. You cannot give commercial value to artefacts," he added.

Treasure hunters have gone on a spree, digging in the forests and jungles of the Eastern and Northern Provinces especially after the LTTE's defeat. This is how Ellawala Medhananda Thera reflected on the fate of the archaeological sites in the Northeast:

"I saw the damage myself. The LTTE had left nothing. They had used some of the ancient Chaityas to store rice and food for their troops. They had built bunkers and installed communication equipment upon them.

“In Thoppigala Kundanamale Kallady Pashanathabbatha Vihara, they have set up heavy weapons. They have destroyed most of the archaeological monuments in the North and East. Kumbakaranamale Chaitya in the Mullativu Ampakaman was used as a food store and Wedivetttukallu Chatyaya was used by them as a bunker."

Are there any treasures of immense value hidden among these ruins that the treasure hunters should strive so hard to find them?

The truth is that if there had been any valuables, such as gems or jewels inside these ancient monuments, they had been robbed during the period between third and fourth century BC, during South Indian invasions by Maaga and many others that followed.

The country's history provides us details of how ancient Viharas were destroyed under various kings that ruled the country. There are no more valuables to be taken away. Isn't it true that some Dambaran Buddha statues (pure gold Buddha statues) had been recovered by archaeologists during their excavations?

“This is a much-publicized myth. There are no Dambaran Pilimas (pure gold statues). Some monks are partly responsible for spreading such false notions in the minds of the public. You cannot find pure gold statues anywhere in the world, explained Medhananda Thera.

“I once visited an ancient temple at Paluhangamuwa in the Kurunagala District where it was claimed they had found two Dambaran Buddha statues. Upon inspecting I found that they were ordinary brass statues. I told the temple monks to announce that they were mere brass statues. I had to explain to them that they put their lives in danger by publicizing the two statues as being pure gold.

“Even unearthing a gold plated statue is extremely rare. Of the Kandankaariya Chetiya found in Trincomalee and Deeghawaapi Chetiya in Ampara, built by King Kanitthatissa of the Anuradhapura era, we could only find two very small Karanduwas (caskets) made of gold. They were hardly two inches across.

"If that is what we could find from a Stupa built by a king as important as Kanitthatissa, what can we find from other ancient Chaityas?" asked the Thera. The kingpins in artefact thefts spend much more money than that. "There are no valuables. There are only sacred archaeological objects among what is left. Do not destroy them and deprive the nation of the knowledge of its ancestors and their heritage," he pleaded.

Commenting on the accusations that some persons in authority involved in some artefact thefts the Thera said, "These accusations are clearly fabricated by those who oppose the government. This has become their latest ruse to discredit the government. If there was some artefact theft or illegal digging somewhere, they try their best to accuse the government."

As pointed out by SP Ajith Rohana, artefact theft cases have received wide publicity because Police is doing much to prevent artefact thefts. According to him the Police is conducting constant raids and detections to prevent these theft. "We have established vigilance committees in each Grama Niladhari Division to address the problem. We have our own surveillance mechanism to thwart any illegal digging activity carried out by treasure hunters."