Buddha statues are planted to stake territorial claims, not for devotion
Evidence
Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists erect Buddha statues knowing the military will thereafter step in and prevent them being demolished. Often the statues get placed on public property so they do not violate private property laws; thereafter a court case is filed against removing the statue, with the petitioners knowing full well the snail’s pace at which cases typically proceed through the country’s politicized court system. The statues clearly are not erected to satisfy people’s religious needs; rather, they are planted to signify that the country belongs to the Buddhists. Indeed, in some instances Buddha statues have been planted close to mosques or Muslim areas with no Sinhalese living in the vicinity. Buddha statues are also erected to reassert claims that the Eastern Province is not part of a Tamil homeland. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 288
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Religious symbolism weaponized as spatial domination echoes the planted statues’ parallel with how symbolic markers get used to advance inclusion claims over contested space.