Sri Lankan Buddhist chief priests can be bought off by politicians

Evidence

Consequently, the mahanayakes (chief priests) of the nikayas command enormous influence, and politicians cave in to their every whim and fancy. The resultant milieu is one in which few major decisions, especially regarding ethnic issues, get made without the Buddhist leaders’ imprimatur. In some instances mahanayakes have changed their positions after being provided with Benz cars and millions of rupees in “donations,” although such corruption has not been related to issues promoting secularism. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 138

Categorization

• QUESTION: If mahanayakes can be bribed with cars and cash, how ‘principled’ is the religious leadership behind the Sinhalese nationalist agenda? Worth chasing whether the manufactured-enmity thesis is elite-led by bought clerics.
• XREF: Connects to readings on elites manufacturing out-group threats for solidarity, and to the reader’s question about whether conviction or venality drives the nationalist leadership. — connects to: Sri Lankan party leaders compete to subordinate constitutional drafting to monk authority — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 313; Buddhist institutional survival depended on an interdependence between clergy and state. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 100

Broader Connections

• Buddhist institutional survival depended on an interdependence between clergy and state. #expands (0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 100
• Sri Lankan party leaders compete to subordinate constitutional drafting to monk authority #expands (0.75) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 313