Dear Tamil friends and community members,

We are reaching out with urgency.

What’s happening in Kurunthurmalai and other Tamil heritage sites is not just an attack on archaeology — it’s an attack on our identity, our history, and our right to exist as a people.

Tamil farmers are being arrested. Sinhala monks are illegally occupying sacred Saivite lands. The Sri Lankan government, backed by its Department of Archaeology, is rewriting Tamil history to make it Sinhala-Buddhist. This is cultural genocide — and we cannot stay silent.

This is our time to push back.

We are calling on every Tamil around the world to write to UNESCO and demand that they:

• Investigate and stop the Sinhalization of Tamil archaeological sites,
• Protect Tamil heritage in our historical homelands,
• Recognize that any archaeological findings in Tamil lands belong to Tamil people — not Sinhala monks or the Sri Lankan state.

Here’s what you can do:

Step 1: Copy and paste this letter: [The letter we wrote is below. or you can write your own.]
Step 2: Send it to these official UNESCO email addresses:

wh-info@unesco.org, culturesector@unesco.org

Optional CC: Send a copy to your local MPs, media contacts, or human rights groups.

Why it matters:

If we don’t speak now, our ancient temples, inscriptions, and history will be stolen and renamed.
If we stay silent, others will write our story — and erase us from it.

We need hundreds, even thousands of Tamil voices demanding accountability. This is not just about one site. It’s about who we are as a people.

Let’s not wait for another tragedy.
Let’s not leave our children with a history erased.

Act now. Speak loud. Write UNESCO today.

In unity and struggle,
Tamil Diaspora USA

____________________________

The letter we wrote is below.

________________________________

To:
Director-General
UNESCO Headquarters
7, Place de Fontenoy
75007 Paris, France
Email: wh-info@unesco.org (World Heritage Centre)
CC: culturesector@unesco.org

Subject: Urgent Appeal to Protect Tamil Archaeological Heritage in Sri Lanka

May 30, 2025

Dear Director-General,

We, members of the Tamil diaspora and advocates for indigenous cultural rights, write to bring to your urgent attention the systematic erasure, falsification, and occupation of Tamil archaeological and cultural heritage in Sri Lanka—specifically in the Northern and Eastern provinces, historically inhabited by the Tamil people.

Background and Grave Concern

Sites like Kurunthurmalai, which hold centuries-old Tamil Saivite religious and cultural significance, are now being:

• Illegally occupied by Sinhala Buddhist monks,
• Falsely claimed as Sinhala-Buddhist heritage without credible archaeological basis,
• And worse, used as instruments of land seizure, displacing local Tamil farmers and communities under the pretext of “heritage protection.”

Recently, two Tamil farmers were arrested and imprisoned for cultivating land legally owned by them in Kurunthurmalai, following a politically motivated complaint by a Sinhala monk who has no historical or legal claim to the land. These actions are supported by the Sri Lankan Department of Archaeology, which has a long record of bias against Tamil heritage.

What We Request from UNESCO

We respectfully urge UNESCO to:

1. Dispatch an impartial heritage fact-finding delegation to investigate and document the Tamil heritage significance of sites like Kurunthurmalai, Kanniya, Vedukkunari, and others.
2. Hold the Sri Lankan government accountable to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, especially under:
3. Article 4, which mandates preservation of cultural heritage without discrimination.
4. Article 27, promoting education and respect for all cultures.
5. Declare key Tamil cultural sites as World Heritage Sites or list them as “Heritage in Danger” due to the ongoing risk of cultural appropriation and destruction.
6. Establish protections to ensure that local Tamil communities are not criminalized for accessing or preserving their ancestral lands and places of worship.
7. Investigate the politicization of archaeology in Sri Lanka, where Buddhist clergy and state institutions collaborate to rewrite history and suppress Tamil identity.

Our Larger Appeal

We believe that heritage is not merely about monuments—it is about memory, identity, and the dignity of a people. The Tamil people, with over two millennia of continuous presence in the island, have a right to protect and define their historical legacy. The current Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist narrative seeks to erase this legacy.

UNESCO, as a global guardian of cultural truth and diversity, must not allow state-sponsored distortion to take root unchecked.

We are ready to provide additional evidence, expert testimony, and community accounts to assist your office in any investigation or assessment.

We thank you for your time and urge immediate action to safeguard the cultural heritage and historical truth of the Tamil people.

Sincerely,
Director,
Tamil Diaspora, USA