The Library Which Sparked a Civil War in Sri Lanka

Tamil Library (2009): The burning of a Tamil library may have been the catalyst for the decades-long Civil War in Sri Lanka.
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After 26 long years of bloodshed, the Sri Lankan government has finally defeated the Tamil Tigers. But did the destruction of a treasured Tamil library 30 years ago help spark Sri Lanka s civil war?
Jaffna's public library was revered in the Tamil community. But when 3 Sinhalese police were shot in 1981, the library was torched in revenge. "The burning was a cultural genocide" tells Former Municipal Commissioner C.V.K. Sivagnanum. The library has now been rebuilt but many Tamils feel it' s an attempt to whitewash the past. "They had made a clear, planned effort to eradicate the historic event. "
SBS Australia - Ref. 4414
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[@craigsrck4382]

As a sinhalese i am ashamed to have had such hideous leaders. The atrocities and the horrors my tamil brothers faced cannot be explained. Ultimately our leaders pitted us against each other and we lost brilliant and brave sons and daughters on both sides. Let us never fight each other again. Our parents and grandparents may have had hatred for your people but not our generation.

[@abim3365]

as a jaffna tamil, when i read your comment my eye watering . personally my brother in law killed by white van people, if we have people like you in all race (tamil,singla,muslims) our country want be this stage .i hope srilanka will be back on track

[@nathamanin3444]

Bro only very few sinhalese are speaking like. If everyone were like you in the past means, then these 30 years of brutal civil war won't be happen. And tamil may lead their lives very peacefully and happily with the sinhalese.

[@craigsrck4382]

@Deutsches Reich if patriotism is supporting the people who destroyed on of our country’s most precious heritages and a wealth of historical knowledge. Then you can keep your patriotism to yourself. Motherlanka will decide if im a patriot or not, meanwhile you can keep babbling like a baboon.

[@Aalokoudapadi]

​@@nathamanin3444which state u from in india

[@macho_mayo]

true words. let us put aside our "hatred" and work together for a better country.

[@nic-m8795]

Not one of the largest library in Asia, it WAS the largest library in entire Asia and had over 150 000 ancient antique books in many languages, unfortunately those books cannot be replaced

[@buddikamalhotra8878]

it is not a largest library, its a just library. LTTE always wanted propaganda over anything

[@aswinpatel1946]

@@buddikamalhotra8878 Didn't they have any other way to keep old books. I mean don't they have any museum. my question is aren't those books old enough to keep in a museum ?

[@aswinpatel1946]

How old those books?

[@bonhamcarter4488]

@@buddikamalhotra8878 LTTE was after that you fool. The library had very old Tamil historical books. Sinhalese will get their karma soon, by China.

[@50subscriberswith0Video]

Aswin Patel 2,000 years. 4000 years He means books as well as manuscripts Do you know Manuscripts? It’s kinda like book but it is small made of palm leaves 🍁

[@thilinirathnayaka7265]

That grandpapas smile ❤

[@swardika.3709]

I love also with tamil people from im Indonesian 🇮🇩Hindu🕉️🙏 i wish lord Wisnu and Siwa Will bless US all..

[@madeshshivam952]

Thank you bro.. Lots of love from Tamil hindus❤❤❤❤

[@truthnewsindianpolitics2456]

Iam Indian Hindu

[@srilankaarmylove]

We also love the common Tamil people♥️

[@amitthakur5593]

I love Tamil people from Nepal

[@whoami3634]

we love nepal people from tamilnadu

[@gajendrasinghpatel6068]

Amit Thakur Nepal m bhi Tamil rahte h

[@nironiro4776]

How to u know Tamil people's bro,IAM also love Nepal people's and small football players in Kathmandu

[@looperztv7021]

We love nepaleese in sri lanka

[@bonhamcarter4488]

@sujamak Sinhalese caused the problem by denying Tamils their rights. It's Sinhalese trouble makers who burnt the library, not Tamil

[@ddandrews6472]

What the Tamils in Jaffna can and should do is to organize a countrywide(if not worldwide) campaign to collect culturally and historically important material from the Tamils of Sri Lanka and rebuild the library to the best of their ability. There is no point on keep talking about the loss of 1981 destruction anymore. Some of those culturally important items are the people themselves. The elders from old times are still there. They need to gather information from them and document. And most definitely the violent history should NOT be forgotten. The library itself should include as much material as possible to keep the younger generation educated of what happened there in the past.

[@aswinpatel1946]

@DD Andrews.. DON'T DO IT Because if you research your rael history comes out. It only runs 500 years not more than that. Its shows you are realy invaders/ Migrants to Sri lanka. Sri lanka has very long history link with Pallawas, Sakayans etc. They are Sri lankans they speak Sinhales.

[@bonhamcarter4488]

@@aswinpatel1946 lol the Sinhalese are migrants from Bangladesh. They are not Sri Lankans. Northern Tamils were invited by kings during Jaffna Kingdom times to populate that area. They are not runaways unlike Sinhalese people and Vijaya lol! Also some Jaffna people have indigenous blood from Nagas which had a kingdom in Jaffna. Unlike Sinhalese who are runaway tribe from Bangladesh.

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Bonham Carter.. Are you just saying or do you have any historical evidence? what is your reference? my question is if the people in Jaffna were the natives they should have developed a totally different language. do you know Malayali’s speak different language with uniqueness . then why couldn’t Tamils in Jaffna would not have a different language?

[@ddandrews6472]

@@aswinpatel1946 That is a very good argument indeed. I would imagine, the close proximity to Tamilnadu(modern day South Indian state where most Tamils are) would've made that happen(The speaking of Tamil in Jaffna, not the evolution of any other language). The close connection with Tamil speaking people in Southern most part of south India made the Jaffna Tamils speaking a dialect of Tamil in Norther Sri Lanka. And the other reason is the reason that was mentioned above(That the history of Tamils in Jaffna is pretty scattered and not a continuously flowing one like the story of Sinhala people in Sri Lanka). During the times of where south Indian Tamil speaking kings or emperors were strong and managed good strong hold in Norther Sri Lanka, the Tamil speaking people's numbers would've increased, but declined when the Sinhala kings managed to get hold of those areas and expand the influence of Sinhala speaking people. Beyond last 500 years, it would be difficult to prove a continuous existence of Tamil speaking people in Jaffna. However, I suspect there might always have been Tamil speaking population in Jaffna all the time, but under the influence of SInhala kings throughout the history. Whether that very old language is similar to modern Tamil that is spoken in south India and Northern/Eastern Sri Lanka is debatable. However, we know Tamil language scripts has not changed in south India for well over thousand years in a significant way, even though the spoken language may have changed a fair bit over those years. Tamil and Telingu are considered the oldest languages in all Asia. Even thought the alphabet hasn't changed much in some 2000 years or so(debatable) the spoken language would've changed, as it happens with any other language over that many years. The uniquely Sri Lankan culture in Sri Lanka is Sinhala obviously, as it is bound to happen given that many thousands of years.

[@ddandrews6472]

@@aswinpatel1946 Sinhala culture has both North Indian(Namely Indo-Aryan) influence as well as South Indian native language influences as well as other areas of those cultures. However, it appears Sinhala has more north Indian Indo-Aryan influence overall. Buddhism has established very well in Sri Lanka while it disappeared in India after the Buddhist resurgence in India by Emperor Ashoka. Buddhism is heavily influenced by Upanishad teachings and ancient Hinduism, so it is not clear why it took over so well in Sri Lanka. The most recognizable argument is that there was not established and well organized religious system in Sri Lanka prior to the arrival of Buddhism by Emperor Ashoka's delegation. The absence of a well organized system may have played a part on the strong establishment of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

[@pzan49]

Some of the best Buddhist books were burnt down by those so called “Sinhala Buddhists”. Shame on them. This was not the way to react. It shows the cowardliness and foolishness of the leaders of the country at that time.

[@punchipoint8457]

Like what?

[@Aeros005]

it shows the wrath of the general public towards the upcoming war

[@eyeofthepyramid2596]

I literally cried, really 😭 our culture was lost to the dumbest guys in the world.

[@Aeros005]

tf

[@Grove-street677]

😔

[@ajithranasinghe7966]

very sorry, i am sinhala

[@jay-wm3lx]

It's corrupt politicians using race to divide the country for their own monetary gains. Rajapakse family are worth billions while many Sri Lankans suffer

[@bookedroomer]

I left the country when I was in 2010 and was able to comeback in 2018 and visited the library. I knew that the library was damaged but I didn't know it was to that extent until I watched this video. My parent tried to shelter me from this for better or for worse. I see the point of the man that said it is whitewashing a historical event.

[@muthukumaran750]

I'm proud be an tamil

[@yougop7]

We lost the histories more than 3000 years worth

[@nuwanweerakkody2985]

I feel sorry about what happened to the old library & valuable documents with it, digging the miserable history you could find thousands of reasons to apart sinhalese & Tamils each other, and I don't believe each & every tamil in jaffna feels uncomfortable or denying the effort taken by the government on rehabilitation & reconciliation of tamils in jaffna. what we are asking from every one only to support this not to happen such conflicts again in this country.

[@karthithana159]

Appreciate it brother..we are totally with you..but i personally believe sinhalese community dont know about what the government is secretly doing to the tamil community in sri lanka. They talk about reconciliation but they are still not ready to do it in a full scale. Instead they are trying to create and maintain a rift between the sri lankan tamils and sinhalese community so that they could feed from that. I will give you an example, last month the tamil diaspora collected 5 million dollars in funds and donated it to the sri lankan government for the development of houses in the northern province but the sri lankan government freezed the fundings and still havent given a word about it. this is ok but what they are trying to tell the sinhalese public is like hey tamil diasporas are against sinhalese they dont do anything they are against the development of the country but thats extremely far from the truth. As a sri lankan we all need to wake up and kick those politicians out and work together to build a beautiful sri lanka.

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Karthi Thana Tamil diasporas in the UK and Australia alsways rioting when there is a Sri lankan cricket match last time their slogan was " Sri lanka cricket genocide genocide " so I dont think what you are saying is true

[@bonhamcarter4488]

@@aswinpatel1946 world has to know about Sinhalese racist people and what they did to Tamils. So it is acceptable as long as the rioters don't hurt anyone.

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Bonham Carter.. many of Tamils not even born when LTTE were started and the days Prabhakaran was living in India and getting trained etc. No one even know Rohana Wijeweera were living in Rusia and planing war against government with support of Sinhalease.

[@orathanadukallan6131]

@@aswinpatel1946 Gujj's....you people are famous for taking bank loans in india and escape, so you fuckers don't have any rights to speak about Tamils...We tamils went with Nethaji and got killed in the war and remaining people, stayed in singapore, malaysia and burma....could you plz tell about Srilanka history after independence....you don't know nothing but shit....

[@buddikamalhotra8878]

Those who behind library attack knew what will be the consequence after that . They needed war so they provoked. Tamil poor people just did not know nothing about it and they suffered for 30 years because of the war. normal Sinhalese people don't do those act it was a BIG MASTER PLAN.

[@ajithdesilva446]

war is a good business for some people.

[@nironiro4776]

It's issues what mean, sinkalise no knowledge no dout

[@aswinpatel1946]

Are you Indian?

[@kmathi6942]

Yes 👍👍 Sinhalas not knowledge

[@madeshshivam952]

Support u from tamilnadu

[@NEWSරාල]

Sinhala people like one country but tamil and muslim people dont like one country.it is a simple true.

[@kasunbandara9050]

@@madeshshivam952 why do you not keep all tamil people in thamilnadu. That is very good idiea behalf of dividing Sri Lanka.

[@tamileelatamilselvan7817]

Sinhalese wanted tamils not to know their real history which tells Sri Lanka is belongs to tamils and how they had been living a civilized life in human history and how special are they.

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Tamil eela Tamil selvan.. Haha big joke, library can only have maximum 500 years old books or palm writings. So your history only has 500 years old collections🤔

[@aswinpatel1946]

Tamil eela Tamil selvan.. You didn't answer my question

[@tamileelatamilselvan7817]

@@aswinpatel1946 i don't have to answer you when you ask a silly question. There were no proper government to secure anything properly. Sinhalese breeds are from the Aryan breed same as you . And don't think that you are so polite.

[@aswinpatel1946]

Even Hindu religion belongs to us. you don’t even have your own religion not only history. so better to keep quiet. i don’t want to chat with you on this matter anymore. i don’t want to make you ashamed. one more fact, all Sri lankans are Similar to South indian on their appearance. They must have developed a Language with the influence of Buddhism from great emperor Ashok. Tamil speakers must be resent settlements from Tamilnadu as they speak same Language

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Tamil eela Tamil selvan TAMILS are migrated as pirates from Boats. Somalian pirates

[@Sean-sn9ld]

That was real cute seeing the kids tryna figure out how to play GTA

[@pulasthiakalnaka2147]

97thousand books equal to 97 thousand people Burning of nation's future

[@eyeofthepyramid2596]

No it's the history of our entire generation, the Chinese, English, Japanese and all get their uniqueness from books. 😭

[@shanmugamsss5478]

🙏🙏🙏

[@krishancurtis450]

Main building of Jaffna Library is opened in 1959 by Alfred Duraippah. Who was assassinated by LTTE in 1975. Which marks one of the first acts of war and LTTE as a terrorist organisation. Library was vandalised by hard-line pro United national party mob gang. This kind of show that this so called war was fueled by politicians of both parties. Unfortunately both sinhalese and tamils in the North fell into their trap. When this is realised it was too late.

[@kamalathevijegatheeswaran6689]

Whoever were in his position would have opened the library If not Alfred iyah another iyah in the same position would have opened it. There must had been lot of other people who who worked for opening of the then library.

[@abim3365]

YES HE IS A POPET OF UNP,

[@sobharaj8522]

Tigers didn't surrender they were sleeping . One day the tigers will wake up at that day The world will reliase the power of Tigers

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Shobu 2000. Stupid idiotic people haha

[@magtazeum4071]

LOL.. These stupid ideas are only good for entertaining idiots

[@yehanmudalige6596]

Prabhakaran learnt it the hard way 🤣🤣🤣

[@Manijkoi]

@@yehanmudalige6596 have you started learning chinese 🤣

[@manugamanage6096]

😂😂🤣

[@srilankahomedecorations5577]

Goooooooooood killls sri lanka army

[@manugamanage6096]

Y’all deserved that retaliation from us. Shouldn’t have killed the 3 cops to begin with. 😌

[@ariaratnamksegaran2006]

The fact to distroy the traditional documents and erase the oldest palm tree writen documents.

[@aswinpatel1946]

Who is responsible for the attack ?

[@madeshshivam952]

@@aswinpatel1946 sinhalese racist peple They are buddhists But tamils are hindus They hate tamil and hinduism So they do anything against tamils

[@chamipadu1621]

I think you are not a sri lankan.we never hate tamil.but we hate ltte.not buddhist please do not tell again.this war was a results of some selfish sinhala and tamil leaders in the past.

[@madeshshivam952]

@@chamipadu1621 sinhlalese hate tamils.....you dont give the rights to tamils....make sinhala settlement un srilanka...and destroy tamils....you are rasist...like bodhu bala sena...like....gana sara tera....

[@madeshshivam952]

@@chamipadu1621 bro we dont hate sinhala.....we hate only rajapaka brothers...... and sinhala army like Ranabaka..,we also love buddha you know bodhi dharama he was a tamil...ok...we are kind hearted..... Ok

[@kursidhsaleemkursidh6144]

தமிழ் வாழ்க !

[@50subscriberswith0Video]

❤️

[@MsBlueshark]

The foreigners know that Hindus value knowledge and destroying their knowledge places is the best strategy to alienate them from their faith and to convert them. If the tamils have defended themselves then they were not wrong.

[@grid9124]

Being a neighboring country, How many Indians know about this tragedy? Indian central government works so much to maintain a friendly relationship with Lanka. But never cared to see what Tamils went through!

[@bonhamcarter4488]

India will pay for its crimes. That's why China is in the region.

[@samithnilanga9943]

@@bonhamcarter4488 what were the crimes committed by India?

[@valluvarvaakku786]

Bjp is a Aryan Brahmin govt.They onl y idea is to destroy tamils.

[@kunday]

You should read the history of the civil war. India was involved until 1990 and there was a peace keeping force until 1989 where Indian forces were accused of war crimes. The support for LTTE stopped after LTTE assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

[@ChandranPrema123]

@@kunday India never supported LTTE we supported Sinhalese and got our Karma

[@vamsym]

I love the way they enter library removing shoes outside and Goddess Saraswathi idol in front of the library.

[@erandajanaka3790]

All books should be digitalized. in any physical disaster we can recover the content.

[@pooja350]

This was in the 80's, sir. The internet didn't come into existence until a decade later

[@JohnDoe-zg6qt]

@@pooja350 Of course, but copies should have been made

[@jeets6684]

Wow!! you have a member since 1951 he himself carries a great antique value, i am sure he must be the Google of Jaffna...Great respect from India sir...

[@pranaththedev]

Who knows what was on those manuscripts, maybe some scripts had a link to Indus script and is gone

[@aswinpatel1946]

Those are called Mantra writings. Mainly used palm tree leafs. Has been used since 15 century.

[@mjclaudianava5397]

Those were exactly my thoughts too!

[@jokerraj843]

Yeah it even has ramayana from ravanans point of view

[@Travelwithkugan]

It’s even has medicine to cure coronavirus 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽

[@skanthavelu]

How much of the Sri Lankan Tamil history must be lost and forgotten now? 😢😢

[@1pasupaty]

I'm very angry about those irreplaceable manuscripts getting lost.these sites must be protected even during war by any side

[@aswinpatel1946]

@shiv. this happened before the war. know one knows who did that

[@bonhamcarter4488]

@@aswinpatel1946 the Sinhalese did it of course.

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Bonham Carter.. How do you know?

[@madeshshivam952]

@@aswinpatel1946 they are many proofs bro

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Madesh Madesh.. Do you mean Kumari condom ?

[@rubeeno8055]

I lost a lot of family to the Sinhalese army but nothing sadden me more than this.

[@malmi7918]

Brother war is not an option... Sinhalese & tamil both people lost lives.because of the war... War is a hell.

[@OGrandomunknownperson]

Your pfp is a terrorist flag

[@microdeluxe]

This was one of the worst incidents of the young sri lankan history. Destroying a libary like that is worse than killing 100.000 people. Lets hope all sri lankans can work for a better future together now.

[@bobten3092]

You don't get the point. Of course killing 100 000 people was worse than burning this library, but this incident shows that the genocide was also cultural.

[@hoehoe734]

its not worse, kill 100000 people and then a library, what would be worse, a genocide on people or a cultural genocide?

[@microdeluxe]

@@bobten3092 genocides are always cultural.

[@microdeluxe]

@@hoehoe734 what will be the treshhold? 1.000 people? 100? 1?

[@hoehoe734]

@@microdeluxe if you murder a whole group of people, with the motive to errase their culture and the people group as a whole, then you're comiting genocide on the culture and the people, the people are the legacy of an ancient culture, of enourmous pride and belief, if you burn the library, then you erase the legacy, pride and history of the people, leaving them without a trace

[@akhilr9736]

Love u Tamils from Kerala

[@xdlol55llol87]

Tamil people in Sri Lanka are not terrorist there good it's the goverents fault if the government listen to Tamil

[@buddikamalhotra8878]

Everyone wanted war not only the 1980's Sri lanka government.

[@buddikamalhotra8878]

It was a master plan. poor people didn't know nothing just became the victim with in Tamil Sinhalese and Muslim

[@buddikamalhotra8878]

sdas

[@buddikamalhotra8878]

@sujamak They don't want to go back to Tamilnadu instead they claiming separate country for themselves to govern

[@aswinpatel1946]

Tamils wanted war. Not the government

[@thalathakulathilake5839]

So very ashamed of Sinhalese politicians! I beg pardon on behalf of my identity....

[@SAGARji495]

The same happened with North Indian hindus when bakhtiyar burned the Nalanda University and cut down all hindus it is said that the university burned for 2 months

[@ajanantonyraj2063]

Pls don’t make comments randomly without knowing facts in Sri lanka. Jaffna library was burned by Sri Lankan Government it’s self, not by any community.

[@firebeast5659]

Omg 2months really 2months = equal books

[@ajanthkrish8189]

I’m from there and I cant go to my moms house because of the active mines in the backyard. This Is what they wont tell you on the news

[@jeyaramsathees6128]

And you think those were out there by LTTE? Then you are dumb

[@onduty7499]

Karma is Boomerang... Look at sri lanka now 😂

[@KindlyHelpMeReach100Ksubcriber]

A low IQ comment coz Tamil people are also suffering

[@marythiagarajah881]

Mr. Mangala Samaraweera is a great politician.

[@HirunKarunaratne]

I can agree with what Mangala Samaraweera said, but he's also a politician from the same party that caused this abominable cultural genocide. In fact, he has served as a minister several times under one of the ministers who is responsible for the burning of this treasure.

[@usernameis9157]

The biggest mastermind behind the burning of this library was Cabinet Minister Gamini Dissanayake and lot of Tamils still don't know about this

[@ajanantonyraj2063]

i knew it. My dad told me. That’s why now we Tamils need to ethnic problem before start solving our financial crisis

[@nixvedavedanix7770]

i am crying.. for u BOOK

[@rakuwaranpirijatharsan4413]

as Srilankan(Jaffna) Tamilian it was painful news😭😭😭😭😭

[@ShashakaArchana-lu6ys]

As a sinhalese, Why don't we know about these things? They should include these incidents into our history books so that we can stop history repeating itself...

[@ByshiWolowitz-ry1ey]

@@ShashakaArchana-lu6ys We read about the Srilankan situation in Indian NCERT textbooks. Not in this much detail but about how Tamil were being oppressed due to majoritarian policies and all those crap and then how a non-violent movement got escalated into a tragedy. I am a Tamil and I believe it was a war against the Tamils and the govt and some radicals NOT within the civilians.

[@hisivanava]

I learned something from your video. Thank you Journeyman pictures . ‘"The burning was a cultural genocide"’ tells Former Municipal Commissioner C.V.K. Sivagnanum. The library has now been rebuilt but many Tamils feel it'’s an attempt to whitewash the past. ‘"They had made a clear, planned effort to eradicate the historic event.’"

[@nuwanperera2055]

97000 BOOKS...........I'M IN TEARS RIGHT NOW

[@aromatixofficial1020]

Why isn't anyone talking about how those kids were playing GTA vice city in the most valuable library in the world

[@ajanantonyraj2063]

It was an Incorrect Documentary. Library was not burned by any rioters. It was burned by Sri lankan Army, ordered by Sri lankan Government itself

[@HirunKarunaratne]

It's my first time encountering a Tamil Sri Lankan in a comment section who has at least a brief understanding of what happened. If I may respond to the subject, it wasn't actually the army; it was a squad of 500 police officers. However, they weren't regular police officers; they were UNP hooligans recruited by the UNP government for their destructive rule. They didn't undergo the typical three years of training that regular police officers receive, but rather just three months of special training. They were under direct orders from ministers like Gamini Dissanayake and Ranil Wickramasinghe, who carried instructions from the president himself. The same thing happened in 1983, which is famous as the black July.

[@ajanantonyraj2063]

@@HirunKarunaratne i just checked your comment with my Dad. He totally agreed with you, but not Ranil, it was Gamini D and Srisena Curai. Thank you 🙏 for your understanding.

[@gangothrigganga8946]

1981 was a really dark day.many more precious thala patra granthas was burned so it was really bad effect .😓

[@rohanfernando21]

the lion of sri lanka is cruel

[@tamilpatriot7815]

Even the flag has the lion showing the sword to minorities.

[@magtazeum4071]

@@tamilpatriot7815 Yes, We shouldn't have any color stripes on SL flag

[@tamilpatriot7815]

@@magtazeum4071 Green and orange should be behind the lion.

[@Aeros005]

@@tamilpatriot7815 bruh, that's just how you presume it to be.

[@zerbutterftw]

@@tamilpatriot7815 why? That wouldn't look as good.

[@N5cool]

Unfortunately, this very library today probably holds a collection of 'Road to Nandikadal' (a book that describes the 🇱🇰 military's atrocities over the Tamils) by rogue military officers like General Gunaratne...Mangala is absolutely right... it's Handi-Kadal not Nandikadal

[@akilakj1]

Well, the military operation was not over the Tamils but the LTTE. Why not talk about what sparked the 4th Eelam War. It was LTTE who shut gates in Marvilaru. If the SL army went over the Tamils, it would start in Colombo because Colombo is the residence for more Tamil speaking Sri Lankans. Thus, get your facts together. I am sorry that SL army killed your master V. Prabakaran but that has to be done.

[@ayubowansrilanka4711]

@@akilakj1 dhen tharka karalaa wedak nehe bn dhepilama weradhi thiyanawaa eka kawruth dannawaa ne mokada ewaka dheshapaalakjaypth lesi nehe ne ne machan

[@akalankaranasinghe7842]

And where is your so beloved Mangala now? LoL

[@munishwaran7273]

@@akilakj1 you Sinhalese are the reason for the rise of LTTE! Your SL Army killed innocent Tamils during civil war!

[@nilax21]

​@@akilakj1Why not talk about what sparked the war on the first place.

[@PeaceSpiritual]

Big questions are: 1. Why, after 8 years war stopped, 5 out 7 Military divisions in the country is in N&E? 2. why haven't the lands grabbed by the army returned to the people?

[@buddikamalhotra8878]

I have a question what is your problem with the army?

[@ayubowansrilanka4711]

@@buddikamalhotra8878 ne ne bn minissu hitapu idang e camps thiyana thiyana boomiye thiyanawaa kiyalaa ne kiyanne dhen, owaa tika minissunta aanduwen aaye dhenna epei bn unta inda thenak dhenna epei ewwa aaye therunai machan

[@bobten3092]

@@buddikamalhotra8878 The question is "what is the problem with your army?" He was just asking questions. Also there are a lot of things wrong with your army like killing over 100 000 people.

[@50subscriberswith0Video]

Buddika Malhotra he is saying right You are dumb

[@HirunKarunaratne]

​​@@buddikamalhotra8878ඔයාට පාරම්පරිකව උරුම වුණු පවුලේ ඉඩම් වල ඔයාලට ඉන්න තැනක් නැතුව ඒ වෙනුවට හමුදා කඳවුරු තියෙනවාට ඔයා කැමතිද? මම ඔය ගැටළුව ගැන ලොකු දෙයක් දන්නේනම් නෑ, ඒත් මම හිතන විදිහට ඒ ජනයගේ පාරම්පරික ඉඩම් යුද්ධයත් සමඟ වෙන්න ඕනෙ රජයේ හමුදා කඳවුරු සඳහා යොදාගන්නට ඇත්තේ. බෙදුම්වාදී ත්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කොට අවසන්ව බොහෝ කලක් ගතව ඇති මේ මොහොතේ විධිමත්ව ඔවුන්ට ඔවුන්ගේ ඉඩකඩම් නැවත භාරදිය යුතුයි. මේක ඉබාගාතේ යන රටක් නිසා ඔය දේවල් පොහොට්ටු-ගූඇන්පී-සජබ-ශ්‍රිලනිප ( SLFP-SLPP-UNP-SJB) පාණ්ඩු යටතේ කවදාවත් වෙයි කියලා බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්න බැහැ. කොමිස් ගහන්න ගෙනාව අධිවේගී මාර්ග ව්‍යාපෘති නිසා දකුණේ ඉන්න මිනිසුන්ගෙත් ගෙවල් පවා අහිමි වුණානේ. දකුණේ මිනිස්සුන්ටත් ආණ්ඩුව සළකන්නේ එහෙමනම් උතුරේ අපේ මිනිස්සුන්ට සළකන විදිහ ගැන කවර කතාද 🤚🏼 ඒකයි ජාතික ජනබලවේගයේ (NPP 🧭) ආණ්ඩුවමට අද රටම සූදානම් වෙන්නේ.

[@MAHAMADAMAHAMADA-wb2ep]

HOW THE WORLD WAS CIVILISED ANCIENT TEXT WERE IN THIS TAMIL LIBRARY,,,, A FEW SINGHALA DEVILS BURN THE LIBRARY,,,,,,,

[@karandineshD2]

You know who burn it the library... vesiga putha gamini disanayaka .. everyone know the reason .

[@v3insoldi3r85]

Yes and he was assassinated by the ltte for that

[@srilankanflaribartenders2223]

As Sinhalese I can’t explained that Pain that I have about this,..😢

[@mickeydupling5905]

And then you see a singalese saying "We and tamil were friends", a true friend wouldn't want to erase another friends identity and background.

[@manugamanage6096]

And a true “friend” wouldn’t have killed our 3 cops which sparked our retaliation.

[@yasangawickramasingha5683]

Its done by ranil wickramasingha ,the education minister in that time to win the jaffna dstrict development council

[@reaper8008]

7:44 the kids are playing vice city

[@DonDulip]

Very Sad 😢 n sorry to everyone who lost their loved ones during the war. May God Bless you all.

[@nadarajantinagaran757]

Some of the important and the oldest literature & manuscriptsof tamil were in jaffna..the facts is ..even in India they doesn't have that much of oldest manuscripts or tamil literature ..but the tamil in Sri Lanka had and save keeping them for hundreds or maybe thousands of years until the blady Sri Lankan government bomb that library museums.. It's really a cultural and literature genocide did by the cruelest Sri Lankan government

[@lokiloki-tt8hl]

Where are the people who have read those..? At least copies..?

[@babitavenatheten2702]

It's not the library who had thrown the truth in the sl extremist and India face it is the truth reality ..tamil forever

[@pzan49]

Also please do a video on Alfred Duraiappah, who was a real representation of the wishes of Tamil people at that time and initiated this library.

[@skulay]

Best thing is to get the young Tamils out and forget about Sri Lanka. The country is gone as they are heavily debt to China and sold its soul to them.

[@hyper1659]

you are correct lol

[@Manijkoi]

Karma will serve the oppressors soon. Appan Sivane thunai🥺

[@guzifi6785]

முற்பகல் செய்யின் பிற்பகல் விளையும் . They got what they deserved. PAIN . They are now in dept with china and sri lanka is slowly turning into chin - lank🇨🇳. May the people who died in the Ltte war god rest their souls🙏.

[@manugamanage6096]

At least we got to keep our freedom and country from terrorists. Y’all deserved that library burned to ashes. If y’all didn’t kill our 3 cops the library would be still up.

[@guzifi6785]

@@manugamanage6096 you people burned this library that's why that 3 fools got shot. If you guys respected and gave equal rights to the tamils there. The civil war never happened

[@manugamanage6096]

@@guzifi6785 dumbass the 3 shootings were the cause of the library burning. In 1985, after an attack on a nearby police station by Tamil rebels which killed 3 police officers, and in aftermath UNP marched to the library and burned it to ashes. let me make this loud and clear so yo dumbass can hear it “AN ATTACK ON NEARBY POLICE STATION BY TAMIL REBELS(LTTE)” so think again before calling the 3 innocent cops “fools”. I’m fucking glad that mf library got burned, y’all asked of it.

[@guzifi6785]

@@manugamanage6096 foolish! Those 3 fools got killed because of sinhalese bad behaviour to tamils. The library got burned because it has many tamil books than sinhalese books. the library was burnt by your government and people. Think before commenting those criminals as innocent they are also one of the reasons to trigged the war . I'm glad china slayed your land. your government deserves it

[@freetamilnaduandsouthfromi2984]

being a nadu tamil, this even effected us as well. We Tamils had one of the greatest dynasties- the Chola dynasty.

[@akherverullunjuk1954]

Interesting. But I just wanted to say that the identity is Thummirr! Not "Tam-mill!" Also, the narrator's accent is not the original English accent. And also, the typical English people in 1760 didn't speak like that.

[@watchinglanka]

Know more about Jaffna Public Library: www.watchinglanka.com/jaffna-public-library/

[@Earth098]

It was ridiculous to say the restoration was done to wipe out the history. A typical politician. This library is a treasure to people in Jaffna and part of the city's identity. I'm so glad that it was renovated. Now that war is over, we should invest more in the library and improve the surroundings

[@KavindaBalasooriya]

This is not done by Sinhalese. It did the political party called UNP. (There were Sinhalese and Tamil people from that Party) At that time there were District elections in Jaffna and they wanted to win it from good or bad. The person who let that party was JR Jayawardana and there were 4 Cabinet Ministers in Jaffna on that Night. They are Gamini Dissanayake, Silil Matheve, Gamini Jayawickrama, and Ranil Wickramasinghe. Sadly one of them is now the President of Sri Lanka. Finally, this was an Incident used by LTTE at that time as a strong reason to Start a war. But as the people from the south, we are a million times sorry for this incident for selecting those politicians. (On behalf of our ancestors). Please accept our apology!

[@snoxyroyale3360]

Singhalese 🤬

[@madhawasamarawickrama1522]

😥😥😥😥😥

[@samindasampath4837]

We lost our third eye.

[@chakravarthi318]

Srilankan Govt sponsored ethnic biblioclasm in presence of two cabinet ministers

[@wildtoronto1129]

Singalease people are like thamil people we lived in peacd its the British who divided us like scots irsh and eng

[@PeaceSpiritual]

Dear Journeyman pictures, Thank you for a BALANCED video on the civil war in SriLanka. Was this aired in the news somewhere? Have you seen the FULL #documentary on the burning of the library? Thanks.

[@nasfannazeer1683]

I am a Sri lankan Muslim .i love tamil people and there culture but I am totally against with LTTE .

[@50subscriberswith0Video]

🤣🤣🤣 Are you dumb What’s your language tamil?

[@nasfannazeer1683]

50 subscribers with 0 Video Please?? Is your question related to this ?

[@50subscriberswith0Video]

Nasfan Nazeer neega tamil ah? Illa naan muslim Thevadiya punda Un mozhi ah kettan maddam illa suni muslims siya oka

[@nasfannazeer1683]

50 subscribers with 0 Video Please?? This is what your environment and your parents taught you .fine 😏

[@50subscriberswith0Video]

Nasfan Nazeer lol i was born in muslims country I that’s why i am like this

[@DonDulip]

Shameful act.. lots of books on Hinduism, Buddhism and medicine lost forever.

[@Prakashkidskidsprakash]

புத்தர் அமைதியை விரும்பினார் நம்புங்கள்

[@dbmdrums1105]

7:42 Welll corect me if i am wrong ? Are these kids playing Gta Vice City?

[@satyaambler]

Yes

[@Avatar-7-r2d]

මේකෙ සිංහල පොත් තියනවද.☸🙄

[@eshikaudayanawanigasekara]

ඔව්

[@tekksavvy2242]

!

[@SasmithaGayaru]

😂😂😂

[@soothingambience6891]

😂😂😂

[@punchipoint8457]

If you are too lazy to do proper research, just try to find even one mention of this library as a cultural center or of any significant importance prior to the fire in 1981. Now its presented as the most important cultural site for the Tamils.

[@theallseeingeye9388]

Interesting argument which is answered by your own statement. 1. Your assertion that there isnt a single mention of this library being of significant cultural importance........ Where were you trying to find these articles? Pro government sources like the mainstream newspapers perhaps? 2. Significant cultural importance................ Your argument is left hanging when you did not mention the library was of importance to whom? Can we say a Tamil library was most probably not very important to the Sinhalese speaking Sri Lankans. ? Does it take a huge leap in imagination that this library was not mentioned in Sinhalese publications based in Colombo because it was not significant and important to the Sinhalese ? 3. Finally your supposition that it is suddenly presented as an important site for Tamils ( now ) is a false argument and done in bad faith. Why is the burning of this library and what was lost to the fire in our faces all of a sudden ( now )? Could it be because........ it was burnt down ? You wouldnt be banging the drums highlighting the significant importance of the library which was now gone IF the government forces had not burned it down now would you ? 4. Ever thought of the possibility that the existence and significance of this library would have continued to remain in obscurity had it not been for the fact that it was burned down ? Just like how it was before it was razed ? 😢

[@chamathgf6936]

done by the UNP not Sinhalese ppl . UNP was dominated by Christians who had Portuguese ancestry and the president was half chetti Tamil

[@vilasventure]

southern politicians

[@aswinpatel1946]

Library had 500 years old books and palm leaf mantras. This is just a library guys. Not a museum. but i know its good library anyway why do you want to make this very big without even knowing who did this and why. This is propaganda i guess for many to live.

[@billionhearts3908]

Poda baadu

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Billion Hearts Tamilnadu ?

[@pradeepc2584]

@@aswinpatel1946 are you from pakistan?

[@aswinpatel1946]

@Pradeep C.. Are you black from Africa who migrated to India ?

[@pradeepc2584]

@@aswinpatel1946 i don't know! But I'm sure that I'm not belong to Khyber pass invaders !

[@chathunaganbrahman2279]

what about the tamils (we as tamils destroyed one of the oldest biggest even biger than nalando library of singhalese which is the greatest sine we have done to this day there are ruins of 7 storie library in anuradhapura so we are not inacent and this library contained mostly technology,irrigation ,city planning ,resovoyer building,naval advancement,aircraftbuilding e.t.c...... .In jaffna library what we had most of gernales maggassines novels literature books there very small amount of palm leave wrritten books but (in the dutch and portugeese time it was wrritten to show tamil culture to get done there work wich is a total lie because i have reasontly came up with sinhalese palm leaves book in that thing wich is to riducale sinhalese to tamils dutch and portugeese force to write these books to tamils.wich say that this dutch and portugeese proporganda so basically we havent got any thing inside these are lie but i codemed burning of a library but in the university time we and sinhalese friends use that library too.Singhalese people do not like what happened this is done by the government but in the end we havent got anything This are just lies and we are not so incent because we are 1st one to do so and we distroyed a massive library like a treasure to the world.And buy the way most of palm leaves books are taken to england.And according to the comparisone there 25000 oldest written books in the world 15000 are frome sri lanka wrritten in singhalese on palm leaves.

[@Titan_Ruler622]

I know that you are a Sinhalese guy but what was the name of the burnt Sinhalese library?? Is it on the internet??

[@chathunaganbrahman2279]

John Christan lova maha prasada is the name of the libray and why are you thinking i am singhaleae

[@Titan_Ruler622]

It's not even there on internet is it bigger than Jaffna library??? Tell me who started Riots killing many Tamils from1958 to 1983??? Who killed 40,000 people in a month?? So who did more crimes??? Answer me if you can..

[@chathunaganbrahman2279]

John Christan go and type( lovamahapaya anuradhapuraya) and see before you talk.Do you now why those riotes were started?

[@chathunaganbrahman2279]

John Christan go and type( lovamahapaya anuradhapuraya) and see before you talk.Do you now why those riotes were started?by the way are you a tamil or not?

[@markramlucken8502]

The Tamil Tigers were cowards how do u want to form a seperate state I'n a small country like Srilanka..all of your Tamil Tigers must go back to Madrass n go n ask for your own state form your government.there .

[@buddhikaranathunga]

Jaffna library incident was never the catalyst of Civil War. In fact there was no ethnic problem or any form of disputes among main race and minority groups in Sri Lanka. The people who are responsible for the conflicts and disasters took place including 1983 and Jaffna library in 1981 were TULF (Tamil United Liberation Front). Before them there we no conflicts between Tamil community and Sinhalese. TULF was formed in 1972. They started asking for a seperate country within Sri Lanka called 'Eelam'. 76% tax payers are the majority who contributed to the economy of the country and everything that minor communities may have enjoyed are due to the hard earned tax money, including the library, schools, hospitals, roads, etc. TULF even killed Alfred Doreappa in 1975 who strongly opposed to the seperative attempts of TULF. TULF killed many people who had moderate ideas and who did not like seperative ethnic conflicts. Library incident was one among many took place due to TULF killing three Sinhalese Policeman in 31st May 1981, which triggered uneasiness and then a riot by angry people. TULF is responsible for all destructions and lives lost. TULF later changed their name to TNT, and then to LTTE later on. These people executed a hidden agenda believed to initiated and supported by politicians in Tamilnadu. Sri Lanka never had any problems between different communities, everyone lived in peace untill TULF implanted hatred as a 'Recruitment Strategy' in order to form mobsters and armed groups. Unless such incidents are created they could not emotionally influence young people in order to support their political objective. The current LTTE diaspora are people who are still trying to spread the hatred and divide the country. These people are not original Sri Lankan Tamils either. They descend from Tamilnadu as their roots go back to 1930's and 1940's/50's where their families were brought to Sri Lankan during British Colonizing era to give them administrative roles in British Governing, in order to prevent Sinhalese people take the administrative control of their own land. This is the strategy British people used when they invade others countries, so that they can be in total control by not allowing the people of that country rising against them. This clearly shows why those countries helps LTTE and took side of LTTE diaspora, and still does. Because it is what they planted, their mistake and a crime committed by them which they still stand for it. But, people now have started seing the truth of these geo political terrorism and who are behind it. Sri Lankan Tamil people now believe, the best thing ever happend to them was the 'Complete' elimination of LTTE by Sri Lankan government in 2009. I can only wish that we had correctly identified and forecasted these back in 1970s and had put a stop to TULF then and their. Sri Lankan would have not lost all those lives, assets and hinder it's economic growth had that happend at the right time.

[@anirudhhariharan9749]

Liar. No wonder your country is suffering from an economic crisis. Why will TULF burn a library that has a lot of precious manuscripts of their own language. They were seperatists which is wrong, but they always protested peacefully. It was UNP Thugs who burnt the Jaffna library. Check JR Jayawardene's statement during 1983 black July state funded riots. He says "the more were starve the tamils in the north the Sinhalese in the south will be happy" This was the kind of government you people had. A racist government.

[@buddhikaranathunga]

@@atharvvinod7817 Who started what, you need to learn the history since the independence, not knowing the facts and what those Tamil politicians did, you can only cook up stories while the truth is something else. Sinhalese people have always been very reasonable and accommodating of Tamils, including giving citizenship to those who had migrated from India. All those they enjoy for free are paid out of taxes from the majority.

[@deepminds777]

Its hard for me to feel sorry for the tamils since the tamils who are ( black ) look down on other blacks when they go to other countries.

[@a.m.karthick629]

@Deepminds777 hahaha this is stupid comment I have read change your KZbin name from deepminds to deepsh*t because it will be perfect for you.

[@dbjayawardena5399]

Wtf are you talking about? Tamils don’t look down on black people or anyone.

[@Grove-street677]

First all tamils aren’t part black culture there are totally different

[@Blackscrum2]

Du...mb sinhales everywhere :D and you guys are white? dumb idi..ot go back to china.

[@mangomanlassi7779]

Sri Lankan government = Israel