Can you work an M.I.A link into this Manish?

Bet you'd love that.

As you'll see from the photos, there has been a lot of care put into the creation and upkeep of this cemetery...dead cadres (called Maaveerar - Great Heros)...discuss how the practice of burial is rationalized with the opposing beliefs of Hinduism and the explanation for these seemingly religious sites within a secular organization.

death cult

got around to flipping through all the pics...With violence and death glorified to this degree, how again will the LTTE head a peaceful democratic society?

Millions are starving and missing limbs due to landmines, and somehow there's so much cash, a little tombstone is not enough for each fallen tiger. Nope, the martyres (wonder if the conscripted 10 yr olds get the same treatment at death?) are entombed in what looks like marble sarcophagi. nice.

Content aside, your photo skills are impressive Ananthan.

Thanks Cicatrix, i'm actually a pretty terrible photographer but that site lent itself to good pictures.

As for the death cult thing, the black tigers might qualify, but the LTTE as a whole? Not any more than every other military force.

The spot where [Rajiv] Gandhi was assassinated... at night it casts a halo of light that can be seen for quite some distance. When the lights go on at the LTTE cemeteries, they cut through the dark in such a way that you can't ignore them. I don't know of any other memorials, cemeteries, etc. where such things occur and I mention these things because they came about at roughly the same time.

In addition to the reasons you cited, I understand the cemeteries were established because regular headstone-burials were easily uprooted and destroyed by the SL army during offensives, sweeps, etc.. The Dravidian-reasoning makes sense, the orchestrated sensibility of creating a cemetery just to gain legitimacy also makes sense but can't supersede the fact that the LTTE also gains strength from having sacred ground above which one can say, "these are my people who died for my land" (which is, coincidentally, what the SL army targeted cemeteries to be destroyed).

It just occurs to me that I've seen quite a few Tamil burial sites from both the Sangam and Chola periods. Funny, however, because despite what one might see as a reason to have respect for cemeteries, I've seen people taking shits in them also...

Anyhow, interesting post.

cicatrix, how about you comment on the pathetic and deplorable treatment the Government of Sri Lanka provides the families of their soldiers?

Maaveerar Naal (Great Heroes Day) was especially significant in Canada last November, when it was remembered at all the major universities in Ontario (Canada's biggest province), with the Tiger and Canada flags raising. Along with, 9 or 10 halls across Toronto to acocomodate the amount of people attending to pay respects. God Bless Canada!

anyhow, while doing a search about a story i read back in january about how a former Sri Lankan soldier POW, after the tsunami, came back to Tiger territory with a couple trucks worth of supplies to give to either the ppl or Tigers, in thanks for his treatment when he was a POW for 3 years, i came across an interesting article by TIME magazine about the Tigers and Thamileelam.

http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/srilanka/story.html

cicatrix, how about you comment on the pathetic and deplorable treatment the Government of Sri Lanka provides the families of their soldiers?

From the Time Asia article:

And if Prabhakaran is divine, then suicide bombers and hunger strikers join him in death. "I believe the martyrs are gods," says Eelavany. The notion of self-sacrifice, elevated above all other virtues, has a mesmeric, mystic hold over Tiger territory.

Discipline and virtue too have been taken to extraordinary levels. Under Tiger rule, crime has almost disappeared. Music is limited to revolutionary songs, drama to epics about the Tigers and films to action flicks, mostly homemade movies using real war footage. Life choices—such as selecting a husband or wife—are handed over to the LTTE, although most Tigers vehemently deny interest in sex or relationships. Many Tiger disciples were recruited in their early teens. In some areas, the Tigers conscripted a child from each family, ensuring that young minds were rigorously trained to be loyal to the movement.

Is it just me, or does this writer sound like he's drunk the kool-aid? This is "Tigerland" - a orwellian vision come to life.

WTF?! r u trying to deny Tamil oppresion!?!

that is by far the most ludicrous of all your comments?!

really now. making Singhala the official and only language, quoatas on Tamils entering university, state-sponsored colonization with Singhala settlers, anti-Tamil riots, burning of the respected Jaffna Library, lynching of participants in the World Tamil Research Conference, Denial of Gov't Jobs for Tamils.

okay cicatrix, the Tamils really were on the same level as everyone else. cough cough. you really stooped to a new low. its a farce what has become of the journalist profession.

Whoa, ok. sorry. I reread my last post and 'overwrought' was not the word to use...Rescinding, apologizing, apologizing..

However, I do think that with 20+ years of this conflict, the original causes have taken overtones of legend and lore..the injustices seem to have a mythic ring when LTTE advocates yell that the LTTE are the only saviors etcetc..

Sinhala Only was passed and then rescinded. Tamil was the second official language since I was a kid. Quotas on Tamils entering university was placed soon after independance when Tamils, numbering 20% of the population had almost 60% of the civil service jobs, university postiions, medical school students, etc.

I'm not saying it was right. I'm jsut saying that it was the birthing pains of a new country trying ot establish itself, and many other forms of protest are preferable to armed 'revolution' that randomly kills civilians.

The riots of '83 were a terrible, horrifying disgrace..but those were Sinhala thugs. I've heard rumors that local level Sinhala politicians encouraged it. And the goverment is completely at fault for being lackadaisical about intervening.

What is this about colonization and lynching of conference participants? Can you provide links?