Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c6.67.2

c6.67.2

temples are allowed to fall into decay, and valuable and beautiful memorials of the past allowed to disappear, or to be cheaply restored away by those who do not understand or care for them.* As an example of the disintegration of society and of the general disorganisation of manners and morals resulting, I give one quotation from the Report of the Temple Lands Commissioners for 1871: “The Dambulla vihāra is, as is well known, a shrine held in great reverence by the Buddhists, and it is a place of great interest, worthy of being maintained as a historical monument, being the only rock temple of any importance in Ceylon, and possessing a painted roof, which is the best example of Buddhist art in the Island. To this vihāra belong large and valuable forests, which should be preserved for supplying the necessary timber for the maintenance of the buildings belonging to the vihāra, and also for the benefit of the vihāra tenants, to whom the wild honey, jungle ropes, and pasture for cattle, to be found in these forests, are of considerable value. The incumbent of the vihāra, without regard to the interests of which he was the guardian, sold to a low-country carpenter all the valuable timber in one of the large forests, and omitted to pay the money into the vihāra chest. Complaint was made to the Commissioners, but they had no power to act.