As Fighting Flares in Civil War, Key Buddhist Shuns Nonviolence

While Rathana is treated like a rock star in Colombo's elite circles of Sinhalese, he has vocal critics.

Mano Ganesan, a Hindu Tamil member of Parliament, characterized him as "highly divisive and offensive." He said Rathana and his party have "not helped in pushing for a peaceful solution. They are only creating more militant Tamils."

"This is not Buddhism at all," Ganesan said. "This is using Buddhism to justify politics and a policy of war."

Rathana's name, meanwhile, invokes panic among many ethnic Tamils, who say they are often targeted for harassment by police and paramilitary groups.

Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's foreign secretary, said the government was taking those issues "very seriously. But the LTTE is using this to fight a propaganda war. We are reaching out to moderate Tamils to help us fight the terrorists."

Rathana said his entry into political life was not easy, explaining that his parents were unable to accept his political calling at first. Born into the upper middle class -- his father was a prosperous goldsmith -- he became a monk at age 15.

In his youth, he was a communist. But his views on government changed as he watched the 1998 bombing of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, in the spiritual capital of Kandy, home to a tooth allegedly snatched from Buddha's funeral pyre, he said.

Rathana has defended keeping foreign monitors out of Sri Lanka, saying the country has for too long been ruled by outsiders, from the Portuguese to the Dutch to the British. The British once favored the Tamils for jobs in their administration, and the Sinhalese, Rathana said, "had to fight to regain representation in the government, even though we were the majority."

"We can sort this out on our own. We tried to discuss things, but the LTTE always wanted to fight," he said, sounding more like an army general than a legislator or monk. "We must do our duty on the battlefield."