LTTE Cemetery (Updated)

Click above to view photos from an LTTE cemetery in Jaffna.

I was told there are over a dozen more cemeteries identical to this one in other parts of northern and eastern Sri Lanka. I'm not sure how many bodies are buried here but there are obviously many.

There is a stage on the opposite end to the entrance gates where commemoration ceremonies are held yearly. As you'll see from the photos, there has been a lot of care put into the creation and upkeep of this cemetery.

Update: August 16, 2005

Ram left a few questions in the comment section and I thought I would answer them here. I should have covered this in the original post anyway.

These cemetaries were established and are maintained by the Tigers as burial sites for their dead, as they say on their website:

The cemetery is called "Thuyilum Illam" using the concept that they are sown and are resting. The cemeteries are well maintained under the care of cadres.

Christiana Natali wrote an informative paper on the cemeteries that provides some insight into their purpose and functions:

The Tiger's cemeteries are indeed called Tuillum Illam, literally "Sleeping houses", and are often portrayed as temples.

The LTTE is a secular organization but up until the early 90s it seems that dead cadres (called Maaveerar - Great Heros) were all cremated according to Hindu practice. In the early 90s this was changed to burial in the Thuyilum Illum. Natali quotes an LTTE authority who says that this change occured in order to satisfy the families of Muslim and Christian cadres whose practice it was to bury the dead.

Natali also believes that the use of these graveyards, similar in style to those used by militaries in the west, helps to confer legitimacy to the LTTE. The Tigers are often dismissed or denounced as unthinking, purposeless terrorists; established memorials help to combat that view.

She finds that the reasons for the change differ depending on who you ask. One line of reasoning cites the permanence of the cemetaries and their role as places of remembrance. Cremation doesn't leave any tangible, visible evidence of those who have passed, burial does.

Natali finds that the cemetaries serve other functions as well:

The Maaveerar are celebrated on November 27th, officially remembered as the day in which the first Tiger died. In this day the LTTE pay honours to their dead fighters all over the world ... in Sri Lanka the ceremonies take place in the Tuillum Illam.

[LTTE Leader] Prabhakaran's yearly speech is delivered and broadcast through loudspeakers in all Tuillum Illam.

The article goes on to 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.

In the past I have heard other reasons for the LTTE's practice of burial over cremation. One explanation draws on the symbolic nature of burial; it creates an explicit link with the physical land, which is what the conflict is all about. A second reason i've heard is that pre-Hindu Dravidians also buried the dead and the Tiger's, for whatever reason, wanted to return to this practice. I'm not sure how accurate this is though.