appointed Weliwita Sri Saranankara Thera as the
Sangharaja of Sri Lanka after reestablishing Upasampada. However, in 1764, merely a decade after the re-establishment of the Buddhist order in Sri Lanka by reverend Upali, a group within the newly created Siam Nikaya conspired and succeeded in restricting the Nikaya's higher ordination only to the
Radala and Govigama caste, Sitinamaluwe Dhammajoti (Durawa) being the last non-Govigama monk receive his upasampada. This was a period when Buddhist Vinaya rules had been virtually abandoned and some members of the Buddhist Sangha in the Kandyan Kingdom privately held land, had wives and children, resided in private homes and were called Ganinnanses. It was a period when the traditional nobility of the Kandyan Kingdom was decimated by continuous wars with the Dutch rulers of the Maritime Provinces. In the maritime provinces, too a new order was replacing the old. Mandarampura Puvata, a text from the Kandyan period, narrates the above radical changes to the monastic order and shows that it was not a unanimous decision by the body of the Sangha. It says that thirty-two ‘senior’ members of the Sangha who opposed this change were banished to Jaffna by the leaders of the reform. The
Govigama exclusivity of the Sangha thus secured in 1764 was almost immediately challenged by other castes who without the patronage of the King of Kandy or of the British, held their own upasampada ceremony at Totagamuwa Vihara in 1772. Another was held at Tangalle in 1798. Neither of these ceremonies were approved by the Siam Nikaya which claimed that these were not in accordance with the Vinaya rules. The prominence given to the Govigama and other central region castes is justified as the coastal castes such as Karava, Durava and Salagama were of post-13th Century South Indian Dravidian origin, and not of Sinhala origin. These three coastal recent South Indian origin castes are also highly involved with the Catholic faith where the Karava are the biggest Catholic force of the country. The principal places of Buddhist worship in Sri Lanka including the
Temple of the Tooth Relic,
Adam's Peak,
Kelaniya and over 6,000 other temples are now under the administration of the Siam Nikaya. From time immemorial the Sacred Tooth Relic of Gautama Buddha has been considered the symbol of the rulers of Sri Lanka. As time went on, the seat of the kingdom was moved from Anuradhapura to Polonnaruwa, then to Dambadeniya and other cities. Upon each change of capital, a new palace was built to enshrine the Relic. Finally, it was brought to Kandy where it is at present, in the Temple of the Tooth. The oldest Buddhist sect in Sri Lanka, the Siam Nikaya (estd. 19 July 1753) has been the custodian of the Tooth Relic, since its establishment during the Kandyan Kingdom. The Siam Nikaya traditionally grants higher ordination only to the Radala and Govigama castes, Sitinamaluwe Dhammajoti (Durawa) being the last non-Govigama monk to receive upasampada. This
conspiracy festered within the Siam Nikaya itself and Moratota Dhammakkandha, Mahanayaka of Kandy, with the help of the last two Kandyan Telugu Kings victimised the low country Mahanayaka Karatota Dhammaranma by confiscating the
Sri Pada shrine and the retinue villages from the low country fraternity and appointing a rival Mahanayaka. Presently, an exception is the Rangiri Dambulla sect which welcomes all communities while being a Siam Nikaya subsect. ==The number of Siam Nikaya monasteries and monks==