# Political Party of Buddhist Monks Hopes to Gain Control of Country February 18, 2004 Source: The Hindu On February 18, 2004 *The Hindu* reported, "Sri Lanka's Buddhist monks, who won a place in history by entering an all-clergy list of candidates of a political party, today said they hoped to become the country's new king-makers by displacing Tamils. 'With the kind of numbers of Buddhists in the country, we should at least in theory have the possibility of becoming the main decisive power,' monk Athuraliya Rathana told reporters here. The monks will be pitted against minority Tamils, who are mainly Hindus, who have often held the balance of power in a country where the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community had been divided down the middle." See also:- [ Advocacy/Government ](/news-stories/advocacygovernment) - [ Sri Lanka ](/news-stories/sri-lanka) - [ Buddhism ](/religions/buddhism) - [ Hinduism ](/religions/hinduism) - [ International ](/tags/international) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)