The Mahanayaka Thera of the Kotte chapter of the Siyam Maha Nikaya has written to the Commissioner General of Prisons asking for a date and time to restore the robes of the imprisoned Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera.
The letter was sent by Ven. Dr Ittepana Dhammalankara, Mahanayaka of the Kotte Sri Kalyani Samagri Dhamma Maha Sangha Sabha, Hiru News reported on Monday.
What the letter asks for
The Mahanayaka Thera told the Commissioner General that the re-robing of Gnanasara Thera must be carried out in accordance with the Dhamma and the Vinaya, the monastic disciplinary code, and asked that a date and time be provided as soon as possible.
A delegation of ten monks from the Sangha Sabha, including the Mahanayaka Thera himself, would attend the prison for the ceremony, the letter says, and it asks that the necessary facilities be arranged.
Why this body
The request matters because of where authority over the question was placed last month.
An extraordinary gazette issued on 24 October gave imprisoned monks the right to wear robes, with the decision resting with their Nikaya. That followed a prison regulations committee’s interim report proposing a new Regulation 356A and an amendment to Departmental Order 550, handing the decisive say to the monk’s own chapter.
Gnanasara Thera is a member of the Kotte Sangha Sabha. Under that framework, it is this body — not the Prisons Department — that determines his status as a monk, which is what the letter proceeds on.
A document older than the report
The letter carried in Hiru’s filing is dated 30 October 2026, ten days before the report was published. Hiru’s text does not give the date of the letter and does not say why it is being reported now, whether the Prisons Department has replied, or whether a date has been offered.
Readers should treat this as a report of a document that has been in the Commissioner General’s hands since late October, rather than as an action taken on Monday.
Background
Gnanasara Thera returned to Welikada Prison on 5 October when a six-year contempt sentence took effect. The decision to bring him to court in prison clothing rather than robes triggered sustained objection from the Maha Sangha, including letters from senior clergy to the President and representations from the Sangha Sabha to the Prisons Department.
Monks camped at Viharamahadevi Park from 16 October demanding his release and suspended that protest on 25 October after the Mahanayake Theras of the Three Nikayas said they were intervening with the government. The Cabinet has separately said the chief prelates made no request for his release.
Sourcing note
This article rests on a single verified source. A search of NewsFirst, Island, Daily News, the Daily FT, EconomyNext, Colombo Gazette and News.lk returned no other filing on this letter; the matches were October reports on the earlier robe dispute and the gazette.
Not reported
Hiru does not say whether the Commissioner General has responded, whether a date has been set, or what procedure the Prisons Department would follow. It does not say whether the re-robing would apply inside the prison only or also to court appearances, nor whether the Department accepts that the gazette covers a monk serving a contempt sentence. No prisons official or government spokesperson is quoted.
