The fact is that in Lanka, linguistic and religious minorities are being crushed by the tyranny of the Sinhala-Buddhists who constitute 80 per cent of the population. The Northern and the Eastern Provinces, traditional homeland of the Tamils, were once strewn with thousands of temples, churches, mosques, schools, libraries and statues of eminent persons and historical monuments. Many of them have been razed to the ground. All the five renowned Hindu shrines that existed long before the advent of Buddhism in Lanka—Thirukketheeswaram, Thirukkoneswaram, Naguleswaram, Munneswaram and Thondeswaram—are now under the control of the occupying armed forces or Sinhala-Buddhists. Having subjugated the Hindu Tamils, the Sangha, as the Theravada Buddhist monks are referred to, has turned its attention to Muslims, who are also Tamil speaking.