Photo Showing a Huge Crowd for Gnanasara March Is AI-Generated, Not Real

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The jailing of Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara brought the Maha Sangha and Buddhist organisations onto the road, and a six-day march from Kandy to Colombo, which began on October 10, 2026. As the march drew attention, a photo of monks and laypeople stretching along a road in a long line spread on social media as a scene from it. We checked whether that crowd was real. Here are the posts that carried the photo.

Social Media Posts:

The photo was posted under the headline “The Buddhist Power Maha Sangha march that shakes Colombo”, as shown below.

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The photo also sparked discussion on X (formerly Twitter), as shown below.

Fact Check:

Police arrested Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara on October 3, 2026, to execute an open warrant issued against him.

The main reason was the six-year sentence imposed on him for the 2016 contempt of court incident at the Homagama court. Then President Maithripala Sirisena freed him with a “presidential pardon” in 2019. In September 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the pardon was unlawful and invalid. The Court of Appeal then ordered that he be imprisoned again immediately to serve the remainder of his six-year sentence.

A march for Ven. Gnanasara Thero

The Maha Sangha and Buddhist organisations jointly organised a march under the themes “Walk for Freedom” and “Justice for the Robe”, demanding his release.

The march aimed to press the government to release Ven. Gnanasara Thero immediately. It also demanded protection of monks’ religious rights, opposing the removal of his robe and his being produced in court in civilian (lay) clothes after imprisonment.

The six-day march began on October 10 in front of the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. It was scheduled to pass Kadugannawa, Kegalle, Warakapola, Nittambuwa and Kadawatha, and reach Colombo on October 15.

The first day of the march

A significant crowd gathered at the start of the march after the Pirith chanting on the morning of October 10, as well as at the start of the march on the second day. A video of the start of the first day is here. A series of images from the events published in the media and social media posts is below.

The first day was scheduled to end at Kadugannawa. Photos and videos taken at Pilimatalawa, close to Kadugannawa, were posted on social media by some regional journalists and social media users. They showed that the crowd at Pilimatalawa was small.

The real march showed no crowd like the one in the viral photo at that moment. Yet the background of the viral photo and the real footage are the same.

The viral photo shows a black billboard hanging over the road across the power lines with a small white sticker in the middle, a shop with a green roof on the right, red and blue three-wheelers, and motorcycles. All of these also appear in the real footage. But the real videos show only a small group of monks and laypeople. A comparison between the social media photo and the real images is below.

Evidence that the crowd in the photo was added artificially

In the real videos, only a small group at the front of the march came near the billboard. The colours of the billboard, the shop and the three-wheelers match the real scenes. This shows that AI was used to enlarge the crowd in a scene taken at that location.

The photo also has several inconsistencies. Vehicles travel in both directions in the same lane, wheels appear at the back and in the middle of the three-wheelers, and the road shows more lanes than the real Colombo-Kandy Road at Pilimatalawa.

We therefore ran the photo through an AI-generated image detection tool, which confirmed that it was generated using artificial intelligence.

The photo is an AI-generated image!

The crowd at the start of the march had thinned considerably by the end of the day. A real photo taken at a point where the crowd was small was used to generate an AI image showing a huge crowd, and that image was then shared.

The first day ended at Kadugannawa. The second day began there again and ended at Kegalle. On October 12, the march continued on its third day from Kegalle town to Warakapola, demanding due respect for the robe. Facebook

Ven. Gnanasara taken to court in civilian clothes

The Mahanayaka Theras wrote to the Commissioner General of Prisons, objecting to the removal of Ven. Gnanasara’s robe and his being taken to court in civilian clothes. Given the public reaction, a group of senior monks representing the Mahanayaka Theras of all three Nikayas held special talks with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Presidential Secretariat on October 8, 2026, at his invitation.

Recommendations the President gave at the meeting and the special committee appointed

The President acknowledged that current prison administration runs on the old Prisons Ordinance of 1877 and its regulations. These deal with prisoners in general and lack adequate specific provisions on taking Buddhist monks out of prison.

He stressed that where a general law exists, he was not prepared to issue special orders targeting individuals. If existing laws no longer suit present needs, the right course is to amend the law properly.

The meeting decided to draft new regulations so that imprisoned monks taken out of prison can, on the recommendation of their Nikaya or side, remain in their robes.

Also Read: Did the Maha Sangha issue a statement after talks with President Anura?

The special committee: recommendations due within two weeks (14 days)

The President appointed a special committee, effective immediately, to update the regulations and standing orders under the Prisons Ordinance.

Chaired by Prince Senadheera, Secretary of the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, the committee must review the current legal provisions. It must submit a final report with amendments and recommendations to the President within two weeks (14 days).

Its first official meeting was held at the Presidential Secretariat on the afternoon of October 9, on the advice of Minister of Justice and National Integration, attorney Harshana Nanayakkara. The revised regulations are due for approval within the next two weeks.

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Conclusion:

Our fact check found that the photo shared on social media, claiming to show a large crowd of monks and laypeople at Pilimatalawa near Kadugannawa at the end of the first day of the march from Kandy to Colombo (begun October 10, 2026) demanding Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara’s release, is not genuine.

Real video footage taken near the end of the first day shows only a small group. A real photo of that scene was used to create an AI-generated image of a huge crowd, which then went viral. An AI-generated image detection tool also confirmed that the photo was generated by AI. The claim is therefore false.