Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel
Eight months after a senior Indian Hindu priest toured Sri Lanka’s Shiva temples on a tourism promotion visit, photos from that trip resurfaced as breaking news. From October 21, 2026, posts claimed a powerful Indian priest had been suddenly flown in with state honours, state security, and Air Force helicopters. Some pages turned it into a jibe at the government, one of them invoking ‘vas kavi’, the Sinhala curse verses traditionally recited to bring misfortune on an enemy. Here are the posts that carried the claim.
Social Media Posts:
A news page posted a card headlined “Powerful Indian priest suddenly brought to Sri Lanka with state honours! State security, helicopters for travel,” with three photos and a long description. It was shared more than 1,700 times. The photos showed the priest and a group at a dinner table, two mounted police officers with a police vehicle, and the priest inside a helicopter.
The description said a delegation led by Kailashanand Giri Ji Maharaj, “chief priest of a Shiva temple in Ayodhya,” had come on a special government invitation and was given special security and Sri Lanka Air Force helicopters. It claimed Minister Vijitha Herath joined temple pilgrimages in Jaffna, Mannar, Trincomalee, Nuwara Eliya and Polonnaruwa. Other accounts shared the same card, and one added the line “If you are going to recite ‘vas kavi’, you should at least be this afraid,” turning it into political satire aimed at the government.
Facebook | Archived Link Facebook | Archived Link Facebook | Archived Link
Claim examined: An Indian priest was recently and suddenly brought to Sri Lanka and given state honours, state security, and Air Force helicopters.
Fact Check:
No media reported a recent visit by an Indian priest
A foreign religious leader flown around the island on Air Force helicopters with state honours would have made the news. Our searches in Sinhala, English and Tamil found no such report in any mainstream outlet in October 2026, and no record of this priest returning to Sri Lanka recently.
The visit took place from February 23 to 27, 2026
The trail led back to February. Dinamina and the Daily Mirror reported that Deputy Minister of Tourism Ruwan Ranasinghe welcomed a 14-member delegation led by Swami Kailashanand Giri Ji Maharaj at Bandaranaike International Airport on February 23, 2026. The aim, they said, was to encourage Indian Shiva devotees to experience Sri Lanka’s sacred heritage.
The next day, the Tourism Promotion Bureau posted photos on its official Facebook page, saying he would tour the island from February 23 to 27. It said the visit would strengthen spiritual and cultural ties with India and showcase the Ramayana Trail and the upcoming Shiva Trail as pilgrimage experiences.
On February 24, the Northern Provincial Council reported, he arrived by helicopter at Palaly Jaffna International Airport, where Northern Province Governor N. Vedanayagan received him. The Governor presented him with a publication on the “Siva Pilgrimage Trail,” and he worshipped at the Keerimalai Nakuleswaram temple on that route.
He heads a Hindu monastic order, not an Ayodhya temple
The posts’ description of him as “chief priest of the Shiva temple in Ayodhya” was lifted from the Daily Mirror report, but Indian sources describe him differently. Since January 2021 he has been the Acharya Mahamandaleshwar, or presiding seer, of the Shri Panchayati Niranjani Akhada, one of India’s major Hindu monastic orders, Republic reported. He drew international attention at the 2025 Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj as spiritual guide to Laurene Powell Jobs, as the Deccan Herald reported. This explains why the Tourism Promotion Bureau used the title “Dr. Mahamandaleshwar.” He is a prominent seer, but not the temple priest the posts made him out to be.
The posts used photos from the February visit
The dinner-table photo appeared in the same form in the Tourism Promotion Bureau’s February 24 post.
The photo of two mounted police officers and a police vehicle was posted on March 2, 2026, by a member of the delegation.
We could not find the original helicopter photo. However, a video posted on Instagram on February 25 by an Indian national showed him boarding and flying in a helicopter.
Air Force: the helicopter was a paid charter, not a free service
We asked the Air Force Media Spokesman, Group Captain Nalin Wewakumbura, about the posts. He said this was not a recent incident and that the helicopter was provided in February. It was not a free-of-charge facility, he stressed, but a paid charter service. Paid charters are a long-standing Air Force service.
The Tourism Promotion Bureau organized the visit; the Minister hosted a dinner
The Indian High Commission said on February 28 that he came at the invitation of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, toured Ramayana-linked sites and performed religious rites. Citing a Bureau statement, the Indian newspaper Daily Excelsior said the invitation came from Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Vijitha Herath, who hosted an official dinner at Cinnamon Life in Colombo. Both accounts point to the same ministry. The report listed Thiruketheeswaram in Mannar, Nakuleswaram in Jaffna, Thirukoneswaram in Trincomalee, a Shiva temple in Polonnaruwa and the Seetha Amman Kovil in Nuwara Eliya among the sites he visited.
At the airport, Bureau officials received him at the “Gold Route” and “Silk Route” service areas, the Tourist Information Centre posted. In diplomatic practice, state honours mean formal ceremonies such as a guard of honour, reserved for heads of state and government. None of the sources reported anything of the kind. A welcome by a deputy minister and a governor, a police presence, and a ministerial dinner amount to official hospitality, not state honours.
Minister’s media secretary: the story is old news about the February visit
The media secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism told us the story was old news about a visit that began on February 23, 2026. He said the delegation came at the Bureau’s invitation and visited major Shiva temples and other religious and historic sites, mainly to promote the Ramayana Trail and other religious tourism attractions among Indian devotees and tourists.
We found no evidence that Minister Herath joined the pilgrimage, as the posts claimed; the sources show only that he hosted a dinner in Colombo. Questions about public money spent on hosting a foreign religious leader are legitimate, and they are what made the posts popular. But the posts recycled an eight-month-old visit as current news and added claims with no evidence behind them.
Visits by Indian religious leaders are a regular part of religious tourism promotion
India is Sri Lanka’s largest tourism market. Of the 1,657,316 tourists who arrived between January 1 and September 23, 2026, 423,014 (26%) were Indians, the Daily FT reported. Courting Indian pilgrims is a stated policy, and this visit fits a familiar pattern.
In April 2024, Swami Govind Dev Giri Maharaj, treasurer of Ayodhya’s Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, attended the launch of the “Ramayana Trail” in Colombo, where the Indian High Commissioner said it would draw more Indian tourists and pilgrims. Details here. In May 2024, Sri Ravi Shankar arrived with more than 150 followers and attended the Kumbhabhishekam at the Seetha Amman Kovil in Nuwara Eliya on May 19. Details here and here.
The traffic runs both ways. Earlier that same February, from February 4 to 11, the Devnimori relics of the Buddha from Gujarat were enshrined at Gangaramaya in Colombo for public veneration, accompanied by a delegation led by the Governor of Gujarat. Details here. The Bureau has backed other countries’ religious groups too: it hosted a familiarization (FAM) tour for Thai tourism representatives when 45 Thai monks made a five-day pilgrimage from June 27 to July 1, 2019, and in December 2025 Sri Lanka Tourism and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Seoul supported a pilgrimage by South Korean monks and devotees. Details here and here.
State patronage of religious figures draws similar debate in India. In 2018, Madhya Pradesh gave Minister of State status to five Hindu seers, which the opposition called a political gimmick, The Quint reported. That year, Uttar Pradesh spent about Rs. 14 lakhs on a helicopter to shower rose petals on Kanwar pilgrims, according to The Wire. Such questions are fair in both countries, but they need accurate facts, not recycled photos.
We have asked the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau about the visit and will update this article when we receive a response.
Join us to learn more about our fact-check investigations.
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Google News | TikTok | YouTube
Conclusion:
The posts are misleading. They presented photos from an official visit eight months ago, February 23 to 27, 2026, as a recent and “sudden” arrival. Swami Kailashanand Giri, presiding seer of the Niranjani Akhada rather than an Ayodhya temple priest, came at the Tourism Ministry’s invitation to promote the Ramayana and Shiva pilgrimage routes, as the Tourism Promotion Bureau, the Northern Provincial Council, the Indian High Commission and the Minister’s media secretary confirmed.
He was welcomed by a deputy minister and a governor, dined with the Minister, had police present and travelled by helicopter. The Air Force said the helicopter was a paid charter, not a free facility, though who paid has not been confirmed. We found no evidence that the Minister joined the pilgrimage or that the priest received ceremonial state honours. We will update this article when the Tourism Promotion Bureau responds.
