Cankili II Statue

Glistening in the sun, this gold-hued statue was first erected in 1974. It portrays Cankili (Sangili) II, the last king of the Jaffna Kingdom who was deposed by the Portuguese in 1619. During the war the original statue was removed. It was restored in 2011 but not without the kind of controversy that is common in the north. Some Tamils contend that the current version lacks some of the heroic features of the original.