Jathika Hela Urumaya
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National Heritage Party
ජාතික හෙළ උරුමය ஜாதிக ஹெல உறுமய |
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| Leader | Ven. Omalpe Sobhitha Thero |
| Secretary | Patali Champika Ranawaka |
| Founded | February 2004 |
| Preceded by | Sinhala Heritage |
| Headquarters | 047/3A Denzil Kobbakaduwa Mw, Pannipitiya Road, Battaramulla |
| Ideology | Sinhalese Nationalism, Political Buddhism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| National affiliation | United National Front for Good Governance, United National Front |
| Parliament of Sri Lanka |
2 / 225
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| Election symbol | |
| Conch Shell | |
| Website | |
| http://jhu.lk | |
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (Sinhalese: ජාතික හෙළ උරුමය, Tamil: ஜாதிக ஹெல உறுமய, often approximated in English as National Heritage Party) is a Right-wing Nationalist political party in Sri Lanka. The JHU was launched in February, 2004 by the lay-based, Sinhala nationalist political party Sihala Urumaya. Founding members include Kolonnawe Sumangala Thero, Uduwe Dhammaloka Thero, Ellawala Medhananda Thero, Dr. Omalpe Sobhitha Thero, Athuraliye Ratana Thero and Thilak Karunaratne. Some Sri Lankan Buddhists, including the All Island Clergy Organization, denounced the decision by monks to enter politics. The party drew support mainly from the middle class conservatives and the Buddhist youth.
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (National Sinhala Heritage) party contested its first parliamentary election on 2 April 2004. On that occasion, all of its candidates were Buddhist monks. At the election the party won 5.97% of the popular vote (a total of 552,724 votes) and nine out of 225 seats.
Since the election, the party has been involved in a number of controversial issues: one important action was introducing a bill to prohibit unethical, manipulative and highly aggressive conversions. This was viewed as a reaction against proselytism systematically carried out by Christian fundamentalist groups with many guises, some of whom happened to be foreigners affiliated with non-governmental organizations. There had been some dramatic infighting within the JHU parliamentary group early on in its parliamentary profile. This was partly due the fact that this group had been cobbled together just before the polls and lacked unity on several grounds including the issue of how to relate to government formation.
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