Is Gotabaya Rajapaksa planning to enter monastic life?

A series of widely circulated social media claims stated that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa plans to take up a monastic life. Therefore, Fact Crescendo investigated to find out the truth about this information.

Social Media Claims:

Facebook | Archived Link

The English translation of the viral social media post in Tamil is below.

“Former President Gotabaya is planning to engage in monastic life. He played a key role in ending the 30-year war and became the first president to step down and leave the country.

According to current information, Gotabaya is said to be spending his time with great interest in Buddhist philosophy. It is reported that he spends his time in meditation, minimising his contact with outsiders as much as possible.

He is very much interested in reading books written on Buddhist philosophy and deep meditation methods and studying the dharma in them. If he decides to become a monk, he will become the first president in the history of Sri Lanka to renounce his home and join the monastic order. The post was uploaded on February 02, 2026.”

Many people were curious about this information, and we decided to dig deeper.

Fact Check:

When we investigated whether there were any reports in the mainstream media that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was planning to enter monastic life, our investigation confirmed that there were no such reports.

When we checked whether Gotabaya Rajapaksa had posted any information about it on his official Facebook or X social media handles, however, we could not find notices of such intentions to join monkhood.

Present at the recent Republic Day celebrations of India in Colombo

We searched for any recent public appearances of the former president as well and noticed a recent photo in which former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and Maithripala Sirisena were sitting together with Minister Nalinda Jayatissa and JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva on the occasion of Indian Republic Day celebrations on January 26.

Facebook | Archived Link

Photos of the event were also posted on the official Facebook page of the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka. Gotabaya Rajapaksa can also be seen among them.

A reliable source of information on former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Therefore, when enquired from a few parties related to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a reliable source, who was part of the media team of the former president, indicated that they had also seen the viral posts that Gotabaya Rajapaksa was planning to engage in monastic life.

He clarified that there is no such indication that the former president is seriously considering monastic life; however, the deep connection Gotabaya Rajapaksa has with the Buddhist way of life might have been a reason behind such stories.

Explaining further, he said that Gotabaya Rajapaksa is also very much involved in Buddhist rituals in his daily life, and as the former president is currently not involved in active politics, his free time is at times spent on reading Buddhist literature.

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Conclusion:

Therefore, based on our research, it was found that the information being shared about former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s plans to engage in monastic life is misleading and that there is no such announcement or inclination from the former president.