The larger question that guided my dissertation concerns the relationship of Buddhists to violence. Between 1996 to 2019 there emerged in southern Sri Lanka a significant and unprecedented militant nationalist movement which comprises an array of political groups, organizations and parties: Sinhala Commission (1996), Jathika Sangha Sabha (1996), Sinhala Veera Vidahana (1997), Thrastha Virodhi Vyaparaya (1998), Sinhala Urumaya (1998), Jathika Hela Urumaya (2000), Bodu Bala Sena (2010), Sinhala Ravaya (2013), Ravana Balaya (2017), Sinha Le (2017), Sinhale Api (2018) and Mahasohon Balakaya (2019). My dissertation is a critical exploration of this militant Buddhist movement, particularly led by Buddhist monks who demanded to become sovereign in the country. I consider a contingent collective perception of this movement—a constructed imaginary that treats an increasing Muslim population, their businesses, and cultural practices as a form of Muslim fundamentalist terror. My project examines how this imagined terror by Buddhist militants informs the practical experience and consciousness of ordinary citizens leading to real consequences that exceed state sovereignty as a mode of governance (control) and monks’ demands to be sovereign in the country—a process I call ‘third wave of monks in politics.’ Treating militant Buddhist movement as a discursive tradition, I explore what affective practices and sensibilities are made possible by persuasive, competing arguments within the recent movement.