COLOMBO - A Buddhist monk who applied to join Sri Lanka's police force and carry a gun has been turned down - because he wouldn't give up his saffron robes.

Sri Lankan Buddhist monks take a religious oath during a political rally of the island's all-monk National Heritage Party in Colombo, Sri Lanka, September 3, 2005. [Reuters]

The monk applied for a job as assistant superintendent of police, a rank to which sidearms are issued. It was not immediately clear why the monk wanted the policing job in the first place, but many monks take on jobs as teachers, lecturers and ayurvedic doctors.

"Someone in robes can't do the work of police," said Neville Piyadigama, Chairman of the National Police Commission. "It's up to him whether he wants to join the police or remain as a Buddhist monk."

He refused to identify the monk who had applied.

Majority-Buddhist Sri Lanka is home to small groups of hardline monks who hate Tamil Tiger rebels fighting a two-decade civil war with the state, and advocate settling the conflict on the battlefield rather than at peace talks.