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Bring A Christian in Sri Lanka

Historical, Political, Social and Religious Considerations

Balboa Press

Historical aspects of Christianity in Sri Lanka

"Things that are done, it is needless to speak about. Things that are past, it is needless to blame"

- Confucius

Located below the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka is well known for 'Ceylon Tea', as a tourist destination, and in recent years, for cricket. It is a country rich in tropical vegetation, wildlife, sandy beaches, and ruins of ancient cities. Known as the 'Pearl of the Indian Ocean' in local literature, Arab traders called it Serendib, Greeks Taprobane, and western colonisers, Ceylon. The first settlers from India seem to have recognised its golden beaches, as they referred to it as Thambapani. Western writers compared it to the 'Garden of Eden', and the English word 'serendipity' originates from Sri Lanka, by way of Arabic Serendib, after the tranquility of the island's natural environment and the revelation of pleasant surprises. In 1972, twenty-four years after it gained independence from the British, Ceylon became Sri Lanka, which means 'resplendent island,' as the natives of the island used to call it, before the western colonisation.

Today, Sri Lanka is a rapidly developing South Asian country with a population of about twenty million, covering an area of about 65,600 square kilometres (maximum length: 435 kilometres; maximum width: 224 kilometres) and with a Buddhist-Sinhala culture that can be traced back to more than 2,500 years. Seventy per cent of the country's population is composed of Theravada Buddhists. Christians make up 7 per cent of the population and have a shorter history. Catholicism is the main Christian denomination that includes 82 per cent of all Christians.

However, Sri Lanka's cultural lustre has been tarnished by a civil war between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority that has claimed more than one hundred thousand lives. In addition, two insurrections by the Sinhalese youth in 1971 and 1989, under the leadership of JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) claimed more than sixty thousand lives. These conflicts arose from poverty, unemployment, ethno-religious nationalism, political corruption, politicisation of institutions, failure of law and order and the violence of the misled, encouraged by antisocial politicians, ethno-religious extremists and opportunistic nationalists for their advantage.

The influence of Buddhism on Sri Lankan society is evident from the numerous large temples (Raja Maha Vihara) and small Bo tree shrines in every nook and cranny of rural landscapes and urban streetscapes of the country. Contrary to Buddha's reflections, Hinduism has found a place in Buddhism and Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka, because some of its Buddhist kings married Indian Hindu queens, historical Indian invasions left behind Hinduism and syncretic inculturation became an inherited legacy.

Respect for elders and traditions are cultural traits among Sri Lankans; Buddhist priests are respected even above elders, and are considered religious leaders with political power. They do not use temples to preach politics, but make eloquent speeches at political rallies, influence trade unions, demonstrate on streets, and even enter the parliament as members. There is no doubt that Buddhist priests in recent years have shown great desire to grab worldly political power, apparently to protect the nation and establish a Buddhist-Sinhala State. Although Buddhist laity and Buddhist organisations generally support this move, the chief priests of Buddhist Chapters (Mahanayake) initially denounced it, as an inordinate attachment to worldly affairs, and therefore contrary to Buddha's teachings. But, under pressure from Buddhist nationalists and extremists, the heads of Buddhist Chapters adopted a neutral policy on the issue. In spite of the justification of political monks and monks in the parliament by past and present learned monks (Rahula 1974, Deegalle 2004) and political-Buddhist laity, the move appears to be a backward step in modern secular democracy. It is analogous to medieval Christian Europe (fifth to fifteenth century) and a regression towards the primitive Sri Lankan society, when priests, their beliefs and their interests influenced the State governance.

Sri Lanka was biogeographically linked to India several times during the Ice Age, (i.e. from 2.6 million years ago) when the sea level dropped, enabling animals to move freely from India to Sri Lanka.7 Radiocarbon dating suggests that the domain between Rameswaram (India) and Talaimannar (Sri Lanka) may have been exposed about 18,000 years ago. However, temple records indicate the occurrence of Adam's Bridge between the two countries to a much later date. Homo habilis the common ancestor of humans appeared on Earth in Africa about 2 million years ago and Homo erectus, who succeeded him in Africa, left Africa and went to Asia and Europe between 1.3 and 1.8 million years ago. An ancestral Homo sapiens emerged in the world between 200,000 to 100,000 years ago, but the behaviourally modern Homo sapiens, who used symbols, language and art and performed rituals, was recorded from about 50,000 years ago. The prehistoric records of Sri Lanka can be traced back to 300,000 BC or earlier, before the appearance of man (Homo sapiens) in the world, and could be those of Homo erectus. Deraniyagala (1998) found indications of human settlements in Sri Lanka, dating back to 125,000 BC, which would not be those of the behaviourally modern Homo sapiens, but those of a primitive Homo sapiens.

According to evidence, the earliest inhabitants of Sri Lanka would have been those, similar to the Balangoda Man (Homo sapiens balangodensis), whose full skeleton was recovered from excavations carried out in Sri Lanka. The bones of Balangoda Man were first discovered from Balangoda, a gem-mining town in Ratnapura District. He was a hunter-gatherer, who roamed the Hills of Ratnapura and Horton Plains from about 38,000 BC. He was a modern Homo sapiens, who ate meat, fish, snails, wild bananas and breadfruit. He used geometric microliths as tools and shell pendants and shark beads as ornaments, contributing to the Mesolithic period 'Balangoda Culture.' Balangoda Man seems to have persisted up to about 6,000 BC, taking modern features from about 34,000 BC. The skeletal remains discovered from Batadomba-lena and other caves in Sri Lanka date back to about 30,000 BC. From the skeletal records, the male Balangoda Man is estimated to be about 1.7 metres and the female to be about 1.6 metres in height. According to morphometric measurements, the present day Vaddhas (the aborigines of Sri Lanka) are said to be the descendants from this line. They are the original owners of Sri Lanka. The ancient prehistoric cave art of Sri Lanka is also attributed to Vaddhas. Some of them go back to 300 BC and are believed to be the work of Vaddha women, as they waited in caves for the return of their men from hunting. These rock paintings and engravings (RPE) are found in a number of locations in Sri Lanka, including those of Thanthirimale, Tharulengala, Homangala, Aadiyagala, Kotiyagala, Dorowaka, Arangodagalage and Konnattegodagalage.

After 5,000 BC the land connection of Sri Lanka with India was lost. The humans who came to the island thereafter had to travel to Sri Lanka by sea. By 3,000 BC, the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) was flourishing in the present northwest India and northeast Afghanistan and Pakistan, either as a result of Aryan invasion or the creation of Indo-Aryan civilisation by people who lived there from time immemorial. This civilisation had a complex social organisation with four castes (varnas) and was engaged in agriculture. By 600 BC, iron replaced copper as the metal for tools and weapons, and the iron plough was used in agriculture. While the vast majority of the members of this civilisation were farmers, a few became traders and travelled from city to city in caravans of bullock carts or sailed down the rivers in vessels, buying and selling goods along the way. Hence, the merchants sailed down the Indus River to the western coast and along the Ganges River to the eastern coast of India, and thereafter to the open sea.

It would not have taken long before the southward cruising mariners discovered a large island at the southern tip of the Indian Peninsula. The stone inscription on the arrival of marine merchants from India to Thiriyai in Trincomalee District (i.e. present Girihadu Seya) bears witness to the hypothesis of the movement of merchants from India to Sri Lanka and possible colonisation of the island by similar merchants. Sinhalese and Tamil historians agree on the visit of Indian merchants to Thiriyai, but they contest its religious significance, because of political implications. Soon, these marine merchants not only became aware of the pearl banks on its north-western littoral and precious stones in the southern inland, they also spread stories of a race of ogres and ogresses, who lived in this island, luring mariners with their wiles and devouring them after keeping them as husbands. Some daring adventurous merchants settled in Sri Lanka as their permanent home (Nicholas and Paranawitana 1961).

The account given in Buddhist chronicles on the origin of the Sinhalese race and the early settlers of Sri Lanka, recorded more than one thousand years after the event, makes no mention of merchants, and is full of miraculous events, as described below. There is no evidence that people of an advanced culture lived in Sri Lanka during the time, when Indo-Aryans settled there. Buddhist chronicles mention the existence of Yakksha, Naga and Raksha tribes in Sri Lanka during the period of first Sinhalese settlement in the island. However, Nicholas and Paranawitana (1961) consider the Yakkshas in the Vijayan legend, the Nagas in the visit of Buddha to the island and the Rakshas of Ramayana the Indian chronicle, as super human beings (i.e. not captured by history) and not races of humans. They think that the people who lived in the island, when Indo-Aryans arrived were in the Neolithic Stone Age, as they did not use metal tools, but tools of quartz, wood and animal bones. They used handmade pottery and practised slash-and-burn agriculture. They did not offer any serious resistance to the newcomers, but have exchanged their goods with them and adopted their language, religion and culture. They were referred to in Pali writings as Milakkhas and Nesadas, and they were probably the descendants of the Balangoda man. As the Buddhist chronicles' accounts of the origin of the Sinhalese race include myths and legendry, Nicholas and Paranawitana (1961) concluded that the people who were later known as Sinhalese descended from these autochthones and the Indo-Aryans.

Politically and culturally Sri Lanka is different from India, with a written history that goes back to 540 BC. The early history of Sri Lanka is full of legends and myths that seek to rationalise the origin of the Sinhalese race and justify its association with Buddhism. A popular legend traces back the origin of the Sinhalese to a cross between a human and a lion. As this is biologically impossible, the lion in the legend is probably a lion-like man or a Singh of North India. Late Prof. Ediriweera Sarathchandra's classical Sinhabahu Sinhala ballet vividly dramatises this legend with music and dance, tantalising the audience with entertainment, but it may also create a belief among some naïve Sinhalese that they are the proud descendants of a lion, above all other minorities in the country.

The serious history of Sri Lanka begins in the fifth to third century BC with the arrival of Vijaya, a playful and troublesome prince, expelled from a North Indian kingdom by his father. According to some scholars, even that seems to be a legend. The prince is believed to have sailed with friends to the west coast of Sri Lanka, where he married a tribal princess, Kuveni, and settled there. At the time of his arrival in the island, the local inhabitants were practising animism; worshipping snakes (Nagas) devils (Yakkshas) and demons (Rakshas). According to the ancient Buddhist chronicles, the locals were not humans, but a type of super human beings (Ranwella 2008), which make these accounts non-historical.

There are four versions on the mythical origin of the Sinhalese race and its settlement in Sri Lanka (Devendra 2010). They are:

1. Mahawansa story (fifth century) – Mahawansa ascribes the beginning of the Sinhalese race to a lion in North India, who captured Suppadevi, a Bengali princess, and imprisoned her in a cave in Latadesa (Gujarat). She bore from the lion a son, Sinhabahu and a daughter, Sinhaseevali. When the son grew up, he forced opened the stone door of the cave and escaped with his mother and sister to Vanga province (Bengal). The lion harassed the inhabitants of Vanga region in search of his family. The King of Vanga offered a reward to anyone who could get rid of the lion. Sinhabahu volunteered and killed his father. The king offered him the kingdom, but he in turn offered it to his mother. Sinhabahu returned to Gujarat, where he founded a kingdom, married his sister and bore sixteen pairs of twins, the first being Vijaya and Sumitta. Young Vijaya and his friends were troublemakers. So, Sinhabahu expelled them from the kingdom. Vijaya then sailed to Sri Lanka with his seven hundred friends and landed in the northwest of Sri Lanka. This happened in 543 BC on the day of Buddha's parinibbana (death and passage to nirvana), establishing a link between the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka and Buddhism. Buddha foresaw that Vijaya would convert the entire island to Buddhism, and he requested Indra, the king of gods to protect Vijaya and his followers. Indra deputed Uppalavanna (Varuna), who protected them by tying the sacred paritta thread on their wrists. Kuveni, a devil princess (Yakkshas) in the island, assumed human form and captured Vijaya's seven hundred men for her supper. When Vijaya learned of this, he threatened to kill Kuveni, if she did not return the men. Kuveni complied, and then became Vijaya's consort, helping him to destroy the Sirisavatthu city run by Yakkshas. Later, Vijaya sent her away with her son and daughter and brought a royal Pandu princess of the Ksatriya clan from Madhura India, to become his consort. The Pandu king was so pleased that he sent the princess to Vijaya, seven hundred maidens as brides for Vijaya's followers, a band of craftsmen and one thousand families to launch the new kingdom. Vijaya became the first king of Sri Lanka. Kuveni left Thambapani, but on her return to Lankapura, she was slain by Yakkshas for betraying them. The two children grew up to become the ancestors of Pulindas, the Vaddhas of today.

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Excerpted from Bring A Christian in Sri Lanka by Leonard Pinto. Copyright © 2015 Leonard Pinto. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
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