Buddhism

The history of Sri Lanka is inseparably intertwined with the history of Buddhism in the island. Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) is the oldest continually Buddhist country in the world, Buddhism being the major religion in the island since its introduction in the 2nd century BC. Monks from Sri Lanka have an important role in spreading both Theravada and Mahayana throughout South-east Asia. It was Sri Lankan nuns who introduced the Sangha of nuns into China in 433AD. In the 16th century the Portuguese conquered Sri Lanka and savagely persecuted Buddhism as did the Dutch who followed them.

When the British won control at the beginning of the 19th century Buddhism was well into decline, a situation that encouraged the English missionaries that then began to flood the island. But against all expectations the monastic and lay community brought about a major revival from about 1860 onwards, a movement that went hand in hand with growing nationalism. Since then Sri Lankan monks and expatriate lay people have been prominent in spreading Theravada in Asia, the West and even in Africa.

Srilanka

For a small island, Sri Lanka has acquired a lot of names - Serendib, Ceylon, Teardrop of India, Resplendent Isle, Island of Dharma, Pearl of the Orient - an accumulation which reveals its richness and beauty, and the intensity of affection which it has evoked in visitors. For centuries it seduced travelers, who returned home with enchanting images of a languorous tropical isle of such deep spirituality and serenity that it entered the Western imagination as a Tahiti of the East. This, sadly, is the same island which, for the past 15 years, has been traumatized by a ferocious ethnic and religious conflict that has punctured the most willful exoticism and burned Sri Lanka into Western minds as the Northern Ireland of the Indian Ocean.