Reclining and standing Buddhas at Polonnaruwa
SRI LANKA’S HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE covers more than
2,000 years. Known as Lanka--the "resplendent land"--in the
ancient Indian epic Ramayana, the island has numerous
other references that testify to the island’s natural beauty and
wealth. Islamic folklore maintains that Adam and Eve were offered
refuge on the island as solace for their expulsion from the
Garden of Eden. Asian poets, noting the geographical location of
the island and lauding its beauty, called it the "pearl upon the
brow of India." A troubled nation in the 1980s, torn apart by
communal violence, Sri Lanka has more recently been called
India’s "fallen tear."
Sri Lanka claims a democratic tradition matched by few other
developing countries, and since its independence in 1948,
successive governments have been freely elected. Sri Lanka’s
citizens enjoy a long life expectancy, advanced health standards,
and one of the highest literacy rates in the world despite the
fact that the country has one of the lowest per capita incomes.
In the years since independence, Sri Lanka has experienced
severe communal clashes between its Buddhist Sinhalese majority--
approximately 74 percent of the population--and the country’s
largest minority group, the Sri Lankan Tamils, who are Hindus and
comprise nearly 13 percent of the population. The communal
violence that attracted the harsh scrutiny of the international
media in the late 1980s can best be understood in the context of
the island’s complex historical development--its ancient and
intricate relationship to India’s civilization and its more than
four centuries under colonial rule by European powers.
The Sinhalese claim to have been the earliest colonizers of
Sri Lanka, first settling in the dry north-central regions as
early as 500 B.C. Between the third century B.C. and the twelfth
century A.D., they developed a great civilization centered around
the cities of Anuradhapura and later Polonnaruwa, which was noted
for its genius in hydraulic engineering--the construction of
water tanks (reservoirs) and irrigation canals, for example--and
its guardianship of Buddhism. State patronage gave Buddhism a
heightened political importance that enabled the religion to
escape the fate it had experienced in India, where it was
eventually absorbed by Hinduism.
The history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, especially its extended
period of glory, is for many Sinhalese a potent symbol that links
the past with the present. An enduring ideology defined by two
distinct elements--sinhaladipa (unity of the island with
the Sinhalese) and dhammadipa (island of Buddhism)--
designates the Sinhalese as custodians of Sri Lankan society.
This theme finds recurrent expression in the historical
chronicles composed by Buddish monks over the centuries, from the
mythological founding of the Sinhalese "lion" race around 300
B.C. to the capitulation of the Kingdom of Kandy, the last
independent Sinhalese polity in the early nineteenth century.
The institutions of Buddhist-Sinhalese civilization in Sri
Lanka came under attack during the colonial eras of the
Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. During these centuries of
colonialization, the state encouraged and supported Christianity-
-first Roman Catholicism, then Protestantism. Most Sinhalese
regard the entire period of European dominance as an unfortunate
era, but most historians--Sri Lankan or otherwise--concede that
British rule was relatively benign and progressive compared to
that of the Dutch and Portuguese. Influenced by the ascendant
philosophy of liberal reformism, the British were determined to
anglicize the island, and in 1802, Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon)
became Britain’s first crown colony. The British gradually
permitted native participation in the governmental process; and
under the Donoughmore Constitution of 1931 and then the Soulbury
Constitution of 1946, the franchise was dramatically extended,
preparing the island for independence two years later.
Under the statesmanship of Sri Lanka’s first postindependence
leader, Don Stephen (D.S.) Senanayake, the country managed to
rise above the bitterly divisive communal and religious emotions
that later complicated the political agenda. Senanayake
envisioned his country as a pluralist, multiethnic, secular
state, in which minorities would be able to participate fully in
government affairs. His vision for his nation soon faltered,
however, and communal rivalry and confrontation appeared within
the first decade of independence. Sinhalese nationalists aspired
to recover the dominance in society they had lost during European
rule, while Sri Lankan Tamils wanted to protect their minori
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