Sri Lanka: In Search of the Truth

"Buddha never claimed to be God. Yet Jesus Christ claimed to be the true and living God. Buddha simply said, 'I am a teacher in search of the truth.' Jesus said, 'I am the Truth.' "
-Unknown

What are people looking for in this life? For a Buddhist, the ultimate salvation is to reach nirvana, the state of finally escaping the unending cycle of life and death, sorrow and happiness, health and sickness. This ultimate goal can only be reached by the elimination of personal desire and the ultimate elimination of any personal identity; and yet actually attaining this is generally considered to be beyond the grasp of most ordinary Buddhists today and could take thousands of life cycles to perfect. In contrast, for a Christian, the ultimate salvation is for man to be lifted out of his fallen state and be reconciled to the God that he fell away from. This ultimate goal cannot be accomplished by any work on the part of man himself, but can only be reached by the blood and sacrifice of Christ, who took our punishment upon himself and brought us peace and healing in the process. And because Christ is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us, we can approach his throne of grace with confidence and receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

What a difference there is between Buddhism and Christianity! One is in search of the truth, and the other has The Truth. And here lies the heart of the difference of Christianity. Christianity does not follow a path that in the end we hope will lead us to God; instead God comes to meet us! We start Christianity by meeting Jesus Christ! We should never forget how blessed we are to know the Truth, instead of being on a path that is endlessly searching for it. The reality of God with us should be something that we never cease to share with others for it is truly an amazing wonder that occurs only in Christ. Let us pray this month for the Christians in Sri Lanka, that by the example of their life, they might prove to their countrymen that they no longer need to keep searching. The Truth is waiting to meet them.

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Sri Lanka

Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, Unspecified 10% (2001)

Basic Info: Sri Lanka is an island, slightly larger than West Virginia, off the south of India. It was originally named Ceylon, but after gaining its independence from Britain in 1948 and becoming its own republic, the island’s name was changed to Sri Lanka which means “Sacred Island” in Sanskrit. Despite its name, Sri Lanka has faced some major problems. Sri Lanka is known for its gems and tea, but it is also a source and destination for men and women trafficked for the purposes of involuntary servitude and commercial sexual exploitation. About 1.5 million Sri Lankans work abroad, 90% of them in the Middle East. Men and women migrate willingly to the Persian Gulf, Middle East, and East Asia to work as construction workers, domestic servants, or garment factory workers. They send home more than $3 billion a year; however, some find themselves in situations of involuntary servitude when faced with restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and debt bondage. Children are also trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation. Pedophilia and alcoholism are major problems, and the nation’s suicide rate is one of the highest in the world. In 1983, fighting broke out between the Sinhalese majority and armed Hindu Tamil separatists which left tens of thousands of people dead. Since then, several hundred thousand Tamil civilians have fled the island and more than 200,000 Tamils have sought refuge in the West. In December 2001, a peace accord was signed that seemed promising in returning stability to the country. However, several areas of the country still experience ethnic violence and conflict. Christians are the only people group where the two ethnicities co-exist peacefully.

Religion: According to tradition, the Apostle Thomas first brought Christianity to Sri Lanka. In AD 537, a Nestorian reported many churches on the island. Buddhism was introduced to the island in the third century, and Catholicism was first introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century. However, Buddhism remains the state religion and is officially protected and promoted. Because of their experience of colonization, many Sri Lankans consider Christianity to be a foreign religion. While the Constitution contains a statement guarding freedom of religion, many Christian activities are seen to violate the special status awarded Buddhism. However, there has been significant growth of evangelical Christianity since 1980. This has resulted in increased opposition from militant Buddhists, frequently led by local monks. Christians were subjected to a significant increase of violence in 2005, partly because relief efforts following the tsunami were used as an occasion for accusations against Christians that they were using aid as incentive to convert to Christianity. Today, mobs frequently threaten violence unless all Christian work is stopped in their area. Churches have been burned, believers beaten and Christian leaders killed. Sri Lankan believers continue to battle legislations that could bring about increased and legitimized persecution and harassment of minority religious groups in Sri Lanka by outlawing the “inducing of voluntary conversions from Buddhism” and punishing with jail terms those caught “spreading the faith.” In 2004, the leader of a party of Buddhist monks proposed one such legislation as a private members bill and was met with opposition from The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka and other Christian groups and denominations and civil rights organizations. The Supreme Court then ruled the bill to be valid except for two clauses which were deemed unconstitutional and taken out of the legislation. In 2008 and early 2009, renewed efforts to implement the revised anti-conversion bill began, heightening concern for Christians.




Buddhism in Sri Lanka

Buddhism originated in India, but Sri Lankans believe their island to be the home of the form of Buddhism they consider to be the most orthodox and the closest to the teachings of Buddha. This is because Buddhism persevered on the island due to the Theravada Buddhist monks, while Buddhism was dying out on the continent due to the aggressive spread of Hinduism and Islam. Sri Lankans welcome foreigners, mostly from the West, who want to study and follow the path of the Enlightened One. When looking at Buddhism in Sri Lanka, there are three avenues to consider: traditional orthodoxy, folk Buddhism, and protestant Buddhism.

Traditional orthodoxy is what most people picture as Buddhism: monastic orders, the Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist doctrines (such as the Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path), and Buddhist rituals. One reason Sri Lanka claims to be the home of true Buddhist orthodoxy is that the only complete cannon of Buddhist scriptures Tripitaka exists in the Pali language and comes from Sri Lanka. Buddhism has also always been closely associated with the Sinhala ethnicity, and it would be fair to say that to many people to be a true Sinhala is to be Buddhist. That is why converting to Christianity is often seen as a betrayal of one’s culture, language, and history.

Folk Buddhism is mixed from spirit religions of Sri Lanka’s native peoples and the influence of Hinduism brought by Indian invaders. While traditional Buddhism focuses on the lives to come, it offers very little practical help for this current life. This is where people turn to the animistic world of gods, devils, planets, and stars. Before the arrival of Buddhism, Sri Lankans were polytheists and had a well developed demon-deity system that served their daily needs of living in fear of unpredictable gods and evil spirits. With the influence of Hinduism by the Tamil invaders, the main gods of Hinduism merged with the Sri Lankan gods and the four main gods have been nationalized in the fact that they are considered to be the guardian deities of the island as well as the protectors and preserves of Buddhism. The gods are considered to have great power and millions seek out their priests and temples, which are distinctly different from Buddhist monks and monasteries. Charms and counter charms, evil eye and evil mouth, palmistry and horoscopes are all part of how most Sri Lankan Buddhist view and live their lives.

Protestant Buddhism was created from a period in history known as the ‘controversies’ and significantly influenced the expression and attitude of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The controversies originated from Protestant missionaries who used the press to attack Buddhism. The Buddhists responded in similar form and a cycle of written and oral controversies between Buddhist and Christian leaders followed. This came to a climax in 1873 at a series of public debates between the leading clergy of both sides, which was covered intensively by the press and followed closely by an aware and literate public. The perceived outcome is that the Buddhists won and showed clear superiority over Christianity. Past and present Buddhists believe these events to be a highly significant event in their religious history. Spurred on by the debates, Buddhists began to exploit many of the methods brought by the missionaries to the island such as: the use of tracts, Buddhist missionary societies, fund raising campaigns, developing Buddhist colleges and Sunday schools, Buddhist preaching tours, Buddhist catechisms, and prayers for healing in the name of Buddha. Today, many of the institutions of Protestant Buddhism are at the forefront of attempts to protect the Sinhala Buddhist identity and to limit the growth of the church and the Christian faith on the island.

Information from www.persecution.net “Sri Lanka”; CIA World Fact Book “Sri Lanka”; People of the Buddhist World: An Overview of Buddhism in Sri Lanka

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