The correct depiction of the identity of Sri Lanka taking into account its ethnic and religious composition
Posted on March 9th, 2023
Senaka Weeraratna
Sri Lanka is Multicultural, Multi-Religious, and Multi-Lingual.
This is a fact.
Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist. About 70% of Sri Lanka’s population is Sinhala Buddhist.
This is a fact.
Therefore taking into account these ground realities Sri Lanka’s identity can be defined as follows:
Sri Lanka is a predominantly Sinhala Buddhist country with a multi-religious, multi-lingual, and multi-cultural background.
Some hide the Sinhala Buddhist component in the identity of Sri Lanka. This is wrong. Sri Lanka has always been identified as a Buddhist country.
Sri Lanka has the longest uninterrupted history of Buddhism in the world.
Sri Lanka is a civilizational nation with a unique Buddhist Civilization that had won the admiration of the world even before the advent of the colonial period i.e. 1505 ( common era).
It is a cause for national pride.
Senaka Weeraratna
see also
Sri Lanka’s debt to Buddhism