{"id":117645,"date":"2021-08-30T17:22:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T00:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117645"},"modified":"2021-08-30T17:22:30","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T00:22:30","slug":"the-flag-and-the-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/30\/the-flag-and-the-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"THE FLAG AND THE CROSS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy: ‘ANANDA IN SWADDLING CLOTHES’\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>By S. A. Wijayatilake\u00a0(Extracted from the Ananda College Golden Jubilee Souvenir – 1936)<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Three and a half centuries of foreign aggression and occupation – at\nfirst partial, but since 1815 complete – of the land had not only demoralized\nand emasculated the Sinhalese people generally, but had adversely affected the\nposition of Buddhism in this Island in particular. The Portuguese, whose\narrival in Ceylon synchronized with the activities of the Counter-Reformation\nin Europe, believed that the Flag follows Trade and the Cross follows the Flag.\nIn the words of Albuquerque, The new heroes of Portugal are not her soldiers\nor sailors, but her missionaries. These were the men who made their way into\nthe interior of India and who penetrated the furthest East. China, Japan, and\neven Tibet witnessed their presence and heard their preaching\u201d. (Quoted by C.\nM. Fernando, M. a., LL.M. (Cantab) in Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon,\np. 45, in Part XL The Portuguese Period,\u201d of his article on the History of\nCeylon. I should add that the late Mr. C. M. Fernando was a Roman Catholic.)\nAlong the Western littoral of Ceylon the Portuguese established Roman Catholic\nMissions with the same thoroughness with which they built magnificent\nfortresses at every key point. Even as Italy, the premier Roman Catholic\ncountry in Europe today, has been recently civilizing the savage\u201d Ethiopian\nwith the aid of such beneficent instruments as bombs, cannon, and poison gas so\nher prototype of the 16th Century, the great Portugal, tried to wean the\nbenighted heathen from the ways of evil by such gentle means as wanton\ndesecration of Buddhist and Hindu temples of far-flung fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hindu Temple of a Thousand Columns in old Trincomalee was razed to\nthe ground and the granite of its carved columns and cornices was used in the\nbuilding of a fort. The ancient Buddhist Temple of Devi Nuwara in the South,\nwhich had evoked the homage of poets and of kings, was demolished, and only the\nstory of its pristine splendor remains. Such was the thoroughness and the\nloving kindness with which the Portuguese, followers of the Prince of Peace,\ndisseminated Peace on Earth, goodwill to men.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy: ‘ANANDA IN SWADDLING CLOTHES’\u00a0\u00a0By S. A. Wijayatilake\u00a0(Extracted from the Ananda College Golden Jubilee Souvenir – 1936) Three and a half centuries of foreign aggression and occupation – at first partial, but since 1815 complete – of the land had not only demoralized and emasculated the Sinhalese people generally, but had adversely affected the position […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}