{"id":155699,"date":"2026-04-13T16:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=155699"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:50:21","slug":"dutch-east-india-company-voc-issued-several-placaaten-decrees-or-edicts-in-1711-and-1732-to-suppress-buddhism-and-hinduism-labeling-them-as-cannibal-faiths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/04\/13\/dutch-east-india-company-voc-issued-several-placaaten-decrees-or-edicts-in-1711-and-1732-to-suppress-buddhism-and-hinduism-labeling-them-as-cannibal-faiths\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch East India Company (VOC) issued several Placaaten (decrees or edicts) in 1711 and 1732 to suppress Buddhism and Hinduism labeling them as &#8220;cannibal-faiths&#8221;."},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>During the Dutch colonial period in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the Dutch East India Company (VOC) issued several <em>Placaaten<\/em> (decrees or edicts) designed to suppress non-Protestant religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, with particularly severe actions taken in the 1710s and 1730s.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Prohibition Laws:<\/strong> In 1711, the Dutch implemented laws banning the practice of both Hinduism and Buddhism, labeling them as &#8220;cannibal-faiths&#8221;.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>1732-1733 Actions:<\/strong> As residents frequently ignored these decrees, the Dutch intensified their measures. In 1732, an order was issued directing all village headmen to eliminate Buddhist temples within their areas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Legalistic Persecution:<\/strong> The Dutch aimed to legally compel conversions to Protestantism. This included forbidding non-converts from being witnesses in court, requiring baptism to inherit property, and demanding that marriages be registered in church.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Policy Context:<\/strong> While the Dutch were more legalistic than the preceding Portuguese, who used direct violence, the Dutch policy was a structured effort to abolish the traditional Buddhist practices in their controlled coastal areas.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/aCJIYyh6eZ13ncrN5\">https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/aCJIYyh6eZ13ncrN5<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AI Overview<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>see also<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/FZOdytx302xHxZLUx\">https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/FZOdytx302xHxZLUx<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several repressive <strong>placaarts<\/strong> (official proclamations) were issued during the Dutch colonial period in Sri Lanka. Records indicate a major escalation in religious repression around <strong>1732<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Dutch Placaarts and Religious Policies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Dutch East India Company (VOC) used a legalistic approach to suppress local religions and Catholicism in favor of the Reformed Church.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>1732 Proclamation<\/strong>: Seeing that earlier orders were being ignored, the Dutch issued an order in 1732 commanding all village headmen to <strong>eliminate Buddhist temples<\/strong> in their areas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Enforcement<\/strong>: To ensure compliance, they enhanced punishments for those practicing non-Christian religions to massive fines (2,000 Rix dollars) or <strong>25 years of chained labor<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Earlier Laws (1711)<\/strong>: As early as 1711, the Dutch framed laws specifically banning the practice of both Hinduism and Buddhism, disparagingly labeling them as &#8220;cannibal-faiths&#8221;.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Targeting Catholicism<\/strong>: In 1658, a severe Placaart made it a <strong>capital offense<\/strong> to harbor or protect a Roman Catholic priest.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Method of Suppression<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike the more direct violence often attributed to the Portuguese, the Dutch utilized <strong>administrative pressure<\/strong> to force conversion:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Property &amp; Inheritance<\/strong>: Baptism was required to legally bequeath property to heirs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Civil Rights<\/strong>: The evidence of a non-convert was often not admissible in court.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Education<\/strong>: Schools were established primarily to propagate the Protestant faith, with &#8220;school masters&#8221; doubling as inspectors of Christian practice.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite these harsh laws, many Buddhists practiced their faith in secret or found refuge in the <strong>Kingdom of Kandy<\/strong>, where the Buddhist Sinhalese kings protected and even helped revive the religion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Courtesy :&nbsp; AI Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senaka Weeraratna During the Dutch colonial period in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the Dutch East India Company (VOC) issued several Placaaten (decrees or edicts) designed to suppress non-Protestant religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, with particularly severe actions taken in the 1710s and 1730s.&nbsp; https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/aCJIYyh6eZ13ncrN5 AI Overview &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;. see also https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/FZOdytx302xHxZLUx Several repressive placaarts (official proclamations) were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155699","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=155699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155700,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155699\/revisions\/155700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}