{"id":78796,"date":"2018-06-27T16:28:44","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T22:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=78796"},"modified":"2018-06-27T09:25:11","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T16:25:11","slug":"whither-buddhism-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/06\/27\/whither-buddhism-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Whither Buddhism in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janaka Perera<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Today, Buddhism in Sri Lanka faces its biggest challenge since independence. The reasons are complex.\u00a0 Over the past two decades many Sinhala Buddhists both among the laity and the clergy have been losing their bearings making them vulnerable to dubious internal and external forces.<\/p>\n

They are the two fronts on which concerned Buddhists have to fight.<\/p>\n

One group demonizes Buddhists and their leaders covertly and covertly mainly through the media (the most recent example is the Daily Mirror article denigrating the Anagarika Dharmapala, calling him a racist and trouble-maker).<\/p>\n

The other group distorts the Dhamma and misleads Buddhists for the purpose destroying the Sasana from within. The first comprises mainly non-Buddhists while the second includes persons (both bhikkus and lay persons) pretending to be Buddhists.<\/p>\n

The first group includes foreign-funded Christian evangelists who take full advantage of the abject poverty among some rural Buddhists (and for that matter poor Hindus too) to convert them from their ancestral religion. This aggressive proselytizing and ‘harvesting souls’ have been largely ignored by successive governments, despite promises to promote and safeguard Buddhism.<\/p>\n

On occasion this has eventually led to violence for which Buddhists are blamed in the end but the root causes are never probed.<\/p>\n

Although schisms in the Buddha Sanasana have been occurring since the time of Sri Lanka\u2019s ancient kings leading to differences among the Mahayana, Theravada and Vajrayana schools none of them – as far as it is known – rejected the Tripitaka and the core Buddhist teachings or the fact that Buddhism originated in the Indian subcontinent.<\/p>\n

Our focus here is on recently-emerged groups which have been attempting to almost totally distort the Dhamma and its history.\u00a0 These distortions from within have misled many Buddhists, including supposedly educated people. These misinterpretations have become a bigger threat to the survival of the teaching than Christian evangelism and other outside forces which many Buddhists are worried about.<\/p>\n

Indirectly related to this is the role a section of the Sangha played after 1948. The party system the British introduced divided both the Buddhist laity and clergy though all of them were supposed to be followers of the same Buddhist teaching.<\/p>\n

Party loyalties and ideologies appeared to become more important than the Buddha\u2019s guide to good governance and the need to properly address pressing national issues. \u00a0These failures led to both positive and negative outcomes as we have seen since 1956.<\/p>\n

Bhikkus were addressing political meetings from UNP, SLFP, LSSP, CP, MEP and JVP election platforms and finally a section of them formed their own party the JHU \u2013 whereas in pre-colonial times the Sangha served only as advisers to kings but did not directly involve themselves in politics.<\/p>\n

In the post-independence years some of the non-Buddhist clergy too served political agendas often to undermine Buddhism but their roles were not that visible since hardly any of them addressed political meetings and openly participated in election campaigns. However Buddhist revivalists like L.H. Mettananda exposed them.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly this situation led to Sinhala Buddhists, especially the laity to grope in the dark despite some erudite monks like the Venerable Madihe Pannaseeha trying their best to open the eyes of the Buddhists.<\/p>\n

Some of us might remember that in the 1950s there was a group called Thapasa Nikaya the members of which pretended to be very pious monks but this \u2018sect\u2019 vanished when they were exposed as rogues in robes.<\/p>\n

These unwelcome developments gradually opened the way for dubious characters to misinterpret the Buddhist teaching and its history. \u00a0Among them are self-proclaimed Buddhas and Arahats but leading luxurious lives. Others are issuing \u2018sovan\u2019 and \u2018sakrudagami\u2019 certificates to the gullible who attend their \u2018meditation\u2019 classes.<\/p>\n

Another group is preaching that the Tripitaka is a later addition to the Buddha Dhamma and therefore not necessary to understand the dhamma.<\/p>\n

The biggest fantasy has been the story that the Buddha (or Prince Siddhartha) was born in Sri Lanka. This lie is being spread over the past 10 years and even books have been written to propagate this blatant falsehood. Among those who first exposed this were the eminent psychiatrist and Buddhist activist the late Dr. D.V.J. Harischandra and the Venerable Bandarawela Amithananda.<\/p>\n

So far no one in Sri Lanka except the deluded followers of those who are promoting this fantasy believe it (and may be a few SL-born \u2018Buddhists\u2019 domiciled abroad).\u00a0 Fortunately none of the television channels in SL have given publicity to this as far as I am aware.<\/p>\n

The best way to challenge these humbugs is to demand that they provide (1) clear archaeological evidence supported by carbon testing and other scientific methods to prove that the Buddha lived in Sri Lanka and (2) irrefutable historical proof \u2013 acceptable to all reputed researchers – that the historical places and personalities associated with him are actually not in India but in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

It is very doubtful they will accept this challenge but the gullible would continue to believe them.<\/p>\n

Since these distortions and misinterpretations are so numerous the following link will some throw some light on it.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sgt2fhbCFWk<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It is now high time for a another Sangha Council (Sangayana) to weed out undesirable elements within the Sasana.<\/p>\n

Also there are moves to dilute our Sinhala-Buddhist national identity in the name of multiculturalism. \u00a0So called liberals, secularists and some Marxists are involved in this.\u00a0There are no 100 percent multicultural countries anywhere in the world.\u00a0 Whether a country is officially secular or not, she has a predominant culture, no matter whether it has been influenced by other traditions and beliefs.<\/p>\n

India is constitutionally secular and is home to many religions but it is Hindu traditions\/culture that is predominant there.\u00a0 The same applies to the USA which has the words \u2018In God We Trust\u201d on the dollar note in accordance with its Protestant Christian Culture (that white settlers USA, Canada and Australia suppressed the rights of indigenous people and committed atrocities on them is a different issue)<\/p>\n

Malaysia is officially a Muslim country where Islamic culture is predominant but is tolerant of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity.<\/p>\n

Most important is to realize that a predominant culture and national identity are based on centuries-old the beliefs and traditions of the majority community of a country.\u00a0 Therefore it is absurd for a Johnny- come-late community (as some Islamic immigrants in the West) to demand for their beliefs a status equal to that of the predominant culture of that country.<\/p>\n

We often read and hear the term \u2018Sri Lankan Buddhist\u2019 but in fact it is virtual misnomer.\u00a0 It gives an outsider the impression that Buddhists in SL include Tamils, Burghers, Malays etc. whereas in reality 99 percent of the Buddhists here are Sinhala.<\/p>\n

Even Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has today recognized that Buddhism should enjoy the pride of place in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

During most periods of Sri Lanka\u2019s recorded pre-colonial history (including the Kandyan era) this country was known as \u2018Sinhale\u2019, which meant not a particular race but all the people who lived in the \u2018Land of the Lions\u2019 as the Chinese traveler-monk, Fa-hsien noted in his\u00a0Record of the Buddhist Countries<\/strong>.\u00a0 It was only during British colonial period and afterwards that the term \u2018Sinhale\u2019 was denigrated and given racial connotations, both by anti-Sinhala elements and those misled by them.<\/p>\n

Over 50 years ago when the kind of multiculturalism some dubious groups are promoting today was unheard of, well-known Sinhala satirical writer, the late T.G.W. de Silva wrote a short story about a Parliamentary debate on which days should be declared public holidays in a way not to displease any of the minority religious and ethnic communities. Eventually Parliament decides that all 365 days of the year should be declared public holidays!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janaka Perera Today, Buddhism in Sri Lanka faces its biggest challenge since independence. The reasons are complex.\u00a0 Over the past two decades many Sinhala Buddhists both among the laity and the clergy have been losing their bearings making them vulnerable to dubious internal and external forces. They are the two fronts on which concerned Buddhists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-janaka-perera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78796","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=78796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}