Lent - day 29

Categories: christianity

Date: 30 March 2009 13:54:12

Sri Lanka

Languages: Sinhalese, Tamil, English

Christian tradition claims that Sri Lanka was first evangelised by the apostle Thomas. Small Christian communities existed on the coasts of Sri Lanka during the succeeding centuries but is seen by many Sri Lankans as a product of Western colonisation.

The Sri Lankan constitution upholds freedom of religion but the proportion of Christians in Sri Lanka has declined steadily since the end of colonial rule, owing not to numerical decline but to a faster expansion of the population adhering to other faiths. Buddhism is practised by about 70% of the people, Hinduism by about 14%, Christians and Muslims about 8% each. Christian communities are generally concentrated in the south west of the country.

Although there is freedom of religion there is apparently discrimination against minority religions in taxation, employment and education.  Opposition has also flared resulting in violence -  burning of churches and physical attacks.