5/31/2023 0 Comments Nayomi munaweera novels![]() ![]() Yet in recent times a brand of militant nationalist Buddhism led by the BBS has risen to prominence in part as a response to what monks see as the unchecked spread of Islam and the economic strength of the Muslim community. For much of the country’s history (despite a 26 year long ethnic civil war) the religions have generally coexisted. But the most ubiquitous religious icons are the Buddha statues dotting the country from tiny garden shrines to 80-foot tall figures rising from the forest in the ancient Buddhist citadels of Polonaruwa and Anuradhapura. Lonely country crossroads shelter shrines to Ganesh or St. Almost every street in the capital, Colombo, boasts churches, mosques, and temples, often in close proximity. Sri Lanka is a country of deep devotions. In English, “Bodhu Bala Sena” translates as the “Buddha Power Force,” a puzzling oxy-moron that represents a militant faction of Buddhist monks dead set on defending the country from what they see as encroachment from Muslims and Christians by any means necessary. On Sunday June 15 th 2014, in Sri Lanka, the land of my birth and a country I feel deeply tied to by both love and despair, the Bodhu Bala Sena went on the warpath. ![]()
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