06003
Jan. 3, 2006

Tsunami relief work in Sri Lanka
brings Christians, Buddhists together 

by Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International 

GALLE, Sri Lanka — One year after Sri Lanka was devastated by a tsunami that flattened parts of south and southeast Asia, churches in the island nation say their relief work has promoted better relations with the country’s Buddhist majority.  

        “It (the tsunami) has given us an opportunity to work closely with the Buddhist people and win their confidence,” said the Rev. Lesley Weerasinghe, a Methodist pastor in the southern port city of Galle, where more than 4,000 people were killed by the giant waves. 

        Initially, Weerasinghe recalled, local Buddhists staged demonstrations when he tried to start building houses for Buddhist tsunami victims on a plot bought by the church at Pujadigama village. 

         “They thought we were going to build a church in their village, but when they realized that we were building houses for Buddhists, they started supporting us,” Weerasinghe said. 

        Buddhists were the major beneficiaries of the Methodist relief work, he said. 

        “Before the tsunami, many Buddhists thought that Christians were trying to convert the Buddhists by our social service,” he added, “but our tsunami relief work has started removing that fear.”

        Buddhists account for almost 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s 20 million people, Christians just over 6 percent. The Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami claimed more than 35,000 lives and displaced nearly one million people. 

         The Rev. Kingsley Perera, chair of Sri Lanka's National Christian Council and president of the Baptist Council of Sri Lanka, told Ecumenical News International that the relief work has “certainly led to better harmony and understanding” with Buddhists. 

        When local Buddhists opposed construction of houses for tsunami victims by the Baptist church in Paraliya village, about 30 miles south of the capital Colombo, church workers approached the chief Buddhist monk of the area, Perera said, and “the monk went from house to house explaining our work to the people and got their consent for our work.”

        The venerable Hedigalle Wimalasara, a leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya, a political party formed by Buddhist monks, said, “The tsunami has brought the people and the religious leaders together.”