Reordering of Post- colonial Sri Pāda Temple in Sri Lanka: Buddhism, State and Nationalism

Abstract

Historically speaking, Sri Pāda temple is a remarkable place of worship for people belonging to all four major religions in Sri Lanka where they share one particular object of worship—the sacred footprint. However, this pilgrimage site, which was previously considered a multi-religious site, or site of plural worship, has now been transformed, constructed or rather reordered into an ethnic majoritarian Buddhist space, concurrent with the rise of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism in post-colonial Sri Lanka. This article explores the most important historical conjuncture where such Buddhicisation began to view or in other words ordering of Sri Pāda temple came to centrally visible in post-colonial Sri Lanka.