Untold Urban Stories of Colombo in Early 20th Century: Preaching, Chanting and Agitating The Working Class

My own research for the fourth coming book ‘Buddhism between Spirituality and Modernism’ has motivated me to collect stories of Buddhist temples which were sponsored by wealthy families of graphite traders, ship chandlers and textile and stationery merchants. Strangely these temples were not built in residential areas, where the sponsors lived but in less privileged parts of Colombo where the workers of the harbor, railway, launders, carters and factory workers lived. The upcoming elite moved to residential areas of “Cinnamon Gardens” and “Havelock Town” created by the British in the 1920s, while new migrants from South India lived in the congested north of Colombo.  Research in Sinhala newspapers, pamphlets and police reports of the early 20th century have shown that preaching halls where erudite monks preached and chanted holy texts night long became meeting points for “habitual mischief makers” who were easily mobilized during the ethnic conflict. The case study I wish to present will focus on the Dematagoda Veluwanaramaya, located near the former slaughterhouse providing beef to residents of Colombo. Municipal archives reveal that the area had many booths selling arrack and other illicit brews. Most of its former Buddhist neighbours have moved out since the 1960s and today the temple offers during the day recluse to the neighbouring communities of Muslim, Hindu and Catholic faiths in extended families living in small spaces. The school built next to the temple by the sponsor of the temple too has been able to provide education to the less privileged children.