Sri Lanka, Christianity in

Sri Lanka, Christianity in (formerly known as Ceylon). According to Cosmas Indicopleustes, there were Christians of the Church of the East in Sri Lanka in the 6th cent., but they seem to have died out. From 1505 Sri Lanka came within the Portuguese seaborne trading empire; the first RC priests arrived in Colombo in 1518. In 1543 missionary work was begun by Franciscan friars, joined in the 17th cent. by other Orders. The Christian community grew rapidly. In 1658 the Portuguese were driven out by the Dutch; they tried to suppress the RC Church, brought missionaries from the Netherlands and supported the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1796 the Dutch were displaced by the British and in 1802 Ceylon became a Crown colony. Under British rule missionary work was undertaken by English societies: Baptist, Wesleyan Methodist, the CMS and SPG. Since political independence in 1948, all the Churches have had to face the challenge of a revived Buddhism, which was recognized as the State religion in 1972. Christians comprise about 8 per cent of the population; nine tenths of them are RC.