RELIGIOUS
INSTITUTIONS OF SINHALA BUDDHISTS AND CHRISTIANS IN AND AROUND LONDON
1.
Introduction
In the recent
past, especially after the Second World War and with an increasing number of
immigrants from Asian countries, religious diversity gradually became a
significant and visible reality in the western world. In
this new religious diversity, places of worship of immigrants have become a
major focus as symbols of their pride in the home country being revived in the
host country of their settlement. Commenting on religious institutions, a lady,
SB-1, said of Buddhist temples in the UK,
They keep our faith alive in this foreign land.
Without them it would have been almost impossible to retain our faith. Without
Buddhist temples there would be no place for us Sinhala Buddhists to come
together on the basis of our faith and culture.
This process has
had a major impact on the existing western societies where these places of
worship have been established. Hence, as Warner has suggested, the significance
of their congregations has been increasing. The effect and influences of these religious
institutions in the West have created fresh interest in academic disciplines,
such as anthropology and sociology, among those who analyse their dynamics so
as to gain a better and more accurate understanding of these institutions.
In this paper an
attempt is made to analyse five Sri Lankan Buddhist Viharas and three Sri
Lankan Christian associations with the participation of Sinhala ethnic groups
in and around London.
For this analysis, participative observations, descriptions, functions and
dynamics of these institutions systematically recorded in Chapter Three are
used in relation to the critical analysis of the five general principles of
Warner (On the New Immigrant Religion) enriched by other research undertaken in a
similar vein, along with transcribed interviews on religious institutions and
appropriate literature reviews. In the structure of this investigation the
observations of Warner along with other sociologists such as Yang & Ebaugh,
Numrich and Ammerman, that the religions of immigrants are subjected to the
process of institutional isomorphism towards congregationalism are taken into
account to test the American findings on Sinhala Buddhists and Christians in
and around London.
