This book uses the lens of space to examine inter-religious and inter-communal conflict in colonial and post-colonial Sri Lanka, demonstrating that the colonial can shed light on the post-colonial, particularly on post-war developments, when Buddhist symbolism was controversially developed in the former, largely non-Buddhist, war zones.

Elizabeth J. Harris is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow within the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham. She is President of the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies and has published widely within Buddhist Studies and Inter-Religious Studies, including Theravada Buddhism and the British Encounter: Religious, missionary and colonial experience in nineteenth century Sri Lanka (Routledge, 2006).

Introduction Part I: The British Colonial Period 1. The Spatial Component of the Sri Lankan Buddhist Imaginary 1590s to 1815 2. The Evangelical Protestant Missionary Spatial Imaginary 3. The Spatial Impact of Missionary Schools 4. The Spatial Impact of Church Building 5. British and Buddhist Imaginaries: the Sacred Cities, the Aryan Debate and the Tamil Other 6. Ancient Cities and Narratives of Power Part II: The Postcolonial Period 7. Sinhala Buddhist Imaginaries post-1948 and during the Ethnic War 8. Ethnic Conflict, Internal War and the Spatial 1912-2009 9. Spatial Change and Competition after the Ending of Armed Conflict Concluding Thoughts