The performing artistes in Sri Lanka: the contribution to ethno-religious cohesion through their shaping and challenging of socio-cultural norms.

Mahāvaṃsa, the most widely cited historical Pali chronicle, records information about the performing arts of the Yaksha and Naga tribes who lived even before the advent of Vijaya to Sri Lanka in 543 BCE. With the introduction of Buddhism and Hinduism to Sri Lanka (250 BCE), ritual and religious based ceremonies inspired by India developed and the performing artiste played a significant role in those ceremonies. Because of the subjugation of Sri Lanka to Portuguese rule in 1505, the Dutch in 1658 and the British in 1815 several changes took place in Sri Lankan art. With the Sinhalese-Buddhist policy declared in 1956, the main ethnic groups of Sinhalese and Tamil separated into two distinct groups with the result that a civil war lasting more than twenty-five years ensued. Along with this, the performing arts divorced itself from the common ethnic background and separated into two as Sinhalese and Tamil. Thus, this thesis will primarily focus its attention on the role and influence of Sinhalese-Buddhist and Tamil-Hindu artistes on key issues such as caste, ethnicity and gender in ethno-religious division. Similarly, the manner in which the performing artiste overcomes ethnicity and gender issues through the practice of his/her art caste, and the contribution this has made to the establishment of ethno-religious cohesion in society at large is also examined.