Abstract
When a tsunami hit Sri Lanka in two merciless waves between 9.30 and 10.30 a.m. on December 26, 2004, an estimated 30,000 were killed, 800,000 were made homeless, and 70 percent of the island’s coastline was devastated.1 Two distinct areas of the country were affected: the predominantly Sinhala and Buddhist south coast, and the predominantly Tamil and Muslim north and east coasts, the east being the worst devastated. It sparked the largest international aid programme in modern Sri Lankan history in an already charged situation of ethnic conflict and interreligious tension.
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© 2013 Hiroko Kawanami and Geoffrey Samuel
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Harris, E.J. (2013). Buddhism and International Aid: A Case Study from Post-tsunami Sri Lanka. In: Kawanami, H., Samuel, G. (eds) Buddhism, International Relief Work, and Civil Society. Contemporary Anthropology of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137380234_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137380234_1
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