Durave or Durava or Durawa are a southern coastal
Sinhalese caste in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
. They are of South Indian Dravidian origin and started speaking Sinhala after reaching the coasts of Sri Lanka around 600 years ago.
Current status
Many were converted to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
soon after the arrival of
Portuguese colonials in 1505 CE. They along with other Southern Sinhalese castes such as
Karave and
Salagama have played an important role in the historically left political and right parties. They are mostly
Theravada
''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhi ...
Buddhists today and were instrumental in the revival of Buddhism during the British colonial period. The un-Buddhistic practice of caste discrimination introduced into the
Sangha
Sangha or saṃgha () is a term meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community". In a political context, it was historically used to denote a governing assembly in a republic or a kingdom, and for a long time, it has been used b ...
by the
Siyam Nikaya in the late 18th century has been overcome by patronising the
Amarapura Nikaya and the
Ramanna Nikayas. Sitinamaluwe Dhammajoti (Durawa) was the last nongovigama monk to receive upasampada before the 1764
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...
.
References
{{Reflist
Further reading
* Bryce Ryan, ''Caste in Modern Ceylon'', Rutgers University Press, 1953.
Sinhalese castes
Brewing and distilling castes