11.07.2023 | Center for Religion, Culture and Society (CRCS) Institute for the Study of Religions

Politics and Secrecy at a Sri Lankan National Heritage Site

Multi-religiosity, ethnicity, archaeology, and heritage management all come together at a shrine in Sri Lanka’s southwest known as Dafthar Jailani. Although contested, the site has been a longstanding pilgrimage stop between the port of Galle on the southwest coast and Adam’s Peak (i.e., Sri Pada) further to the northeast for Muslims making the journey by sea from the Arabian Peninsula. It continued to flourish as a Sufi site into the modern era due to its hagiographical associations with Abdul Qadir Gilani, the so-called “saint of Baghdad,” who is believed to have visited the site during his sojourn to Southeast Asia. The main cave complex that includes the mosque is where most pilgrims head when they arrive, but there is another site that is less accessible shrouded in folkloric secrecy. It is in this “secret” area that the “cave of light” is located, where it is believed that the first man Adam passed through a slit in a rock to reunite with Eve after performing 600 years of penance standing on one foot on the summit of Sri Pada, where he landed after falling from Paradise. Today, however, due to a radical resurgence of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism after the end of the protracted civil war, the site is being contested at various levels in a manner quite similar to what happened in Ayodhya, India as a result of the Babri Masjid controversy. My presentation will analyze the situation both historically and ethnographically in attempt to make some sense of the current situation, which remains explosive and unpredictable.