Tamil Buddhists

Saturday, 27 February 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

The Ministry of Buddha Sasana yesterday confirmed to Parliament that the number of Tamil Buddhists in Sri Lanka had stood at 22,254 in 2012.

Based on the General Census on Population and Housing conducted in 2012 by Department of Census and Statistics, only 470 Tamil Buddhists were living in the Northern Province. The number of Tamil Buddhist monks was 11 at the time of the Census.

According to the census report, 70.19% of Sri Lankans follow Theravada Buddhism while 12.6% were Hindus, 9.7% were Sunni Muslims and 7.4% Christians (6.1% Roman Catholic and 1.3% other Christian).