The Portuguese Burghers are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka , of mixed Portuguese and Sri Lankan descent. They are largely Catholic and some still speak the Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese language , a creole based on Portuguese mixed with Sinhalese . In modern times, English has become the common language while Sinhalese is taught in school as a second language. Portuguese Burghers sometimes mixed with but are to be distinguished from other Burgher people , such as Dutch Burghers .
8-601: The Catholic Burgher Union is an organisation of Portuguese Burghers (persons of mixed Portuguese and Sri Lankan descent) in the town of Batticaloa , Sri Lanka. In the modern era, the Union played a strong role in the preservation of the Portuguese Burgher culture, despite their economically disadvantaged position. Researchers in the 1960s noted that the meetings of the Union were still held in Portuguese, with
16-770: The Catholic Burgher Union reinforced this. The Portuguese Creole also continued to be used amongst the Dutch Burghers families as the informal language until the end of the 19th century. In today's Sri Lanka, the Creole is limited to the spoken form. Most of the speakers are the Burghers in the Eastern province ( Batticaloa and Trincomalee ). But there are also the Kaffirs (people of African origin) in
24-479: The 2000s (decade), however, the Union was described as struggling financially to be able to produce its English newsletter, with Portuguese extracts. Portuguese Burghers The Portuguese Burghers are largely descendants of the Sri Lanka Mestiços , the people of mixed Portuguese and Sri Lankan descent (commonly of a Portuguese father and a Sri Lankan mother) who appeared in the 16th century, after
32-611: The Dutch started to speak Portuguese. In the 18th century, the Eurasian community (a mixture of Portuguese, Dutch, and Sinhalese as well as Tamil, known as the Burgher ) grew, speaking Portuguese or Dutch. The Portuguese Burghers followed Catholicism and spoke a Portuguese creole, Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese language . Despite their socio-economic disadvantage, these Burghers maintained their Portuguese cultural identity. In Batticaloa ,
40-796: The Mediterranean basin (see Mediterraneans ). In some Portuguese Burgher families, it is common to have both very dark children and children with fair skin. Most light-skinned Burghers are of Dutch or British descent. At the 1981 census, the Burghers (Dutch and Portuguese) were almost 40,000 (0.3% of the population of Sri Lanka). Many Burghers have emigrated to other countries. There are still 100 families in Batticaloa and Trincomalee and 80 Kaffir families in Puttalam that speak Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese language ; they have been out of contact with Portugal since 1656. The Burgher population worldwide
48-553: The Northwestern province ( Puttalam ). The Portuguese, Dutch and British brought the Kaffirs to Sri Lanka, for labour purposes. They have assumed Portuguese culture and religion. Phenotypically , Burghers can be either light-skinned or dark-skinned, depending on their ancestral history. It is common to find Burghers with dark- to light-brown skin (usually Portuguese Burghers or Kaffirs) with European facial features common to
56-538: The Portuguese explorers found the sea route to the Indian Ocean. When the Dutch took over coastal Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon ), the descendants of the Portuguese took refuge in the central hills of Kandyan Kingdom under Sinhalese rule. In time, the Dutch and Portuguese descendants intermarried. Under Dutch rule Portuguese was banned, but the Portuguese-speaking community was so widespread that even
64-436: The exception of the minutes, as they were read from written records, and Sri Lankan Portuguese was not used as a written language. In the 1980s, despite Burger immigration to Australia , the Union still numbered some 2,000 speakers of Sri Lankan Portuguese, making them the largest community still speaking the dialect. The Union continued to maintain Portuguese Burgher traditions, including promoting traditional music and dance, By
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