Then, in the seventeenth century, the Dutch arrived and took over Sri Lanka. They too were against Buddhism. In the late eighteenth century, the British came and kicked the Dutch out—but as the Kandyan convention shows, the British were not hostile to Buddhism. The two hostile colonial groups were the Portuguese and the Dutch.
Under Portuguese rule, the Buddhist community was crippled—particularly the monastic order. Initially, the Sri Lankans tried to live in harmony with the colonialists and had no problem allowing the Portuguese to worship however they saw fit. But because of the Portuguese’s aggressively anti-Buddhist policies and evangelical tendencies even in the face of the Sri Lankan acceptance, the Buddhist monastic order felt extremely threatened and many monks fled. It all but disappeared during this time period, once again showing how the monastic order simply cannot survive without political support. This external, hostile force (especially hostile to the monks) ended up having some effect on the doctrinal elements of Theravada Buddhism, even though the monks were so scarce during this period.
The Sri Lankans hoped that the Dutch would chase the Portuguese out of their country and then leave them to govern themselves. They did the former, but not the latter. Under Dutch rule, the Buddhist monastic community remained scarce. The Dutch made Buddhism illegal in Sri Lanka, but they allowed the Buddhists to keep their temples in the villages. The Dutch priests were much more focused on conversion—they offered incentives for conversion to Catholicism. For instance, only Catholics could go to the top-notch Dutch schools. Only Catholics could inherit property, and the Dutch government would take a third of “heathen” property.  During this period, the monastic order was again seen to be extremely weak. However, the doctrinal concepts of Buddhism were again relatively safe, as there were so few monks around to make any changes. Once again, an external, hostile force could be seen to devastate both the monastic and lay communities in Sri Lanka.
The colonial period in Sri Lanka turned the nation in a completely new direction. It was imposed with social structures it had never seen before. Racial and socioeconomic divides that they had never seen before were suddenly emphasized. Yet through all of this, Theravada Buddhism continued. The people of Sri Lanka, even under immense pressure to convert, clung to their religion. The Catholic priests of the Portuguese and Dutch colonialists spent years trying to convert them, but they ultimately failed in large part. The primary religion of Sri Lanka remained Theravada Buddhism, demonstrating the religion’s endurance. External forces, no matter how hostile, were powerless to change it. What the people of Sri Lanka did do, however, was modify their doctrines slightly in the face of colonialism.
A fascinating element of the colonial period in Sri Lanka is the growth of folk Buddhism—a blending of Buddhism with local traditions and beliefs. Because there was no centralized monastic order, different villages were free to interpret Buddhist doctrine as they pleased. 