The Thudong monks clearly were closer to self-mortification than indulgence in sensuous pleasures, and therefore not following exactly the middle path. They practiced corpse meditation and always followed some number of the Dhutangas, further demonstrating their tendency towards self-mortification. This certainly came into effect for Theravada ascetics and wandering monks, but the mainstream Buddhist community did not feel the effect of these tweaks in the Buddha’s teachings.
	A Sri Lankan Buddhist named Anagarika Dharmapala (not the same as the King under Portuguese colonial rule) had incalculable effect on the Sri Lankan Buddhist tradition. Dharmapala was widely respected for claiming the site where Buddha gained his enlightenment for Buddhist nations. It was Dharmapala who pressed into Sri Lankans the idea of “Protestant Buddhism” around the turn of the twentieth century. This concept had both a monastic and social leg to it—he wanted the laypeople to be more like Protestant laypeople and the monks to be more like Protestant priests. During Dharmapala’s time, the government was seen to become increasingly Buddhist but also increasingly English-speaking. As a result, politicians drifted out of touch with their electorate, and needed Buddhist monks to act as go-betweens. Dharmapala also made it his political work to get rid of the colonialists in Sri Lanka. He achieved a great deal of success in all his works and was considered a hero of Theravada Buddhism.
It is difficult to overstate the impact of Dharmapala on Sri Lankan Buddhist culture. In the wake of Dharmapala’s work, two monastic colleges were founded near Colombo—Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara. The two colleges were a representation of the binaries contained within Dharmapala’s teachings. He loved and hated the Protestants. In so doing, he established a tension between nationalism and internationalism—in Protestant Buddhism it was difficult to say which was more important. These two monastic colleges are yet another binary. Vidyodaya was focused on social issues. They worked primarily on rural development. Politics were not their primary focus. Vidyalankara was focused on political issues. They worked to develop the country politically—and their prevailing sympathies lay with Socialism. Social issues were not their primary focus. These two colleges both had an impact on doctrinal Buddhism for the monastic order.
From a doctrinal standpoint, Vidyodaya completely changed the notion of dana, almsgiving, for monks. Vidyodaya monks began doing charity work in rural Buddhist communities. This, of course, had no basis in the Dhamma and the monks were pressed for a reason why. What they cited was the classic concept of dana. They had to change it slightly to let it apply to them, however. In the traditional doctrinal sense, dana is a concept intended for the laypeople. It suggests that Buddhist laypeople should give alms to those who have renounced the world, as part of their commitment to Buddhism. Dana, as Buddha preached it, did not have anything to do with monks giving back to their community. But that is just what the monks did. 