Sri Lanka, as "Ceylon", was conquered by the Portuguese in 1505, who were then followed by the Dutch, who introduced the Reformed Church, then came the British, who under the orientalist and civil servant

William Tolfrey William Tolfrey (1778 – 4 January 1817, in Colombo) was a British civil servant in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and translator of the Bible into Sinhala language, Sinhalese.Language, religion, and ethnic assertiveness: p. 67 Kē. En. Ō Dharmadāsa � ...

(1778?–1817) translated a

Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also s ...

Bible by 1823. BFBS revision of the Sinhalese Bible occurred from 1895–1910.Bible translation in India, Pakistan and Ceylon John Stirling Morley Hooper - 1963 "The work was undertaken by the distinguished Oriental scholar, William Tolfrey, of the Ceylon Civil Service, and the government placed at his disposal the services of the most eminent Sinhala scholars. "

References

Sinhalese culture Christianity in Sri Lanka

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka * Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language ** Sinha ...

Translations into Sinhala {{SriLanka-stub