The Hostory

In the 19th century, some fisherfolk in Duwa sailed to South India in their catamarans to buy dry fish, nets and other fishing apparatus. Among them were three brothers Juvam, Domingo and Peduru who were the sons of Mihindu Kulasuriya Adrian Fernando. They came to know Jokeenu Maistri, the great sculptor in Cochin. In consultation with the elders of Duwa, they asked Jokeenu Maistri to make a statue of Christ for the Duwa Passion Play.

In the season of Lent in 1838, a group from Duwa went to Cochin to bring back the statue of Christ. As the paint on the statue had not dried, Jokeenu Maistri had advised them not to remove the statue immediately. However, the south west monsoon was about to set in and as sailing back would have been difficult, they brought the statue to Duwa against the advice of Jokeenu Maistri.

The people of Duwa welcomed the statue of Christ with pomp and ceremony. However, when they opened the casket to their dismay they found the paint smudged and the statue mildewed. They were disappointed that they could not perform the Duwa Passion Play the following year (1838) with the new statue.

The elders wanted to get Jokeenu Maistri to Duwa to repaint the statue. As he was too old Jokeenu Maistri sent his most senior pupil for the purpose. The pupil re-painted the statue with a mixture of gold, and as a result the statue has a special gold tint not found in other statues of Christ. The magnificent statue of Christ in Duwa attracted more and more people to the Duwa Passion Play.

The Duwa Passion Play was organized throughout by the lay custodians of the statue of Christ. However, it was never a secular drama but a spiritual exercise performed in collaboration with the parish priest of the church of Our Lady of Good Voyages in Duwa.

Later when some people of Duwa settled down in Negombo and erected St. Peter's Church in the city, once in three years the famous statue of Duwa was taken for the Passion show at St. Peter's Negombo. In the meantime the traditional organisors of the Duwa Passion Plays formed themselves into an organization called the 'Duwa Pasku Sanvidanaya'

In 1939, when Fr. Marcelline Jayakody became the parish priest of Duwa, the Duwa Passion Play was performed with age-old statues based on "Dukprathi Prasangaya" written by Fr. Jacome Gonsalvez. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody revised and recast the Passion Play based on Dorothy Saeyer's famous drama' Born to be a King' while maintaining the traditional outlook, Fr. Jayakody used people for all the roles except for Christ and Mary. He also composed all the hymns for the play in addition to the traditional Pasan chants. Since then the fame of the colourful Duwa Passion Play spread far and wide.

The magnificent Passion play was performed with over 250 actors all drawn from the island hamlet of Duwa. In the 1970's, human actors were introduced even for Christ and in 1989, the 150th anniversary of the Duwa Passion Play with the outstanding statue of Christ and the 50th anniversary of the presentation of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody were together celebrated. In the 1990's things took a different turn. In 1991 as usual the Duwa statue of Christ was taken to St. Peter's Church, Negombo but arrangements were made to hand back the statue to a new group the Duwa Daham Seva Organisation formed under the parish priest.

The Duwa Pasku Sanvidanaya, the traditional organisers of the Duwa Passion Play filed a case in the District Court of Negombo and obtained an injunction prohibiting the new arrangement.

As a result of the court case the Duwa Passion Play could not be enacted from 1992 to 1995. In 1995, the case was settled and the parties agreed to hand over the statue of Duwa unconditionally to the Archbishop of Colombo. In February 21, 1996, the Most Rev. Nicholas Marcus Fernando, the then Archbishop of Colombo, made an official declaration that the Duwa statue would be placed in a special premises in Negombo and in 1997 the Duwa Passion Play would be enacted with the joint collaboration of all the relevant organizations of St. Mary's Church, Duwa and St. Peter's Negombo.

If proper steps are not taken by the Church authorities even at this late stage to revive the colourful Duwa Passion Play – which has brought fame not only to the village of Duwa but to the whole of Sri Lanka, it would, sadly, be forgotten.

~Courtesy SundayTimes

Duwa Historical Passion Play

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      It is not wrong to say that there are huge number of articles and reference about Duwa, the village of passion play written over the past. Not only in our country, but also the rest of the world have written and read about this passion play in Duwa that runs back for 400 years.

According to the evidence, It can be conformed that the sacred statue of Christ in Duwa is more than 170 years old to date. It is believed, that this life size statue was brought into the village in 1839.This also reveals that there was once a tradition throughout the world that use statues to resemble the passion of Christ and passion plays were a part of Christian life.There are about a dozen of Christian Catholic cities and villages along the west coast of Sri Lanka. The only question that comes into my mind is that why, with having all these places, the passion of Christ was deep rooted in Duwa, Negombo?

Comparing with other villages, Duwa is tiny as the palm of my hand. And I believe that this is the main reason that Duwa community is living a better and stronger Christian life than any other. The deep belief, independent self governing and simple life as fishermen, and not having extra forces effecting the life led this community to grow in faith and trust on God and Christ and were always under the protection of mother Mary. The Duwa village itself is so religious, that it seems like the Nazareth home is converted into a village.

There is not a single moment that you don’t see anyone inside the church. On the way to work and the way back home, every single person in this village step in to the church. With having the miraculous statue or without it, they did go to church and it’s a part of their daily life. When the statue was in Duwa they went more times and spend hours praying. And this led the statue of Christ to be a part of their life.

Even I was once served as the head priest in Duwa. In 1939, I was blessed enough to be able to take part of the 100th anniversary celebration of the miraculous statue of Christ. Since the very first day of my service, I was able to notice that the people in Duwa have demonstrated a different lifestyle comparing the other cities and villages. The old and young’s are all not only keen about them, but also are keen on God. Their life was so blend into the passion of Christ and it clearly visible that the Christ living in their lives. Because it is a small village, everyone lived together as one. At least one from each family is played a role in passion play and that also had led this village to live in peace. Even thou there were few problems aroused due to us being humans, the Passion play were able to overcome this little issues and gather entire community as one. The entire village comes together and acts as a one big family during the Passover.

I have never seen this much of faith and bond with God in any other Christian catholic village here in Sri Lanka. I have never mentioned anything about the history of Duwa Passion play in article. That is because the whole world knows about it. But everything I have said here about this village has not been told by anyone or at anyplace before. This is a result of a research that I have done for years. I have also found out that any person has his life blend into the Christian life shall walk on a steady path towards the future. And improving the abilities as such will allow you to receive the blessings of the Christian body.

By saying this, I’m not implying that the Duwa community will end up as saints. But I say to you that a real Christian should always blend the life of Christ into them. The meaning of life is to make it a success. If this life does not have a use to either you or anyone else, then it’s darker than the life of an animal. Man was made almost similar to a life of an angel. And for that reason it is a good thing to live a great life. And Duwa community has this great life.

Most of the Christians in Sri Lanka like to watch Duwa traditional passion play. Some out of devotion and some wanted to see what was written in books. And this is a good thing.