Asia was from time immemorial a crossroad for human migration and a meeting point for the different Homo sapiens cousins.
Negroid, Indo-Europeans, Dravidians, Semites, Mongoloids and other tribes mixed together in Asia and contributed to a blend of culture and religious practices as seen today.
Even there were pre Indo European presence in the region before Indo Aryan invasion.
The evidence of the Dardic languages, including Kashmiri, are appa rently descended from the first wave of Indo-Europeans into South Asia, but then got isolated in the Himalayas during the diffusion of Indo- Aryans.
Asia added more genetic richness with the Indo - Aryans infiltrating flourishing Dravidians communities in the North-Western Frontiers around 2000 B.C. to 1500 B.C.
But new chapters started in Asia once again with the European colonizers were conquering most of the Asian coastal countries since 1500 A.D.
The Burghers are a EurAsian ethnic group, historically from Sri Lanka, consisting for the most part of the male-line descendants of the European colonists and of the maternal ancestry of Sinhalese and Tamil.
Burghers always have European surnames including German, French, Russian, or even Flemish with the common surnames of Portuguese, Dutch and British origin.
Most Burghers are Christian, the majority being Catholics or Presbyterians, although Lutheran and Jewish denominations are not unheard of.
Though today the mother tongue of the Burghers is English, they spoke a form of Portuguese Creole, even those of Dutch, German and other European descendants.
It is now only spoken in the parts of coastal towns of Trincomalee and Batticaloa in the eastern part of the Island. Most of its Vocabulary is from Portuguese, but its grammar is based on that of Tamil and Sinhalese.
The origin of the Burgers has an interesting past. When Portuguese arrived in the Island in 1505, since there were no women in the Portuguese navy, they married local Sinhalese and Tamil women.
This practice of intermarriage with local people was encouraged by the Portuguese, not only in the Island, but also in other Portuguese colonies including Batavia in Indonesia, Macau in China, Malacca in Malaysia and Goa in India.
When the Dutch took over in 1653, they expelled all the Portuguese. However, they permitted stateless persons of Portuguese-Jewish descendants and of those who were mixed Portuguese-Sinhalese-Tamil ancestry to stay.
The term Burgher was first introduced to identify the mixed EurAsian people in the Dutch period.
It comes from the Dutch word Burger, meaning citizen or resident.
People of mixed ancestry were not allowed citizenship of the country of their European fathers, nor of their Asian mothers, so a compromise was found whereby they would be citizens of the towns of their birth, and they were known as Burgers.
Burgher culture is a rich mixture of east and west, reflecting their ancestry.
They are the most westernised of all ethnic groups in the Island.
Burghers share a common culture rather than a common ethnicity.
While the older generations of Burghers tried to dismiss the obvious Asian side of their ancestry, many younger Burghers today highly value the mixture of their heritage.
Individual families have traditions which reflect their specific family origins.
The Feast of Saint Nicholas in December is celebrated by the Burghers of Dutch origin.
The Portuguese-Jewish origin observe customs such as the separation time of a woman after childbirth, the redemption of the Firstborn and the purification bath after a daughters first period.
A Catholic slant has been given to those customs and traditions while that was of Jewish origins.
However, some of these so-called Jewish left over traditions can also be explained as borrowings or retention from neighboring Tamil and Sinhalese communities with whom many Burgher families also share a genetic admixture.
For example the purification bath after a girls first period is a common cultural feature of the Tamil and Sinhalese communities of Sri Lanka and neighboring India.
Hence its prevalence amongst some Burghers families of Sri Lanka is not necessarily of Jewish origins.
Burgher community has cultivated a culture of tolerance an d has become part of their attitude.
While inter-communal strife has sadly become a feature of modern Sri Lankan life, Burghers have on the whole worked to maintain good relations with other ethnic groups.
It is safe to say that racial and religious tolerance is an integral part of Burgher culture too.
The VOC, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or the Dutch East India Company which had overseen the Dutch colonial operations was in almost constant conflict with the British and the relationship worsened after the Amboynas Massacre in the Indonesian Spice Islands in 1623.
When the British took over in 1796, many Dutch people chose to leave. However, a significant number chose to stay, mostly those of mixed descent.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many Burghers left the island and emigrated mostly to Australia where there is an area of Melbourne known as Little Ceylon as Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon during their migration.
Rajkumar Kanagasingam is author of a fascinating book on German memories in Asia and you can explore more about the book and the author at AGSEP
Author:: Rajkumar Kanagasingam
Keywords:: Dutch, Jaffna, Tamil, Fort, Asia, European, Portuguese, VOC, Netherlands, Germany, Burgher, India
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