A New Investigative Website …. https://atita.org/
About Atita: Atita is dedicated to the investigation of historical events in Sri Lanka. Taking its name from the Pali word for “past” (atīta), Atita serves to fill in gaps in English-language literature of Sri Lankan history.
All are welcome to read our work, but those already familiar with Sri Lankan history since 1948 will find it the most enriching. Our primary focus is on events from 1948 to 1972, when Sri Lanka was still called “Ceylon.”
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PK Balachandran in Email Note to Roberts, late July 2023, … with highlighting being my imposition
The RSS has begun exploiting the Tamil issue to spread its Hindutwa ideology. The idea is to win over the Lankan Tamils to its side by discrediting the secular Tamil identity in SL. None of the speakers listed has any knowledge of the Lankan Tamil issue. Tamil Nadu BJP leader K.Annamalai has already visited Sri Lanka and is trying to put up an RSS-BJP unit here. Very dangerous development. The Sri Lankan government should make certain that Sarath Weerasekara and the monks don’t do anything anti-Hindu. It is sad that this ís happening when India-Lankan relations are improving thanks to the correct policies of Modi and Ranil. Continue reading
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Michael Roberts
On re-reading an entry in Thuppahi on the Burqa with two striking illustrations that contrasted
X …..a photograph of a Western woman in a see-through net dress walking stark naked in a busy street ….. WITH …
Y …. Illustrations of the various types of veiled Islamic women, ……
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Christabel Lobo, in Times of Israel, 20 December 2020 ,where the title reads thus: “India’s Jew Town only has a few Jews left, but traditions and landmarks remain”
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Dr. Shalva Weil, in https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/in-an-ancient-land-trade-and-synagogues-in-south-india/
The Calcutta-born novelist Amitav Ghosh tells the tale, in his novel In an Ancient Land, of a medieval traveler by the name of Abraham Ben Yiju who conducted an import/export business from Cairo through Aden to India. Ben Yiju was a member of the Synagogue of Ben Ezra, or the”Synagogue of the Palestinians”, as it used to be known while it was still standing, in Cairo, at the end of the nineteenth century. It was in that synagogue that congregation members used to accumulate and store their papers and manuscripts. The last In an Ancient Land Revisited Trade and Synagogues in South India document that is known to have been deposited in this Genizah was a get, a divorce settlement, authorized in Bombay (today Mumbai).
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An Item from Wikipedia sent by David Sansoni of Sydney
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Michael Roberts, inspired by interaction & dialogue with Douglas Farrer of the National University of Singapore in the years 2009 to 2014**
VISIT 2012 “Encompassing Empowerment in Ritual, War & Assassination: Tantric Principles in Tamil Tiger Instrumentalities,” in Social Analysis, sp. issue on War Magic ed. by D. S. Farrer, 2014 ……………………………… https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/social-analysis/58/1/sa580105.xml
a groom ties the THALI round the bride’s neck…. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/862931978596501453/
ABSTRACT: This study highlights the Tantric threads within the transcendental religions of Asia that reveal the commanding role of encirclement as a mystical force. The cyanide capsule (kuppi) around the neck of every Tamil Tiger fighter was not only a tool of instrumental rationality as a binding force, but also a modality similar to a thāli (marriage bond necklace) and to participation in a velvi (religious animal sacrifice). It was thus embedded within Tamil cultural practice. Alongside the LTTE’s politics of homage to its māvīrar (dead heroes), the kuppi sits beside numerous incidents in LTTE acts of mobilization or military actions where key functionaries approached deities in thanks or in preparation for the kill. These practices highlight the inventive potential of liminal moments/spaces. We see this as modernized ‘war magic’—a hybrid re-enchantment energizing a specific religious worldview.
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Chandra R. de Silva
It is likely that the paravas (also known as Bharathas in Sri Lanka to indicate their Indian origin) were working as fishermen and mercenaries in South India and the north western coast of Sri Lanka well before the sixteenth century. Tradition links them to the evolution of the catamaran (a small craft with two hulls) and with a major role in pearl fishing in the Gulf of Mannar. They were also proficient in chank (turbinella pyrum) fishing: chanks being seashells that were used to make ornaments and drinking vessels. The coming of the Portuguese to the region in the sixteenth century provides us many Portuguese records that illuminate the history and seafaring skills of this community.. Historian Jorge Manuel Flores, for example, quotes a mid-sixteenth century Portuguese document which records thanks to a parava convert named Duarte de Miranda for assistance in navigating the seas off South India.
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ICOMOS NOTICE
Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2022, the book titled “Sustaining Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage” addresses the vulnerability and fragility of sustaining intangible heritage during prolonged shocks, such as the Covid – 19 Pandemic. In addition, the book offers insights into how heritage facilitators and practitioners deal with and safeguard intangible heritage locally and showcases the implications of ecological changes concerning livelihoods to the practice of heritage and education on sustainability.
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Brian Victoria, in Buddhistdoor.net … where the title reads as “Nationalism: Collective Selves and the Promise of Buddhaland”
In a recent lecture on the war in the Ukraine, John Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, noted that nationalism is the strongest ideology in the world today. I was somewhat surprised by his comment because, having lived through the Cold War era, anything having to do with Russia was framed in the ideological context of “the struggle of the Free World or democracies against Communist dictatorship,” and so on. Yet, on reflection, I realized that with the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Russia had reverted to a capitalist state, even if now authoritarian or autocratic. Thus, Mearsheimer’s identification of nationalism as a key factor behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not as surprising as it initially seemed.
Buddhist monks protest against aid for Rakhine’s Rohingya Muslims. Photo by Soe Zeya Tun. From reuters.com
Mearsheimer’s insight led to a new line of enquiry on my part. As a Buddhist, I had long asked myself, without finding a satisfactory answer, what is the relationship, if any, of the Buddhadharma with nationalism?
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thuppahi
