Category Archives: sri lankan society

October 21, 2016 · 5:30 am

Lavan Tharmarajah: From Tamil Refugee to Major in Australian Army

Kresant Mahilal, 16 October 2016, whose title stresses “Six Life Lessons in Self Leadership” … see http://www.kminspires.com/how-a-sri-lankan-refugee-became-an-australian-army-major-six-life-lessons-in-self-leadership/

I couldn’t be happier and prouder of one of my best mates Major Seralaadan Tharmarajah aka Lavan.  This week, he became a Major in the Australian Army. 19 years ago we both landed on Australian soil to call this land home. Both from single parent households, both from developing countries with a history of racial tensions and violence and both of us looking to find our place in multicultural Australia. We had a lot in common as we sat next to each other in our Homebush Boys, Year 10 ESL class!

Lavan is not one who usually talks about his journey. However his journey has taught me many lessons and I believe it’s important to share it.  At a time when many question the value of letting refugees into a country, when racial tensions everywhere are high and when people give up hope on their dreams and following their passions because of a fast changing world and an uncertain future– the lessons I have learned from Lavan, and now Major Tharmarajah stick with me because of its simplicity and his walking the talk on his life philosophy.

alavan-1  Major Seralaadan Tharmarajah alavan-2 alavan-3

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October 20, 2016 · 10:26 am

Tilak Samarawickrema’s 50 years of Art

Piero Trionfera, the Italian architect reflects on Tilak Samarawickrema’s 50-year retrospective held last month, and speaks of being “Immersed in Tilak’s work” .. .. Sunday Times, 16 October 2016

When a wall becomes a work of art

I met Tilak about a year ago, at a celebration for Bawa, together with other Sri Lankan architects. I was perhaps the only foreign architect there.We started to chat and I rediscovered some of my roots: there is not a large age difference between us, and in the 70’s he lived in Rome, my city. It was inevitable that we would have similar memories of when Avant-Garde Italian design and architecture had reached a level of international standing, especially in Milan, a hot bed of intellectuals and emancipated industrialists, where Tilak had maintained close relations and interests.

So it was impossible for me not to be present at his 50-year retrospective as an artist, which he himself curated. It isn’t so much of a retrospective but a projection of a futuristic perspective.The choice of venue, the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery, implies a clear desire in Tilak to place himself in a modern, international niche, and this venue was absolutely perfect for his works and thoughts.

Right from the preview of the exhibition, the hall is full of interested and interesting people and I find myself immersed in his world. I am ready to admire his films, sculptures and drawings.

The welcome I receive at the entrance, the gallery, the people, the “Mythical Bird” opposite me, all bring up in me, a sensation of tranquil familiarity. Then, I reflect and think, but of course, I am at an international-style exhibition, a type I hadn’t seen for a while in Sri Lanka.To the left, an audience sits admiring and commenting on the animated films of timeless quality as well as a series of photos of the artist in his youth. I am also enthralled by the backgrounds of the photos (I am biased, sorry). Besides being a historic testimony of his formative years, they are insights into “my” Rome.

I wander around the exhibition, amongst intellectuals, people of all kinds, elegant and middle-aged as well as sporty youngsters, locals and westerners. It is wonderful that at an art exhibition you can meet all sorts of people with different backgrounds and this is a tangible indication that the exhibition was a success. Continue reading →

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October 20, 2016 · 1:25 am

Past in the Present: Deciphering the Cosmological Threads in Sri Lankan Politics

Michael Roberts,  being a re-print of a review of Roshan De Silva-Wijeyreratne’s book in Groundviews in February 2015 entitled “Review of ‘Nation, Constitutionalism and Buddhism in Sri Lanka’,” … including here  the comments in Groundviews from devoted critics of the reviewer Roberts.

This treatise encompasses a vast span of time and straddles both the pre-modern and modern periods of Sri Lanka’s history down to the present moment. It engages, deploys, transcends and weaves through a vast array of scholars: Berkwitz, Chakrabarty, Collins, Duncan, Greenwald, Kaviraj, Kemper, Obeyesekere, Rampton, Roberts, Smith and Tambiah among others, with Bruce Kapferer as the guiding inspiration. As such, it is an ambitious tour de force that seeks a synthesis. The book is heavy reading and not a task for those weak or impatient. They have to comprehend a battery of difficult concepts in noun and adjectival form: ontology, episteme, refraction, governmentality, hermeneutic, telos and cosmic sovereignty for instance.

bu-p-_sri_lanka_buddha aa-roshan-pic

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October 20, 2016 · 1:02 am

Sinhala Buddhist Cosmology and Its Politics via Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne

Kalana Senaratne. being a review article, entitled “The Politics of Sinhala-Buddhist Cosmology” from Polity Volume 7, Issue 1, pp.54-58 sent to Thuppahi by Senaratne and reproduced her with emphases (via highlighting) imposed by The Editor

Although Buddhism does not believe in a Creator-God, many Buddhists believe in a cosmology, made up of myriad realms of existence and world systems, a large number of heavenly beings, deities, and demonic spirits, and even a heaven and a hell.[1] In Theravada Buddhist countries, different gods – some local, some imported – play important roles in various rituals and practices: such as in the popular practice of transferring merit to good gods in exchange of protection.[2] These practices have been part of the life of the majority Sinhala-Buddhists too, with the origins of such practices being traceable to pre-Buddhist Sri Lanka.[3]

aa-roshan-pic Roshan aa-roshanbook aaa-kalana Kalana Continue reading →

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October 15, 2016 · 7:28 am

World’s End at Horton Plains: A Fatal Attraction

Juliette Coombe in The Daily News, 14 October 2016, where the title is “Fatal Attraction to World’s End”

I got stuck into walking the boggy and grassy marshes and wild moors of Horton Plains, which is like the depressing misty on some days topography of Yorkshire in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. the depressing misty on some days topography of Yorkshire in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Horton Plains is a reverie in gloomy downcast smog bitten sky, small tufts of valleys and equally small craggy cliffs, dark rocky ledges and stormy quarries, the slight drizzle with the water droplets like pincers and icicles pelting one’s skin, the rugged landscape also smudged by water puddles and at the end of the world one gets the feeling of Caspar David Friedrich’s painting capturing the German Romanticism, one of turbulent melancholia.

worlds-end

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October 13, 2016 · 7:41 am

Arch Double-Speak in the Political Vocabulary of the Tamil Moderates

malinga Malings Seneviratne, in his blog-spot where the chosen title runs  “The Tamil National Question’ ad the Vague-Speak of Tamil Moderates”

There are some fundamental differences between moderates and extremists that go beyond the obvious degree of flexibility. Extremists are upfront, moderates are cagey. Extremists may believe (even if they don’t say it) that the fact of extremism gives moderates maneuverability and therefore increases the chances for moderates to secure ground. Moderates tend to believe that the non-negotiability that is inherent to extremism hardens the other side to a point that makes such extraction difficult if not impossible.
tna tna-leaders-5-party2-300x296-1

When extremists have the upper hand, moderates are rendered into docile yes-men and yes-women. When moderates are stronger, extremism goes underground, surfacing only now and then to mark presence. Extremists use language that is intransigent, moderates keep things vague.   Continue reading →

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October 11, 2016 · 10:11 am

“Aiyo! Aiyo!” AIYO penetrates the Oxford Dictionary

News Item, 10 October 2016

Aiyo! It’s officially In Oxford Dictionary Now!

aiyyyo

“Aiyoh”, a common expression in Sri Lanka, South India, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa.  Now it is among more than 1000 newly pinned words that made it into the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary last month. Oxford Dictionary is the most widely referred book for English nuances. The Oxford dictionary is 150 years old and for people who swear by it, if a word is not included in this book that word is not English. Period. It keeps updating its list of words each year by adding some commonly used words.

“Aiyoh“, defined as expressing many emotions – distress, regret, pain, surprise, grief, disappointment, irritation and disgust.

It has been reported that Oxford English Dictionary believes that this word has originated from China (Aiyoh in Mandarin). The Oxford English Dictionary adds new words four times a year. Some scholars are believed to be unhappy with the inclusion of these words in the dictionary as they believe this takes away the purity of the English language in all effect and is offending, but they have been using these colloquial words in their daily lives. Continue reading →

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October 10, 2016 · 3:32 pm

The Buddhist Virtues We Need Today — Via “Sathyodaya”

Upul Wijayawardhana,  in The Island, 7  October 2016, where the title is The Dawn of Truth

We live in an era when exaggerated ritual gets the pride of place. Not a day passes without the image, on television, of a politico offering pujas in temples, kovils and churches etc. to invoke blessings either on themselves, their party or the country. Some are even more foolish, instead of feeding the poor, they smash perfectly edible coconuts to cast evil spells on their opponents! Even worse, some idiotic politicos, not being content with the offerings at home, rush abroad to make offerings to the more powerful foreign gods! On top of that we see elaborate Bodhi Pujas, Pahan Pujas, Atavisi Buddha Pujas and over-the-top Buddha Pujas.

mahinda-r

“So, what is your problem?” some may ask. My problem, as a convinced follower of the Buddha Dhamma, is the real dangertheserituals pose submerging the Dhamma; burying the spiritual in ritual. More and more are seeking ‘liberation’ with rituals and bribes than treading the noble path shown by the Enlightened One. It is out of this concern that I have written many pieces of late but I did not realize I would find a most unexpected supporter for my views. I must thank Mr G A D Sirimal and my brother Jagath for this amazing discovery. Mr Sirimal sent me a paper cutting but it was Jagath who recommended the gem of a booklet “Sathyodaya”.

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October 10, 2016 · 2:53 pm

Debilitating Political Ignorance in Sri Lanka’s Populace?

Sanjana Hattotuwa,  from The Island, 8 October 2016, where the title is “The new constitution that may never be”. .. Emphasis below via highlighting is an imposition by the Editor, Thuppahi.

Gramsci spoke of the pessimism of intellect and the optimism of will. How does this relate to Sri Lanka today? The deafening silence around the process of constitution making, justified by key architects as inevitable in order for progress around tenacious issues to be made, indicates to all but the most delusional the reform process has little to no traction in the public imagination. This is a problem. Basic intelligence suggests a process as vexed as writing a new constitution, without public traction or debate, dumped by government elites for approval just before a referendum risks confusion at best and opposition or rejection at worst. And yet, Sri Lanka really needs a new constitution.

If the constitution expresses the will of the people, it needs to be one that guides us away from the structures of power and identity that led to what we are still hostage to – a violent, racist State, largely unable as a first step to even recognise the degree to which it excludes and discriminates. The optimism of will, when embodied in a constitution, is what can guarantee to the extent possible a better future for all citizens, independent of what government, Executive or Prime Minister are, say and do. Continue reading →

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October 10, 2016 · 10:35 am

Homemade Culinary Art in Surviving the Eelam Wars

Vidya Balachander, 9 October 2016, whose chosen title is. “Cookbook Tells The Story Of Sri Lanka’s Civil War Through Food.” ….…. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/10/09/496867198/cookbook-tells-the-story-of-sri-lanka-s-civil-war-through-food

Even if you knew nothing about Vijaya, her haunting portrait would likely give you pause. She peers out of the page, unsmiling, her silver hair pulled back and her eyes conveying an unspoken anguish. From the accompanying narrative, we learn that a few years ago, almost overnight, Vijaya became her granddaughter Anjali’s primary caretaker. Her daughter, Gayathri, set out to find nutritious food for the family amidst heavy shelling, at the violent end of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, and never returned home. In the years since, money has been scarce and fresh vegetables in limited supply. But Vijaya and her granddaughter survived on creamy, coconut milk-laced sothis, mild gravies that act as soothing antidotes to the scorching cuisine of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-dominated north. Sothis are a common part of everyday meals. But seen through the lens of war — and Vijaya’s lingering loss — this simple side dish acquires a new depth.

aa-vijaya After losing her daughter during the war, Vijaya cares for her granddaughter Anjali. Despite not being able to afford freshvegetables, she cooks nourishing sothis or stews made of coconut milk.–Palmera

It is this exploration of food — both as a source of sustenance and a repository of memories — in the context of war that makes Handmade, a cookbook published by Palmera, a not-for-profit organization based in Australia, different from the other Sri Lankan cookbooks to have come out in recent times. Continue reading →

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