Votes for an awesome cuisine and the $8 'arrack' they sell on Sri Lankan Airlines. :)

Sri Lanka is the only country in the subcontinent that has not flirted with constitutional authoritarianism - even India had its Emergency in 1975-77. It's remarkable achievements in primary education and providing basic health services too are worthy of emulation. Needless to say Sri Lankans are great people to be with and absolutely unprickly about their identity, neither brashly overconfident nor shrinking like wall flowers, very similar to Canadians in that respect. The Emerald Isle, Serendip, Gem Stones, and Spices is truly the jewel of the seas. Namo, Namo, Maatha...

All I can say to the Sri Lankans is that I hope they can drown their sorrows after they lose to India in today's one-dayer in the joys of their independence day celebration.

(I am almost certain this trash talking is going to come back to bite me).

3 · retorts said

wait i have one positive - it's a naturally beautiful country, but the people have nothing to do with that

Whoa! Nice thoughtful writing there!

Nice comments, jyotsana, but "not flirting with constitutional authoritarianism?" You must be kidding me - Lanka had an executive President since the early 1980s who never hesitated to suspend the constitution at will, introduce 6 year terms and run one of the most corrupt and violent regimes in the world. And I'm yet to meet an Lankan who isn't prickly about their identity...But our education system is a credit for sure.

Good points? Lankans know how to party. The island is one of the most spectacularly beautiful ones in the world. We have the world's greatest wicket taker. Dont' get me started on the cricket.

the land of M.I.A
:)
and really pretty people and good food.

'Muthalavathana' 'thesi' moliyil sirantha thennolai errdukal konda naadu!

(Trans. "The country with the great palm leaf manuscripts written in the 'original'
'desi' language.")

just to be clear (since you deleted it), my comment about beauty wasn't intended in the superficial sense

and i take exception to the idea of having a strictly enforced positive thread celebrating the independence of sri lanka considering we now have multiple stories a day about bombings and violence (and that's just in the south, the press can't even get to the north where the situation is, by all accounts, significantly worse)

why delude ourselves? the country has not had a positive experience with independence, a thread celebrating it is inherently dishonest and insulting to the tens of thousands of dead, the hundreds of thousands of displaced and the millions who live in perpetual instability and danger

to clarify - a thread strictly enforcing 'positivity' about independence is insulting to those who have weathered its overwhelming negatives

Nothing much to celebrate really after three Tamil Tiger attacks on the weekend on two civilians buses and a suicide attack on a train in Colombo. Personally I think that deserves more coverage than a thread such as this. But nice thoughts Anna :)

Bad Stuff

Have to go against Rahul and say hopefully a victory in cricket will light up some SL spirit.

Retorts claims "the country has not had a positive experience with independence"

Hope he/she has the time to read the following article:

===

Recalling February 4, 1948

Runners, Royalty and 'Rali Palam'

We next ambled along to the enormous hangar which was the venue of the formal ceremony. Its spartan bareness had been overlaid with an unaccustomed opulence. The floor was carpeted in crimson. Rali Ralam arched overhead. The throne of Sri Wickrama, our last king, (on loan from the Museum), occupied the highest pedestal symbolising our once lost sovereignty about to be regained. Ornate chairs, framed by an arch of massive tusks, seated the main protagonists.

The elite of Colonial Ceylon filled the hall with a riot of colour. Kandyan chieftains stole the show in their regalia of gold brocade and tricorn headgear leading. Tamils favoured turbans and long sherwanis draped with shawls, leaders of the Moors wore rod velvet - fezzes and Malays in batik caps. The clergy were colourful too - the Buddhist Sangha in a rich variety of saffron robes and foreign Christian bishops in purple vestments. The ladies outdid everybody in a riot of colour and fantasy. In stiff dignity for their last hurrah, there was a sprinkling of English ladies in white gloves and wide brimmed hats.

No elaborate security barred the curious, so we had no difficulty in trickling into the hall and lining its wall to watch history in the making. The rather bumbling Duke of Gloucester stood in for his brother, King George VI. Sir Henry Monck-Mason Moore, the Governor, and the Duke, were in full colonial rig of gold braided white with plumed solar helmets. Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake stood burly in a well-filled cutaway coat and sensibly handed over the main oration to Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike.

In striking contrast to all the surrounding colonial flummery, his slight figure was dressed in simple white, Ariya Sinhala. When he spoke, we were transfixed by his impassioned and impeccable oratory absolutely appropriate to that historic occasion.

The Union Jack was lowered for the last time with the practiced solemnity that the Brits are so good at. The rampant Lion Flag of now independent Ceylon was proudly run up the flagstaff, for the very first time, to the yet unfamiliar blowing of conch shells, the rool of "magul bera" and massed school choirs singing the new national anthem "Namo, Namo, Matha".

That night, Cinnamon Gardens recaptured the limelight with its longrehearsed 'Pageant of Lanka' performed on a huge open-air stage, where Independence Hall now stands. Statuesque matrons and their nubile daughters, in a rainbow cavalcade of ancient costumes re-enacted dramatic scenes from olden times. Gallant police officers, bare-chested and begird with swords and period pantaloons pranced onstage with their police horses. Humble police constables carrying spears and swords provided background colour. We were treated to dances galore - Kandyan, Manipuri, Bharata Natyam, Minuets and quadrilles - from various periods of our history. Meanwhile, amplified voices in fruity accents provided an appropriately uplifting commentary (in English, what else?). A grand old time was had by all - on stage and on horseback.

FULL STORY

Unwittingly, as a sepia community, we've shied away from Sri Lanka because of how such discussions inevitably end: in flames. Not everyone here has your memories (nor would anyone attempt to invalidate your pain, even though you seem to see an innocent post like this as doing so, which saddens me). Not everyone lived through what you did, and for those of us who didn't, who are not from Sri Lanka, I was hoping that this thread would be edifying. Many of us don't know much of anything about Sri Lanka, beyond M.I.A., our excessively strict Montessori pre-school teacher (Hi, Miss Doreen), or our bf's random friend who doesn't talk. About anything. No, seriously, his lips never part unless he's eating.

I did not know about Independence leading to just unhappiness, and nothing good, and I am sorry I offended you. I know it's hard to be neutral about something painful. I'll tell you a secret; it's hard for me to even write this, and it's not because I'm quite sick-- it's because the last time I tried to sincerely understand more about SL by opening a discussion, I was skewered mercilessly elsewhere for my ignorance, even though my entire post was a request for the unique knowledge that our diverse, amazing commenters consistently bring. One of my sepia resolutions was to rectify that...to get back on the virtual blogging horse, even if it made me cringe with anxiety, which is exactly what I felt when I published this. I would like to do posts that cover the urgent developments that occur daily wrt SL-- I just can't without a fresh start. Which is what I was clumsily attempting to create, here.

Instead of looking at my plea to have a positive space for just one thread as some disrespectful, dishonest attack on those who've suffered enough, please try to accept it for what it is: a genuine effort at inquiry. A new starting point for discussions, so that more can occur here.

Or, I can close the thread, because if it is like the others, it will require more moderation than I can provide, since I still have pneumonia. I promise that those are not idle words; I don't want to do that. I don't write posts to close them. :( I don't think I was wrong to try and hear more about Sri Lanka than terror, tigers and worse; perhaps I was wrong to assume that some of you would be willing to discuss other things. Maybe that's just it, that there aren't other things and we have to accept that there is no point to discuss anything. Either way, it seems I'll learn something from this thread.

Even if Sri Lanka may have been a bad experience for some of the readers here, nothing wrong in celebrating the independence of a country. After all, India and the US have provided for some harsh experience of some of its citizens too. Does that mean we do not celebrate the countries because some people will be offended(Not to imply that such people have no cause to feel bad).

Instead of looking at my plea to have a positive space for just one thread as some disrespectful, dishonest attack on those who've suffered enough, please try to accept it for what it is: a genuine effort at inquiry. A new starting point for discussions, so that more can occur here.

Obviously I don't think you created this thread to offend, it just seemed so wrong that we can talk about sri lankan independence and mention relatively trivial things like cricket and arrack while ignoring the elephant in the room.

I get what you're trying to do though (now) and I respect that, i'll let my previous comments stand and leave it at that.

Kushil, i don't deny that independence was a great opportunity - sri lanka could have been great - but you can't deny that it has fallen far short of the mark.

Thanks, retorts. :)

Well, here's something about Sri Lanka besides violence and terror: Two languages are spoken in the country - Sinhalese and Tamil (and of course English).

Sinhala is an Indo-Aryan language and falls into the same language family as Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Bengali. It means "lion blood" (Sinha - lion, Le - blood). It's sister language is Dhivehi which is spoken in the neigbouring Maldives. Both Sinhala and Dhivehi represent the southernmost Indo-Aryan languages.

Similarities between Sinhala and Hindi

Tamil is an ancient Dravidian language and spoken by a significant minority in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Tamil is considered by many to be a "purer" form of Tamil and is spoken in a different accent to Indian Tamil. Owing to close contact, Tamil has influenced Sinhala quite a bit.

"trivial things like cricket and arrack"

Clearly you are not Sri Lankan! :-)

Aren't Sinhala and Tamil supposed to have similar grammatical quirks?

there's also a heavy malayalee influence to the jaffna tamil, owing to the many workers imported to jaffna from the malabar coast back in the days of the dutch.

"trivial things like cricket and arrack"

or Baaila ?
--

On more than one ocassion I saw party makers drumming on something that (I think) looked like a developed x-ray film stapled on a photo-frame. Believe me it did not sound too bad, and if you have more than one "drummer" you can get a pretty decent jam session going. Of course you need to know the songs. [ Can anyone validate that it indeed could be an x-ray film ? ]

My first experience in Sri Lanka (as an Indian Tamil traveling there on behalf of the Govt. of India) was to be called a "foreigner". I found that so strange as it was the first time I was in a country where the people looked like me and I was still a foreigner :) In my visits there, I have found the people to be the nicest and friendliest. Also big tea-drinkers! And although I was specifically told not to mention that I was Tamil since I was visiting Sinhalese areas (turbulent times), I only received friendship, affection and the "oh, you are one of us" kind of warm welcome.

Sorry forgot to mention the first time I was there was in the early 90s.

Thanks for starting this thread, I often wonder why we dont discuss the comparative experiences of south asian countries with education, security, terrorism and try to learn from them.

Sri Lanka seems to have many of the same characteristics that we see in the rest of south asia. An astonishingly violent and vicious insurgency, a democratic goverment that seems to pander senselessly to a couple of majoritarian groups and by some means manages to avoid settling its long-term ethnic/cultural problems. An elite class that mostly avoids all these problems and has a good life.

Yet Sri Lanka is quite educated and somewhat prosperous (comparable to Kerala or better?). So its a bit sad to see the current situation there and so I would like to understand how things have come to this point and are clearly being kept on the boil.

So is Sri Lanka the future of South Asia? Is this what Gujarat is gonna be in 20 years?? Is this similar to whats going on indias NE?

The food! Uppam, idiyappam, uppuma! Cutlets! Sri Lankan Love Cake! Fruit cake! Oh, why can't we all just get along....

The Army is the country's largest employer! WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Sigh. I give up. Again.

Good thing...

I've heard of the elephany orphanages they have as a friend of mine spent time colunteering there a few years ago.

26 · A N N A said

Sigh. I give up. Again.

You did try. There's several pittu-points available for the effort. I wish Lanka was thought of less as a hopelessly misbehaving child and more as a vivacious and intense adult.

You know what I want to know? I want to know why the SL National Archives don't have comprehensive historical data sets available on their website. 19th century wage data for preference. Who do I have to petition for a shiny new National Archives website?!

Good try, Anna. Thanks for keeping me for another month, Mutiny! My own post to come shortly.

Lanka lurkers, if you're in New York, check out a Lanka event at Asia Society next Tuesday. I'm moderatin'.

Here.

Also, in the both-Sinhalese-and-Tamil vein, there is a version of the Sri Lankan national anthem in Tamil. In fact, I still don't know the Sinhalese lyrics!

The Sinhalese starts, "Namo, namo matha..." and the Tamil is "Namo, namo thae."

Anyone else heard it?

Kushil (#16), that link to similarities between Hindi and Sinhala was amazing...thanks...I knew that Sinhala was an Indo-Aryan language, but it was great to see concrete examples of vocabulary that demonstrate that.

Best things : Kottu, Cricket (which includes 'big matches' and Murali,Sanath), Booze, The weather and Colombo.

oh and the ability to call absolutely anyone "Machang"..

let’s have a positive thread about Sri Lanka, free of acrimony and flames

Just got back from a week vacation in Colombo, a few things struck me:

1. The country is beautiful, the beaches are great, the interior stunning - sunshine, palm trees, the ocean, and lots of forests/jungles;
2. The people are extremely nice and have an island attitude where nothing seems to really upset them much and they're always smiling;
3. The new year's eve parties on the ocean are awesome;
4. Level of education for the common person is very good for a developing country;
5. Lots of really good looking women; and
6. Everyone is not obsessed about money like in india.

The civil war is a drain on resources and scares foreign investment and tourists. Being there with the constant background of a civil war reminds me of a Marquez novel. Can't help thinking that if the fighting would end, the country (and ALL of the population) would rapidly grow economically and in standing with the world.

Supplementing my above post - Please don't let my post dissuage you from visiting. Colombo and the area where the beaches are very safe. It would be a shame to miss out on something so unique because of over-hyped news media about the fighting.

Amitabh, you're welcome. That was only a very small list mind you :) I've been studying Hindi from last year and the similarities between the two languages are pretty amazing (at least for me :)). Both are Prakrit-based languages although Hindi has had a Persian influence (due to geography and history) whilst Sinhala has had a Tamil influence (due to geography and history). With regards to Hindi, I've come across people arguing whether words are of Hindi or Persian origin and in these occasions I think it helps to look at other Indo-Aryan languages that have been separated from North India for centuries and have not had contact with Persian (such as Sinhala). For example the Hindi word "jangal" (forest) is claimed as a word of Persian origin but it exists in Sinhala as "jangala." So it is very likely a Prakrit origin word. Like Marathi, Sinhala also has the same locative case. For example "in the house":

Hindi - Ghar mein
Marathi - Ghare
Sinhala - Ghare (or gedare)

This might interest you as well

Kamboja colonists of Sri Lanka

So yeah Gujjus, you might have rellies in Sri Lanka :) What I find interesting is that the totem of the Sinhalese is the lion and lions in South Asia (and greater Asia) are only found in Gujarat (the Asiatic lion).

Another question I've been asked is why Sri Lankans have such long names. I can't speak for the Tamil tradition but I'll try and explain the Sinhalese tradition.

Prior to the advent of the colonials, the Sinhalese didn't follow the concept of a first name and a last name. The Sinhalese had a clan system where a clan name was passed down from generation to generation (analogous to a surname). This is called the "ge nama" where "ge" stands for posession (the Hindi equivalent is ka, ki or ke) and "nama" stands for "name" (Hindi naam). "ge" also stands for the word "house" (Hindi Ghar). So "ge nama" can be called the "house name" as well. There are many different ge namas, they can refer to royal titles, jobs, villages, geography, marriages between clans, caste etc. In other words, they give a clue about a person's ancestral line.

The ge nama always appears before a person's given name/s.

So the name of Sri Lankan cricketer Chaminda Vaas:

Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas

breaks down to: Warnakulasuriya Patabendige || Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas

The bit before the double lines is his clan name and the names after are his given names.

In English that would be "Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas of The House of the Warnakulasuriya Padabendi"

Thus, "Vaas" is actually not his last name but a given name. However, many Sinhalese have now adopted their last *given name* as their surname to fit into the western system.

Hewapathirana'ge Nimal Devendra Karunaratne = "pure gem of compassion ruler of the gods from the house of the chief of the lascoreens"

So yes Sri Lankan names might be real tongue twisters, but there is a lot of history and meaning behind them :)

#39

Prior to the advent of the colonials, the Sinhalese didn't follow the concept of a first name and a last name. The Sinhalese had a clan system where a clan name was passed down from generation to generation (analogous to a surname). This is called the "ge nama" where "ge" stands for posession (the Hindi equivalent is ka, ki or ke) and "nama" stands for "name" (Hindi naam). "ge" also stands for the word "house" (Hindi Ghar). So "ge nama" can be called the "house name" as well. There are many different ge namas, they can refer to royal titles, jobs, villages, geography, marriages between clans, caste etc. In other words, they give a clue about a person's ancestral line.

The same system exists in Andhra Pradesh. ge nama is called inti paeru (literally, house name)in Telugu. Just like what it said above, inti paeru can refer to "royal titles, jobs, villages, geography, --- caste etc"
This could be more than a coincidence between Sri Lanka and Andhra. (Here I go speculating). Telugu writers have mentioned that Ravana Brahma, the king of Lanka, is of Telugu origin. He was a great scholar. Some of the Telugu grammar rules (sutras) were attributed to him.

The ge nama always appears before a person's given name/s.

Take the example of a Telugu person's name:

Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao

TarakaRamaRao is the given name. Nandamuri is his house name (inti paeru)which he has common with his brother and father. Well, he anglicised his name to N.T.Rama Rao, and the rest is history!

Alphabet Rao, that certainly is very interesting and likely more than a coincidence. Seems like exactly the same system is used by both the Sinhalese and the Telugu people. Perhaps you didn't know, but the last king of Sri Lanka had Telugu origins and in many cases he was responsible for bestowing royal titles to people in his kingdom. Infact there was a lot of connections between the Kandyan Kingdom and the Telugu people including immigration; the connection between Sri Lanka and Andhra is not speculation :) Sinhalese names such as Dissanayake, Ramanayake, Somanayake, Rajanayake reveal a Telugu connection with ther "nayak' suffixes. Infact the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh is called Rajasekhar, which is a common surname in Sri Lanka among the Sinhalese but spelt Rajasekara. Other variants are Jayasekara, Ramasekara, Somasekara, Rajasekara etc.

39 · Kushil said

The ge nama always appears before a person's given name/s.

The same system exists in Andhra Pradesh. ge nama is called inti paeru (literally, house name)in Telugu...Take the example of a Telugu person's name...Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao

Malayalees do that, too. That's why I have an Uncle named Kulamasseril Isaac John. Theoretically. (i.e. don't look that up, I ain't dumb enough to reveal a ge nama on the intarweb.)

#41

Sinhalese names such as Dissanayake, Ramanayake, Somanayake, Rajanayake reveal a Telugu connection with ther "nayak' suffixes

That makes sense. The nayaka rajas of Maduri are thought to be Telugus. It is possible, a branch of them were in Sri Lanka. This is not widely known in Andhra.

ANNA Said:

Malayalees do that, too.

Telugu writers have mentioned that Ravana Brahma, the king of Lanka, is of Telugu origin. He was a great scholar. Some of the Telugu grammar rules (sutras) were attributed to him.
Lanka from Ramayana is not the same as _Sri_ Lanka.

Additionally, Telugu grammar came into being mostly after the 10th-12th centuries; significantly after the events in the Ramayana (if it indeed happened), or even, after the Satavahanas built their capital, Andhrapuri (There's an Andhra Jyothi article from 2005 that talked about Andhrapuri; I have the link , http://www.andhrajyothy.com/editshow.asp?qry=/2005/nove/21vividha2 , but it seems to be dead).

Which is to say, Ravana could be Andhra (as in, belonging to the Vedic tribe, the Andhras; I really don't know much eitherways), but it is unlikely that he could have contributed to modern Telugu as such. He is, nevertheless, an accomplished poet in Sanskrit.

That makes sense. The nayaka rajas of Madurai are thought to be Telugus. It is possible, a branch of them were in Sri Lanka. This is not widely known in Andhra.

As King Sri Veera Parakrama Narendra Simha who succeeded Vimaradharmasuriya II [...] on his death bed he nominated his Vaduga Nayakkar brother-in-laws of South Indian origin to succeed him [...]

This led to the first South Indian Vaduga Nayakkar to ascend the Throne of Kandy under the Sinhalese name Sri Vijaya Rajasimha in 1739 AC, violating all ancient traditions of kingship. [...]

The Vaduga Nayakkars embraced Buddhism, learnt the Sinhalese language and made every effort to naturalise themselves, but cunningly avoided marrying into the local Radala families, the aristocracy. They went on to rule the Kandyan Kingdom for another seventy six years until the last of them, Sri Wickrama Rajasimha was dethroned in 1815 AC with the assistance of the British. (wiki links mine)

All this, of course, is a rather satisfying historical circle. For, between all those centuries of Shaivite and later Advaitic bhakti, the ancient kingdom of Andhras was in fact a vast Buddhist kingdom, second in size and power only to the Mauryas up north. This googling session also explains to me something I've always wondered: on why Sri Lanka is Theravada Buddhist, and not Mahayana like ancient India was, and modern China is.

43 · Alphabet_rao said

What do you call ge nama in Malayalam? Do you call it "house name"?

Yes. :)

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