An introspection on culture

 It was not our ‘culture’ to destroy the earth with poison and then watch silently as people die slow deaths equally silently

It is also up to us to see the modern ‘culture’ of values (or the lack of it) and the habits as well as practices that have led to this economic crisis. It is also up to us to see how the authentic ancient Lankan culture and heritage could have averted the current begging bowl modern culture of Sri Lanka

The word culture and heritage are two words that get bandied about at different times for different purposes or agendas. What is a ‘culture’? What is ‘heritage’? 

We promote tourism – what do foreigners feel about the modern ‘culture’ with which we handle our refuse? What will they think of the ‘culture’ of a parent who takes from the child a plastic bag or toffee cover or similar item and freely throws it on the high roads? 

What do we think of our modern ‘culture’ of owners of opulent cars happily disposing their garbage in garbage dumps around the high roads or around the vicinity of other people’s houses?

A culture refers to a range of things that include practices, beliefs and lifestyles which are based on the geography, weather patterns of a particular location and soil and many other aspects. It is known that the arid soil in Jaffna – the north of Sri Lanka bred hardworking individuals who had to strive very hard at water conservation and to keep the soil in a fertile mode. Jaffna was in the 60s one of the key agricultural hubs of Sri Lanka where it was said that this district alone could feed the entire Sri Lanka. 

Major generalisations cannot be made rationally of any community in the world but there are sociological truths of how the land defines the people. Thus the people of Jaffna were known to be keen learners and diligent as well as responsible citizens who led simple lives and abhorred wastage. 

In comparison, in the fertile areas of the south where even a twig was said to grow (before the profit focused mania of chemical agriculture ruined the soil), the people tended to be more easy going. Between planting and obtaining the harvest, most southern Lankans could take life easily. The soil was fertile and rains were frequent. Yet this generalisation does not hold for many other arid parts of the country such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa which were key ancient Sinhala kingdoms were the pre-colonial culture was deeply enshrined with the rainwater reservoir culture of the hydraulic civilisation of Sri Lanka. How the rainwater harvesting water resource linkage was achieved from one tank to another was a mystery to colonial water engineers. Our hydraulic civilisation is a vital core of the culture and heritage of the nation. It speaks of the mind of our ancestors and their ‘culture.’

It was not our ‘culture’ to pour water into non-biodegradable bottles and make money out of it by selling resources that belong to the people.

It was not our ‘culture’ to destroy the earth with poison and then watch silently as people die slow deaths equally silently.

Today we tend to think that the words ‘culture’ and ‘heritage’ are only synonymous with arts and crafts. Arts and crafts are linked as we mentioned earlier, to the resources of the land. 

Much of our arts and crafts have died out because we have not resurrected it from the colonial mindset that taught us to disregard it and optimise a knowledge or practice of another culture.

We have been sold the concept of Western science to make us demean our known knowledge which were part of our ancient heritage and culture. Some examples of this knowledge include the ancient science of astrology, astrological farming (now known as bio dynamic farming as coined by the West), and our indigenous medical science which was practiced in the first hospital in the world – in Mihintale.   

All these cited knowledge realms are now under the sceptical judgment of Western science. Knowledge, whether ancient or modern or Western or Eastern, should be respected as long as it serves the public good but not when it is overwhelmingly manipulated for profit.

Today our health based ‘culture’ is to gulp tablets freely and trudge to the clinic regularly for our multifarious ailments while heedlessly eating foods that are alien to our culture and that which equals poison. 

Here it is not meant that we should condemn or disregard whatever that which other cultures have contributed that is useful to humankind – what is meant here is the inane national obliviousness to the fact that our authentic national ‘culture’ or our ‘heritage’ is not reflected in our practical lives. 

It is said that one can study one individual of a nation and then come to the conclusion of the ‘culture’ of the place because as we said at the outset culture is an integrated output of a myriad of factors that shape ethics, values, beliefs and practices. 

Thus when we talk of ‘culture’ and ‘heritage’ let us remember not to use these words loosely.

Let us live authentically and benefit from our culture which was based on respecting and conserving water resources, respecting and conserving the medicinal plant resources and the medicinal traditional practices that evolved out of such resources, and the heritage of a vast realm of knowledge that includes engineering and architecture. Our ancient carving and gemology traditions are today unheard of. The fact that we had a specialised ancient medical science of surgery is unspoken of today. The fact that we had the gurukula knowledge tradition is not talked of today when we have discussions on culture. By not doing so and not researching the significance of the gurukula system that created the hydraulic civilisation that was this nation, we are being complicit in the wrong conclusion that we had to have colonial occupation to ‘educate’ us. 

Thus let us not be juvenile about understanding what culture and heritage should mean to a nation. Let us comprehend its overarching economic significance, at a time when we say that we have an economic crisis.

It is also up to us to see the modern ‘culture’ of values (or the lack of it) and the habits as well as practices that have led to this economic crisis. It is also up to us to see how the authentic ancient Lankan culture and heritage could have averted the current begging bowl modern culture of Sri Lanka. 

(SV)