Holiday edition book synopsis

• Featuring three recently launched publications 

By Surya Vishwa 

Every end of the year holiday season is best celebrated by acquiring some new knowledge. The joy increases when we share it with others and we today introduce to the reader three books published in Sri Lanka recently that is of national importance. These books can also be an ideal Christmas or New Year gift option. 

The featuring of books in our page, highlighting especially rural based publishers and authors as we have done throughout this year, is part of our overall contribution to helping mainstream art, literature and all that constitutes as ‘cultural products’ into the national economy.

Authorship and publishing is an integral part of the economic structure and should be given the respect it deserves in policy creation to protect, promote and encourage the artist, writer, poet and publishing industry specialists as the cultural entrepreneurs they are and as members of the knowledge economy. 

A mass media that consistently dedicates its space to highlight artistes, authors, printers and publishers in every corner of the country is contributing to the creation of a thinking populace. This is the objective of the Harmony page. 

We have especially promoted the Thribhasha concept of featuring knowledge and literature published in Sri Lanka in all three national languages; Sinhala, Tamil and English and highlighting the importance translations play in establishing harmony and understanding among communities. 

Christmas edition book synopsis 

The books we have selected for our Christmas edition book synopsis are; the Sinhala language publication titled ‘Jesuthumage Upama Upaherena saha Sathya katha’ (Insight into the parables and the true life stories of Lord Jesus), the book ‘Veins of Influence and Green Gold; the discovery of Sri Lanka’s biodiversity’. 

Jesuthumage Upama Upaherena saha Sathya katha (Insight into the parables and the true life stories of Lord Jesus) by Sydney Marcus Dias

Sydney Marcus Dias, a veteran writer and publisher is a pioneer in introducing to the Sri Lankan publishing industry a wide range of intercultural analysis, with a targeted mission to promote national unity, empathy and wisdom especially through books for children. He is also a practical knowledge dissemination focused scholar of mass communication studies whose books are used in the national education curricular of Sri Lanka.

The book on the parables and life of Jesus is published by the Thothanna Publishing House started by Sydney about two decades ago and is among his latest works.

The above book can be obtained by contacting the Thothanna Publishing House, Uswewa Rd, Anamaduwa, Sri Lanka and by telephone on 0094 32 2263446 and on WhatsApp 076 4129248.

Concise and well researched, this book does justice to the universal relevance and depth of the teachings of Jesus Christ that transcends the boundaries of religion, providing wisdom for any seeker of it. The parables referred to from the Bible, are explained through a socio-psychological analysis, within the historically relevant socio-political narrative and can be grasped within a secular framework. Thus the book takes into account the times Jesus lived in, contextualising over 21 parables used in the teachings by Jesus, in an easy to understand manner. This helps to comprehend the mind of the humanist, social reformer and philosopher that Jesus Christ was.

This book therefore fills any gaps in understanding the parables of Christ in the depth they should be mentally digested. For example, the parable of the Good Samaritan which is generally interpreted as a parable teaching the importance of being helpful to those in need. 

Going well beyond this basic interpretation Sydney Marcus Dias, shows the reader who exactly the Samaritan was in the historical Judaic social order. 

The Samaritan was an ethnoreligious minority whose faith differed from the accepted majoritarian Jewish view and Samaritans were often socially ostracised. 

If anyone else in then Jewish society used an example to show who a kind and good person was in the times Jesus lived in, following accepted socio-religious parameters of the time, the Samaritan would never have been chosen.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan a man lies neglected on the roadside, left to die by robbers who have assaulted him and taken his belongings. Two other men pass by first; a priest of a synagogue and a Levite, both of whom were associated with the religious order and justice system and at the pinnacle of social acceptance. 

However, Jesus, in his teaching of kindness and compassion uses the most unlikely example of a Samaritan over the above two personalities who in the parable rush to their ‘Godly’ duties, quickening their pace after seeing the dying man. 

It is the Samaritan, scorned by the Jewish majority of the time as a non-puritan minority who performs the idyllic act of unconditional compassion by providing the utmost attention and care as he would do to a relative.

This is explained in succinct form by Sydney driving home the radical nature of this parable, reminding us how the overall teachings of Jesus went against the very grain of the strict socio religious thinking that had superficial understanding of ‘goodness’ and ‘piety.’ 

The 21 parables of Jesus explained with illustrations, photographs and in easy to read print size as well as catchy headlines, is ideal reading for anyone interested in understanding the radical visionary that Jesus Christ was. The validity of the book increases because as acknowledged in its pages, two well-known scholars and thinkers in matters of theology, Rev. Fr. Aloy Peiris and C.T.V Lerins Peiris have been two pillars of strength to the author in providing their unstinted support in supplying material and clarifications as needed. 

Apart from the parables, the book also focuses on the reality as lived by Jesus in everyday life. Therefore there is an aptly described section titled ‘Jesus as the parable’ or ‘Jesus as the miracle’ where the socio political significance of the values Jesus stood for in a time of rigid tyranny, exploitation and hypocrisy is placed on objective perspective. 

One can see in this book the boldness of the representative of social justice that Jesus Christ was; who exposed every aspect of sugar coated show-piece religiosity and gave voice to the voiceless and marginalised. Hence as we celebrate Christmas, the birth of this human being, it will indeed be a celebration to read this book and share it with others. 

Please note that we will follow up with a detailed interview with the writer/publisher, Sydney Marcus Dias in the coming weeks. 

Veins of Influence by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra

Our second at a glance synopsis in this special holiday reading edition is of a fascinating book titled ‘Veins of Influence,’ which is a tapestry of insight into facets of the complex colonial past of Sri Lanka, seen through photographic analysis as well as from the choice of collectors. 

‘Veins of Influence,’ authored by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra, and published by Neptune Publishers is currently receiving accolades overseas for its ethnography oriented imaging of a lost past. 

Within three months of being formally launched in Colombo, the book has entered leading libraries and collections, including the Getty Foundation, the Library of Congress and University Libraries, with the Cambridge University Library listing it as a ‘rare book’ that must be read in the Special Collections Room.

The book can be purchased through the following links as well as directly accessed through Neptune Publishers located at 302 Pahalawela Rd, Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte and contacted via phone on 0114 413 243 and through general bookstores in Colombo. 

https://www.veinsofinfluence.com/

Kindle EBook: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CPFSC5BV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=4P5S4R5X6AIH&keywords=veins+of+influence&qid=1701728631&s=digital-text&sprefix=veins+of+influence%2Cdigital-text%2C60&sr=1-1

The publication Veins of Influence positions still unfamiliar early colonial era photography of Ceylon within a broader geographical discourse about world photography. It opens new vistas in the use of photography as a form of research into the realms of the historical. Its author Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra is a Sri Lankan born cultural entrepreneur based in Malaysia and UK, dedicated to building sustainable connections between communities and individuals, local and global through the route of inter-disciplinary discourse. She read law at Cambridge University (1987) and qualified as a Barrister and New York Attorney.

She is the first Sri Lankan cultural specialist to be appointed to the Tate Gallery (UK) Acquisitions Committee (SAAC) and has served on numerous judging panels including for the Commonwealth Arts Award and as a nominator for the Sovereign Art Prize and Aga Khan Architecture Awards. Her immense work as a cultural social entrepreneur will be featured in our upcoming editions where we discuss how she connects the world through art. 

Below is a brief quote from a detailed interview with the author; 

“My construct of visual evaluation, namely ‘veins of influence’, takes a reconstructive approach to contextualise and interpret colonial era photographs of Ceylon.”

“This construct examines the dynamics implicit in the image and takes into account historiography, biographies of collectors and the idiosyncrasies of the social context which are best understood by identifying for whom these photographs were intended.”

“This analytical approach is not new; in assessing other cultural objects, this is best practice. However, recognising how vital it is to understand these ‘veins’ when studying photographic material and that which the famed John Berger so aptly termed ‘ways of seeing’, offers fresh methodology.”

This book which can also grace any premises as a history centric educative coffee table adornment, brings life to the psyche of photography seen through the choice of collectors and thus provides a rare personal approach to studying the past through the process of image collection. 

The photographs that appear in the book with the ensuing analysis is painstakingly chosen over a long period of time from diverse collections including the Royal Collection, an initiative of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in gathering cultural material from the colonial empire. Many of the photographs are also sourced from individual collectors in Sri Lanka and abroad. 

Thus, for many reasons the book brings with it a nostalgic euphoria especially as one reads about accounts of foreign travellers through the terrains of Lanka that is today evident only as one stilled photographic moment surviving the tides of time.

For example the illustrations in the 1892 publication ‘Two happy years in Ceylon’ as documented by Constance Fredrica Gordon Cumming who was an artist and travelled this island extensively in 1872 and 1873. Documentations of Gordon Cumming of exotic flora with combinations of words and paintings are among the vast content chosen in Veins of Influence and juxtaposed with the photographs of those such as then famed British studio photographer J. Lawton whose attention was vastly on the natural landscape of Ceylon. At relevant points Shalini queries on the influences that these forms of art would have on each other by looking at the similarities of some of the paintings of Gordon Cumming and the photography of the time. 

The book encompasses a vast repository of images by many colonial era photographers that includes also buildings of historical significance and personages. Among the photographs of individuals are those of a Kandyan chief, a village headman, a Mudaliyar and servants of colonial administrators, all dressed in official gear. 

The painstaking commitment of Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra to bring to fruition this unique documentation of history which is a combined scholarly and visual analysis will be evident only when we publish the author interview and full review of the book. However, what we have mentioned above may surely be sufficient for those looking for a meaningful Christmas gift for their loved ones. 

Green Gold; Discovery of Sri Lanka’s biodiversity by Rohan Pethiyagoda 

This book is a unique picturesque unravelling of Sri Lanka’s biodiversity as well as the colonial inheritance of the plantation economy. To review this book is a major challenge if one is to do justice to the vast amount of content in it and this synopsis is only a brief appreciation so as to introduce the reader to the book ‘Green Gold’, which its author points out as a history entwined with the stories of the people who discovered and scientifically described Sri Lanka’s biodiversity from the beginnings of European exploration in the 1600s right up to about the 1990s. To quote Rohan from an interview with this writer, ‘To qualify for a mention in the book, you had to be dead!” 

Rohan Pethiyagoda is a Sri Lankan bio diversity scientist who is the first Sri Lankan and the second Asian to receive the Linnean Medal from the Linnean Society of London awarded annually to a botanist or a zoologist and is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka as well as a Research Associate of the Australian Museum,

His thus far published books include those on the history of natural-history exploration in Sri Lanka, the Horton Plains national park and the biogeography of Sri Lanka.

Green Gold was launched recently by the publishing unit of Dilmah. Dilmah is generally known for its tea and conservation work. The details on purchasing the book can be obtained from the official website of Dilmah; dilmahtea.com.

The book provides background to the reality that many Sri Lankans miss; that Sri Lanka’s colonial plantation economy led to an elite local capitalist class and that these influencers set the tone for much of the post-colonial economy as a whole. The book provides details of many personalities connected with the colonial administration that were responsible for establishing and nurturing the plantation based economy in different ways. 

Green Gold is therefore a stunning account of fertility of the soil and overall nature gifted abundance of a nation as seen through the histories of people, places, fauna and flora and is a seamless fabric of narration accompanied by photographs and paintings where relevant. 

The book is undoubtedly a biodiversity driven aesthetic journey to help us understand a myriad of factors connected with imperial interests and administration we may have ignored in summing up our colonial heritage. 

A detailed review of the book and an interview with Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda will follow. 

Note: Below are links to a segment of previous content of this page that features local writings and are reproduced to promote these work as possible holiday gifting options. Writers/artistes can survive, both artistically and economically, only when there are readers/buyers of their work and are supported by far thinking national policies that do not allow arts and culture to exist in a bubble. 

https://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/Post-Book-Fair-reading-Snapshot-review-of-Sinhala-poetry/10523-753786

https://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/Integrating-arts-and-culture-into-national-economy/10523-752782

https://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/The-intoxication-of-poetry-in-a-bottle-extra-special-poetry-by-Chaminda-Gunasinghe/10523-754832

https://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/Compassion-empathy-and-love-the-eternal-poems-of-life/10523-746450

https://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/Featuring-renowned-literary-doyen-Dikwelle-Kamaal/10523-746711