Poson Bakthi Gee festival of Madukanda Sri Dalada Viharaya in Vavuniya district

Most of the folk music and the Bakthi Gee holds important messages of hope, resilience, living in harmony with others – both humans and the animal world, protecting of the streams, earth and wildlife. In these modern times we talk of sustainability emptily, limiting ourselves to events that focus on theoretics that have operated upon the heart

By Surya Vishwa 

In our last edition we featured the Soul Sounds choir based in Colombo which has won gold medals at the largest international choir competition, the World Choir Games held in different countries across the world each year. The host country for this event this year is New Zealand and Soul Sounds is currently competing at this festival that began on 10 July.

On 15 June Soul Sounds performed in Colombo at a special event organised by Dilmah Tea and the New Zealand High Commission as featured in our page (https://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/Sri-Lanka-s-Soul-Sounds-competes-for-Gold-at-World-Choir-Games-in-Aotearoa-New-Zealand-heralding-Matariki-New-Year/10523-763620).

Meanwhile, within the same timeframe, in a rural Buddhist temple headed by Sri Lanka’s first Buddhist clergy member to devote himself to composing poetry and promotion of Jana Kavi (Sinhala folk poetry), plans were afoot to organise the annual Poson cultural event, replete with sung poetry and Buddhist homage centred devotional hymns, Bakthi Gee. The event had no sponsorship or assistance from any organisation or institution; state or private, and was entirely a people and temple supported event, with scraped together scarce financial resources. 

This was a week after this same temple organised a special display of traditional arts of Sri Lanka in the form of Vesak decoration aesthetics themed to celebrate and venerate the desaththe (73) knowledge realms mastered by the Lord Buddha. This event was held on 17 June and attended by citizens in the area.

Madukanda Shri Dalada Raja Maha Viharasthanaya

The Buddhist temple we are speaking of is the Madukanda Shri Dalada Raja Maha Viharasthanaya. The most Venerable Swaminwahansa in charge of this place of worship is Muwaetagama Ananda Na Himi, a veteran poet who has several published poetry books, and many traditional Sinhala cultural promotional events to his credit and having repeatedly sat on Janakavi (folk poetry) judge boards. The location of Madukanda is about four kilometres from Vavuniya town. Ven. Muwaetagama Ananda Na Himi is of the Siam Maha Nikaya and chief clergy member (Nayaka Hamuduruwo) for the North-East holding the position that reads in Sinhala as ‘Uththuru Nagenahira Depalathe Pradana Adikarana Sanganayake’ (Head of North Eastern Clergy Mediation).

The Venerable Thero is head of both the Madukanda Shri Dalada Raja Maha Viharaya and in charge of the Daham Pasel (Buddhist spirituality education) in Madukanda and the adjacent villages. 

He was the first head of the Pirivena School, Madukanda Shri Dharmaratana Vidyaayathana Pirivena in 1981 when it was initiated and had conceptualised many events to promote heritage music genre of Sinhalese tradition among the students. 

Does the State have a systemic mechanism to support these cultural, traditional and Dharmic knowledge promotion events of district level temples, we asked Ven. Muwaetagama Ananda Himi, keeping in mind that if promoted with far thinking vision how these could be integrated into a proper tourism policy that will greatly benefit the preservation of intangible cultural heritage of the nation. 

“The blanket answer I can say is No,” he replied. 

Are there any companies in Colombo who have come forward to support these rural cultural attempts that contribute to the promotion of traditional knowledge through arts in the country?

No, is his answer.

Has there been any awareness among the diplomatic community, tourism sector or international sphere on these events which are held in these areas?

“I can only speak of this village and this district. The answer is no. But as far as I know it is the same story for many of the other areas,” says Ven. Ananda Thero.

I then speak to him of Sri Lanka being represented at the World Choir Games and he immediately expressed happiness that Soul Sounds, a choir singing and trained mainly in the Western tradition of vocal and music expertise is doing yeoman service to get Sri Lanka on the musical world map.

“It is good news. The Sinhala tradition type of choral music is called Bakthi Gee and the village cultural representation through singing is called Jana Gee (folk or people centred music). The voice modulation is a sharp contrast to the singing done in churches which follows the Western style of music diction but music is music. Any form of prestige through music and arts/culture which is brought to Sri Lanka we are happy.”

Sinhala and Tamil Jana Gee traditions

We then have a short discussion of the Sri Lankan Sinhala and Tamil Jana Gee traditions (folk singing that sprang from the Sinhala and Tamil culture of everyday life which revolved around nature, the agrarian economy, the cooperation with wild animals who were once upon a time part of the human consciousness and spiritual oneness of being.

In the backdrop of discussing the immense challenge of organising regional cultural events as done by Ven. Muwaetagama Ven. Thero recently and every year for the past couple of decades, the topic shifts to the dire and mystifying lack of international representation as part of diplomatic/cultural/tourism policy of Sri Lanka of these traditional/heritage based rural events. 

Most of the folk music and the Bakthi Gee holds important messages of hope, resilience, living in harmony with others – both humans and the animal world, protecting of the streams, earth and wildlife. In these modern times we talk of sustainability emptily, limiting ourselves to events that focus on theoretics that have operated upon the heart. The heart lies elsewhere; in the sung traditional poetry such as karaththa kavi (poetry sung and composed while travelling long distances in carts drawn by bulls), in andahera which is the traditional communication with the buffaloes which are vital friends in the process of paddy harvesting (they were used to turn the soil), poetic communication with elephants *(ali manthara) that focuses on the third eye – centre of the forehead of the elephant and communicates in a mixture of rhymes that are gentle and forceful), sung poetry to the rivers in the journeying of oru and paru (traditional boats) which were used until quite recently to commute through Sri Lanka’s many waterways that interlink the country which are now gone to parched oblivion as we focus only on the modernity of tarred roads and consider that to be ‘development.’

What about unity and peace among communities through Bakthi Gee and sung poetry based folk vocalising – our Sinhala and Tamil folk music? The Bakthi tradition of celebrating devotion through singing has commonalities in both Sinhala and Tamil spiritual cultures. 

“I can only speak for Sinhala Bakthi and Jana gee which is my area of expertise. These were learnt as part of our village Buddhist and agrarian heritage through the everyday life of our parents who were devout and practicing Buddhists as well as farmers and through these routes natural poets. We did not learn these sitting at desks in schools,” explains Venerable Muwaetagama Ananda Na Himi. 

“Poetry and all forms of arts are there to unite people. Being based in Madukanda, a Sinhala village in Vavuniya which is a predominantly Tamil district, I am very keen to use our traditional knowledge and music – that of Sinhalese for national good to heighten feelings of metta, muditha and karuna. This is the central message of Buddhist teachings,” explains the Ven. Thero before going onto make the suggestion of starting an international choir representing the Bakthi Gee of Sinhala and Tamil traditions and the Folk sung poetry of the people – Jana Gee, again representing both Sinhala and Tamil culture.”

Sinhala Jana Kavi

He then explains how around 150 of the Sinhala Jana Kavi are centred on spirituality – on the Buddhist teachings of life and death and how to live in between without hurting anyone.

“For example there is one Jana Kavi that uses the metaphor of an umbrella to describe life and the closing of the umbrella to death. There is a way to sing the Jana Kavi. This cannot be done in the Western way. Western singing is a unique art that has to be appreciated as we would do so many different musical cultures across the world. But a Jana Kavi or a Buddhist Sinhala Bakthi Gee, is sung in a particular way that has its own niche that the world does not know of. Even if we have not taken these musical traditions of ours to the world for the past seven decades after independence, at least we have to teach it correctly to our younger generations,” explains Ven. Muwaetagama Ananda Na Himi. 

I then ask the Venerable Thero to explain about the recently concluded socio-spiritual cultural Buddhist events in his temple which served as a focal point for the surrounding villages of the Madukanda area. I also query as to the level of energy that goes into these events, especially considering that the Thero has the responsibility of being the Nayaka Hamuduro (chief priest) for Madukanda and in charge of operations of the Madukanda Shri Dalada Viharaya, in charge of the Daham pasel education of the region and the main initiator of all cultural initiatives linked to the temple.

He laughs and says: “Ow ithin, anu kaduwa wage thamai. Etharamata mahansi. Habai karanepaya mewa.” (Yes, it feels like all limbs are broken at the end of the day but these are things we have to do nevertheless).

The Bakthi Gee program was carried out with the support of music experts of the area Sudesh Maduranga and Sisira Kumaratunga and featured 17 poems composed by Ven. Muwaetagama Ananda Na Himi which was set into different tunes. 

Bakthi Gee choirs from seven surrounding villages, featuring vocal skills of those from age of 5 to around 30 years and an elders choir as well as a dance by young male dancers – students from about 6 years to 15 were part of the event and among the comperes were Vavuniya based journalist Dinasena Rathugamage. The social media partner for the event was the Ran Gee Lanka website which promotes Sri Lankan culture across the world and relayed the event live across Europe.

Here we come to the question of how the new media is ideally suited to promote arts and culture and showcase globally especially traditional arts projects at district and village level in a backdrop where mainstream media generally remains fixated mostly on Colombo. Ran Gee Lanka is a new media initiative of Lakdil Peiris who lives in Italy. With the district level media coordination and media expertise of a regional team the event was covered with journalistic precision.

Speaking at this unique Bakthi Gee event Ven. Ananda Himi explained that every Poson Poya (the Buddhistic spiritual day commemorating the link between the moon cycle and the truth searching journey of enlightenment of the Buddha) is commemorated by events such as these held in Vavuniya initiated by the historic Madukanda Rajamaha Viharaya. 

“This year we established the Shri Dalada Kendreeya Daham Pasel Guru Sangamaya (association of teachers teaching at Sunday schools), of the nearby villages that are affiliated with my temple.”

These villages encompass villages such as Madukanda, Mahakachcha Kodiya, Maha MailaKulama and Nedun Kulama. 

The invitees for the cultural event which featured singing talents of children and youth of these area, included officials in various sectors and Sri Lankans of diverse ethnicities.

Music, poetry and Dharmic spirituality are all entwined unifiers of society

“I represent as a chief monk an area which is occupied by Tamils, Muslims, Buddhists and Christians – basically Sri Lankans. Therefore I wish to reiterate that these events which are Buddhist events are Dhamma based and are for all citizens. This is the intention in all of the Poson events organised by us. Music, poetry and Dharmic spirituality are all entwined unifiers of society,” explained the Thero to this writer.

“I welcome all of the citizens of these villages – Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims and thank them for attending this event. The objective of this event is based on training and showcasing the children and youth based traditional musical expertise. One of its goals is to encourage Buddhist Sunday Schools (Daham Pasal) attendance of children. When we organise events such as these it creates a bond between children and parents. This bond has to be strengthened so that parents are able to appreciate and encourage the Dharmic (spiritual) growth of their children and support them in the pursuit of traditional arts and culture. This was also the intention when we established the association of teachers teaching at Sunday schools in the surrounding villages that are linked to the temple I am in charge of. We hope to continue this Dharmic cultural event in the future as well though this association,” the Venerable Thero explained. 

Separate choirs representing the respective villages including Madukanda performed at the event. The choirs were trained by Ven. Muwaetagama Ananda Himi who is a professional singer/musician in the traditional Sinhala style of singing. Following his poetic calling the Ven. Thero had composed many of the lyrics of the Bakthi Gee which he hopes to be part of his latest upcoming book of poetry.

“Just as the Poson decorations symbolised the 73 knowledge realms perfected by the Buddha, the Bakthi Gee event centred on the Buddhistic lens of understanding the fleeting nature of sensory pleasures,” explains the Most Venerable Thero.

Note: This article was conceptualised especially promoting Bakthi Gee as well as Jana Gee as peacebuilding mechanisms. We hope to follow up on how these village spiritual cultural events and festivals could be entwined with specialised models of tourism for peace making and empathy enhancement through conservation of comparative spiritual heritage.