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Why are we not promoting onion farmers of Jaffna and facilitating them to bring their produce to Colombo? Is this not sensible peacebuilding that has direct contribution to the national economy and the health of the people?
What is the significance of traditional knowledge of a country? Is it relevant to these technology driven modern times that we are in? In the present where traditional knowhow, heritage and culture is not emphasised in our education sector, is there a holistic, integrated way of promoting traditional knowledge to boost the economy of the nation while at the same time using it as a national tool of peacebuilding, reconciliation and national unity?
What is it that segments of Sinhala society active in many social media groups are saying when they refer to ‘Deshiya Danuma’ *(knowledge of the land) and how does it become either a tool for creation of conflict or a tool of creating unity, harmony and peace? If there are serious policy gaps in conserving, using and promoting traditional knowledge for national wellbeing, including in areas such as entrepreneurship creation, invention, health systems and agriculture, why don’t people fill this gap?
Why is it that we are no longer aware of the traditional ways of conserving water and using it in farming? What were the traditional water conservation systems used in villages in the north and south of Sri Lanka and how were they different and why? Why is it that we are no longer aware of the thousands of traditional foods that we can cultivate which are now in the extinct category and which have medicinal value? In an era of global pandemics, should not natural ways of immunity boosting be promoted and treated as a core national educational exercise? In a time of a dollar crisis should not we avoid situations where our scarce money is given to other countries for things such as organic fertiliser – connected to our soil nurturing traditional practices which was part of our agrarian heritage?
For much of our indebtedness is not the vacuum and disrespect given to our traditional knowledge, including those who hold this knowledge, the root? As we plan to rise from the ashes should not we understand from a lens of integrated awareness how diverse forms of traditional knowledge referred to also as intangible cultural heritage could be used for rural development in areas of entrepreneurship creation, innovation, farming, water conservation, health and wellbeing, tourism and how all these combined in many ways could be used for the much needed national unity consciousness?
The above questions are not ones we often ask ourselves as we do not have within our education system a base created to understand the knowledge of the past and assess how it could be relevant for the present and the future. Hence in this absence of not creating a national relevant education system in the last 74 years after independence from the British we in Sri Lanka often think of knowledge or technology only as those associated with the West. However, several global scholars have tried to understand the modern science based logic of ancient knowledge and used it for those countries, Sri Lanka which has this knowledge embedded in the minds of our elders and in our Ola leaf manuscripts seem to be amnesic to it.
As an initiative to look at how traditional knowledge is relevant to current day national unity in Sri Lanka and how a model of national reconciliation could be based on traditional knowledge of the country, a panel discussion dedicated to traditional knowledge and peacebuilding will be held at the Vavuniya University as part of its first International Conference on Harmony and Reconciliation 2023 (ICHR 2023) on the 19th.
The International Conference of Vavuniya University to be held on 19 and 20 January will embrace the theme of ‘Harmony and Development through Knowledge and Innovation towards Nation Building’.
The panel discussion on Intangible heritage (Traditional knowledge) in sustainability and peacebuilding was initiated by traditional knowledge promoter Frances Bulathsinghala in collaboration with Vavuniya University. The moderators of this event are Dr. M. Malarawan, Member of the Harmony Centre of the Vavuniya University and a Medical Doctor by profession who has initiated several national unity based interactions between Sri Lankans and Prof. Kamal Waleboda, Chairman of the panel for Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka. Prof. Waleboda is a professor (Rtd.) of Department of Mass Communication, University of Colombo.
The panellists include Frances Bulathsingha who will speak of the need to use traditional knowledge in Lankan peacebuilding, Arjuna Pannilage Podiwedamahattaya will make his presentation on sustainability of the human body and the intangible heritage of traditional environs based food of the Sinhalese and Tamils of Sri Lanka, Rajamaligai Director, Department of Cultural Affairs, Northern Provincial Council, will focus on the potential of the Department of Culture in promoting peacebuilding through cultural practices, Siddha practitioner (8th generation), Dr. Vanniyasingm Aathavan of Mullaitivu will make his presentation on potential of using traditional medicine and indigenous health foods for enhancing interaction between communities in Sri Lanka.
The panel discussion will hope to create a strong foundation to influence the way peacebuilding is seen by Sri Lankans and to create an authentic local peacebuilding model nationally which is representative of heritage based traditional knowledge of the civilisation of this nation and the inheritance of all Sri Lankans.
“I am an 8th generation paramparika *(lineage based) traditional physician of the Siddha tradition and qualified from the Siddha faculty. I am personally very pleased to meet for the first time a Sinhalawedakam physician from the south at this panel. As part of the pre-panel coordination I have already conversed with him on the phone and I look forward to meeting him in person. Both of us will be presenting on topics relevant to national nutrition and health while looking at how we could interlink better interaction between communities through this route,” Dr. Vanniyasinghm Aathavan stated in an interview with the Weekend FT.
Pannilage Arjuna Podi Wedamahattaya citing his view said that this panel which is part of the Vavuniya University Harmony conference proceedings would create a foundation for giving Sri Lankans a chance to connect with the knowledge of their ancestors and finding the modern relevance in times of serious global health challenges. “I will focus on how traditional farming and agriculture could bind all of us. Jaffna is a place known for hardworking people, clever people, persevering farmers. Jaffna was once famously known for onion, garlic, grape, and mango cultivation and as a child I have eaten these from the north of our country with relish. But the tragedy is that today we import onions from various countries. Why are we not promoting onion farmers of Jaffna and facilitating them to bring their produce to Colombo? Is this not sensible peacebuilding that has direct contribution to the national economy and the health of the people?” queried Arjuna Pannilage in an interview with Weekend FT.
He further emphasised that national unity could be promoted strongly through the route of traditional medical and wellbeing system at people level – where citizen based awareness and respect for the health system of the country which includes Sinhala Wedakama, Siddha-Ayurveda and Unani are revived and used for natural immunity boosting as well as disease cure.
“This should be one of our priorities at a time when we hear global reports of the COVID virus becoming more powerful. We should especially focus on traditional routes to health as in pre-colonial times at a time when we are facing Western medicine shortage in the country. One of my main areas of focus as a physician and traditional nutritionist is the environs based food that we often miss and I look forward to learning about the environs based plants of Jaffna (plants that grow wild that we sometimes do not know to recognise) and think are wild plants,” he said.
Prof. Kamal Waleboda, Chairman of the panel for Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka and professor (Rtd.) of Department of Mass Communication, University of Colombo who will be moderating the event, stated that having a panel on traditional knowledge at the Harmony conference of the Vavuniya University is a major step in creating awareness of the practical significance of such knowledge that could influence local policy irrespective of party politics.
“We need people to be aware of their intangible heritage – that which is connected to knowledge, beliefs, traditions and customs. These should not be just theoretically linked to culture but practically used for the wellbeing, economic upliftment and national unity of the people,” said Prof. Kamal Waleboda who is Chairman of the panel for Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka.
Note: The above article is in reference to the panel discussion on Traditional Knowledge and Peacebuilding as part of the series of panel discussions held at the 1st International Conference on Harmony and Reconciliation 2023 (ICHR) at Vavuniya University on 19 and 20 January. The conference will have several other panels and events, which this page, as a media initiative dedicated to promoting national unity, will be featuring in its upcoming edition.
The keynote speakers of the conference are Prof. T. Jeyasingam, Former Vice Chancellor, Eastern University of Sri Lanka, Emeritus Prof. Savitri W.E. Goonesekere, Former Vice Chancellor, University of Colombo and Prof. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Director, Peacebuilding and Development Institute, American University in Washington, USA.
