Two books on tsunami: a fact file and a creative work
 

by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra

To mark the anniversary of the tsunami, quite a number of books have been published both in Sinhala and in English. An awakening interest has been shown by writers to pinpoint the need for a better awareness of the tsunami matters and to consider the role of the opinion leaders like teachers and social reformers disseminating information.

One of the well known Sinhala science writers, Ruvan Harischandra has brought out a book in the form of a fact file dealing with all the aspects of tsunami, with the common reader like the student in mind.(the book is titled, tsunami hevat Muhuda Godagelima - tsunami or the surging of the sea - Gurulu Publications, 2005).

In the first instance writer Harischandra makes a survey of the usage tsunami in its varying forms, the origin of the Japanese term and its spread into the other languages, as well as the scientific usage with special reference to the geological and astronomical matters.

The history of the tsunami as it had happened in the past is traced with dates and figures in the briefest possible manner. Then he outlines the various countries affected by the tsunami devastation over the years coming on to the year 2004 December 26, which he mentions as the most affected and most discussed disaster from various points of view.

Laying a map of the cluster of countries most affected, he mentions those eleven as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand, the Maldives, Malaysia, Somalia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Tanzania. Gradually the writer takes the reader to a scientific depth dealing on aspects of earthquakes, out of which tsunamis are created, and the ways and means of gauging them through scientific means.

Natural disasters

Followed by these scientific details the reader is made to know about the various instruments used to measure the intensity of tsunamis and the ways of forecasting them from the rudimentary forms to the latest discoveries. Though this kind of information is laid down in several places like periodicals and feature articles this must be the first proper compilation to come out in the form of a fact file.

Though the term tsunami happened to be known and used recently the events indicative of such happenings had been recorded in various historical documents in the past including our own chronicles.

Writer Harischandra makes use of these recordings to show that as there had been no preventive measures, more mythological elements had crept into the records giving way to folklore creations and narratives (p33-34).

But writer Harischandra says that these narratives make us believe that the tsunami is not a strange phenomenon from a historical point of view which is empowered and fused with a layer of socio- religious feelings like good actions giving vent to good living conditions and the bad or adverse actions resulting in disasters.

This I felt is one of the finest environmental theories for all times. It is widely believed that the natural disasters are intensified or caused by the follies of the humans who destroy the gifts of nature and the very surroundings that they live in.

This thought stream is sensitively captured by the writer in the chapter titled, 'why so much of disaster caused?' (Ayi metaram vipatak?) where he lays down quite a number of factors that had intensified the effects of tsunami.

They are denoted as the disasters (a)caused by the breaking of coral reefs that protect the shore, (b) using of dynamite to catch fish (c)removal of the protective stone walls, sand and herbal plants,(d) erecting of building structures closer to the sea beach, especially the hotels and resorts, unaware of the impending disasters,(e) quick monetary gains versus right thinking on environmental factors etc.

The writer at length deals on the technological aspects of the tsunami and its aftermath visualising the need to know more about nature and natural disasters, and the need to investigate into the realms of understanding environment as a subject area helping the younger generation to know more and more via mass media channels and classroom supplementary readers.

Folklore

While the writer is involved in the scientific side of the tsunami, another writer of fame on folklore, a Buddhist Monk, Ven. Orukmankulame Chandana Thera, has written a flimsy little creative narrative running to 22 pages (Pahasara Ahasa, Petikada Prakasana 2005) on a sensitive area pertaining to a tsunami event in the life of a little girl named Taraka, and her grandmother who is shown as a story teller.

Grandma comes out with various folk stories and legends of her past and it occasionally happened that she was narrating with much interest a historical legend of the well known princess Vihara Maha Devi who is supposed to have been the subject of a local tsunami event, which is captured in the pages of Mahavamsa (chapter 22).

Interspersed with the narratives of the grandma Taraka comes to know more about the nature and the gifts. Taraka is raising various questions related to the nature, which for the most time is answered by the grandma.

Their place of meeting is the sea shore, which helps them to relax and watch the sea and the sky. But it so happened that the grandma one day falls sick and the granddaughter eventually loses her most admirable story telling partner.

The last legend of grandma comes to a reality when the little girl comes to know about the actual tsunami that befell on December 26, from a realistic and modernistic point of view coming to grips with her own experiences which makes her a matured person.

Taraka is made to know through her mother that the tsunami had caused much disaster to them and that the grandma though not a victim of the disaster had her last days in the hospital. Taraka and her family become the victims of the tsunami and lives in a camp. She hears the voice of grandma from a distance and meets her only through the vistas of intelligent old stories that she had narrated.

Then one day while walking along the beach, Taraka picks up the brass betal pounding utensil (Pittala Bulat Vangediya) used by her grandma, before the tsunami disaster overruled the surrounding. That becomes symbolic of the creativity of the lost grandma.

These two books, though written by writers, known to each other, and launched on the same day, from the North Central Province (Rajarata), I felt are two good gifts for Sinhala readers of all types in all parts of the country.

[email protected]

..................................

<< Artscope Main Page