It is a matter of culture and civilisation

Hemantha WARNAKULASURIYA

CIVILISATION: Ancient Roman buildings are awesome. Many are awestruck by their beauty and magnificence. One, with a sense of civility and culture, would ponder and wonder at the extent of the beauty and culture which radiates from these magnificent buildings, constructed without the aid of modern scientific methods or other artifacts.

How did the Romans or the Greeks achieve these heights? We were taught history, it was made boring as we had to remember the wives of King Henry the 5th and the myriad number of dates of various conquests, but never any insight into the people we studied about.

Even as tourists, we are taken, paraded by tourist guides and made to compare the achievements of their nation. They often pride themselves in calling their buildings the biggest or the longest or the oldest in the world.

Soon, we are at a loss to understand how these civilisations decayed and went into history as pieces in the museums. It is a sense of loss that those civilisations had decayed and given into cultures which have no comparison to the glorious past.

The decaying civilisations have given birth to other countries which have benefited from the decay. Egyptians gave birth to Greek civilisation, which in turn gave birth to the Romans. The Roman Empire gave into the French and English and then the Americans.

The US, which has a history of 300 years, is the task master of the world, and has made dents into the thinking of the world. The countries which had suffered from cultural decadence have only these superlative pieces of architecture.

They would apologetically say, "When Rome ruled the world, the people in Britain were living in daub and wattle huts". We nod in acquiescence as we too claim the same prerogative.

What tourist guides or teachers of history do not teach us is what made these men and women reach such great heights.

The buildings and the monuments were built by the slaves, or was it the artisans, other lowly workers, the engineers or the architects who put up these great monuments or, was it the dwellers who instigated the others to accomplish these tasks.

Digressing for a moment, in the mid sixties and the late fifties, our architects and engineers copied what was then knows as "Americans modeled houses" and our lower middle classes, who had no independent thinking or knowledge, encouraged these architects to build steamy hot summer houses completely negating the impact of the environment with short walls and low asbestos roofs meant for temperate climates.

We instantly gave up our old fashioned houses built with verandahs 'meda midulas' and thick walls. These Amercian houses were the last place a decent person would live in.

It was so hot and uninhabitable, but looked modern and different from the houses of our fathers or grandfathers, if they had any.

The architects and the engineers blindly followed these designs, until the advent of Geoffrey Bawa. My contention was that for the people who lived in these houses their culture and their concept were important.

I remember, as a school boy, visiting the house in which my Royal Primary schoolmate Anil lived, where the former IG Osmund De Silva lived. It was the first house designed by Geoffrey Bawa. At that time, as school children, we thought it was a queer house quite different to the houses we lived in.

It had "Meda Midula' an open verrandah and the walls had the murals of Anil Gamini Jayasuriya. It was cool and comfortable inside. It was more like one of the old Dutch "Wallauwas" which suited our climate. It was not a hothouse.

Later, I realised how this came by. It was not the artisans, carpenters or masons, but it was the architect and the people who wanted to be different.

People who loved culture, art and a lot of civility appointed Geoffrey Bawa as their architect. It was not the architect alone. It came from the thinking of Anil's mother Mrs. Ena De Silva.

The thinking philosophy of those who lived in houses mattered very much in the final outcome of a dwelling house.

Anil Gamini Jayasuriya was a child prodigy who excelled in art as a child. His mother Ena was there to guide him. So the house that was built was extraordinarily beautiful and habitable due to Ena who was to live in it.

On a tour of Rome, I stood before the Capitoline Museums, on top of the famous Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. There stood in the centre of the Piazza, designed by Michelangelo, the statue of a mounted rider.

The tourist guide said that it was that of the Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

But later, I found that she was wrong and it was the statue of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Later, the tourist guide was apologetic about her mistake and explained the importance of the emperor in relation to the epic film 'The Gladiators' and reminded us that famous actor Richard Harris who played the role of Marcus Aurelius.

It was thus quite by accident that I learnt about Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The film gave me no impression about Emperor Marcus Aurelius. But, the visit to Rome got me interested in him.

If Emperor Marcus Aurelius was another emperor, the greatest artist ever to set foot upon earth, according to my reckoning, Michelangelo would not have erected his statue in the middle of the most impressive square.

It was then that I knew the advances made by the Romans were due to the greatness of their culture and their philosophy. The buildings and other great monuments, we perceive even today, speaks immensely about their mind and concepts.

Inside these buildings and palaces there lived a generation that attained the very zenith of human civilisation. Their buildings represent the grandeur of the civilizing process.

We have known of the famous oration of Mark Anthony, as dramatised by Shakespeare, but we have never been exposed to the writings of the only philosopher king the world has known, Marcus Aurelius.

The writings of Marcus Aurelius become important today, as we hear the words of the modern statesmen, whether it is Bush on the war on terrorism, or Blair on the European common market or other statesmen of the world.

We read with enthusiasm or awe of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, "That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth," or that of Winston Churchill "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender".

These speeches are considered by many a mortal as great speeches of all time. These speeches also emanates from centuries of the civilization process of the west, which may have begun from the greatest of all philosophers Socrates, but to me, falls far short of the thinking and the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius.

Marcus Aurelius, as Emperor, was at war and he wrote his "meditations". He wrote 12 books. Some historians believe that these were written for himself. Others tend to think they were written to guide his son. What's important are the profound thoughts contained in these books, written nearly two thousand years ago.

Culture is the development of the mind. Civilisation is the product of that development.

When you look back and traverse the path of history, it is beyond imagination that a Roman Emperor, who could be likened to the President of the United States, the most powerful man on earth, could think about life, the soul, death, spirit and the universe.

Is it theoretically possible that nearly 150 years after the death of Christ, when Christians were persecuted and burnt at the stake, when slaves fought against beasts to win their freedom, when the whole world was being ruled by an almighty emperor, who had the rights of life and death over his subjects, one could ponder on the rights of others and equal rights and justice to everyone.

Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor, vested with all these powers, writes of his love for human rights, which is fundamental to democracy and good governance, "to love truth, and love justice: the idea of polity in which there is the same law for all, and equal rights equal freedom of speech, and the idea of kingly government, which respects most of all the freedom of the governed"

In his book, he then pays a tribute to his father and thanks him for what he taught him. "I was subjected to a ruler and a father who was able to take away all pride from me, and bring me to the knowledge that it is possible for a man to live in a palace without wanting either guards or embroidered dresses, or torches and statures, and such-like show; but that it is in such a man's power to bring himself very near to the fashion of a private person, without being for reason either meaner in thought, or more remiss in action, with respect to the things which must be done for the public interest in a manner that befits a ruler." Could we think of politicians or sometimes their children without bodyguards and other trappings?

Then, he commands the Romans of their duty and actions, emphasising on dignity and justice, which has been blown away from our society. There was a time those who fought for justice and human rights were killed as enemies of the people and burnt on tyre pyres.

And, there are those who acted with dignity, grace and chivalry to the point of being called as effeminate and peculiar, as the others could not resolve to act with dignity towards anyone, specially women and children.

Marcus Aurelius said this many centuries ago and this is the cornerstone of Western civilisation. "Every moment, think steadily as a Roman and a man, to do what thou hast in his hand with perfect simple dignity and feeling of affection, and freedom and justice."

About death he wrote "And besides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming from thence, whatever it is, from whence he himself claim from thence; and, finally, waiting for death with cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded.

But if there is no harm to the elements themselves, in each continually changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change, and dissolution of all elements; For it is according to nature, and nothing, is evil which is according to nature"

The exceptional depth in thought of the Greek philosophers and then the Roman thinkers formulated modern thought and contributed immensely to the development of the world.

The greatness of Roman and Greek Architecture, the concept of beauty and art cannot develop without the development of the mind.

The continuity of thought and the handing over of the knowledge can only bring forth Emperors like Marcus Aurelius, who could put down his thoughts in the midst of war and in the face of death. This shows the character of the noble Roman.

The buildings and other monuments in Rome and Greece manifest the glory of those cultures and civilisations. It is in fact the proposition of many western philosophers that Greece attained the zenith of human civilisation, which has never been emulated till today.

The 'Parthenon' is considered by many as the greatest monument built by man. Many a scientist, architect and engineer have strived to imitate the same by making a replica of this great building, but have failed.

Similarly 'David' the statue of Michelangelo stands unique and indisputably the greatest work of art and no one has ever sculpted anything better.

Instead, today, we have human beings on fast track to build the tallest buildings in the world. Malaysians built at a tremendous cost.

The Petronas Towers were 33 feet taller than Sears Towers in Chicago and Taipei has beaten the Malaysians with its tower 'Taipei 101', which is 87 feet taller than the Petrona Towers.

So, the race to build the tallest, the largest building will go on. But none of these buildings could come even remotely close to the beauty of the worst of the Roman monuments built nearly 2000 years ago.

Prince Charles once castigated the modern monstrosities which were shrouding the skylines of London and obliterating the greatest monument there, St. Paul's Cathedral. He said "Not only did they wreck the London skyline in general.

They also did their best to lose the great dome in a jostling scrum of office buildings, so mediocre that the only way you ever remember them is by the frustration they induce - like a basketball team standing shoulder-to-shoulder between you and the Mona Lisa.

In Paris, the French have built some pretty awful tower blocks in La Defense, but can you really imagine them building those same towers around Notre Dame? Can you imagine the Italians walling in St Mark's in Venice or St Peter's in Rome with office blocks the size of the Pirelli building in Milan? You can't. But we've done something almost as bad, and we've done it ourselves."

The Architects, the Engineers and the city planners in the UK denounced Prince Charles, but slowly the truth is dawning upon them.

Similarly, it may take centuries before those who venture to build the tallest or the longest or biggest building have race amongst themselves to build the most magnificent building in the world. This is because we do not have amongst us rulers who are philosophers, thinkers like Marcus Aurelius.

It is important that we begin to understand why we live in houses which are still veritable hothouses and humid, have no paintings or books.

This is part of our social malaise. We have no conversation or have we developed the art of conversing. We relish in gossip. We hate to talk of the successes of our friends but love to talk if they fall from grace.

Our favourite past time is to tear our best friend to pieces when he is not amongst us. We are against nature and do not appreciate a sunset or sunrise.

We have no concern about the rights of our neighbours but only of our own. We have no appreciation of the righteousness or compassion the Buddha taught us. But, we call our self the most civilised and cultured people on this planet. email [email protected]