Graphic account of puppet theatre

Asia Shadow and Puppet Theatre

Author: Jayadeva Tilakasiri

Author Publication

38/3, Sri Sumangala Mawatha, Ratmalana

90 pp Price Rs. 1,250

Review: Prof. Tissa Kariyawasam

THEATRE: Countries in Asia have all been endowed with an interesting phenomenon in the field of folk theatre known as puppetry. Historically, puppetry was preserved and protected by people as a form of art which would enhance the path to the netherworld, assisting them to learn the moral values of life.

During the 20th century, Asian shadow and puppet theatre was enriched with the assimilation of Western elements into folk theatre. Sri Lanka was also benefited by this global trend during the 1950’s and the pioneer research scholar was none other than the author of this highly acclaimed volume on Asian shadow and puppet theatre.

With the emergence of modified national culture, Sinhala drama and the “Rukada” Theatre won the utmost interest of the scholars at the University of Peradeniya. Prof. Sarachchandra diverted his talents towards the Sinhala Nadagam style, in order to create a new tradition in drama. Meanwhile, a scholar in the department of Sanskrit after establishing a Rukada Sangamaya at the University of Ceylon with the few enthusiasts developed the modern tradition of Sri Lankan puppetry.

Royal family

Prof. Tilakasiri is the pioneer researcher not only in the field of Sri Lankan puppetry but also in the Asian shadow and puppet theatre. He has collated material from all over Asia and compiled the history and development in Asian puppetry and shadow theatre. This new volume deals with the origin and the proliferation of this form of art throughout Asia.

During the 19th century, when the royal family visited the colony, the Sri Lankan elite organised puppetry shows for their entertainment. Despite such prominence, folk dramas like the Nadagam deteriorated after the arrival of the Hindustan Dramatic Company and the assimilation of other followers from Mumbai Nadagamas to the Nurtisystem.

The traditional Nadagam was forced to retreat to the remote villages. However, puppetry was adopted by the rustic system as it was accepted by the Buddhist temple.

The author has detailed various views on the origin of the puppet theatre enunciated by Indian and European scholars during the 19th century. Sri Lankan puppetry and the manipulation of the figures are associated with the traditions of India, according to the writer.

G. Podisirina from Ambalangoda is believed to be the pioneer of this art form. However, some are against this view and say that Balapitiya - an adjoining village, was the birth place of puppetry.

The origins of Sri Lankan puppetry can be gleaned through classical literary texts from the 13th century onwards. During the 12th century and later, the modern term Rukada came into existence following in the mould of the sanskrit term,Rupa Khanda.

Origins

In this volume Prof. Tilakasiri discusses the origins, manipulations and specialities of the puppet and shadow theatre in Asian countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Korea, Philippines, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Japan, China and Australia.

The water puppet theatre in Vietnam, and the Wayang in Indonesia are areas covered in the volume that the Sri Lankan readers may be unaware of. The case of Japan where artists have modernised puppet theatre in order to suit contemporary needs in the field of education and the television, is also of great interest.

After the establishment of the Rukada Sangamaya at the University of Ceylon, Czechoslovakian, American and German artists came to Sri Lanka at the invitation of Prof. Tilakasiri and modern puppetry was introduced to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanks is now a member of UNIMA - the world association of puppeteers. His untiring endeavours in the field of research and creative work, for over fifty years has crystallised in this volume. Its addition to the corpus of literature will undoubtedly provide visibility for Sri Lanka’s traditional art forms.

Reminiscences of an administrator

Looking Back

Author: L.M. Samarasinghe

Vijitha Yapa Publications

Review: Tissa Devendra

MEMOIRS: When I was asked to review a book of reminiscences by an administrator who had used carrier pigeons as his messengers I presumed it was a posthumous work as, to the best of my knowledge, the last time pigeon post was used was during the World War of 1914 to 1918.

To my pleasant surprise I found that the author was my friend and colleague L.M. Samarasinghe (Sam) whom I had known from 1943 when we were both students at Anuruddha College, Nawalapitiya where my father was Principal. With the passage of time both of us became members of, what I call in jest, that ‘friendly Mafia’ of Government administration.

Our paths often intersected and, in fact, in 1960 my family moved into the government bungalow Sam’s family had just vacated to move into the DRO’s brand new bungalow whose architect he was.

Politicians

‘Looking Back’ is a singularly apt title for this book of reminiscences and it opens a window into a now-lost world where administrators were vested with great initiative and did not have to kow-tow to politicians.

Sam started off as a Divisional Revenue Officer in 1950 when a D.R.O. was a highly respected officer who wielded great authority. The establishment of the DRO’s service in the late 1930s was a surprisingly far-seeing move by the Colonial government which realized that the time was ripe to divest district administration of the last vestiges of ‘feudalism’ represented by Rate Mahatmayas and Mudaliyars-hereditary ‘lairds’ who ran their Divisions as benevolent/arbitrary despots.

It was decided to replace them with young educated men selected impartially by competitive examination. What is even more interesting is that they were selected on a formula that took into consideration both ethnicity and geography.

There were DROs from the Maritime, Kandyan, Tamil and Muslim areas with due concessions made for those groups that were educationally disadvantaged. As Sam describes the Probationers were, for over two years, given a rigorous training in Police work, Agriculture, Cooperatives, Irrigation.

Health and Excise and many others - not via ‘seminars’ as is sadly done today but by attachment to the respective Training Schools and Departments.

This was followed by being attached as Probationers to actual Divisions to observe and participate in hands-on adminstration. It is a matter of great regret that no academic, or former DRO, has embarked on an objective study of this epoch-making institution while quite a few veterans, now in their eighties, are yet around to share their experiences.

Sam’s first station was Anamaduwa in Puttalam District where he amply demonstrated the initiative, he was to show time and again, in his bold and imaginative use of carrier pigeons to send messages to Puttalam. The story is so fascinating that I leave it to the reader to discover for himself. Rich in human interest is Sam’s story of his companion the mongoose ‘Kiri’.

As a DRO was a gazetted Police Officer, his encounters with crime and criminals make interesting reading. One is amazed today to read of the comparatively tame criminals of yesteryear, and their humility before the DRO.

The writer sandwiches comprehensive accounts of a DRO’s duties and responsibilities such as Division Days, flood and drought relief, Rural Development Societies, blood donation and shramadana campaigns with personal snippets such as how he cured a wild elephant and, later, was almost sucked dry by an incredible infestation of leeches.

Sam shared, with others of his “administrative generation”, a disciplined acceptance of the policy of transfers that greatly enriched our knowledge of our Island nation. He has worked in several districts and his career as a DRO was, fortunately, in an era when Members of Parliament were a polite breed.

water-tight departments

The loosing of water-tight departments with the establishment of the Administrative Service enabled Sam to spread his wings into the areas of Local Government, Land Administration, and Delimitation among others.

This wide and varied experience was duly rewarded by his appointment as Secretary to the Leader of the House where he became conversant with the niceties of Parliamentary procedure both in Sri Lanka and abroad. My only regret is that he has not spiced this later section with the personal anecdotes that enlivened his account of his life as a DRO.

This also applies to the latter part of his narrative where he lists the important role he has played in NGO’s and their coordination, before this pre-tsunami era when “NGO” has almost became an obscenity.

‘Looking Back’ is an altogether interesting account, by a hands-on practitioner, of an administrative framework that is now history. I commend it to academics as well as those of us who lived through this interesting period of Sri Lanka’s modern history.

Small book on great things

Resurrecting Razed Rain Forests

Author: Sunil Wimalasuriya

Publisher: Wimalasuriya Property Developer.

45 pp. Price: Rs 265

Review: Dr. Magdon Jayasuriya

NATURE CONSERVATION: This is a true story about the forest restoration in the lowland wet zone of Sri Lanka, a unique effort in converting unproductive plantation lands to near-natural rain forests, guided by the objectives of increasing the forest cover on degraded lands, recover the lost biodiversity and replenishment of water resources.

This book is Part I of the work titled Ecological Study of Bangamu Kande Estate, a Restored Tropical Lowland Rain Forest in Southwestern Sri Lanka.

Bangamu Kande Estate (BKE) at Pitigala in the Galle District is situated in the lowland wet zone of Sri Lanka, home for the biodiversity-rich tropical rain forests. BKE is owned by Sunil Wimalasuriya and it had been cultivated for the past 100 years with cinnamon, rubber and tea by the Wimalasuriya ancestors.

Guided by his father’s concept of sustainable land use, Sunil Wimalasuriya, a selfless and practical nature conservationist, changed the old land use practice in 1973, promoting forest regeneration in various blocks of his land in stages. The tea was almost completely abandoned and cinnamon and rubber were cropped during the process of forest regeneration.

Recovery mechanism

The regeneration of the natural forest has progressed rapidly in this over 16 hectares (40 acres) of plantation land through over 30 years and the vegetation today has achieved the stature of a secondary rain forest with its tree canopies reaching about 23 meters or more.

Planting of indigenous tree species and mahogany and selective weeding allowed the natural forest regeneration minimizing the top soil erosion during rainy weather. Soil conservation by contour draining was done when necessary.

The presence of birds and arboreal mammals facilitated the regeneration process by their seed dispersal activities. After the initial assistance was given by man, nature did the rest and now the site in many ways resembles a wet zone secondary forest.

The improvement of the plant diversity at the site has been greatly promoted by the presence of natural forest patches in the vicinity of BKE.

Site for research

Sunil Wimalasuriya did not stop with resurrecting rain forests, but proceeded to share his experience with other nature lovers and invited many researchers to his new-found nature laboratory to delve into the dynamics of the rain forest recovery.

The Ruhuna University and the Oxford Brooks University in UK were to first to grab this golden opportunity by engaging some of their post-graduate teams to conduct research from September 2002.

This has so far resulted in four M. Phil. theses and two more M. Phil. and two Ph.D theses are on their way to be completed. The data gathered have unravelled an enormous and rapid proliferation of biodiversity at BKE.

The occurrence of a large number of species: 197 plants (63 endemic), 98 butterflies (5 endemic), 24 fishes (12 endemic), 21 amphibians (9 endemic), 44 reptiles (18 endemic), 90 birds (15 endemic) and 38 mammals (7 endemic) was recorded.

Evidently, the forest recovery process is a combination of physical conditions (e.g. improved soil conservation and water retention and stability of the temperature and atmospheric humidity etc.) and biological conditions (e.g. increase in species composition enhanced forest profile and forest cover and occurrence of species associations and complexes etc.). This became amply evident from following observations:

* Mixed bird species flocks foraging in association with Purple Faced Monkeys and Giant Sqirrels

* Return of Leopards and Sambhur to BKE and vicinity after a lapse of 35 years, illustrating that the resurrected forest path is now serving as a biological (genetic) corridor between adjacent forest areas

* Increase in arboreal mammals (Monkeys, Giant Sqirrels, Loris and Civet Cats)

* Discovery of a new sub-species of Loris, the Red Slender Loris (Loris tardigradus)

* Rejuvenation of soils to a satisfactory level within a short time after being degraded during years of human disturbance with agricultural and village activities (indicated by soil tests conducted at the TRI, Walahanduwa, Galle).

Community participation

Sunil Wimalasuriya went on further in his effort by mobilizing schools to initiate school gardens and land owners to grow trees of useful species. Planting materials were mainly purchased from the Forest Department nurseries at Kanneliya and Wilpita. Meanwhile, the temples were encouraged to grow medicinally important species and the planting materials were supplied by the University of Ruhuna (personal communication with the author).

The idea behind this endeavour is to establish a system of homesteads and other tree assemblages with reasonably high canopies that form links with restored and other natural forest patches and thus create a system of biological corridors.

Sunil Wimalasuriya’s Secondary Forest Concept and the BKE model as the flagship, the author, together with local and foreign research groups, initiated an ambitious effort, with the participation of land owners and farmers, in the formation of a NGO, “Land Owners Restore Rainforests in Sri Lanka (LORRIS)”.

The objective of the organization is to proliferate the “Wimalasuriya Model for Rainforest Restoration”, with the participation of land owners to establish biological corridors to link fragmented forest patches into forest complexes.

It is our hope that the main custodians of the Protected Areas, viz. the Forest Department and the Department of Wildlife Conservation will take note of the valour of this lone conservationist and develop a cooperative mechanism with the government machinery for nature conservation.

This is a concise book giving only the essence of the technique of Wimalasuriya Model of rain forest restoration in plantation lands and the efforts taken to proliferate this principle among land-owners and government sector.

The front and back covers depict in colour the interior of the restored forest showing the trunks of well grown trees and healthy undergrowth. Several colour photographs of plant and animal species recorded in this forest and maps of the site add quality to this book. Lists of the flora and fauna with scientific and local names are given in appendices - A small book on great things.

Humanocentric approach to journalism

The Dao of the Press: A Humanocentric Theory

Author: Shelton A. Gunaratne

Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press Inc., 2005

Review: Ben Antao Toronto, Canada

MEDIA: Reporting and information-sharing across the global village will reflect social responsibility if the media were reoriented to achieve a fair balance between Eastern and Western philosophies of thought, according to a mass communications professor at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Shelton Gunaratne, 67, a Sri Lankan-born and raised journalist, makes this bold recommendation in his new book The Dao of the Press.

Actually, the author calls his attempted merging of East-West philosophies a “humanocentric theory,” which invites the criticism that this might work in theory, but not in practice.

Array of research

Still, the author has assembled an array of research, if speciously selective, in support of his theory, and the prudent reader will be rewarded with interesting insights into world views particularly from the perspectives of Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Daoism.

I say the “prudent reader” on purpose because this academic work written in highly stylized and abstract terminology will go over the heads of the average educated readers, not to mention the working journalists and executives of multinational media corporations-the target audience the book is obviously trying to persuade.

Communication

Well, I suppose in this day and age of specialists, the CEOs of the New York Times, the CNN or the Fox networks do not actually need to read such esoteric research themselves, but can afford to call upon their staff holding PhDs to do the reading for them, assuming of course there is an interest in making communication more human, more democratic and more relevant to governments and peoples worldwide.

In simple terms, the Dao of the Press is a call to the movers and shakers in the media not to think of West-centric journalism as the only desirable global path that every nation-state must follow.

Energy forces

Drawing from Chinese philosophy, the book asserts that everything is a composite of the two complementary energy forces yin and yang.

Thus, various shades of journalism co-exist along the yin-yang (libertarian-authoritarian) continuum representing manifold forms of social responsibility as defined by each nation-state’s culture and related factors.

Thus, the Confucian interpretation of social responsibility is not the same as the Judeo-Christian interpretation.

The book draws on the Buddhist principle of dependent co-arising (paticca samuppada) to demonstrate that all shades of journalism are mutually interdependent. Buddhism endorses the middle path between the extremes of libertarianism and authoritarianism-whether these terms apply to journalism or systems of governance. Such a position reflects the true nature of the physical universe that is in a state of constant flux.

The Middle Path philosophy calls for the fostering of a journalism neither to the extreme of libertarian democracy rooted in the individual self-interest nor to the extreme of authoritarian autocracy.

Humanocentric approach

In other words, a humanocentric approach to journalism and mass communication adopts a holistic worldview that accommodates all human epistemologies and philosophies in theory building. Westcentric theory dominates the world today.

Gunaratne appears to believe that such a humanistic approach to the practice of journalism will engender a horizontal integration of world societies and thus individual interests will be satisfied in harmony with the whole.

As a journalist born and bred in Goa, India, who traveled with Shelton Gunaratne for a year in the U.S. as a fellow of the World Press Institute in 1966-67 in the company of 13 other international journalists from 14 countries, I understand the author’s position. However, I have my doubts if Western journalists will be inclined to put his theory into practice.

Economic philosphies

My doubts stem from this belief that journalists today are more driven by political and economic philosophies than religious ones. For example, Europe and America are guided by national interests of security, access to oil and to emerging markets for their technological products.

Similarly, India and China and Japan are also anxious to get ahead and improve their GDPs (gross domestic product) year over year. In such a global scenario of interdependent trade, material prosperity and security in the face of terrorist activities, print, radio and television reporting will continue to be biased.

Still, the ideas in Gunaratne’s book deserve an airing in the sense that some good might accrue from its reading for those who are active in the mass media.

Finally, this is not the sort of book one might pick up at any of the large bookstores in the U.S. for it is not for sale in the consumer market.

For a copy (194 pages), write to Hampton Press, Inc., 23 Broadway, Cresskill, N.Y. 07626. ISBN 1-57273-617-8

Ben Antao, who writes both fiction and non-fiction, lives in Toronto, Canada. His latest novel is called Penance, a love triangle. His e-mail address is [email protected]

Bookshelf:

Yugayen Yugaya

LAUNCH: The latest edition of Jayasena Jayakody’s Yugayen Yugaya will be launched at Dayawansa Jayakody Book Exhibition Hall, Colombo 10 on February 27 at 10 a.m.

Mr. Jayakody is an award-winning author who wrote several popular novels such as Pichchamala, Amavessa, Gothama Geethaya, Sath Sayura, Asvenna Parasathuro and Raigam Puttu.