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Item Early history of tea plantation in Assam and Sri Lanka: An antiquarian approach(International Seminar on Assamese Culture & Heritage, 2018) Manatunga, A.Tea is the most prolific item of the shared heritage of Assam and Sri Lanka. The tea plant is indigenous to Assam where it grows in wild and is used as a drink by locals from time immemorial. However, the cultivation of tea in Assam as a Cash Crop was initiated by the British in 1830’s with the help of Chinese expertise. They formed the Assam Tea Company in 1839 which is the first Indian company that dealt with tea manufacturing and exportation. Tea seeds were introduced to Sri Lanka, then Ceylon from Assam in 1839 and planted in Peradeniya Botanical Gardens as an experiment along with some plants from Botanical Gardens of Calcutta. The first tea estate in Sri Lanka was initiated in 1867 at Loolecondera near Kandy. During the next few decades, tea cultivation developed as the main export item of Sri Lanka replacing coffee which died due to a leaf disease. In 1900, there was approximately 380,000 acres of land under tea plantation in Sri Lanka mainly in the Central Highlands of the Island. The present research is an antiquarian approach into the early history of tea plantation in Assam and Sri Lanka in a comparative perspective. Deforestation of virgin tropical forests, recruitment of labour force, techniques of plantation, early machinery and factories, transportation, export and several other aspects of tea plantation in Assam and Sri Lanka will be surveyed in this research.Item A glance at roadscape of principal roads from Colombo to provincial towns in the mid nineteenth century Sri Lanka(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Manatunga, A.The present study is a cursory survey on the roadscape of principal roads which have linked Colombo with provincial towns in the mid nineteenth century. There were seven principal roads from Colombo, the Capital City of Sri Lanka to provincial towns in and around the island. Some of these roads were passable by wheeled vehicles, but some of them were bridle paths which were used by horse riders and packed bull transporters. All these roads were leveled and remained as graveled roads and most of them developed as metaled roads used by mortar vehicles, at least partially, by the end of the century. Bridges were very rare over rivers and streams in these roads; hence, fords and ferries were used to cross water courses during this period. Toll stations were found usually in some of these places. Rest houses, postal stations, forts and garrisons were found in some places. Some roadside villages were transformed as bazars and townships and some places were newly developed as urban centers. Among these principal roads, the road which was known as ‘Round the island road’ linked all coastal towns with Colombo and were used by Portuguese and the Dutch who occupied the maritime provinces, prior to British. Starting from Colombo towards north, it goes to Jaffna in the North, Trincomalee and Baticaloa in the East and Hambantota, Matara and Galle in the South reaching Colombo, passing altogether 770 miles. Abandoning the traditional road from Colombo to Kandy via Hanwella and Attapitiya, a new road was constructed by British in 1821, via Mahara and Ambepussa to Kandy. This 72 miles road was the first road constructed in Sri Lanka during the British period and the present Colombo-Kandy road is a development of this road, with a few minor deviations. Apart from this road, three more roads were considered as alternative principal roads to Kandy from Colombo. One of them was the road, 84 miles via Kurunegala. Another road was 94 miles via Yatiyantota, Ginigathhena and Gampola to Kandy. The road which meets the main Kandy road at 45th mile stone, coming via Ruvanwella and Ballapana from Colombo which is 82 miles long was the third alternative road. Road to Badulla via Rathnapura and Balangoda which is 135 miles was a principal road of the mid nineteenth century. The road across the country to Trincomalee via Kurunegala and Dambulla which is 159 miles was considered only second to Colombo–Kandy main road in importance, by British during this period. A search on colonial records, photographs and remaining physical remnants will be the sources of this research which is asking for more advanced research on the subject.Item A content audit of Transport related government websites in Sri Lanka(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) De Silva, A.P.U.Today there is a new trend to develop websites for government institutes to distribute information to the general public. Besides, the concept of e-government and e- governance have become popular at present. But many cases, the websites have a lot of weaknesses. The aim of the content audit is to perform a qualitative analysis of the content of a website and to find out its relative strengths and weakness. The main objective of the study was to find out whether the government websites provide historical information to the public throughout their websites. On the other hand, weaknesses of the website were identified. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were applied. Mainly this is a survey research. By using desk research and website evaluation tools, primary data were collected. WAVE, Google Page Speed and Hubspot Marketing Grader used as evaluation tools for the study. There are 72 ministries under Sri Lankan government and four transport related ministries were used for evaluation. After analyzing the data and evaluating websites, it was realized that most of the transport related government websites have given less priority to publish historical information regarding those institutes. As well as there is a high demand for online services on government websites. But a very few government websites provided online services for the users. Evaluation tools are given low marks for sampled websites. In order to overcome this situation, some major moves are suggested to upgrade the rank of government websites which are, introducing a basic format for a website, following WCAG and proprietary accessibility guidelines, establishing formal web accessibility laws and guidelines, upgrading online services, recruiting a centralized post called web manager for all government institutes.Item Transport & the Shaping of Sri Lanka’s History(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Kumarage, A.S.History is shaped by diverse factors, among them the access to land, its occupation and use.Sri Lanka’s own history underlines the impact that emerging transport technology had on government, settlement and trade. Being an island country, the influences of maritime transport have had the greatest impact spanning several centuries. Thus, the Chinese, the Indians, the Malays and later the Europeans all left their mark on shaping Sri Lanka’s conomy and culture.Much has been discovered on the ports and the maritime economy that made Sri Lanka and its geographical location important to the world over the years. Much less is documented on the land transportation that connected these ports and the capital cities that rose and fell with the different kingdoms and Chola invasions. The nature of the use of waterways and the horse tracks connecting the length and breadth of the land is also yet to be fully understood. The development of internal transport technology in ancient Sri Lanka and its global comparison is an area of immense research importance to determine its contribution to the formation of our history. Modern Sri Lanka is also intensely shaped by transport technology. The current economic concentration in the Western Province stems from the strategic use of Colombo as the gateway to Europe and its internal connectivity to a network of over 200 km of inland waterways including canals, lakes and rivers. The spice and coconut industries that supported this export economy continue even to-date as a significant economic contributor. The emergence of Colombo as the modern capital of Sri Lanka was further consolidated with the subsequent hubbing of land transport networks centered on Colombo and the port. The opening of new land to further develop the export economy of value to the Europeans was the primary basis for the development of the railway and subsequently the road transport networks. The attention on accessing the hill country and the neglect of areas of traditional economies such as paddy farming especially in the dry zone meant that transport technology was a key means that led to the shaping of the current economic and social profile within Sri Lanka including the inequities arising from same. The post-independence period in Sri Lanka saw rural road construction as a means of redressing these issues followed up with an extensive bus transport network that in many ways restored the quality of rural living. If indeed such measures contributed towards Sri Lanka not having experienced the global trend of heavy urban migrations in the latter part of the 20th century remains unexplored. At the same time, the political focus on rural access was not without negative issues, as both urban transport and inter-regional transport infrastructure stagnated for several decades. It is only in the last two decades that a new highway network is being built. However, if the planning of such a network is adequately visionary to exploit new economic opportunities including the promotion of domestic trade is not well understood. The neglect of urban transport technologies including upgrading of rail and bus transport has resulted in the depletion of quality of urban life and economic competitiveness. The recent attention on public transport including the railways and bus transport augurs well for restoring a more sustainable development of transport in Sri Lanka.Item Trans-cultural discourse on colonial transportation viewed through German Travel records on Sri Lanka(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Paranavitana, N.The involvement of cultural and political constructions embedded in the travel records has enabled critical awareness of the implication of travel and travel writings in colonial powers structures and it has given a new life for serious object of academic study. The expansion of colonialism fuelled by the improvements seen on transportation, travel writing had become a considerably popular and a successful genre. Increasing popularity and interest in scientific, geographical and anthropological research has also given a weight on travelogues serving as accounts of first-hand individual experience with potential instructions for travellers, administrators, religious expansion and scientific discoveries. As for Sri Lankan colonial heritage, until recent decades, colonial travel writings, especially that of the travel records of the authors of non-colonial powers writing on Sri Lanka had received relatively little or no attention. In post-colonial Germanic Studies, it has long been assumed that little need be said about colonialism and the Enlightenment, as Germany did not have colonies until the late nineteenth century, hence the German Enlightenment and colonialism appears derivative of and peripheral to what counts as the European tradition or any records founded in East-India Companies. This study hence focuses on the travel records of Germans in Dutch Sri Lanka, Herport (1669), von de Behr (1668), Schweitzer (1682), Fryke (1692) Wintergerst (1712) as recorded by R. Raven-Hart as well as the travel record of Wilhelm Geiger (1890) of the colonial Sri Lanka. Initially, until recently the personal records especially on the mobility of Sri Lankan then infrastructure as viewed by Germans is terra incognita or an unknown territory of information. This study will seek a new dimension for the heritage studies of Sri Lanka by revealing the transportation and road culture and the intercultural contacts positioning on the implications of the act of travel of an individual, national and spatial concept of identity prevailed along the crossroads and rivers throughout Sri Lanka revealing the stereotypes and the essence of an informative transcultural discourse written from the perspective of self-awareness and critique of the German perception of the colonial setup of Sri Lanka.Item Laws, regulations and customs related to land transportation in Sri Lanka(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Randilini, K.A.S.The paper based on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture would be mainly focused on Railways, Tramway as well as vehicles during the last century of Sri Lanka. The legislative enactments of Ceylon indicate lots of paths in Land Transportation. When we are focusing on Railways the Governor used to appoint a person who should take care of duties and responsibilities pertaining to Railways monitoring. Hence, during the paper, the duties of this appointed officer, passenger duties and responsibilities, fare charges, the Government’s role in this as well as penalty and Carrying Goods and parcels. Under Tramways, the promoters, from time to time for the purpose of making, forming, laying down, maintain and renewing, any tramway duly proclaimed and in part or parts thereof respectively, may open or break up a road, subject to lots of legislations. Tramways were used in a huge scale and it has a vast period of time in Sri Lankan Transportation history. The legal legislations pertaining to Tramways were also indicated in the early historical records. During the abstract, these scenarios would be evidently portrayed. The legislations enactments based on Vehicles have been focused on in this paper as well. Licensing of vehicles, Governor’s role in Vehicles legislation, liabilities of owners of vehicles, delivery of Goods, Offences would be some of the key points in the subject of vehicles. Hence, we believe that this focus on Land Transportation would be highly pivotal in order to get a crystal clear idea. Hence, the heritage of Land Transportation is pivotal enough to get an idea about Sri Lankan land transportation techniques and legislations. Cultural perspectives pertaining to Laws, regulations and customs related to land transportation also would be focused during the research of Vehicles, Tramways and Railways.Item How to Modernize a Society with Transportation: Colonial Ceylon in the Late 19th Century(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Wijesuriya, D.In this research paper on industrial archaeology, the intent is to demonstrate how novel modern transport from Europe was established and integrated into late 19th century Ceylonese society known for its deeply rooted traditional and conservative way of life. My paper identifies issues, changes, and relevant circumstances pertaining to the integration of new transport technology that transformed society from being largely defined and governed by traditional values and norms to a modern democratic political space. The monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean ushered in British rule, following Dutch and Portuguese, colonial enterprises in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), esp. in the coastal areas. These colonizers initiated a number of economic, social, and religious changes in the society. The plantation economy introduced by the British paved a way for an industrial capitalistic economy. The era and the background, explored in this study is the transitional period of the late 19th century in the socioeconomic history of Sri Lanka. The island started moving into a new phase using the opportunities of the economic revolution. The late 19th century was the rise of a new capitalist class comprised of various castes. Internal transformations occurred in both of the caste and class systems. Even the govigama (prestigious caste of cultivators) sector that was at the upper layer of the Ceylonese caste was also divided hierarchically. At the same time in this colonial era, lowly coastal karawa (fisher folk), durawa (toddy tappers), and salagama (cinnamon peelers) castes came up challenging the govigama. When the motorcar arrived, it became a dominant symbol used by raising new classes, who comprised of these coastal contesting castes, to represent their new wealth along the southwest coast. Thus, modern transport units arrived and gradually helped in establishing a new society as a modern class. The field study primary surveyed historical data collected mainly from colonial documents. The colonial population imported hundreds of unique motorcar models. A unique situation was created across Ceylon as different social statues of the island embraced these new transport machines. My research into industrial archaeology examines the importation of 19th century transport vehicles and how mechanized transportation transformed caste into a class.Item Pack Animals for Transportation(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Kothalawala, C.Pack Animals such as camels, goats, elephants, mules, donkeys, horses and yaks are used by humans to transport goods, humans, etc. All the weight bears on pack animals’ back. In ancient time, animals such as camels, goats, yaks, water buffaloes, elephants, mules, donkeys and horses were used for transportation. Most of the pack animals are ungulates. Elephants were used for carrying logs. Pack animals are filled with pack saddles. From the sixteenth century, pack animals have been used for carrying goods. The maximum load for animals is normally a ¼ of their body weight. The term ‘pack animals’ is traditionally used and is contrast to draft animals. Working animals pull loads such as pillows, carts or heavy logs. Rather than carrying cargo directly on its back, the pack saddle is designed to be secured on the back of horses, mule or other working animals. They can carry heavy loads such as luggage, firewood, small cannons or other weapons which are too heavy to be carried by humans. Pack saddles consist of wooden blocks, and breast collars which holds the saddle on the animals’ back. In Sri Lankan history, according to professor Paranavithana, there were horse trainers and elephant trainers. Elephants were captured from Sri Lankan jungles and horses were imported from India. Also, in the past, essential things like rice, coffee and fertilizers were transported using bullock carts. “Tawalama” is the famous load carrier in Sri Lanka. Elephant cart was used to transport good. Donkeys were also used for transporting goods.Item Promoting Railway Tourism in Si Lanka(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Rathnayake, S.; Rathnayake, S.Accessibility is one of the main components in tourism destination. Traveling by train is a famous accessibility method of the tourism industry. Railway tourism or train tourism is not a new concept. It dates back to late 1800s, when railway were developed and expanded many sectors of the world. This study is a desk research about the development of railway tourism, Indian railway market and identifies issues of Sri Lankan railway tourism and promoting furthermore. The basis of foundation of railway tourism was placed by the United Kingdom. As our main industry competitor, India has utilized their railway potentials for the tourism industry in a profitable manner. Tour operators use good marketing campaigns and introduce flexible packages to increase railway tourist market. Although there are many resources in Sri Lanka as well, those have not been properly used. Travel companies in Sri Lanka, giving chance for travelers to experience the train tours as a part of their main tour package. Mainly “JF tours” and “Exporails” travel companies promote railway tourism in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) with the collaboration of Railway department, plans to launch a new accommodation project in railway stations. To face the competition, Sri Lanka has to have a good plan together with private and public sectors. Moreover, it is essential to use powerful marketing strategies to attract more railway travellers to the destination.Item Jaina Religion in Ancient Sri Lanka(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2017) Bandara, N.; Bandara, D.; Harischandra, M.Jaina religion was one of the most popular religions that existed in ancient India. (It is well known as jainasm or jaina Sharma which belongs to the Sramana tradition) The religious leader of Jainism is known as Nigankanatha putta or Mahavira. Buddhist literature too mentions about Jainism in certain occurrences. Jainism was the first ever religion which invaded the South Asian countries such as South India, Mysore and Ceylon. Significant evidence can be found that can prove Jainism held and important place in ancient Sri Lanka. Local and foreign literary sources confirm the above fact. The main objective of this research is to discuss about the background of Jainism in ancient Sri Lanka based on the above sources. There are no definite factors to confirm as to how and when Jainism commenced its practices in ancient Sri Lanka. But there is evidence that Jainism dominated an authentic position in ancient Sri Lanka during the period of king Pandukabhaya. It becomes clear from Mahawamsa records to the effect that monasteries had been constructed for Jaina religions nominees named Jothiyagiri and Kumbanda. The above statements proves that Jainaism was the first ever religion was accorded the royal patronage of ancient Sri Lanka. Arrival of Arahant Mahinda Thera in Sri Lanka caused to create a new chapter in the history of ancient Sri Lanka. Buddhist doctrinal teachings evolved in the entire island effecting great influence on moral, virtuous and cultural lives of the citizens. Advent of Buddhism may have been strong enough to cause the decline of the powers of Jainaism. King Valagamba destroyed the monastery named Girinigantarama and built up Abhayagiri Viharaya at the same place which act resulted in degrading the authority of Jainaism. But it could be assumed that Jainaism raised its head again from time to time due to occurrences that took place after the Kings of this country left for South India for protection with the invasions of Paundyas and Cholas in Sri Lanka. There is no doubt that such religions influences may have had an impact on the customs, literature and the language which proves by the addition of adverse and unpleasant words like nasty, gaudy and indecorous etc.
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