By Darshanie Ratnawalli –
Darshanie Ratnawalli
LDA Conference 2016: Culinary Ethnology in Sri Lanka
Lanka Decorative Arts (LDA) swam into my ken recently when someone told me about its 2016 conference ‘Kussiya: Culinary Ethnology in Sri Lanka’ and suggested that I’d enjoy attending it (all dressed up in order to enjoy it all the more) and doing an in-depth coverage. Accordingly, I wrote a line to LDA Founder Director Dr. Ayesha Abdur Rahman by way of permissions, coordinated with Adilah Ismail, an arts and culture journalist, who is also a panelist on the conference and made arrangements to attend on Day Two and Day Three.
I found it one of the most enjoyable conferences that I had ever attended, permeated by an upbeat pulse with never a dull moment. For ‘Kussiya’ is that type of dynamic conference where not only the papers presented by the panelists, but also the panelists themselves can be converted into rich sources of sociological information. Let me illustrate with an anecdote. In the introduction to the conference catalogue, Ayesha Abdur Rahman explains that the conference will follow the historical development and culture of kitchens associated with our multi ethnicities, involving, among other things, specialized cuisines influenced by indigenous and external factors. The conference theme, Ayesha tells us, connotes food and the socio-cultural histories behind its preparation and eating habits, as well as the similarities and diversities that exist in the cultural melting pot of Lanka.
Sinhalese vegetables
In short, the main fare at this ‘Kussiya’ consists of food cultures of communities, regions, religions and ethnicities. Day Two is when indigenous food cultures come most to the fore, with topics such as ‘Saiva Reformation of 19th Century Jaffna and the double kitchen tradition’, ‘Food and food practices among east Coast Muslims’, ‘Ritual cooking and food offerings in Agamic and non-Agamic temples in Jaffna’, ‘Kiri Ammawarunge Dane; the feeding of seven milk mothers’, ‘Bath Malava: Thanksgiving after the harvest and alimentation for deities’. Even Day Three, which is intended to be more cosmopolitan with such topics as ‘Ports along the ancient trade routes’, ‘The movement of spices along the ancient silk route of the sea’, ‘Juxtaposing the past with the present: The growth of Gastrodiplomacy’ includes a presentation of one of the most traditionalist and purist food cultures of the island, ‘From Bolo d’armor to Breudher: a conversation on Portuguese and Dutch Burgher cuisine in Sri Lanka’.
Deborah Phillip talks breudher and lamprais with Anne-Marie scharenguiver Keller and Angelo Gonsalves
At the end of Day Two, under the influence of this kaleidoscope of culinary traditions, I buttonhole Professor Asoka De Zoysa, a panelist and presenter on Day Two of ‘Cooking for the pious: From Mulutange to Kussiya’ and ask him; “Do you think there is such a thing as Sinhalese food and Sinhalese vegetables?”. It’s his answer which converts this professor in the Department of Modern Languages, University of Kelaniya into a rich source of sociological information. He says “No. Sinhalese is a language for me and Tamil is a language”
Astounded at the professor’s denial of food ethnology in the midst of a conference on culinary ethnology in Sri Lanka, I ask “But when you consider such vegetables specially used in Sinhalese cuisine as ‘bandakka’, ‘thibbotu’, etc.?”.
Eastern Muslims
De Zoysa retorts “No, no others are also having. They are all having. But the preparations are different because the generations are using different ingredients. That area Naleefa was talking about; Eastern coast, they are putting fish into everything, because they have fish in abundance and don’t use dry fish. So that again is very regional.” The ‘Naleefa’ he mentions is Ms. A.W.N Naleefa, a lecturer in Sociology in the South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. Due to my inability to reconcile dressing up with being early, I had missed her presentation ‘Food and food practices among East coast Muslims’, the second item of Panel One on Day two, held between 9.00 and 10.30 a.m.
At the ladies’
However on Day Three of the conference, at the Mount Lavinia Hotel, Naleefa, some of her research students and I have an encounter in front of the ladies room. We are sort of waiting in line, they in abayas and hijabs and I in a short summer toga which leaves one shoulder bare (which I subsequently learn Professor Asoka De Zoysa has been going around calling a ‘cocktail dress’- more of this later). They open the conversation with me and I ask Naleefa about ‘Sinhalese vegetables’, Does she think there are such things, do the Eastern Muslims have the same ‘batu’, ‘bandakka’, ‘me karals’, ‘vetakolus’ etc. but use them in their cuisine with only the preparations making the food culture distinct? Naleefa, who is a Muslim from Galle, read Sociology in Sinhala and English and took up residence in the East only after her marriage, admits freely to Sinhalese vegetables, and informs me that although the same vegetables may be grown in the East, due to the different cultivation methods, they take on different shapes, colours and sizes.
Naleefa’s contribution to the conference is that different cultures and ethnic groups have different culinary cultures. Distinctiveness in food selection, unique dishes and styles of food, different preparation methods and spices are the building blocks of a distinct culinary culture and by reason of these, Eastern Muslims have a different food culture, which the researcher had observed first hand living in an Eastern Muslim village for 10 years. Naleefa tells me that her husband practically can’t do without the ‘Eastern mix’ of spices and has to have it brought from their village whenever they have to live in Colombo for any length of time. She also tells me that their dried fish which is made from tank fish is quite different from our run of the mill ‘karawala’. A misconception that her presentation seeks to demolish is that all Muslims eat the same foods and follow the same traditions. By way of personal illustration, Naleefa also tells me that after being immersed in Eastern Muslim Food for ten years, it feels like a treat whenever she gets to taste the food of her hometown, Galle.
The overall objectives of the conference are reconciliation and cooperation. In the introduction to the conference catalogue Ayesha Abdur Rahman has written hopefully, “The north and the entire east coast were isolated and overlooked due to the long drawn-out war that marred our island. Now understanding and hope among our communities are being rebuilt, and I trust that this conference by its approach will facilitate reconciliation and understanding. ”
Her trust is not misplaced. ‘Kussiya’ by bringing together scholars from the Universities of Colombo, Peradeniya, Kelaniya, Moratuwa, Jaffna, Batticaloa and Uluvil, as well as two invitees from the Bard Graduate Centre for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York, does promote reconciliation, cooperation and dialogue. Kussiya is a friendly and relaxed space. Two of Naleefa’s research students from the South Eastern University of Uluvil, their hair covered with colourful hijabs, tell me that they like my hair and ask my name. I tell them that I can’t see their hair and admit to being a Darshanie. Isn’t that a Hindu name, and what am I, they wonder. I disclose my ethnological provenance and explain that the name enjoys common usage between Sinhalese and Tamils.
Academic Fur
The sparks of a possible interdisciplinary dialogue were ignited when Dr. Dulma Karunaratne from the Department of Archaeology, University of Peradeniya, during the course of her presentation, ‘Was the kitchen solely a woman’s domain in pre-modern Sri Lanka? A socio-archaeological analysis of Buddhist Temple Murals’, remarks, “This is Morana Warige Tisahamy (not that Uruwarige Tisahamy), the husband of Uruwarige Siriyawathi involved in cutting these dried meat into small pieces and he is helping in cooking. So I know that [just] as I’ve seen [depicted] in the Degaldoruwa Rajamaha Vihara mural, [here in the present context too among the Veddas] husband and wife [are] involved in some kind of kitchen activity.”
Pubilis gets research students from Uluvil, Jaffna and Peradeniya cooking
During the post-panel discussion, the only social anthropologist at the ‘Kussiya’, Dr. Malathi De Alwis of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo challenges the validity of this one on one comparison; “In the context of the Wanniyalettho earlier known as Vedda mentioned in Dulma’s presentation, you take something from the early 19th century as those paintings were and then you go to the current 21st century context and say you see a similarity. But I would be cautious about that, because that is an assumption that the Veddas have been unchanged over time. Maybe it’s reflected today, but we don’t really know right? You can see it as a reflection. But to see it as a one on one comparison, saying, here’s what the painting is showing and here is real life reflecting that in in today’s context. I think I would be careful about such one-on-ones”
Dulma retorts instantly, “So that is one of the methodological approaches in Archaeology. We call it ethnographic analogy. We observe the behaviours, tool making systems, etc. and special characteristics of modern tribal/primitive people and we reconstruct the history of our people. I told you the Vanniyaletthos were changing a lot, but I carefully selected a family who haven’t changed a lot. We can’t see these types of activities and these types of kitchens by visiting all Veddas. This is a rare scene. All over the world [archaeologists] study the modern tribal communities and we apply these kinds of ethnographic data to reconstruct our past.”
Ethnographic Analogy
During lunch, Malathi De Alwis asks me if I am Darshanie, saying she has seen my photograph in my columns in The Nation. I suggest to her that the fur was somewhat flying during her discussion with Dulma Karunaratne. She says that the disagreement seems to be about the conventions of two different disciplines. I try to tell her, though probably not making myself very clear, that archaeologists when they anchor their discoveries of the past to the present, simply want to keep themselves moored to some familiar landmark lest they lose their bearings with relevance and reality. They don’t necessarily imply unbroken continuity between the past and the present. For example when I interviewed Professor Raj Somadeva of SL Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology, he showed me a small stone excavated from a proto-historic context marked with a tunnel like cavity, which obviously represents the vagina. At the time of excavation, they found the cavity filled with red ochre powder, clearly meant to depict blood. But then, the professor went on to say that in the rural society, the vagina is known as ‘kili male’ and ‘kili’ means blood. He concluded that it’s the idea behind that rural terminology, which is depicted in this object, offering us an instance of the linguistic reflected in material form. This could have been an eyebrow raising (or a hair raising) moment for any social anthropologist.
Kitchen Gossip
A kitchen is a place for sharing knowledge, cooperation, forging of new bonds, a happy and productive place. Sometimes it can also turn into a place of malicious gossip and ill will. The ill will and gossipy aspect of the ‘LDA Kussiya’ is provided courtesy of Professor Asoka De Zoysa. When I approached him in order to obtain a copy of his presentation after the conference, through Dr. Michael Roberts, a mutual friend and a senior anthropologist, De Zoysa apparently remarked “Isn’t she the woman wearing the cocktail dress, who was putting on lipstick (I was putting on lip balm, into which the latest technology has incorporated lip colour. It’s a long conference with few chances of sipping water) and was being unethical recording the conference without permission?” On a subsequent phone call I made at his request, Professor De Zoysa tells me “I thought that question you asked me, whether ‘bandakka’, etc. were Sinhalese vegetables was really odd and that put me off.” When I have recovered from my astonishment, he follows up with, “The conference was a closed conference and not open to the public”. This was so manifestly untrue as to need no response. When I inform him that I had requested and obtained permission from Dr. Ayesha Abdur Rahman to do an in-depth coverage through email, which she had copied to all members of the LDA Board, he says he only saw his mail after the conference. Then he tells me that journalists are supposed to make notes, not make visual and audio recordings using their smart phones, adding, “You should have given your card and introduced yourself as this big journalist”. He also admits to being 65 years old.
Women in cocktail dresses
That explains a lot, I think. On Day Two De Zoysa’s fellow LDA Board member and panelist Deshika Van Haght presented a paper on ‘Jadi and its Jars’, wearing a sunshine yellow, short summer dress with spaghetti straps. On Day Three I had attended wearing a sunshine yellow summer toga which left one shoulder bare. It’s kind of amusing to imagine Asoka De Zoysa, a self-proclaimed costume historian looking on with disapproval, muttering to himself ‘Women in cocktail dresses in an academic conference!”
Dressing modestly
Day Two at the US-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission nearly had me attending in a midriff exposing ensemble which I modified at the last minute to achieve better coverage. I don’t mean to imply cause and effect, but on Day Two I encountered a polite and communicative Asoka De Zoysa, who told me “A lot of people think kitchens are not important in ethnography. But you can see that there is a ritual kitchen, there’s the everyday kitchen, there’s the very professionalized kitchen. Adilah is doing on food diplomacy. Around kitchens a lot of things can be done.”
For their 2016 conference so many things have been done by LDA around kitchens that being at their ‘Kussiya’ is not like being in a kitchen at all. Instead it is like being in a vast hall with many doors leading off it into fascinating rooms and corridors. In this metaphorical hall, there was a door marked ‘The Illustrated Kitchen’ through which Dulma Karunaratne and Asoka De Zoysa propelled us into Sinhalese kitchens of pre-modern Lanka. Using as their primary sources murals painted during 18th and 19th centuries to embellish Buddhist temples of Kandyan, Southern and Western maritime regions, these two scholars had tried to reconstruct the socio-culinary space of that time and place. Their findings were served up to the audience between 11.00 am and 12.30 pm on Day Two, 5 August 2016.
Removing upper garment
Throwing a tantalizing tidbit into this fascinating time bracket Asoka De Zoysa shows a mural from the Kataluwa Purvarama Viharaya, depicting an alms giving scene from the Patachara story. He says, “And the last picture is also exciting because the scene ends in a mandapaya, a kind of a pavilion in a layman’s house, where food is being served. It’s a kind of a dana as we know today. On close observation you see that lady has taken off her upper garment for the Buddhist monks. I don’t want to get into the politics of garments here. That comes in a different context all together. Here the lady is showing respect to the Buddhist monks by taking off her upper garment.” During question time a duly entranced member of audience asks “This is not a question but just to get an idea. The lady removing the upper garment when she offered the dane, she belongs to a lower caste?”
A pre modern Sinhalese woman serving dane without an upper garment to show respect to the Sangha
“Not really” says Dulma. She means that it’s a woman of status, namely Patachara that the artist has depicted in the scene. The questioner goes on, “you remember those days they were not allowed to…” Not allowed to wear an upper garment those low caste women, is what the questioner wants to say. But she is interrupted by Asoka De Zoysa who defers the question with “We will have a chat and discuss later on” It sounds as if he is being coy but I think in reality it was unwillingness to shift focus from culinary ethnology to politics of garments.
Low caste women
In a leisurely chat over tea after session end, De Zoysa tells me what he really would have told the questioner if he had not been constrained by the topic of the conference. In the pre-colonial setup as attested in the Sinhala Sandesha Kavyas women in the lower social strata were the ones who went mostly into the public space and they didn’t wear upper garments. The upper strata of women mostly stayed at home, again without wearing an upper garment. “It’s like the purdah no? You are inside the house and you are as you are.”
As I talk to him I notice that he carefully avoids using the word ‘caste’ which tends to make his discourse a bit murky sociologically. He says ‘social status’ or ‘social strata’ instead which didn’t overlap completely with caste in pre-modern and colonial Lanka. There were some privileges that accrued to rank or status alone, while the right to don an upper garment was bound up with caste only. For example a lady of a higher rank may enjoy the privilege of travelling in a palanquin or living in a larger house made of brick while a farmer’s wife may have to walk and live in a daub and wattle house. But both of them would enjoy the privilege of wearing an upper garment. De Zoysa would continue to miss these subtle distinctions as long as he continues to fight shy of certain ethnographic labels. Last week I described how he incredibly denied the existence of ‘Sinhalese vegetables’ in a conference supposed to be about food cultures belonging to the multi ethnicities on the island of Lanka.
Asoka De Zoysa
Ever since Professor Asoka De Zoysa first swam into my ken when I helped upload his presentation for the National Trust Lecture series to Dr. Michael Robert’s website, in 2013, I have felt that no other scholar in Sri Lanka is more equipped to demolish the modern, common and romantic misconception that just because a woman is shown without an upper garment in a pre-modern, illustration, she has to belong to a lower caste. Asoka De Zoysa has observed that throughout the Kandyan region Mandri, the queen of King Vessantara is depicted in murals without her upper garment. One reason is that she is now living humbly having renounced all appurtenances of rank. Also when she is living in seclusion in the forest, she is virtually living in private space, where it was normal for women, both upper and lower to be shown without upper garments.
The first scene of the Uraga Jataka story contained In the Madawala Tampita Raja Maha Viharaya murals dated to around 1760 in Kirti Sri Rajasinghe’s time, feature three topless women inside a house. They are a Brahmin’s wife, daughter in law and female servant enjoying the freedom from upper garments in their private space. In the next scene when all three women are on the road which is public space, the wife and daughter in law have donned their caste status symbols or jackets while the female servant’s upper body is bare.
Stars present
Professor Sudharshan Seneviratne, identified by Ayesha Abdur-Rahman as ‘special advisor’ to LDA was supposed to be keynote speaker for Day Three, but developed gallstones that had to be taken out the very day he was to have delivered his ‘Kussiya: The Social Melting Pot of Techno-Cultural Convergence’. Sudharshan told me that Ayesha has a tremendous talent for bringing different people together. She does. The entire conference, especially Day Three simply crackles with the star power of the panelists and the attendees. Professor K.D Paranavitana, the eminent Dutch historian is there. I missed his presentation, ‘Some Culinary Habits Acquired During the 16th and 17th Centuries’ given on Day One. He introduces his wife to me with “This is Mrs. Paranavitana”. She is actually Emeritus Professor Rohini Paranavitana, editor of such collections of pre-modern war poems as Sitavaka Hatana and Kustantinu Hatana.
Ramla and Deborah
Most of all the conference features two young historians whose looks are as impressive as their presentations. These are Ramla Wahab-Salman and Deborah Philip. Ramla got her Bachelors (Hons.) degree from University of Delhi and Master’s degree in South Asian history from School of Oriental and African Studies , University of London. During tea, following her session, I observe two senior historians Professor K.D Paranavitana and Dr. Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda looking at Ramla with awe. “She is pretty good”, Sinharaja whispers to K.D. Pranavitana, who whispers back, “yes she can read the textual sources in Arabic”. Ramla likes to call herself a South Asian historian. She tells me that in exploring Persian and Arab contacts with Sri Lanka, she does not reduce it to Islamic contacts but goes on the ‘continuity of people’ principle. Islam only came into being in the seventh century AD and the doings and interactions of a people in their pre-Islamic phase belonged to the same continuity as their post-Islamic phase. Yes I remark, after all the Persians had an empire in the sixth century BC which included Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. Ramla agrees, signaling that for her history of a people would not begin only after they became Muslim.
Arabs and Persians in SL
Accordingly in her presentation ‘The Movement of spices along the Silk Road of the sea’ she tells us that during the period immediately preceding the 7th century AD, Persian ships stopped in Sri Lanka as a rule. Then the 9th century saw Muslim trade dominance along the entire maritime route from the West Sea and the Persian Gulf to the Canton, fueled by the pursuit of an Islamic scientific tradition. In the 9th century, after the Guangzhou Massacre, Arab ships stopped using Guangzhou as a port and made South and South East Asian ports their destination. This led to the flourishing of ports such as Mantai. Accordingly in the 9th century Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih in ‘The Book of Roads and Kingdoms’ speaks of Aloe, pepper and varieties of spices available in the island of Serendib. The port of Mantai was of primary importance to these merchant geographers as it provided the practical and necessary services of food, fresh water and hard wood for the repair of ships after a journey.
Strangely enough Ramla Wahab does not refer in her presentation to the ninth century Kufic (early Arabic script) inscriptions found from around the ports of Sri Lanka. She is aware of them though, as I found out when I questioned her on Day Two about solid evidence of Arab contacts with Sri Lanka prior to Ibn Batuta in 14th century AD. Ramla says words to the effect that she is not into epigraphy, like for example Dr. M. A. M. Shukri would be. But I wonder should a historian disregard knowledge coming from branches of expertise outside her ken. After all few historians are epigraphists and archaeologists, yet they utilize knowledge coming from these specialist branches.
Interesting Burghers
The other young historian at the conference is Deborah Philip, an assistant lecturer in History at University of Colombo. Her undergraduate dissertation was (typically) on the Burghers of Sri Lanka after 1956 and their response to Sinhala Nationalism. She doesn’t present a paper but does something just as good or better. She brings together the best resource persons she would have used if she was actually writing such a paper and chairs a panel discussion which brings the topic to life in a way a mere paper could not have done. The topic is ‘From Bolo D’Amor to Breudher: A conversation on Portuguese and Dutch Burgher cuisine in Sri Lanka’. “There’s some nepotism in the panel”, she informs us, because it includes her uncle Paul Beling, who looks to me so much like a bishop out of Barchester Towers that I can’t stop staring at him. He talks about breudher, which along with lamprais are the two most famous and symbolic culinary icons of Burgher identity in Sri Lanka.
A Porto Rican
I, ‘the woman in the cocktail dress’ pronounce ‘Kussiya: Culinary Ethnology in Sri Lanka’ a success because it was so colourful. Contributing to its colour in no mean measure was Professor Asoka De Zoysa, who tells me in a post conference telephone call “You looked like a joke recording it. It was a joke”. I am so glad to have contributed in my own way to the colour of the conference. One other person who contributed significantly to the colour of the conference was Ayesha Abdur Rahman’s husband Rashid Abdur Rahman, a ‘Porto Rican in Sri Lanka’. During lunch on Day Three, he tells me that he is against all dress norms such as the burka, hijab, face veil, which can be used to dominate and oppress. He tells me that after Day Three he would be off to Barefoot café to play drums with somebody called Jerome. He along with several others who had married Sri Lankan women were deported, by the Sirima Bandaranaike government who felt they might be CIA agents. I whisper to Sinharaja Tammita Delgoda, who is standing by that Jane Russel was also deported. “Different reasons”, he whispers back. I suggest to Rashid that perhaps he and those others had married Sri Lankan women exactly for the reason suspected by Sirima et el. I am feeling somewhat manic and jovial no doubt due to my cocktail dress. Rashid protests against any CIA aspersions giving his Latin Americanness as proof. I suggest perhaps then his wife was the agent? Rashid protests that Ayesha loves Sri Lanka. I think perhaps she does and the whole concept of Lanka Decorative Arts is proof of that.
*The writer can be contacted at rathnawalli@gmail.com and http://ratnawalli.com/
sinhalese buddhist / August 28, 2016
Darshanie
I enjoyed your article. Please continue to wear your togas, and don’t ever feel that you have to apologize for or explain to anyone why and what you wear on your lips.
Just like those who decide to wear the hijab, it should be only your decision what you wear (or not wear, as in the case of the kandyan women, or for that matter the Sigiri apsaras).
/
Dilhara / August 28, 2016
Sinhala vegetables – this women is nuts!
Vegetables do not have ethnicity!
This craze babe, Dharshini, is a clear illustration of how “ethnic” identities are CONSTRUCTED and ATTRIBUTED by crazy nationalists like you – Sinhaleseness is now being even foisted on to fruits, flowers, animals, birds and Fish!
Wear all the off the Spaggetti straps that you like but stick to your fahions statements – Sinhala or not and leave the study of ethnic identity politics to the scholars and experts!
Sinhalase have foisted their identity onto South Asian Buddhism and What the Buddha from Nepal/ India taught.
Pretending to “protect” South Asian and South East Asian Buddhism, the retarded Sinhalas have militarized and violated Buddhism by calling it Sinhala Buddhism and now they claim that there a Sinhala vegetables!
Get a life – and go naked – that is Sinhala culture>
/
Native Vedda / August 28, 2016
Dilhara
“Sinhala vegetables – this women is nuts! Vegetables do not have ethnicity!”
On the contrary you seem nuts, considering the fact that there have been a few extinct animals named after Sinhalese:
Sri Lanka lion (Leo leo sinhaleyus in 1939)
Sri Lankan gaur (Bibos sinhaleyus in 1962)
Sri Lankan hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon sinhaleyus in 1937)
Sri Lankan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sinhaleyus in 1936)
Sri Lankan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros kagavena in 1956)
Paules Edward Pieris Deraniyagala who was supposed to be a paleontologist, zoologist, and an artist named bone remains as above.
PEP Deraniyagala published papers about these extinct animals thought to be sinhaleyus.
If the bones were remains of extinct Sinhala animals, why cannot there be Sinhala/vegetables, Sinhala/fruits, Sinhala birds, Sinhala that, Sinhala this, Sinhala/Buddhists, … Sinhala/state, Sinhala/air space, Sinhala/Sea, Sinhala/Watalappa, Sinhala/Murunga, Sinhala/coconut, Sinhala/nuts, Sinhala/Bikini, Sinhala/Numerals including Champika’s Sinhala/Zero …. … ?
Are you out of your mind?
/
Amarasiri / August 28, 2016
Native Vedda
They should have name Para-Sinhala vegetables, Para-Tamil vegetables. After all they all came from outside, Para.
Sri Lanka lion (Leo leo Para sinhaleyus in 1939)
Sri Lankan gaur (Bibos Para-sinhaleyus in 1962)
Sri Lankan hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon Para-sinhaleyus in 1937)
Sri Lankan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Para-sinhaleyus in 1936)
Sri Lankan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros kagavena in 1956)
Reference.
Journal of Human Genetics (2014) 59, 28–36; doi:10.1038/jhg.2013.112; published online 7 November 2013
http://www.nature.com/jhg/journal/v59/n1/full/jhg2013112a.html
/
Dud / August 29, 2016
If you want to insult a vegetable, call it a Sinhala vegetable!
[Edited out]
/
Tsylana / August 31, 2016
All that is to be `heard` on the net- patriot- scoundrel.
Origin Africa- Both are Japanese vegetable dishes and extensively grown in greenhouses of the Den Hague, Rotterdam.
The woman tried a bit of Kim Kadir sex talk but she does not have the colour or figure.
/
anotherbuddhist / August 30, 2016
This Vedda, native or otherwise, does not know the difference between ‘Sri Lankan’ and ‘Sinhala’. OR IS UP TO MISCHIEF TRYING TO DEFINE HIS OWN RACISM / RACIST AGENDA.
/
timbuttu / August 30, 2016
heyna,
neither do you have any understanding of anthropology to be classy with racist.
sinhala is a patchwork of languages from portuguese to sanskrit which is ongoing.
sri lankan means the half people of shape shape shape identity.
/
Amarasiri / August 29, 2016
Darshanie
Sinhala vegetables?
Anyway, 5 foods to never eat, Sinhala or not. Do not bring to your ‘Kussiya’.
Why is diabetes an epidemic now, in the Land of native Veddah Aethho and Globally?
Start living the lean and healthy way!
Find out which 5 foods practically force your body to gain weight – foods you’ve been told are healthy! At the Trim Down Club, you’ll get the tools to eat better without depriving yourself, so that you can finally lose weight and improve your health, naturally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9hfTQ_k4KI
/
Amarasiri / August 30, 2016
Darshanie Ratnawalli
RE: At A Scholarly ‘Kussiya’ In A Cocktail Dress
The Toxic Foods you should NOT have in your ‘Kussiya’. Shark and Pork, and a few others. It’s all right to have Para-“Sinhala” vegetables. Actually is is much healthier, being vegetables.
The Science Behind Biblical Clean & Unclean Foods. Professor Walter Veith
Published on Sep 2, 2014
The science behind the Bible’s clean and unclean foods, by Walter Veith.
Veith was professor of the zoology department at the University of Cape Town and taught in the medical bioscience department. During this time the department was awarded a Royal Society London grant for zoological research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSjkpiV8xUA
/
Amarasiri / August 31, 2016
Darshanie Ratnawalli
“Sinhala” Vegetables? Wild Gorilla Vegetables?
Vegetables, Sinhala or not will help All the Paras, because of their biochemistry and metabolism.
They should eat like the wild Gorilla, and be healthy.
They can get rid of obesity, diabetes, heart diseases and many other illnesses.
Go with the metabolism, the Homo Sapien body evolved with. Learn from the cousin Primates.
Aping a wild gorilla’s eating habits could dramatically improve your health — or may even add years to your life, by reducing your risk for killer …
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tana-amen/healthy-diet_b_2867253.html
Eat Like a Gorilla & Live Longer | The Omni Diet
Published on May 11, 2013
Aping a wild gorilla’s eating habits could dramatically improve your health — or may even add years to your life, by reducing your risk for killer diseases like diabetes, heart attack, stroke and dementia. Gorillas in captivity get heart disease eating processed food. The Omni diet by Tana Amen shows how to eat like a gorilla and be a healthy human. Gorilla’s name’s changed in video. Why You Should Eat Like a Wild Gorilla –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUkrERhcTzQ
/
Dinuk / August 28, 2016
Are there Tamils, fish, fruit, vegitables and were there any Tamils and Tamil food?!
Were they INCLUDED in this show?
The donor-funded reconciliation industry / business is good for Asoka de ZOys and Dharshini but where are the TAMILS and TAMIL CULTURE AND FOOD prepreations?!
There will be no peace in Sri Lanka as long as this Colombo-Barefood elite–centric circus called reconciliation EXCLUDES Tamils?
These days in the name of post-war reconciliation and celebrating diversity, which is an international donor and NGO industry, Tamil people and culture are excluded.
Now the fashion is for Muslims to represent Tamils- who are systematically excluded..
This also the case at office of National Unity and Reconcilliation (ONUR) CBK’s pet project has not Tamils. Reconciliation without Tamisl is a JOKE!
/
Native Vedda / August 28, 2016
Dinuk
“Are there Tamils, fish, fruit, vegitable”
What Tamil fish, fruit vegitable?
All have been bronco branded as
Sinhala animals, Sinhala/vegetables, Sinhala/fruits, Sinhala birds, Sinhala that, Sinhala this, Sinhala/Buddhists, Sinhala/Buddha, Sinhala/Pattini, … Sinhala/state, Sinhala/air space, Sinhala/Sea, Sinhala/Watalappa, Sinhala/Murunga, Sinhala/coconut, Sinhala/nuts, Sinhala/Bikini, Sinhala/Numerals including Champika’s Sinhala/Zero, Sinhala/botany, Sinhala/economics, …. … ?
What is your problem?
/
Amarasiri / August 28, 2016
Native Vedda
“What is your problem?”
You missed the Para-Sinhala part of it. Therefore it is not factual and not accurate based on known data.
Reference. Journal of Human Genetics (2014) 59, 28–36;
doi:10.1038/jhg.2013.112; published online 7 November 2013
http://www.nature.com/jhg/journal/v59/n1/full/jhg2013112a.html
/
Amarasiri / August 28, 2016
Darshanie Ratnawalli –
RE: At A Scholarly ‘Kussiya’ In A Cocktail Dress
“Two of Naleefa’s research students from the South Eastern University of Uluvil, their hair covered with colourful hijabs, tell me that they like my hair and ask my name. I tell them that I can’t see their hair and admit to being a Darshanie. Isn’t that a Hindu name, and what am I, they wonder. I disclose my ethnological provenance and explain that the name enjoys common usage between Sinhalese and Tamils.”
Thanks. Interesting write up. Yes, there should be reconciliation among the Paras. Yes, the foods people eat and prepare are regional. What do the Eskimos eat?
Good to hear that the female students are covering their hair with colorful hijabs, instead of the black gonibilla hijabs, as demanded by the Wahhabies and their clones. Too bad Amarasiri could not be there to see the colorful hijabs, your wavy hair and your bare shoulders.
“I disclose my ethnological provenance”
You should have disclosed that the Sinhala, Tamils, Muslims and others, except the Native Veddah Aethho are Paras, Foreigners in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho, and modern data in supports that. Furthermore the Tamil are the Para cousins of the Sinhala, and should expect to share names, like Dharshani, as Buddhism sprang from Hinduism.
Support Given below for Para-Sinhala, Para-Tamils and Para- Muslims and other Paras, in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho.
Mitochondrial DNA history of Sri Lankan ethnic people: their relations within the island and with the Indian subcontinental populations
Journal of Human Genetics (2014) 59, 28–36; doi:10.1038/jhg.2013.112; published online 7 November 2013
Through a comparison with the mtDNA HVS-1 and part of HVS-2 of Indian database, both Tamils and Sinhalese clusters were affiliated with Indian subcontinent populations than Vedda people who are believed to be the native population of the island of Sri Lanka.
http://www.nature.com/jhg/journal/v59/n1/full/jhg2013112a.html
/
lellamay malu mudalali. / August 29, 2016
somebody bless me this appostle the ladda seems to be every where preading rimour his famous copy and paste DNA theory.like weda mahathaya distributing kokarath tailaya every where,every junction
As you know all the genetic affinity or DNA or whatever is base on evolution theory. otherwise all are bullshit.but evolution theory does not permit us to believe DNA results is the only factor to determine genetic affinities of human or other living beings.if it so we must have gorillas and chimps converting to human even now as its gene are 98.8 percent identical to present day human.it is not the case now.Science given very acceptable explanation on this. as per posil records they found that around 42 speces of primates apes who given lives to apes now living in african jungle and human. as such human are not direct decendants of apes like gorrilas or chimps we come a cross nowadays.genetic affinities test results alone can not decide decendancy of perticular human race.India is a salad or mixer of verious types of humans that came there and inhabited that land. if this man theory to be accepted he should provide evidance to the effect that primates of indians when first inhabited there had no chance of spreading neighbouring land like our Island.as per posil findings it is now established that human or their primates evolved in Africa and first spread over that continent and latter migrated to other continent. first wave homo erructuts, homo others and last not least homo sapience.as such if you take cross section of indian population each each man may show genetic affinities with some percentage of population in all over the world. likewise if you do same kind of test in another thousand years american will do the same as america too is a salad like india.that does not means people are decendants of americans but their primates are same.
further if we accept this appostle the labba theory is true all married ladies might be in trouble as men can file court devorce cases against them on adeltary citing their own father or brothers or first or second cousins as culprits as DNA test always gives genetic affinities of children to close relatives.beware of it.
/
Amarasiri / August 30, 2016
lellamay malu mudalali.
You do have 46 Chromosomes. Your cousin Primates have 48. Your chromosome #2 was formed by the fusion of two Primate Chromosomes. This is true for both Para-Sinhala, Para-Tamils and the other Paras, in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho.
Ken Miller on Human Evolution
Uploaded on Feb 14, 2007
Dr. Ken Miller talks about the relationship between Homo sapiens and the other primates. He discusses a recent finding of the Human Genome Project which identifies the exact point of fusion of two primate chromosomes that resulted in human chromosome #2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi8FfMBYCkk
The Collapse of Intelligent Design:Kenneth R. Miller Lecture
Uploaded on Mar 17, 2008
The Collapse of Intelligent Design: Will the Next Monkey Trial be in Ohio? Kenneth R. Miller’s presentation on Intelligent Design. Recorded January 3, 2006 in Strosacker auditorium. Kenneth R. Miller is the Professor of Biology Royce Family Professor for Teaching Excellence at Brown University.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohd5uqzlwsU
Neil Tyson presentation about intelligent design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti3mtDC2fQo
Uploaded on Apr 17, 2011
Update: Unfortunately Youtube doesn’t have any option to stop sending me notifications about new comments on this video via G+. The only way I can possibly avoid getting spams of notifications every minute is to disable comments all together, so I’m doing that. If Youtube ever adds the option to let me disable notifications then I’ll open comments again. Until then, I’m sorry, but comments will be closed.
I downloaded this video from the now defunct Google Video and uploaded here so it’s archived and isn’t lost after Google Video deletes all its content. Original description bellow:
This is a presentation on science, religion, and how poorly-designed humans, the Earth, and the universe really are. The presenter, Neil deGrasse Tyson, is the new host of the PBS-TV program “NOVA scienceNOW”, director of the Hayden Planetarium in the Rose Center For Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History. He is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal.
/
chico chicki / August 31, 2016
“”This is true for both Para-Sinhala, Para-Tamils and the other Paras, in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho.””
Who are you? Sinhala Buddhist Mahavamsa Mad 1/2 Human.
Cull the half human Sh*t Buckets..Cull the rump sinhala buddhist.
Down with MR1 MR2 and NO to MR3.
/
lellamay malu mudalali. / August 31, 2016
very good now you are accepting indian data base is a bullshit and following real on going test results of genetic relationships of each races.whatever it is still south indian darvada and sinhalese ancestry is a mystery.as per the experts accuracy of those results entirely depand of accuracy of equipment used and dedication of its oerators.as such one point deviation take those reseach nowhere.can show entirely differnt picture.as such we may have to wait another one or two decades or even more to know actual situation of south indian darvadas and sinhalese and vannila aththo’s genetic affinities. until then you fix additional pegs on consolidated and role down earth by your so called almighty without spreading false rumours.
/
lellamay malu mudalali. / August 31, 2016
if I challenge you that genetic distence between sinhalese and vannila aththo as per following quote bottle neck effect. can you prove it is not
Quote; Using gene frequency data for 62 protein loci and 23 blood group loci, we studied the genetic relationship of the three major races of man, Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid. Genetic distance data indicate that Caucasoid and Mongoloid are somewhat closer to each other than to Negroid. Analysis of restriction site data for mitochondrial DNA also shows the same genetic relationship. It seems that the Negroid and the Caucasoid-Mongoloid groups diverged about 110,000 +/- 34,000 years ago, whereas Caucasoid and Mongoloid diverged about 41,000 +/- 15,000 years ago. The genetic relationships of various races in each group of Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid were also studied. All European populations are genetically close to one another except the Lapps, whereas many African, Oceanian, and Amer-indian tribes show large extents of genetic differentiation. The major cause for this differentiation seems to be the bottleneck effect. The Polynesians, Micronesians, and Indonesians are more closely related to the Asian Mongoloids than to the Australoids in Australia and New Guinea. There are also indications that migration played an important role in forming the current genetic relationships among human races. The extent of genetic differentiation between human races is not always correlated with the degree of morphologic differentiation. The genetic differentiation at protein loci seems to occur largely by mutation, genetic drift, and isolation, whereas morphologic characters are apparently subject to stronger natural selection than “average protein loci.”
/
chico chicki / August 31, 2016
Ha ha HeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHe
nondy simeon you don’t know what you are writing- Are you the JMO???
go back up the tree.
/
lellamay malu mudalali. / August 31, 2016
chico chic
when you insult somebody and he ignored it. what whould be the results. insult materials remain with you. nothing happen to other. you may buy presious gift for somebody as per your mind that suit your friend or enemy if friend or enemy refused acceptence. it is yours. your money and energy spent is in vein.
/
chico chicki / September 1, 2016
[Edited out]
/
lellamay malu mudalali. / August 31, 2016
Quote from European genetic data base recent updates;
Caucasian races (Aryans, Hamites, Semites)
Mongolian races (northern Mongolian, Chinese and Indo-Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Tibetan, Malayan, Polynesian, Maori, Micronesian, Eskimo, American Indian),
Negroid races (African, Hottentots, Melanesians/Papua, “Negrito”, Australian Aborigine, Dravidians, Sinhalese)
/
chico chicki / September 1, 2016
the latest says you are blood relatives of Rohingyas , Bangladeshi. seems very much like.
you are mercenary, school drop out, now go to Angoda the subject has been discussed on ct several times over.
Higgano.
/
lellay malu mudalali / September 1, 2016
not for me. you keep all with you
/
chico chicki / September 1, 2016
[Edited out]
/
Amarasiri / August 30, 2016
Darshanie Ratnawalli
RE: At A Scholarly ‘Kussiya’ In A Cocktail Dress
Did they have Diary Products in the ‘Kussiya’?
Cows Milk? it id bad.
Fat is bad, Casein id bad, lactose is bad. So why have Diary products?
Only calcium. Sesame seeds are better.
But human mothers milk is good.
Incredible story about milk. Is it good for you? (Walter Veith)
Published on Mar 9, 2013
Walter Veith talks about milk.
Simply an expert lecture, and easy to understand regardless of your scientific background.
(English, Croatian subtitles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-PQCCiw_Zs
/
Cyril / August 28, 2016
I still feel women should be allowed to take of their upper garment as in ancient times as it is part of our culture (it is still done in Thailand). There is no harm I’m doing so. I have seen pictures of women in mini skirts in the 50’s and 60’s. I think things changed with the socialist govt coming in the 70’s and using racism as a tool to stay in power.
/
Amarasiri / August 28, 2016
Darshanie Ratnawalli –
Bali before the Japanese occupation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9ai1f4cf6E
Just like Bali, most Sri Lankan women had their shoulders and upper body bare before the arrival of the Portuguese. Is that true?
Can we go back to that tradition?
/
Paul / August 28, 2016
[Edited out]
/
Hamlet / August 28, 2016
Thank you Darshanie, for showing CT Commentors, that there is still hope for the Elimination of Racism in Sri Lanka!
/
colin / August 28, 2016
Darshanie you may not remember the old baila “Kussiya Amma Sera had a fight with one Perera and the home people dont know what to do, Aney maga nona mata gamata yanna on mage maasa padiya laba denna ko”
The Kussiya Amma has long gone home to her village never to return and her siblings may now be an air hostess on Mihin Air. Now Mrs Perera who took over the Kussiya then has her siblings too working as a Private Secretary to one of the CEO’s in the Corporate Sector. The Kussiya with the lipa and the van gedi has been brought down and replaced with a pantry marble top and all with a rice cooker,blender,dishwasher and all other electronic kitchen appliances. But there is one snag, this pantry too is closed right through the day unlike the Kussiya which was active providing three meals. It only opens out when “Madam”returns at 530 pm after sweating it out and selling her soul by working at the Company Store or Corporate office.And why is the pantry then open? Because Madam has brought home pre-cooked food, an underwater ship(Submarine)from Dine More,a former race that migrated down under from Ceylon(Burger) and French Fries from a Mad hut (Pizza Hut)and maybe chopped and slaughtered rotti(Kotthu Rotti) from one of the numerous Pilawooses that adorn the city(Remember there was only one Pilawoos in the city in Pettah).
All these “fast foods” are laid out on the Noritake crockery and the “Brute”,she and siblings feed on it along with cans of coke(containing tons of sugar) to drown it down.Madam also doesnt have to listen to the rants she heard as a kid when the Kussiya was existing from her Dad to the Kussiyamma on the lack of spice and salt because now the entire blame game if it prevails will be on the Mad hut or the place where you dine more.
Dhrashanie, the “Kussiya” with the walls blackened by soot.the chatty pots heaped up neatly,and firewood stacked in a corner is now defunct. The pantry that has taken its place doesnt need super cleaning up with the ekel broom as it only serves as a dishing out place for Madam’s purchased “fast foods” and not for cooking. A little mopping and the jobs done.
The younger generation will never get the opportunity to taste that mouth watered delicious country bird chicken cooked in a chatty pot over an open fire and even indulge in a fight for the gravy that clings on the pot, to be licked up with Roast Paan,.They only have now dished out chicken fully grown with hormones in 40 days, tasting so bland which has sadly helped them to transform from childhood to adolescence before the usual time.
/
Sambol / August 28, 2016
Love your comment! Very interesting indeed. FYI there is no longer 40 day broiler business anymore… It is 27-35 days depending on the skill of the farmer!
/
Keynes! / August 28, 2016
Darshanie’s attempt to force feed Asoka De Zoysa with Sinhalese vegetables such as bandakka and thibbotu reminds me of the Japanese tale of Momotaro, in which a bag of millet dumplings made with care and love by Momotaro’s parents go a long way to helping him assemble allies for the fight against the demons. These dumplings play an equally important role as a symbol of comfort, warmth, and strength and are used to bring people together. As with many tales, Momotaro transmits a ‘moral’ to the audience, advocating humble beginnings and a strong sense of community. The use of the millet dumplings determines food as being the central motif and symbol of community unification and can be interpreted as a metaphor of the reinvigoration of the nation as a whole.
The Momotaro story is too good to be true. Indeed, it was wartime propaganda in Japan. It is a classic example of how food was used as a device to distinguish between the ‘good’ and the ‘other’ as well as play a crucial role in fostering a strong sense of nationalism and go for total war. The millet dumplings story was used to move Japan into political totalitarianism, ultranationalism and fascism culminating in Japan’s invasion of China in 1937. It also set the stage for the possible creation of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which was to subordinate other nations and demonstrate the superiority of the Japanese over other Asian races.
Or consider Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds which was first exhibited in 2009. The sculptural installation appeared at first to be a vast, flat landscape of sunflower seed husks. Visitors were invited to walk across the surface of the work and discover that each seed is in fact a unique porcelain replica, one of over 100 million individually handmade objects which have been specially produced for the commission. Although they look identical from a distance, every seed is different, and far from being industrially produced, ‘readymade’ or found objects, they have each been intricately handcrafted by skilled artisans. All of them have been produced in the city of Jingdezhen, which is famed for its production of Imperial porcelain. The casual act of walking across their surface contrasts powerfully with the precious nature of the material and the effort of its production.
The sense of scale and quality of craftsmanship achieved in each small perfectly formed sunflower seed is astonishing. In trying to comprehend their sheer quantity, Ai provokes a multitude of ideas, from the way we perceive number and value, to the way we engage with society at large.
For Ai, sunflower seeds – a common Chinese street snack shared by friends – carry personal associations from the Cultural Revolution. While individuals were stripped of personal freedom, propaganda images depicted Chairman Mao as the sun and the mass of people as sunflowers turning towards him.
Yet Ai remembers the sharing of sunflower seeds as a gesture of human compassion, providing a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness during a time of extreme poverty, repression and uncertainty. There are also contemporary resonances in the work, with its combination of mass production and traditional craftsmanship inviting us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geopolitics of cultural and economic exchange. Absurdly, ‘Sunflower Seeds’ provided work for 1,600 artisans in Jingdezhen and has become an ironic reflection of social reality.
In programmes for cultural exchange and inter-ethnic understanding, such as this culinary exhibition, the food stuff, vegetables and opinions are reified as comparable and unambiguous articulations of sides that are in the conflict. The strong focus on the need to meet and understand the other is in itself based on a hidden assumption of difference and inability to live together in peace, an assumption which paradoxically might work to reinforce the sense of being different and in conflict, in its attempt to overcome just that!
/
Amarasiri / August 29, 2016
Keynes!
“Darshanie’s attempt to force feed Asoka De Zoysa with Sinhalese vegetables such as bandakka and thibbotu reminds me ..”
Both bandakka and thibbotu as well as the Sinhala are Para in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho.
Same for the other Paras as well.
/
Keynes! / August 30, 2016
Who is this disturbance?
/
Amarasiri / August 31, 2016
Keynes!
” Who is this disturbance?”
Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilee, Johannes Kepler, Issac Newton, Jean Foucault, Charles Darwin Combined!
The truth hurts all the myth holders.
1 In 4 Americans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey Says
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/02/14/277058739/1-in-4-americans-think-the-sun-goes-around-the-earth-survey-says
It is 1 In 3 Europeans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey Says.
/
Dude / September 1, 2016
Correction Dude Amera – it’s Micheal Foucault and not Jean Foucault!
/
Amarasiri / September 3, 2016
Dude
No it was Leon, not Jean. We both made an error unless Lean=Jean=Michael.
The Foucault pendulum (English pronunciation: /fuːˈkoʊ/ foo-KOH; French pronunciation: [fuˈko]), or Foucault’s pendulum, named after the French physicist Léon Foucault, is a simple device conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. While it had long been known that the Earth rotates, the introduction of the Foucault pendulum in 1851 was the first simple proof of the rotation in an easy-to-see experiment. Today, Foucault pendulums are popular displays in science museums and universities.
Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits, and other subjects, bringing the academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He is considered one of the most important painters from this academic period, and in addition to being a painter, he was also a teacher with a long list of students.
/
lellamay malu mudalali. / August 30, 2016
When looter done pivkpoketing he or she ran away shouting pocket gahawwa mennay horak pointing finger on somebody else likewise this Amar ASIRY nanath labbe doing same paraya recently landed with primitive garbage point finger at others to hide his real paraya hood.
/
Upul Tilakaratna / August 30, 2016
“” point finger at others to hide his real paraya hood. “”
The hood is the hood, there are only hoodlums in the hood.
Palayan yakko hela, ella, eelam.
una bamboo….billo enava.
/
lellamay malu mudalali. / August 30, 2016
[Edited out]. I Write what i want to write in accordance with CT’s commenting policy. can not allow recently landed lot to insult us.we are fighting for our pride. you should know that
/
Upul Tilakaratna / August 30, 2016
“”.we are fighting for our pride. you should know that “
the ancient are in reservations with the animals.
you have banana and coconut tree heritage.
A banana with a burp in transit half human story.
/
lellamay malu mudalali. / August 30, 2016
whatever my ancestors leave us it is my heritage.banana is a food i like it so much.coconut is same. i like it so much. so whatelse. whatever food graw in my country is gold for me.what is wrong with it. coconut involed geatly on our culture. no issue. it is treated as gift of nature. kapruka. anything wrong with it.
/
Upul Tilakaratna / August 30, 2016
“”us it is my heritage.banana is a food i like it so much.coconut is same.””
MR1 to MR2 to MR3 Get out of the island democracy is not for you Go up the tree stay up there and don’t come back. Menemaruvo.
you are useless.
/
lellay malu mudalali / August 31, 2016
if I am useless. Tell me what the use of you. What have you done for the country.I myself involved in 30 years war against terrorism.I lost one of my leg but still prepared to contribute safe of my mother land.
/
Upul Tilakaratna / August 31, 2016
“”if I am useless. Tell me what the use of you.??””
to tell the village bumpkin that he is useless idiot like mahadanamuththa.
night iskole, sinhala speaking demala, like yakun natima (mala toilaya) ignite yourself, .
a wooden soldier/terrorist.
Mugabe has many patriots and they are scoundrels like the 1/2 human ones produced by Rajapassa.-
you joined paddiyata and looting.
you are useless.
/
siripala / August 30, 2016
“Both bandakka and thibbotu as well as the Sinhala are Para in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho.”
Plate Brush Eggplant —Thibbatu (far and wide across continents especially thailand copy of cooking)
The green fresh fruits are edible and used in Thai cuisine, as an ingredient in certain Thai curries or raw in certain Thai chili pastes (nam phrik). They are also used in Lao cuisine (Royal Horticultural Society 2001) and Jamaican cuisine. The fruits are incorporated into soups and sauces in the Côte d’Ivoire (Herzog and Gautier-Béguin 2001).
In Tamil Nadu, India, the fruit is consumed directly, or as cooked food like Sundaikkai Sambar, Sundaikkai Poriyal, Sundaikkai Aviyal & Sundaikkai Pulikulambu. After soaking in curd and drying, the final product is fried in oil as Sundaikkai vattral (available in all Tamil Nadu supermarkets), it is famous all around in Tamil Nadu. In siddha medicine one of the traditional systems of India Sundaivattral Choornam is used to improve digestion.
Okra ladies fingers—bandakka
Okra
Pronounce it: oh-kra
Originally from Africa, okra is now widely used in cuisines such as Caribbean, Creole, Cajun and Indian. It’s also known as bhindi or lady’s fingers, in reference to the long, elegantly tapering shape.
Ridged along its length, the green, slightly fuzzy pod contains rows of edible seeds that release a mucilaginous (sticky, viscous) liquid when chopped and cooked, which has led to it being used to thicken soup and stew recipes, such as Cajun gumbo, but it’s also served whole as a side dish.
Lankawe cash crops were brought by the traders rulers.
/
anotherbuddhist / August 30, 2016
Keynes!
There is always another story behind the story……Ai Weiwei’s ‘Sunflower seeds’ are not without controversy. Questions whether he exploited the numerous workers who made these seeds for him-
http://www.ibtimes.com/chinese-dissident-ai-weiweis-sunflower-seeds-pull-782000-698049
Just as there is questions to the purpose of this talk fest !…..???
/
anotherbuddhist / August 30, 2016
Under the Neoliberalism, especially the brand promoted by the Clinton / Blair mafia, copious amounts of dollars were spent on talk fest such as these. They even took over the arts scene, including visual arts. The newest expanding area to be included is food / food preparation = cooking, with the advent of celebrity ‘chef’. It is all part of Neoliberal re-education program.
From Ms Darshani’s description this was one hell of a talk fest. I hope they got to savour some of these delights not just ‘katte pittu’ !
As for Darshani’s gripe for being commented by the good ‘Professor’ for her dress code. It is a generational thing. The Facebook generation will wear shorts that barely cover their rear end to the beach, lectures and cocktails- in other words, they have over turned dress codes (if that is all they have done !!) for that selfie. The older generation to comment is universal, happens from NY to London. So Darshani dear, no need to put the good old professor in a box !
/
InstaPundit / August 30, 2016
anotherbuddhist,
Yes, you do have a point.
Lanka Decorative Arts, the organiser of this conference, bills itself as a society for the study and appreciation of the decorative arts of Sri Lanka. In other words, this high-falutin society claims that there is such a thing called pure art or art for art’s sake.
Indeed, events such as this conference and the Galle Literary Festival are all inextricably tied up with the colonial past and is symbolic of the post-colonial crisis in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. It’s time for a systematic emasculation. To this end, I would like to invoke the words of Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist and academic, who has asserted that “art for art’s sake is just another piece of deodorised dog shit.” I hope this arrests the descent into the luxury of art appreciation.
If I was given an opportunity to rework this conference, I would take in to account the challenge inherent in the ethical and epistemic inter-relatedness of persons, both within their own communities and with the ‘other.’I would have designed interventions to help participants become aware, at a meta-cognitive level, of the webs of shared meaning that can constrain as well as promote understanding and constructive action and which will help participants like Dharshanie Ratnawalli overcome emotional resistances by engaging them bodily, emotionally and intellectually.
All in all, the conference failed to create a collision of artistic and cultural realities that has within it the possibilities for a new nexus of feeling, insight and awareness. The conference reinforced notions of Sinhalese, Tamil, Burgher and Muslim as static, culturally differentiated categories and cooked up ancestral animosities among participants like Dharshanie and helped her in the manufacturing of ethnic hatred.
/
Bodin / August 30, 2016
No, no others are also having. They are all having.
Dharshanie reports that a “professor in the Department of Modern Languages” said so.
Surely, this is very poor English.
May be it is Sinhalese English (which we seem to have), even though the “professor” may
not have heard of “Sinhalese vegetables”.
In English (as spoken in England or even in North America), “having” will not be used to terminate a sentence!
/
old codger / August 30, 2016
Bodin,
Very good point. Kudos to Dharshanie for not “sanitizing ” the exchange. Most people in positions of power speak terrible English. This is a result of the “English for communication” craze, which pays no attention to grammar or literature. We need proper teachers, imported under ETCA if necessary.
/
Upul Tilakaratna / August 31, 2016
“”But then, the professor went on to say that in the rural society, the vagina is known as ‘kili male’ and ‘kili’ means blood. “”
This stupid woman boasts so much about his story and the department as if they have invented the next generation.
Then again the speaking about 3 dimensional proof archaeology she goes ballistic with vulgarity.
The woman has no class and is attempting to climb a snake with
waffel, waffel, blurp blurp, waffel waffel.
/
Bandu de Slva / August 31, 2016
Dud
Insulting Sinhala vegies!
Yes, That is what our elite Hamus/Nonas of Kurunduwatta Panadura mansions did when they asked their Kussi Ammas to make Issaraha-Kema for them and Karawala, Jadi, vambotu, Bandakka and Me-Karal for kitchen folk.But on my first visit to the West, I found the order reversed. Vambotu was the real Issaraha-kema there, and Bandakka was in the entre’dish/soup.
/
Upul Tilakaratna / September 1, 2016
“”Vambotu was the real Issaraha-kema there, and Bandakka was in the entre’dish/soup. “
Pricing in the west is based on rarity of product.
4 cups of tea at London cost £600 and its Chinese.
Caviar Beluga One Spoon, 3 Inch at £10 per spoon.
stupid villager stay a villager, we know our pricing and also know Non GM Organic okra, egg plant grown in acres of greenhouses in the city..
We grow anything and everything as much as Singapore can export trees.
Bhutan grows a mushroom selling to Japan at $800 and it is unique to its climate.
The 2 Vambottu and Bandakka veges are from africa and migrated to asia.
she was scared to speak about kathurumurunga because sambar is made with it too.
/
Backlash / August 31, 2016
Have the Muslim ladies referred to here hijacked the right of the majority Tamils to speak for the North-East Province? While Dharshanie makes an otherwise dull subject interesting, one cannot but notice the subtle conspiracy by interested parties to take over the role of Spokespersons for the Tamil-speaking people of the East wrested by recent intruders. What legitimacy or representative character can a useful 3-day exercise such as this prove if the culinary richness of the native Tamil people of the NEP is, by design, kept out?
How much of value and content can one get from a well-meaning exercise when the event is dominated by those of questionable academic quality like this “Professor” Asoka de Zoysa – a man clearly possessed of many petty prejudices. Any outsider reading this well-structured article cannot be blamed if they were to believe there are no Tamils worth considering in the Eastern Province.
Backlash
/