{"id":179001,"date":"2017-06-23T03:37:05","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T22:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=179001"},"modified":"2017-06-23T03:41:32","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T22:11:32","slug":"a-sri-lankan-in-drawing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-sri-lankan-in-drawing\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sri Lankan In Drawing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Aravinth Kumar<\/a> \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At the start of 2017 the President’s Office and the Office for National Unity launched a campaign to raise awareness of \u201cSri Lankan Shared Values\u201d.\u00a0 The proposed aim is to bring together the people from each of the individual ethnic groups in Sri Lanka and create a \u201cunified national identity\u201d.\u00a0 Given the reoccurrence in extremism emanating from all groups lately, creating this \u201cunified national identity\u201d is of national importance.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, I wish to demonstrate via a drawing what I believe represents a unified Sri Lankan identity.\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Note: This drawing has been designed and created by myself (the writer of this article). I apologise that it\u2019s not the best drawn.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The background<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The background is split into two; three quarters being blue and the remaining quarter being yellow. These colours aim to represent the sea\/sky and the land respectively. <\/span><\/p>\n

The background aims to reinforce the concept that we are all living on one united and indivisible island. It also intends to bring to attention two of the most important (and historical) jobs that members of all of the ethnic communities in Sri Lanka partake in; agriculture and fishing. <\/span><\/p>\n

The 3 headed tree<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The most dominating and noticeable part of the drawing is the \u20183 headed tree\u2019. Each of the \u2018heads\u2019 are different but attached together by the same trunk which is embedded into the land. The 3 \u2018heads\u2019 are the \u2018Coconut Tree\u2019 (middle), the \u2018Palmyra Tree\u2019 (left) and the \u2018Palm Tree\u2019 (right). What this aims to represent, is the different communities i.e. the coconut tree represents the Sinhalese, the Palmyra tree represents the Tamil and the palm tree represents the Muslims. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Sinhala majority south of the country is dominated by the coconut trees. As you move north, the landscape takes a drastic change and the Palmyra trees come to dominate the landscape. The palm tree is heavily revolved around Islam and can be seen doted around the Muslim dominated parts of Sri Lanka. As a result, these trees have become synonymous with each ethnic group and are thus used to represent each community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whilst each of the trees individually is different (i.e. in terms of appearance and the fruits they provide) they are from the same botanical family, Arecaceae. In much the same way, whilst a Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim wear different clothes (appearance), speak different languages, practise different religions and participate in different cultural events (fruit), they are all part of the same family, Sri Lanka. <\/span><\/p>\n

The 3 \u2018heads\u2019 are positioned at same height to symbolise that we are all equal. The \u2018Coconut Tree head\u2019 (Sinhalese) is placed in the middle to symbolise its central role (as the majority). The \u2018Palmyra Tree head\u2019 and the \u2018Palm Tree head\u2019 are connected by branches to the main trunk to symbolise the indivisible connection to both the land and the central \u2018Coconut Tree\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trying to remove one of the \u2018heads\u2019 is impossible. Whilst you could try and cut off a \u2018head\u2019, it will grow back. Thus, the only way to permanently remove one of the \u2018heads\u2019 would be cutting the trunk off the tree. However, doing this will lead to all three \u2018heads\u2019 being destroyed. To put this idea into perspective, there have been times when one \u2018head\u2019 (Sinhala\/Tamil\/Muslim) has tried to hurt another \u2018head\u2019 (Sinhala\/Tamil\/Muslim) e.g. 1983 riots, LTTE expulsion of Muslims, Aluthgama riots etc.\u00a0 <\/span>In all these cases, while the indicated target was one group against another group, the end result was all the ethnic groups (the whole tree) suffered. <\/span><\/p>\n

My overall aim through this drawing is to symbolise that irrespective of our differences, we are unfortunately\/fortunately (whichever way you wish to view it) connected. Our destiny is shared; either we work together and prosper or we will continue to suffer!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":144172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nA Sri Lankan In Drawing - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-sri-lankan-in-drawing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Sri Lankan In Drawing - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-sri-lankan-in-drawing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-22T22:07:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-22T22:11:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Aravinth-Kumar.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"129\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"157\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aravinth Kumar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Aravinth Kumar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-sri-lankan-in-drawing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-sri-lankan-in-drawing\/\",\"name\":\"A Sri Lankan In Drawing - 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