Modern Sri Lankan cultural histories

Heritance Hotels and Resorts, a part of Aitken Spence Hotels, collaborated with the Galle Literary Festival 2024 to support Sri Lanka’s cultural identity and origins. The partnership brought forth a discussion moderated by curator and writer Pramodha Weerasekara, featuring architect Channa Daswatte, environmental designer Sunela Jayewardene, and co-founder of the Collective for Historical Dialogue & Memory, Johann Peiris. This session explored steps in the preservation and renarration of Sri Lankan cultural histories, contributing to the festival’s focus on the island’s rich heritage.

This conversation was rich in history, heritage, art, and perspective. The panelists spoke about the connection of architecture, art and findings of the past to the present, the importance of questioning, and the grave need to educate mass audiences about the brilliance that has stood the test of time. Here are some standout thoughts that resonated with me from this brilliant panel discussion.

Channa shared a discussion from his university days that reintroduced him to his own culture in many ways. He was entranced by the idea that a society comprises more than just the buildings we construct or the individual conversations we have. It involves how everyone’s perspectives interconnect and come together. Similarly, he spoke about the connection between the work of artists in the 1900s, such as Geoffrey Bawa, Minnette de Silva, Barbara Sansoni, Laki Senanayake, and others. They worked separately but, in a way, also collaboratively, creating not separate entities but art that spoke with each other, forming a cohesive whole through their individual contributions. This interconnected collaboration gave rise to the Sri Lankan-ness that we witness today. Channa emphasized the importance of sharing the work of these great artists with a wider audience to showcase their brilliance and demonstrate the interconnectedness of heritage.

Sunila added to the conversation by explaining how she incorporates practices that have existed for thousands of years, often identified as superstitious or sacred. She explained this with a simple example of Brahma Padha, Manushya Padha, and Dheva

Padha, which are practices tied to

This session explored steps in the preservation and renarration of Sri Lankan cultural histories, contributing to the festival’s focus on the island’s rich heritage.

creating spaces with specific areas for movement. By applying these historical practices in her work, she spoke about how it shapes a particular form, ensuring proper ventilation, and creating a space that harnesses positive vibrations. These time-tested practices, finetuned over millennia, continue to be effective in their application. Sunila emphasized the significance of integrating positive aspects of heritage into the modern world we are trying to create.

Johann opened up the conversation to a different angle with the importance of curiosity about what existed. He explained how much is unknown and emphasized the importance of questioning: Why? Why did the curator put that there? Why was it done in a particular way when there were so many other possibilities? He went on to share how this questioning leads us to more and more discovery and how this practice of questioning is extremely important to preserve the past and build the present. This led to the panel discussing how past, present, and future generations connect to discover, preserve, and build our heritage.