An Introduction to the Land the History and the Culture of the People of Sri Lanka.
Professional Reviews
Sri Lanka Changing Faces of a Country Review By Neil Earle
For immediate release: Contact Chandrani Warnasuriya (type in address below)
Email: cwarnasuriya@yahoo.com
February 2016 Book introduces Sri Lanka to advanced readers and school curriculums
It’s been said by historians and geographers that the peripheral is often central. Such is the experience of many island nations that lie offshore larger bodies. Think of Japan, Madagascar or the British Isles themselves.
The tear-drop shaped island nation of Sri Lanka south of India well fits that category. Children’s author and former teacher in California, Chani Warnasuriya, has released a richly textured new book for general readers on the topography, ethnicity and history of a nation formerly known as Ceylon and “the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.”
In 188 fast-moving pages Chandrani Warnasuriya sketches a colorful gallery of in-depth portraits of everything from the medieval advanced hydraulic network of tanks and reservoirs that allowed the island to take advantage of the cocoanut palms, virgin forests and well-sited land available for the country’s stock in trade—the growing of tea.
We are told that one million of Sri Lanka’s 20,000,000 people are engaged in fishing and the outriggers and catamarans that were a national symbol are still evident. The national mosaic is skillfully covered showing the contributions made by each of the major groups, Sinhalese (mostly Buddhists), Tamils and Muslims who are learning to live peacefully on the 25,000 square miles of Edenic scenery.
Western readers will be struck by the number and pedigree of Sri Lanka’s cities, from the famed naval port of Trincomalee (strategic for the British in two world wars) to the bustling capital of Colombo, no longer a city swarming with “rickshaws and flies” but one with its own World Trade Center and twin towers as well. Speaking of trade, the great Marco Polo passed through Sri Lanka on his way home following the southern tier of the Silk Road and the islands stones and jewels would be enough by themselves to make Sri Lanka a desired target for merchants and traders.
Chandrani Warnasuriya, sensibly, cannot avoid indulging in the hints of tourist leader revealed in her catalogue of Sri Lankan “firsts” such as an impressive cricket record, a retreat for the novelist Arthur C. Clarke and the site of the 1957 Academy Award winning “Bridge on the River Kwai.” Thus the present keeps pace with “the magic and mystery of the past” in this enchanting and resplendent isle, beautifully illustrated in this important new book.
Sri Lanka: Changing Faces of a Country, An Introduction to the Land, the History and the Culture of the People of Sri Lanka. Vijitha Yapa Publications, Colombo, Sri Lanka. E-mail: vijiyapa@gmail.com. 188 pages. ISBN 978-955-665-276-5.
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