Directing tourists to the north

Jaffna based journalist, Thulasi Muttulingam, uses social media and guides visitors to a once war-torn area which she says hasn’t lost its beauty 

Beauty of Northern parts of Sri Lanka is something the rest of fellow Sri Lankans missed out on for a few decades. Now that the Northern Province welcomes the world to experience its beauty, most of the travellers are eager to visit the area. The Nation suggests readers visit the Facebook page ‘Humans of Northern Sri Lanka’ or the blog eyeofthecylone.wordpress.com/ before you visit the area. These will give you information about the places you can visit, the history, culture and the communities. It will be a virtual tour of Northern Sri Lanka before you actually go visit the place, giving you a heads up on what you can explore while providing you with background information. 

Thulasi Muttulingam, a Jaffna based freelance journalist, is the brainchild of this Facebook page, who takes immense pleasure in searching and publishing the sensational information about the Northern Province widely traveling the five districts of the North viz Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya. She said that this Facebook page was a result of her attempts to quench her curiosity, that she too missed the wonders of Northern Province as a child, although her parents were originally from there.  

“I grew up in the Maldives. My parents fled the ’83 riots here and were so traumatized by it that they refused to come back to Sri Lanka, or allow us to come back to Sri Lanka to resettle here,” she recalled. Thulasi didn’t feel welcomed as a child, growing up abroad and she always wanted come back to Sri Lanka and understand the culture and the heritage of the place where she actually belonged.

She has been 21 when the ceasefire agreement was signed in 2002 and this gave her the leeway to convince the parents that she should be allowed to return to Jaffna. “A few months later, they joined me.”

After coming back to Sri Lanka, she joined the Sri Lanka College of Journalism. She reminisced how she enjoyed her days at The Nation newspaper as an intern while she was a student of journalism. After her graduation in 2008, she worked at Sunday Times, Sunday Observer, Ceylon Today and now contributes to the Dail FT and the Daily News as a freelancer.

As one of the few Tamil speaking journalists working in English print media, she said, she was often called on to help file stories from the Northern Province while she was working as a full-time journalist based in Colombo. She wasn’t satisfied with how they managed to get those stories. “Very often it was over the phone, or at best a one to two day visit to the North. This is not enough to get a feel of the North or its myriad issues,” she said. “So at one point, I gave up my full time job and took on a job as a Reporting Officer with an Aid Agency working to rehabilitate war affected people,” she added. This job, which Thulasi took on two years ago, provided her ample opportunity to travel widely in the North, especially into its rural interiors, allowing her to gain firsthand insights into the people’s issues.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to write all these stories up. Thus I found myself sitting on top of a number of unique stories, which deserved wider reach – yet I was unable to disseminate them,” she explained what paved the way to create her Facebook page. “I finally figured out I could use social media and short snippet form story-telling in the manner of the much loved Facebook page Humans of New York (HONY), to get my stories out. So I started a Facebook page which I modeled on HONY.” 

She explained that Humans of New York had already inspired many similar global pages by this time. “There was already a Humans of Sri Lanka page active, so I named my page, which was concentrated on the people of the North, Humans of Northern Sri Lanka,” she said. In her blog and the Facebook page, she doesn’t leave out the essence of the Northern Province, its culture, heritage, people, places and even its food and where you can taste them. It’s a virtual tourist guide to the Northern Province.

She wanted to provide a wider understanding of the people of the North and the issues they face, to people who don’t have active access to the North, but are yet interested in them. A quick glance at her page, scrolling down would provide enough evidence that she has so far been successful in achieving her goal.

Speaking on how social media helped her to take the stories from Northern Sri Lanka to the world, she said that one can actually get the large stories out via a few words and a couple of pictures. “It doesn’t have to run into thousands of words in order to tell a proper story. With those shortened Facebook updates, far more people are able to read, follow and share. As such they get a much wider reach,” she pointed out. “With the click of a button, I can ensure that the stories I want to disseminate are read, not only by people within Sri Lanka, but all over the world.” She also said how these Facebook posts came to her as a relief while she was frustrated that she didn’t gain wide reach of readership for the long research articles she wrote as a journalist.

People from the other parts of country didn’t have access to culture, traditions and arts of Northern Province for a long period. When asked what the other fellow Sri Lankans missed she said, “Well, I am still figuring out what I missed,” adding that there is yet much more to be explored.

Speaking further she appreciated projects like Jaffna and Galle Music Festival funded by Norway for the valuable work they do in reviving dying traditional arts in the North and using it to join North with South.

“The greatest tragedy is that the Arts took a backseat for nearly 30 years as the war raged in the North. It is only now that artists are slowly taking up their arts again – especially the traditional folk artists. In some cases, this might have become irretrievably lost as younger people migrated out and older people died,” Thulasi reiterated.

When she was asked whether she believes that there are enough opportunities for the people from other areas to mingle with the people, arts and culture of the Northern Province, she said, “I am not sure about enough opportunities, but there are certainly opportunities,” she said adding that there are already artists and activists from both the North and South, working actively to connect with each other. “They have been doing so for quite some time now, from since before the war ended. There could be more of such efforts though.”

In her perspective, a better understanding of each other is needed among the common people in order to enhance the relationships between the North and the South. “For too long, the vernacular media has demonized each other to the Tamil and Sinhala people, by giving only one sided stories. We need a more responsible media seeking to bridge the divide instead of working to increase the gap,” she stressed. “As a journalist myself, this is something I am trying hard to do.”

She also said that understanding the people’s aspirations, the source of their pain and hurt, and seeking to redress that should be given utmost most priority in addressing the issues in the Northern Province. “Right now in the Northern Province, which is functioning as a post-war economy, there are several raging problems such as widespread unemployment, marginalization of women especially war affected widows, and breakdown of law and order,” she pointed out.

“Many visitors from the South travel on the glittering new highways to the North and think much development has taken place in the North. Just off those highways however, are rutted bumpy rural roads that would rattle your teeth along with your intestines. These are what the common northern people use. All that glitters is not development,” she further said.

Satkurunathan: Cut out for carving

The sculptor from Jaffna believes that art is not limited to one religion and that anyone can attempt to show their spirituality through a form of art

Pic by Sakuna M Gamage 

Selecting the suitable wood for a sculpture is one of the most important steps in creating wood sculpture with a good finish. Sometimes this takes a reasonable amount of time too compared to the time spent on carving one sculpture. Compared to the period Nadaraja Satkurunathan began working as a sculptor, he says that it is difficult to find wood material for his sculptures today. He mostly uses jackfruit timber for his work.

“Sometime back, finding wood for my work was no trouble. We don’t have as much as trees we had back then. And also, you need to have a permit to get the timber required. Sometimes it’s a great difficulty,” Satkurunathan said, speaking to The Nation at his workshop located in Thirinalveli, Jaffna. 

“The demand for sculptures has significantly become greater since the end of the armed conflict,” he further said. “Now that the temples destroyed during the conflicted era are being renovated, the artists in the area are loaded with work,” he added.

Along with the difficulty of finding wood, Satkurunathan said that the demand for his work has also increased during the recent years taking up more effort to find material. However, with the help of his two sons, he manages to run a successful business in the Northern Province.

Satkurunathan recalled how he learnt the skill of carving to make a dull chunk of wood in to a lively statue. His father was a carpenter and as a child, he spent a reasonable amount of time at his father’s workshop, observing him and helping him with small chores.  He fell in love with his father’s work and he himself wanted to practice this profession.

Yet, his mother knew that her son had more in his blood than to become a carpenter. She had always embraced the artistic skills in little Satkurunathan that his drawings always amazed her. When he started showing interest in carpentry, his mother encouraged his father to send him to a master who can help him master both art and carpentry.

“This is how I was sent to my guru, Jeevarathnam, to learn about sculptures,” he recalled. Jeevarathnam Master was a well-reputed artist from the same village. Satkurunathan said that he helped him sharpen his drawing skills while teaching him to carve wood. “Unfortunately, Jeevarathnam Master is no more,” he said. If he would have been there, he would be proud of the success of his student today.

Next year Satkurunathan will turn 60. He had started sculpting as a profession when he was only 18 years old. Therefore for almost four decades he has mastered his skills and has offered his services to the people who come to him with requests. He not only takes up their requests, but also does his best to produce fine quality work that he doesn’t want to see his customers dissatisfied. This is also why he has earned respect in the Northern Province as a sculptor that people call him ‘Guru’ out of respect. 

Yet, he says that he can’t work as hard as when he was 18 years old although he is wiser and understands more about the sculptures now. This is why he decided to get his sons to join him at his workshop. They have their dreams too, but they consider helping out their father is more important than chasing their dreams. When Satkurunathan completes a sculpture, his sons help him with painting it and doing the final touchups.

Among his work, the majority are sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses. His large collection of hand-carved and hand-painted Hindu wood sculptures range from the vibrant colors of Hindu temples to natural wood colors. Including Gods Shiva, Ganesh, Lakshmi, Vishnu, Hanuman and Goddesses Parvati and Lakshmi, all the Hindu deities come to life in Satkurunathan’s fine wooden sculptures.

Being a Hindu himself, he considers having to carve out the figures of Gods in wood as a blessing he has received. He uses drawings or pictures of the Gods to get an idea, but, mostly, he said that he uses the descriptions in the Hindu mythological stories. He also spoke proudly of the statues he carved of Buddha and Jesus. He believes that art is not limited to one religion and that anyone can attempt to show their spirituality through a form of art.

Apart from the religious sculptures, he also loves carving human figures and animals. “Each time I see a chunk of wood, a human or animal shape unfolds,” Satkurunathan says, showing his impressive collection of work he has saved in a picture album. His living room is also surrounded by his finished and unfinished wooden sculptures. He was also very proud of the sculpture of cricketer Kumar Sangakkara which he carved for a cricket tournament. He reminisced that he has special enthusiasm to finish Sanga’s sculpture because his whole family adores cricket.

He believes that being a sculptor helps him serve his religion. Also being able to serve the temples brings him honor. Only second to the iron sculptors, who make tools which are used in wood sculpture, he says that a sculptor contributing to his religion is no ordinary carpenter but an artist with high prestige. 

Pics by Sakuna M Gamage

Healing sounds of the universe

Panchamoorthy Kumaran on the Nadaswaram

Pic by Rahal Wimalasiri

In Kumaran’s hands the Nadaswaram, a South Indian music instrument, looked grand. Looks matched the music he produced with the Nadaswaram that everyone gathered at the Jaffna Municipal Ground were impressed. It wasYaalKiramiyaSangamam’s(Jaffna Village Committee) Carnatic music which marked the inauguration of the Jaffna Music Festival held two weeks ago.

“For more than 30 years we were kept apart and it’s not only the brotherhood we lost during this crucial period. We lost touch with our culture and traditions,” said YaalKiramiyaSangamam lead performer, PanchamoorthyKumaran speaking to The Nation at the Jaffna Municipal Grounds. “Now it’s time to come together again, share our cultures and art with each other. There is a lot to be shared and be glad about,” he added.  He is glad that the armed conflict is over, that he can now perform freely anywhere in the country.  He strongly believes that music can bring back lost harmony; music can heal unseen wounds. He further said that arts and cultural festivals like the music festival can help people to come together and this is the best period to conduct such programs.

Kumaran

Kumaran, a native from Kondavil, Jaffna who is considered as one of the most skillful South Indian musicians in the country, belongs to a family of traditional Carnatic musicians. All his musical skills, as told to this writer, were learned from his father who began teaching him when he was six years old. He was skilled enough to perform as a Carnatic musician on stage when he was just ten years old. Now in his early thirties, he says that having to perform on stage is the most precious thing he gets to do in his life. In the last couple of years, he has been invited to play in Europe, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Canada and Switzerland. Yet he said, “There is nothing like having to play in my country, in front of my people.”

He has mastered many Carnatic musical instruments. He has a voice which can grab people’s attention at once that he is adored as a vocalist too. However, he is best known for his performances with his pet instrument. The Nadaswaram is one of the most auspicious instruments in South India. He said that it was the most difficult South Indian musical instrument to master. In South Indian culture, awedding is incomplete without the sound of this most popular wind instrument. Counted among the ‘mangalavadhyam’, or auspicious instruments, the Nadaswaram is the world’s loudest non-brass acoustic instrument according to Wikipedia.

Traditionally the Nadaswaram is played in various rituals and ceremonies in the temples and during special events like marriages. A person familiar with South Indian music can easily identify the ritual or the ceremony taking place just by hearing the raga played on the Nadaswaram. There are ragas specifically played during the different times of the day for the different rituals at temples or the different occasions.  

As Kumaran explained, the Nadaswaram is considered to be a Rajavadyam (A royal instrument) and the instrument’s different parts are supposed to represent the different forms of God. The Nadaswaram was traditionally made from Aachatree wood, although nowadays bamboo, sandalwood, copper, brass and ivory are also used.

It is an extremely powerful double reed instrument. Due to its intense volume and strength it is basically an outdoor instrument. “Fingering is similar to that of the Indian flute, but the pitch can also be altered by changing the pressure of lips,” he explained. Playing the Nadaswaram is a hard-skill, since it requires good breath control, added Kumaran. Most of his outstanding performances are available on his Youtube channel.

He also emphasized the importance of the artisan skills, passed from generation to generation in protecting arts and culture. Traditional Carnatic Music is often passed on from generation to generation, like how Kumaran learned his music from his father. 

“Music is said to have begun from the sounds of the Universe. Carnatic itself can be traced back to a time when Hinduism emerged,” he iterated. “Since then, the traditions of this have been passed on from generation to generation and preserved until today,” he said adding that the future of the traditional Carnatic music will depend on the enthusiasm shown for it by the generations to come. He said that this theory applied to any other line of work.

However he said that he was never forced to learn music. “I have been compassionate about music since I was very young. I started learning to play instruments out of the adoration that grew while observing my father play,” he recalled. “My son too, will never be forced to learn this. To become a musician or not, or to play the Nadaswaram or not, will solely be his choice,” he said adding that compassion towards music cannot be forced on a person.

(Special thanks to Jaffna Music Festival Program Coordinator, G Krishanthan from Sevalanka Foundation)