Features

More fruit for their labour

Published

7 months ago

2025/10/5

“They look close to dead,” says Sri Lankan farmer Shantha Dissanayake looking at his pruned mango trees.

“They looked close to dead,” says Sri Lankan farmer, Shantha Dissanayake, about his mango trees.

“However, this experiment has turned out to be a complete success.”

Shantha has spent a lot of time worrying about elephants stomping over his mango orchards. But he became even more scared when agricultural experts came from abroad and hacked his trees down to relative shadows of their former selves. The trees are much shorter than before, with fewer but wider branches that allow sunlight to boost fruit quality and naturally prevent plant diseases.

Zengxian Zhao, the man who cut the trees in the first place, laughed at Shantha’s memory of the event. “He was initially shocked, but he’s been convinced and is spreading the word,” said Zengxian, an expert on crop cultivation.

This pruning method is one of the new techniques being shared through the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) -China South-South Cooperation project, aiming to boost the incomes of farmers who produce bananas, pineapples and mangoes, high-value fruits that can flourish in the country.

The whole project, which includes innovations in Sri Lanka’s banana, mango and pineapple sectors, is emblematic of the South-South Cooperation theme, consisting of technology transfer, precision agriculture, legal trading norms, transportation and marketing methods and the adoption and upscaling of good agricultural practices.

Shantha Dissanayake, a mango farmer in northern Sri Lanka, has spent a lot of time worrying about elephants stomping over his mango orchards. But he became even more scared when agricultural experts came from abroad and hacked his trees down to relative shadows of their former selves.

“These outsiders came and hacked down all my trees to stubs with only a few leaves left. They looked close to dead,” he said. “However, this experiment has turned out a complete success,” he added.

The trees are much shorter than before, with fewer but wider branches that allow sunlight to boost fruit quality and naturally prevent plant diseases. “Now I see that it works,” said Shantha, a 53-year-old man in perpetual good spirits, whose hobby and obsession is fixing a rusty old tractor he used as a younger farmer growing squash and maize.

Less tree, more mangoes

Zengxian Zhao, the man who cut the trees in the first place, laughed at Shantha’s memory. “He was initially shocked, but he’s been convinced and is spreading the word,” said Zengxian, an expert on crop cultivation, dispatched by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

He was deployed in 2023 in this Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) project focused on Sri Lanka’s tropical fruit sector, aiming to boost the incomes of the farmers who produce bananas, pineapples and mangoes, high-value fruits that can flourish in the country.

“Here the farmers know how to make mango trees big, tall and very strong,” Zengxian said while chatting with Shantha on his farm outside Anuradhapura. It has become a kind of exposition centre where Shantha’s neighbours come to learn about the new techniques being shared through the FAO-China South-South Cooperation (SSC) project.

“I explain and show Chinese pruning methods that are very different,” Zengxian said. “We are looking to make more of the plant nutrients flow to the fruits.”

Zengxian’s pruning method – which he has demonstrated to hundreds of Sri Lankan farmers at more than 30 sites around the dry and sparsely-populated North-Central Province – is manually simple. It follows a fractal logic wherein the crown of each mango tree is hollowed out and the number of spindles per branch reduced by half.

In essence, he serially splices the tree, starting at about 70 centimetres up the trunk, replicating the pattern of leaving four rather than the typical seven branches at each point to open the canopy in a way that enhances fruit productivity. Ultimately, the ideal is to have one tree with about 87 branches, each producing one or two ovoid-shaped mangoes, ideally weighing just over 500 grams.

Shorter mango trees make it easier to bag and pick the fruit at harvest, which is done by hand. Greater exposure to sunlight additionally reduces opportunities for invasive pests, lowering both labour requirements and agrichemical costs.

Shantha says that while gross yield per pruned tree has dipped somewhat, his net marketable yield has jumped by 50 percent, as he now obtains mostly prime-grade fruit whereas before the majority of his fruits were too small or irregular and had to sold at give-away prices.

Shantha describes himself as a convert to the new techniques he has learned and now plans to adopt them on the rest of his trees. He is convincing his brother-in-law Jayasekara to do the same on his nearby farm, where mango trees tower up to three times higher but with only marginal economic yields.

At the moment, Jayasekara uses a long bamboo pole to knock down fruits from the upper branches, which usually bruises them to the point where they have to be turned into chutney on the same day or perish. With shorter trees, this wouldn’t be the case.

The pineapple predicament

Further south, in the towns of Makandura and Horana, the tropical climate poses a special challenge as year-round heat and two big rainy seasons catalyse greater pest risks, said Yangyang Liu, whose focus has been on the pineapple value chain.

Flooding has been a major issue as well that led to many farmers abandoning pineapples. He and his colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences have shown how inexpensive field management, such as raised soil beds and novel mulching techniques, help mitigate that risk.

The Chinese experts’ other practical advice for improving pineapple cultivation focused on irrigation, integrated fertigation networks that result in “more application but less use” of costly fertilisers and land cover sheaths to maintain soil moisture and minimize the runoff of expensive agrochemicals.

Together these initiatives sharply reduced labour needs for weeding, which is particularly ornery with the spiny variety grown in the region. Placing bags around the growing fruit helps block sun scorching, which in turn helps identify the actual ripening stage with greater precision and leads to tastier output.

Critically, Sri Lankan farmers learned how to use crown propagation, a method of generating fresh planting materials that is considerably more efficient and addresses one of the main cost barriers local pineapple cultivators face. This method more than triples the amount of new planting material generated by existing plants and responds to one of the main demands local farmers have.

Suneth Lakmal, a long-time pineapple farmer, says that more available material and the more climate-resilient techniques he has learned has helped him nearly triple the number of pineapples he can grow to 20 000 per acre.

He is so confident that now he plans to double the amount of land he leases, boosting production to the point where he can try to negotiate export deals. Given his new method’s reduced reliance on costly pesticides and improved water efficiency, he dreams of expanding into becoming a large-scale farmer. “I don’t feel any limits to how much I can cultivate,” he said.

Dharshini Erangika Jayamanne, Director of Agriculture at the Research and Development Centre in Makandura, north of the country’s capital Colombo, set up a model pineapple farm that achieved three times typical local pineapple yields using the low-cost technology showcased by the project. Moreover, the fruits are higher quality and have uniform harvest times, boosting scale to meet the needs of foreign buyers.

Working with the experts, she innovated a way to generate new plant materials for pineapple and bananas – known locally as suckers – in a way that harmonizes seasonality and reduces the spread of plant diseases. She also led the training of more than 1 000 farmers and students through workshops.

While initial participants received financial help with upfront costs, they can be recovered in less than three seasons and sometimes just one, she reckons, making facilitating credit rather than offering grants a viable opportunity for the Ministry.

“The key to this project was guidance and the scientist-to-scientist rapport. Because they are always with us, we could always come up with fixes to local challenges which is the key point in the success of this project,” said Dharshini, who herself is an accomplished scientist with breakthrough innovations in pineapple tissue culture. She plans to take the FAO project and make it “readable and transferrable” to regional research centres.

“Extension services are essential going forward and are essential to avoid anyone falling into improper beliefs about technology failures,” she said. “Just learning things from the Internet does not turn out to be so successful.”

Some of that outreach happens spontaneously. A common refrain among the farmers participating in the project is that their neighbours ask them to learn more.

“They’ll look over the wall and ask why I am planting so densely, and I tell them about the FAO project,” said Seela Wickrama, who is turning her parents’ small holding from a betel farm into a multi-crop enterprise focusing on pineapples and bananas. She also noted that while she benefits from start-up grants thanks to the project, she will now also invest in them on her own.

Long-term benefits

Participants in the SSC project receive grant funding to defray some up- front investment costs, such as installation of irrigation systems, while Sri Lanka’s Department of Agriculture is paying half of fertiliser costs. That help is key in the demonstration phase, but once accepted at scale, the approach is “relatively light on capital” and can be “beneficial to smallholders even without public incentives,” says Bandara Abeysinghe, a provincial agricultural instructor who has been helping the FAO project reach a larger audience. The real benefit of the project is the capacity building, learning new, simple and low-cost techniques to increase production.

Shantha agreed. “I don’t want free stuff or subsidies, but long-term loans,” he said. With proof of increased productivity, bank loans are easier to access. The government’s goal, Abeysinghe notes, is to increase productivity of tropical fruit farming, not necessarily to promote mango, pineapple or banana production over the region’s other core crops, which include chili, soya and various kinds of rice.

“If done well farmers get a higher return on investment,” he said, adding that his team will be giving 50 courses a year on Zengxian’s pruning techniques.

Going local to go global

What Shantha, Suneth and other producers in Sri Lanka really want is to find a way to tap the USD 11 billion global tropical fruit market, which offer considerably higher prices.

The popular TJC mango variety Shantha grows is appreciated for having small seeds, meaning more, smoother and fleshier pulp, and has been the catalyst of a recent upswing in exports to the Middle East. Still, total exports amount to around 430 tonnes, including dried fruit, less than one percent of national production.

However, unleashing the formidable potential of tropical fruits to help livelihoods reliant on transforming Sri Lanka’s agrifood systems involves more than just sorting out paperwork.

Those challenges overlap with issues such as local procurement and in particular transportation, which for fresh tropical fruit is a delicate process from start to finish. The experts from China have taught effective techniques such as placing pineapples upside down in crates to minimize jostling during transport.

However, nothing is as simple as it seems. Even using plastic crates is a systemic intervention, as they have to be recycled back to where they are needed, and wholesale markets need to be revamped and weaned off habits of using bags or open mounds of fresh fruit on exposed trucks and at warehouse depots.

Gradually pushing through this reform has been a major contributor to the reduction by half of food loss and waste, said Chandana Wasala, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Post Harvest Management, a research centre originally set up with FAO’s assistance in 1976 to improve rice processing in the country.

Jars of heirloom rice varieties line the institute’s laboratories, where young researchers now focus on food-safety assessments of mango jams and other processed foods using misshapen fruits. Somewhat ironically the institute is home to towering 25-metre-high mango trees, which serve for shade and ornamentation rather than production.

The project has offered a platform to launch a broad regional awareness campaign about food loss, said Chandana, who has researched the financial and practical considerations that drive actors in the value chain – especially traders and transporters who see it as an extra cost – to resist replacing poly-sack bags with plastic crates.

As part of the project, Chandana took some of his team to China for a tour and training programme and picked up on how transforming Sri Lanka’s tropical fruit sector is a systemic enterprise, in many ways requiring the same market integration and efficiency challenges China overcame in recent decades with its large internal market.

Since then, he, Zengxian and Yangyang have worked with local colleagues to conduct around 80 “training of trainers” sessions and meet hundreds of farmers to explain small-scale actions that can be done now to deliver outsized impacts.

One underappreciated issue is that materials for bagging fruit, chemical inputs for herbicides and fertilisers and irrigation piping are relatively expensive in Sri Lanka.

“I’ve found that all the farmers are eager to try these new techniques, but compared to China, they often can’t get what they need locally at a good price, exacerbating the financial strain,” said Dequan Sun, leader of the experts deployed on the project.

Dequan huddled with local suppliers to invent affordable alternatives for products ranging from fruit bags to fertiliser mixes. “The farmers here have been doing this for centuries and are good, and we’ve learned a lot from them and about local fruit varieties,” he said. “But there is room to improve and that’s why we’re here. Being here for two years, two whole seasons with all the phases, means that our training and our model demonstration farms are intensive and allow people to grasp how they can increase production and yields.”

The intense contact means that farmers and technical experts find alignment in their quest for viable solutions that take the Chinese know-how and fit it to the Sri Lankan circumstance, allowing both sides to learn. “Every time we have a problem, we discuss a lot and solve it so that we all know what is going on,” said Yangyang. “Responding to questions is the best way.”

Transferring knowledge

“This method benefits both individual farmers and the country’s economy,” said Shantha.

The USD 1.5 million SSC project is a “pilot and a proof of concept”, said Vimlendra Sharan, FAO Representative to Sri Lanka. Putting plastic bags around fruit to prevent sun scorching, harmonize ripening and fend off pests is “not mind-boggling technology,” he noted. The real added value here is that the experts from China are right there, over several seasons, to see challenges, not for a one-off tutorial, he added. “Farmers are amazingly instinctive at understanding each other.”

Keeping up the momentum

Zengxian and his infectious enthusiasm and Yangyang with his fluency in Sinhala and poetic nostalgia for serene scenes of “buffaloes in paddy fields with herons standing nearby”, have now left the country after two years during which they helped deliver hundreds of hands-on tutorials to more than 1 900 farmers as well as scores of extension workers, trainers and students.

However, Kuragamage Don Lalkantha, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation since late 2024, is committed to making sure the SSC project will live on and evolve. Lalkantha is a no-nonsense man who wants to help turn his country around after a dramatic economic collapse in 2022.

Noting that many past development projects ended up with “no results or outcomes,” he is focused on restoring benefits from the high-value agricultural produce for which his island nation has been famous for millennia.

“We need investments from abroad… and must focus on increasing production and boosting exports,” he said. “Our country is home to a wide variety of fruits, but we have not yet been able to preserve this diversity and present it to the world effectively… We are deeply interested in making this a reality.”

Ministerial officials across all provinces are collaborating more closely to ensure that the agricultural sector is generating meaningful and inclusive results that also reach the poorest individuals and contribute to food security for all. The government has set up cost-sharing schemes whereby it subsidizes irrigation equipment, plastic crates and other items farmers need to upscale the project’s results.

Public officials on the front line agree. “After completing these research and field experiments, we have a very clear idea on how to scale up these technologies, and I believe it will have a very big and positive effect,” said Dharshini “The experts from China did a very big job boosting our confidence… We are stronger and ready to take our battle alone into the future,” she added.

“There is a long road still to go” before Sri Lanka’s family farmers can export tropical fruit at scale, noted Yangyang, who has canvassed major global fruit companies to understand their needs, but they are on the right track.

“We have a local saying that the way to get rich is to grow mangoes out of season,” said Shantha. With the new low-cost South-South shared technologies, he is now confident there is another more viable way.

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Features

Building a sustainable future for Sri Lanka’s construction industry

Published

3 hours ago

2026/05/8

Thilina Walpola

Sri Lanka’s construction industry has long been a central pillar of sustainable development. From roads and bridges to homes, schools, and hospitals, construction shapes the country’s physical landscape and supports economic progress. As the nation continues to rebuild and modernise, the demand for construction materials and infrastructure keeps rising. However, this growth also brings a significant environmental cost. Cement, steel, bricks, aggregates, and timber all require energy, resources, and transportation, contributing to carbon emissions and environmental damage. If Sri Lanka continues with traditional construction practices, the long-term impact on the environment will be severe.

The encouraging news is that Sri Lanka has many opportunities to adopt more sustainable construction practices while still maintaining the highest standards of quality and safety. Sustainable construction does not mean weaker buildings or lower standards. It means using sustainable materials, reducing waste, improving design, and choosing methods that protect the environment. Many countries have already moved in this direction, and Sri Lanka has the potential to follow the same path with solutions that are practical, affordable, and suitable for local conditions.

A promising option

One promising option is the use of Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB), which are different from the concrete blocks commonly used in Sri Lanka for the past 25 years. CEBs are made from soil mixed with a small amount of stabiliser and pressed using machines. Unlike traditional fired clay bricks, CEBs do not require high-temperature kilns, which consume large amounts of firewood or fossil fuels. This makes CEBs a low-carbon alternative with a much smaller environmental footprint. In Sri Lanka, CEBs are already used in eco-resorts, community housing projects, and environmentally focused developments. They offer good strength, durability, and thermal comfort, making them suitable for many types of buildings. By expanding the use of CEBs, Sri Lanka can reduce energy consumption, lower emissions, and promote locally sourced materials.

Recycled aggregates also offer significant potential for sustainable construction. These materials are produced by crushing concrete, demolition waste, and construction debris. In Sri Lanka, recycled aggregates are already used in road construction, particularly for base and sub-base layers. They are suitable for non-structural building work such as pathways, garden paving, drainage layers, landscaping, and backfilling. Using recycled aggregates reduces the need for newly quarried rock and aggregates, decreases landfill waste, and lowers transportation emissions. With proper quality control and standards, recycled aggregates can become a reliable and widely accepted material in the construction industry.

Timber and sustainability

Timber is another important area where sustainability can be improved. In the past, timber for construction was often taken from natural forests, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Today, this approach is no longer sustainable. Instead, the focus must shift to legally sourced timber from managed plantations. Sri Lanka’s plantation-grown teak, jak, and kubuk can provide high-quality, legally sourced timber for construction while protecting natural forests and supporting rural economies. Using plantation timber ensures that harvesting is controlled, trees are replanted, and the supply chain remains legal and ethical.

Beyond materials, sustainable construction also involves better design and planning. Buildings that are designed to maximise natural ventilation, daylight, and energy efficiency can significantly reduce long-term operating costs. Simple design improvements such as proper orientation, shading devices, roof insulation, and efficient window placement can reduce the need for artificial cooling and lighting. These measures not only lower energy consumption but also improve indoor comfort for occupants. Sri Lanka’s tropical climate offers many opportunities to incorporate passive design strategies that reduce environmental impact without increasing construction costs.

Waste reduction is another key component of sustainable construction. Construction sites often generate large amounts of waste, including concrete, timber offcuts, packaging, and soil. By adopting better site management practices, recycling materials, and planning construction sequences more efficiently, contractors can reduce waste and save money. Proper waste segregation and recycling can also reduce the burden on landfills and minimise environmental pollution.

Promoting sustainable construction

Public projects such as schools, hospitals, and government buildings can play a leading role in promoting sustainable construction. When government projects adopt greener materials and designs, the private sector follows. This creates a positive cycle where environmentally responsible choices become the industry standard. Public sector leadership can also encourage local manufacturers to produce sustainable materials, improve quality standards, and invest in new technologies.

Sri Lanka also carries a proud and remarkable history in construction, with achievements that continue to inspire the world. The engineering brilliance behind Sigiriya, the advanced urban planning of Polonnaruwa, the precision of the Aukana Buddha statue, and the sophisticated water management systems of ancient tanks and reservoirs all demonstrate the deep knowledge our ancestors possessed. These historic accomplishments show that innovation is not new to Sri Lanka; it is part of our identity. As the world moves toward 2050 with increasing sustainability challenges, Sri Lanka can draw strength from this heritage while embracing modern technologies and sustainable practices. With the combined efforts of skilled professionals, industry experts, academic researchers, and strong government support, the country can introduce new systems that improve efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and strengthen resilience. By working together with determination and sharing knowledge across generations, Sri Lanka’s construction industry can build a future that honours its past while leading the way in sustainable development.

Foundation of sustainable development

Sri Lanka’s construction industry has always been a foundation of sustainable development. Today, it also has the chance to take a leading role in sustainability. By choosing sustainable materials, reducing waste, improving design, and supporting responsible sourcing, the country can build a future that is both modern and environmentally responsible. Sustainability is essential for Sri Lanka’s long-term goals of reducing carbon emissions and limiting the impacts of global warming. As Sri Lanka moves forward, the construction industry must embrace sustainability not only as an environmental responsibility but also as an opportunity to create stronger, smarter, and more resilient buildings for future generations. Sri Lanka has the talent, the heritage, and the technical capacity to shape a more sustainable future, and with the right national direction, the construction industry can become a model for the region. If professionals, policymakers, and communities work together with a shared vision, the country can transform its construction sector into one that protects the environment while supporting long-term progress.

About the Author: P.G.R.A.C. Gamlath Menike,

BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying (University of Reading, UK), MSc Quantity Surveying (University College of Estate Management, UK), MCIArb, Doctoral Student, Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, is a Senior Quantity Surveyor: Last Project (2022 -2025) Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 2 Construction Project, Gammon Engineering Construction (Main Contractor).

By P.G. R. A. C. Gamlath Menike

Features

Palm leaf manuscripts of Sri Lanka – 1

Published

3 hours ago

2026/05/8

Thilina Walpola

Palm leaf manuscripts

Palm leaf manuscripts have been in existence in Sri Lanka since ancient times. The two oldest palm-leaf manuscripts found in Sri Lanka today are the Cullavagga Pâli manuscript of the H. C. P. Bell collection, which is held at the Library of the National Museum, Colombo, and the Mahavagga Pâli manuscript in the University of Kelaniya collection. Photocopies of both are available at the Library of the University of Peradeniya. Both are dated to 13 century. Cullavagga manuscript has wooden covers richly decorated in lac with a design of flowers and foliage.

Karmmavibhâga

However, the oldest known Sinhala palm leaf manuscript in the world is the Karmmavibhâga which was found in a Tibet monastery in 1936 by the Indian scholar Rahul Sankrityayan. Rahul Sankrityayan, (1893–1963) former Kedarnath Pandey, was an Indian polymath, who searched out rare Buddhist manuscripts on his travels abroad. Sankrityayan visited Sri Lanka as well. Vidyalankara Pirivena is mentioned.

Sankrityayan visited Tibet several times to collect manuscripts from the Buddhist monasteries there. In May 1936 on his second visit to Tibet, Sankrityayan visited the Sa-skya monastery. The Chag-pe-lha-khang Library in this monastery was specially opened for Sankrityayan.

He stated in his autobiography that when the clouds of dust which greeted this rare opening of its doors had subsided, they beheld rows of open racks where volume on volume of manuscripts were kept. “After rummaging around, I came across palm-leaf manuscripts. They were not wrapped in cloth, but were tied between two wooden planks with holes through them.” Sankrityayan found several important manuscripts he had been looking for, in that collection.

Sankrityayan catalogued fifty-seven manuscripts bound in thirty-eight volumes. The thirty-seventh volume was written in the Sinhala script. Sankrityayan records that this volume contained ninety-seven palm- leaves each of which measured 18 1/4 by 1 1/4 in. (46 x 3 cm.) and that there were seven lines of writing on each folio.

According to Sankrityayan, these Sinhala texts originally belonged to a Sri Lankan monk called Anantaśrî who had come to Tibet in the time of ŚSrî Kîrttidhvaja (Kirti Sri Rajasinha). Analysts noted that Sankrityayan does not give the source of this information and the manuscript makes no mention of Anantaśrî.

Sankrityayan had taken with him to Tibet, one Abeyasinghe, (Abhayasimha) to help him with copying manuscripts. They made hand-copies of the important manuscripts. Abhayasimha had copied about 250 to 350 strophes each day. But he fell ill due to the extreme cold and was sent home in June. Abeyasinghe had written letters home during his stay in Tibet.

Photographs of the manuscripts found during Sankrityayan’s expeditions in Tibet are preserved at the National Archives in Colombo. There is also a copy in Vidyalankara pirivena library The Historical Manuscripts Commission In its 1960/1961 report, drew attention to this manuscript, known as Sa-skya Codex, describing it as “a unique document.” (Annual Report of the Government Archivist 1960/61, 1963)

Sinhala scholar P.E.E. Fernando examined photographs of the Sa-skya Codex at the request of the Historical Manuscripts Commission and assigned it to the 13th century. The Historical Manuscripts Commission, dated it to either twelfth or the thirteenth century.

The Historical Manuscripts Commission observed that this manuscript was of great value for the study of the development of the Sinhala script. Ven. Meda Uyangoda Vimalakîrtti and Nähinne Sominda in their edition of the Karmmavibhâga published in 1961 agreed that the Sa-skya Codex represented an early stage in the evolution of the Sinhala language.

Mahavamsa

The Mahavamsa is considered a unique historical document. There is nothing like it in South Asia, and probably all Asia, with the exception of China. Mahavamsa provides a historical account of events, with emphasis on chronology and dating. This, it appears, was rare at the time.

However, Mahavamsa is not a political history, though that is the popular perception of it. It is a religious history. It was written to record the introduction and entrenchment of Buddhism in the country. Other Buddhist countries, such as Cambodia, Burma and Thailand value the Mahavamsa for this reason. They held copies of the Mahavamsa and used events from it in their temple frescoes.

But Mahavamsa is also an important reference source for reconstructing the political history of Sri Lanka. Political and social facts are included in the Mahavamsa narrative when describing religious events, and this makes the Mahavamsa important for historians. This tradition of history writing, beginning with the earlier Sihala Attakatha and Dipawamsa, it is suggested, started in Sri Lanka in 2^nd or 3^rd BC.

Today, the Mahavamsa has become a major source of historical information, not only for dating kings, temples and reservoirs, but also for reconstructing ancient Sinhala society. The fact that Kuveni was seated beside a pond, spinning thread has been used to indicate that there was water management and textiles long before Vijaya arrived. Dutugemunu (161-137 BC) paid a salary to the workers building the Maha Thupa. This shows that money was used at the time.

Copies of the Mahavamsa have been treasured and looked after in Sri Lanka for centuries. They have been copied over and over again. The manuscripts were held in temple libraries because the subject of the Mahavamsa was the entrenchment of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

The Mahavamsa manuscripts did not pop up suddenly during British rule as people seem to think. The British did not ‘discover’ the Mahavamsa. It was there. When the British administration started to take interest in the history of the island, the sangha would have directed them to the Mahavamsa, in the same way that they directed HCP Bell to the ruins in Anuradhapura and the Sigiriya frescoes. HCP Bell did not discover those either.

The British administrators saw the value of the Mahavamsa and copies were sent to libraries abroad. The Bodleian library, Oxford has a well preserved Mahavamsa manuscript, taken from Mulkirigala, which Turner used for his translation. Cambridge has two Mahavamsa manuscripts. The two copies at India Office library, and the copy in East India Library are probably in the British Library today. The Royal Library, Copenhagen, has a copy, consisting of 129 sheets, 12 lines to a leaf, written in good handwriting.

In Sri Lanka there are several copies of the Mahavamsa in the Colombo Museum Library. One copy, known as the ‘Cambodian Mahavamsa ‘is in Cambodian script. University of Peradeniya has at least three copies.

It is interesting to note that the Mahavamsa was known to the Sinhala elite and some had copies in their private libraries. The Historical Manuscripts Commission of the 1930s said in its first report that five copies of the Mahavamsa and a 19^th century copy of the Dipawamsa were found in private collections.

The temple libraries had many copies of the Mahavamsa. Some were of very high quality. Wilhelm Geiger had looked at the copies held at Mahamanthinda Pirivena, Matara and Mulkirigala vihara. Asgiriya, Nagolla Vihara and Watagedera Sudarmarama Potgul vihara, Matara, are three of the many libraries that held copies of the Mahavamsa.

Sirancee Gunawardene examined the copy at Mahamanthinda Pirivena, Matara, very closely. She says that it is a very old manuscript. According to its colophon, the manuscript was first copied 400 years ago. It is in a very good state of preservation. It has 232 folios. Each 50 cm long 6.25 wide. Nine lines on each side, in Pali metric verse.

The writer of the manuscripts said that his version was an improvement on the copy. He wrote, “I will recite the Mahavamsa which was compiled by ancient sages. [their version] was too long and had many repetitions. This version is free from such faults, easy to understand and remember. It is handed down from tradition, for arousing serene joy and emotion’ .

The Mahamanthinda manuscript records the continuous history of 23 dynasties from 543 BC to 1758 AD. It refers to the principle of hereditary monarchy as 39 eldest sons of reigning monarch succeeded their fathers to the throne. It highlights the fact that fifteen reigned only for one year, 34 for less than four years, 22 kings were murdered by their successors, 6 were killed during battles, 4 committed suicide, 11 were dethroned.

Mahawansa as a World Heritage document

An ola manuscript of the Mahavamsa, held in the Main Library of the University of Peradeniya has been recognised by UNESCO as a part of World Heritage. UNESCO announced In 2023 that it has included the Mahavamsa as one of the 64 items of documentary heritage inscribed in the UNESCO’s Memory of the World International Register for 2023. The manuscript is dated to the early 19 century.

The certificate declaring the Mahawansa as a world heritage document was handed to the Chancellor of Peradeniya University by UNESCO Director General, who visited the University in 2024 specially to do so. She also unveiled a plaque marking the declaration.

The story began much earlier. The National Library of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Buddha Sasana had jointly appointed a 6-member committee headed by Prof Malani Endagamage, to find the best preserved copy of the Mahavamsa in Sri Lanka. This would have been in 2000 or so. For two years, this team had examined copies from over 100 temples nationwide.

Temples around the country yielded copies, crumbling to well-preserved, reported Sunday Times. There was one from the Ridi Vihara that almost made the cut, but four other copies were shortlisted. One from the Dalada Maligawa, Kandy and three manuscripts from the Main Library of the University of Peradeniya. Three academics from the University’s History Department, Professors K.M. Rohitha Dasanayaka, Mahinda Somathilake and U.S.Y. Sahan Mahesh examined the three Peradeniya manuscripts

Dasanayaka said, “We poured over the copies together, and it became clear that one copy stood out. While the other two had numerous inconsistencies, this one, written in a curvy hand, was neat and beautiful. After more than two centuries, the manuscript was still very attractive, with a ‘flaming cinnamon orange’ cover and elegant lettering.

The first section of the manuscript ends with Mahasen (274–301 AD), written by the monk Mahanama. The second part ends at 1815. The author is given as Ven. Thibbotuwawe Buddharakkhita but he was dead by 1815. The final part was probably done by an acolyte. He has done a very neat job, seamlessly adding his bit, concluded Dasanayake.

This manuscript was acquired by the Library of University of Peradeniya when K. D. Somadasa, was the Librarian (1964 – 1970). It is held in the Main Library and its Accession Number is 277587.

National Library & Documentation Services Board of Sri Lanka, which administers the National Library of Sri Lanka submitted a nomination to UNESCO on behalf of this manuscript. UNESCO responded positively to the application.

UNESCO said the Mahavamsa was recognized as one of the world’s longest unbroken historical accounts, presenting Sri Lanka’s history in a chronological order from the 6th century BCE. The authenticity of the facts provided in the document has been confirmed through archaeological research conducted in Sri Lanka and India.

It is an important historical source in South Asia, said UNESCO. It was the first of its kind in South Asia, initiating a mature historiographical tradition. It has contributed singularly to the identity of Emperor Asoka in Indian history. The existence of a number of manuscripts of the Mahavamsa in several countries as well as the transliteration and translation of the text to several Southeast Asian and European languages stand testimony to its immense historical, cultural, literal, linguistic and scholarly values, .” UNESCO press release said.

Further, UNESCO found that this manuscript was correctly conserved at the University Library. The university and its library maintained high standards in safeguarding the palm-leaf manuscripts, preventing deterioration, declared UNESCO. (Continued)

REFERENCES

https://archives1.dailynews.lk/2021/02/25/local/242520/ola-leaf-mahavamsa-be-declared-world-heritage

Sirancee Gunawardana Palm leaf manuscripts of Sri Lanka . 1977 p 41,44-47 , 253 290 292, ,

N. E. I. Wijerathne Methods, Techniques and Challenges in Deciphering the Sa-skaya Codex. Vidyodaya Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (2025), Vol. 10 (01) https://journals.sjp.ac.lk/index.php/vjhss/article/view/8571/6001

First report of the Historical Manuscripts Commision.1933 SP 9 of 1933. p . 53, 95, 96

https://journals.sjp.ac.lk/index.php/vjhss/article/view/8571/6001https://www.austriaca.at/0xc1aa5572%200x00314cc3.pdf

https://leftword.com/creator/rahul-sankrityayan/

https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianHistory/comments/1oc5tc2/in_his_autobiography_meri_jeevan_yatra_rahul/

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/230910/plus/in-search-of-the-perfect-mahavamsa-531513.html

https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Mahawansa-declared-a-world-heritage/108-287528

https://mfa.gov.lk/en/visit-of-unesco-dg/

https://sundaytimes.lk/online/education/UNESCO-ready-to-support-digitalisation-of-Ola-leaf-books/290-1146314

https://media.unesco.org/sites/default/files/webform/mow001/53_131%252B.pdf

by KAMALIKA PIERIS

Features

A new Sherlock Holmes novel

Published

3 hours ago

2026/05/8

Thilina Walpola

Tales of Mystery and Suspense – 1

“The House of Silk” is set in a grim Victorian winter, and moves from Baker Street to a luxurious suburban villa, from dingy pubs to elegant London clubs, from a correction school for boys high on a hill to Dr Silkin’s House of Wonders, which provided noisy low life entertainment. Holmes and Watson went there in search of the House of Silk, a name they had heard when looking into the death of one of Holmes’ Baker Street irregulars (slum children who ferreted out information for him) .

I do not think highly of sequels to books written by highly regarded writers, though I must admit that this dislike is based on just a few samples. But while in England I was given by my former Dean, with a forceful recommendation, a book about a Sherlock Holmes mystery, supposedly written by Dr Watson. I began on it soon after I got back home, and found it difficult to put down, so I suppose I will not look on Anthony Horowitz as an exception to my rule. I may even look out for his efforts at continuing the adventures of James Bond, though I suspect Fleming’s laconic style will be less easy to emulate.

“The House of Silk” is set in a grim Victorian winter, and moves from Baker Street to a luxurious suburban villa, from dingy pubs to elegant London clubs, from a correction school for boys high on a hill to Dr Silkin’s House of Wonders, which provided noisy low life entertainment. Holmes and Watson went there in search of the House of Silk, a name they had heard when looking into the death of one of Holmes’ Baker Street irregulars (slum children who ferreted out information for him). They had asked Holmes’ brother Mycroft for help in finding what and where this was, but he had warned them off, having been himself told by someone very senior in government that it might involve those in very high positions, and further inquiries might prove dangerous.

Needless to say, Holmes does seek further, and is lured to an opium den where he is drugged, to be found outside with a gun in his hand and the body of a girl beside him, the sister of the murdered boy Ross. A passer-by swears he had seen Holmes fire the shot, and the owner of the opium den and a customer swear that Holmes had taken too much opium and left the den in a demented condition. A police inspector who had been passing promptly arrests Holmes and Watson, and even their old acquaintance Inspector Lestrade finds it difficult to get access to him.

Watson eventually gets to see him when he is in the infirmary, after he has been told by a mysterious man that Holmes was going to be murdered before his case could be taken up. The man said he had earlier tried to get Holmes to investigate the House of Silk by sending him a white silk ribbon, such as had later been found tied round the hand of the murdered boy. But, as a criminal himself, he said, he could not reveal more, though he himself was horrified by the business of the House of Silk, which gave criminality a bad name, which is why he wanted it all stopped.

Holmes escapes from the infirmary, with a little help from the doctor whom he had once assisted earlier, right under the nose of the nasty Inspector Harriman. He then joins up with Watson, and having with the help of Lestrade overcome the men designed to kill him at Dr Silkin’s House of Wonders, he sets off, with an even large posse of policemen, to the House of Silk.

After much suspense, the habitues of the House of Silk are arrested, the Inspector having broken his neck in the course of a chase downhill, having fled when his misdeeds were exposed. The mastermind claims that he will not face a trial because of the important people involved, but instead falls down a staircase while in prison and breaks his neck. One of the noblemen involved commits suicide, but another, and the medical man who had sworn he saw Holmes kill the young lady, get off without charge.

But then we revert to the original story, which had involved an art dealer who came to Holmes because he was being followed by someone he thought was an American gangster out for revenge. This was because he had shipped some pictures to an American buyer, and these had been destroyed when a train was held up by an Irish gang and the coach with the safe in it dynamited. The buyer and the dealer had got a private agency to investigate, and this had ended with the gang being killed in a shootout, though one of the twins who led it had escaped. The buyer had subsequently been killed, and Mr Carstairs feared that the twin who survived had followed him to England.

Holmes and Watson went to Carstairs’ house, where they met his wife, whom he had met on the boat back from America, and his sister. Their mother had died some months earlier, when gas had filled her room after the flame had gone out. It transpired that there had been a break in, and some money and a necklace stolen from a safe, and it was in tracing these, through a pawnbroker, that Holmes and Watson had found the American murdered in the hotel where he had been staying.

The leader of the irregulars had come to tell Holmes that they had traced the man to the hotel, and Ross had been left on guard. He seemed terrified when Holmes and Watson and Carstairs turned up, but said he had seen nothing. When the boys had been dismissed, and the room opened up, the man was found dead, the murderer obviously having gained entrance through a window.

Holmes assumed the boy had seen someone he recognized, but he could not be traced, until he was found dead, horribly tortured. The silk band around his wrist then led Holmes to pursue the House of Silk. One of the boys at the school where Ross had been mentioned that he had a sister at a pub, and she, when confronted, asked in fear if they were from the House of Silk and then, having lunged at Watson with a knife, ran off – herself only to be found dead outside the opium den, which prompted the arrest of Holmes.

After the drama at the House of Silk, Holmes and Watson go to the Carstairs household, where he explains exactly what had taken place, identifying the murdered man as not a member of the gang but the head of the private agency which had investigated them. As my Dean told me, Horowitz then ties up all the loose ends with consummate skill, connecting with a fine thread all the malefactors, of various kinds.