Bøger af Lokubanda Tillakaratne

This is the mosaic of Maradankalla, a small village in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. The firsthand accounts of archaic marriage customs; ancient door locks in the village; ambush of game at the dry bed of the village tank (irrigation reservoir); killing of a majestic tusker; work at a buffalo kraal; noosing wild buffalos; rendezvous of 7-month old baby and a baby elephant in a jungle farm; public caning (spanking) in the village school; lay priest ascending to divine trance with hypnomantic convulsions; bali rituals for various deities and demons; folk theater in the village square; slash-and-burn farming; honey collecting; and bone-chilling midnight cry of Devil's Bird or ulama - a cryptid writ large; all samples of the vivacious ways of a time being overtaken by changes. Complete with a glossary of Sinhala words, Bibliography, and Index.

Rata Sabh¿wa, an unwritten rural judicial tradition formulated by oral history, culture, feudal, and caste customs, was the collective lex terrae, law of the land, practiced in Nuwarakalaviya region and adjacent districts of Sri Lanka until the mid-1930s, when the colonial government policies tolled its demise. This book examines the history of this Sabh¿ system, and variants in the neighboring Kandyan country, and how it functioned as the primary source to promote social order and conflict resolution in communities. In examining the preventative and punitive methods that existed in this system - some bizarre, some outright discriminatory, often caring, humane, and understanding - this volume reveals that the Nuwarakalaviya region functioned as a princely state ruled by Chiefs facilitated with greater independence and semi-sovereign authority, without any patronage from the King and colonial powers in other parts of the country.