The Festival of Lanka: Rural Festivity in the City

Over 300 village artists gathered in Colombo in 1989 to present the Cultural Survival-sponsored Festival of Lanka.

Since the dawn of history, festivity has everywhere been a central part of the human experience. Big or small, simple or sophisticated, the festival is an occasion not for forgetting but for remembering. Traditional cultures like Sri Lanka's have found ingenious ways of keeping alive the collective experience of the values and insights that express one's cultural Identity. Holidays, festivals and carnivals make this easy by engaging the enthusiasm and ingenuity of the entire community.

When, however, a community is divided against itself, it is a sure sign that something vital has been forgotten. Festivities become formalities when commercial considerations prevail, banishing to the sidelines festivity and artistic sensibility alike. The hardening of these cultural arteries precedes the slow death of entire civilizations. Sri Lankans would do well to recall that the same process could happen here as well.

On the other hand, wherever such traditional remembrance and festivity survive there also one may find evidence of an ineffable something that is both joyous and unforgettable. It is not found in books, though books may speak of it. Traditional festivity, ritual and drama alone capture it through celebration of a marriage of contraries into one elegant aesthetic experience.

The first ‘Festival of Lanka' was one such happy occasion. Despite centuries of economic hardship, a great many of Sri Lanka's paramparas or cultural traditions still survive in the hands of poor men and women who seldom if ever receive recognition or remuneration for services rendered. All that is now changing, thanks to the ‘Villager goes to Town' programme of the Cultural Survival Trust of Sri Lanka, which has spearheaded the effort to find urban patrons for the rural artistes and performers of threatened Sri Lankan traditions.

Many former Third World colonies of European powers have only recently discovered that even with political independence economic imperialism still survives. Even more insidious is the cultural im­perialism that affects its victims especially through modem education and mass media, which perpetuate mistaken notions about traditional cultures and Introduce changing fashions of thought to replace the timeless principles of traditional cultures. Even the shapers of modern thought are themselves helpless to escape their own proces­ses. No other form of slavery can match the silken bonds holding those who fancy that they are freely doing their ‘own thing.'

Fortunately, Sri Lanka is still home to a wealth of genuine living traditions. However, the misunderstanding and neglect to which they are subjected by the powerful but culturally-alienated pose a real threat to the survival of these traditions for even one generation more.

Only a joint effort of urban educated friends of village culture with the rural custodians of these traditions can reach across all social barriers to effect lasting change. The bold steps already taken by the Cultural Survival Trust provide a solid start, but much more remains to be done. And for this the broad participation of many is needed.

It is to be expected that controversy will accompany any successful bid to revitalize a culture that many consider to be finished. But culture is not the sole property of the rich and respectable; it is the birthright of all. Real social change comes not from society's top to bottom, but from the bottom to the top. Finally, the message from the bottom of society must be heard even to the top, and poor village artistes are often it most eloquent spokesmen.

Let us thank all the people who contributed to the success of the first ‘Festival of Lanka.' The custodians of tradition have taught us without holding anything back and have given their lives in one way or another in performance of Rajakariya, ‘Service to the King.'