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The
tea for two controversy Robert Knox
was a sailor with the English East India Company, who was captured
along with a number of his shipmates by the King of Kandy. He was
born in 1641 to a poor family. His father was a sea captain, and
his mother a very pious Christian. Knox first sailed in 1655, at
age 15, on his father's ship, returning two years later. His second
voyage was in 1658, on his father's ship which was sponsored by
the English East India Company. After the ship was damaged and forced
to land, the sailors were taken prisoner by the King of Kandy and
Knox's father died within a year. They were not held in prisons,
but separated and given houses in a number of villages surrounding
Kandy. Knox and the other captured sailors learned to speak Sinhalese
fluently, dressed in Kandyan clothing, grew their hair similar to
Kandyan men, and lived in a very similar manner to most of the other
villagers. Many, like Knox, came from a background in Britain where
living conditions were similar to life in the the Sinhalese villages.
Knox, unlike many of the other sailors, never married a Sinhalese
woman. He travelled around the island as a peddler for six years,
meeting a variety of people and living in numerous villages, so
his impressions of Kandyan culture are thought by many to be reliable. He wrote his
memoir soon after his escape on the sail home for personal reasons,
not intending to publish, or allow others to read it. He had little
to hide, and little motive to present Sri Lanka differently than
what were his own personal interpretations. Many of his interpretations
of Kandyan customs are written about in European terms, which creates
a difficulty in understanding them. According to
Knox, Kandyans drank only water and arrack, an alcohol distilled
from the sap of the Kitul Tree. Not only was tea not a part of their
daily life, but no hot herbal infusions were drunk on a regular
basis. Although certain infusions may have been prescribed by Ayurvedic
doctors for purely medicinal reasons, they were not consumed in
a similar manner to tea in present day Sri Lanka. Betel nut played
a vital role in Kandyan social relations similar to the role tea
plays in Sri Lanka now. Knox describes betel as the nut of the betel
plant which is mixed with lime and spread on a betel leaf and chewed,
rubbing one's teeth with the mixture turning the teeth and mouth
black. Other sources, however, explain that betel is the nut of
the Arcea palm, which is then wrapped with the leaf of the betel
pepper plant and mixed with lime. In either case it is like tea
in that it is a mild stimulant which can make people "giddy
or drunk" if eaten when ripe. Knox describes
a population very fond of betel and chewing it constantly. One would
be offered betel immediately when visiting another's house, it was
chewed during large gatherings of friends and relatives, and it
was chewed in lodges where strangers and travellers would sit together
and discuss politics and other affairs. An upper class woman is
described as sitting around all day doing nothing but chewing betel.
A mouth blackened, or reddened, by chewing betel was considered
a sign of beauty, and betel was thought to be wholesome and refreshing
to the mouth. Knox favorably compared the chewing of betel as similar
to the drinking of wine in England. In the late
1650's, when Knox left England with the English East India Company,
tea had not yet become common in England, and would not be common
until thirty or forty years after his return in 1680. Descriptions
of betel chewing in Sri Lanka, however, sounds remarkably similar
to later tea drinking in England. In fact, if the word "betel"
is replaced with "tea" in the descriptions by both Knox
and Davy they would fit the tea drinking habit Britain was about
to develop over the next hundred and fifty years. I do not intend
to imply that the British modeled their usage of tea after Knox's
description of betel nut chewing as such an assertion would be absurd.
However, considering the implications of such a scenario is interestingly
amusing in that it reverses the expected assumptions of cultural
influence spreading from colonizers to the colonized, and not in
the reverse direction. Why didn't
Sri Lankans start to drink tea before it was introduced by the British?
Sri Lankans had contact with the beverage previous to this time
through ties with China and centuries of trade passing through the
island, so why did they start to drink tea only when re-introduced
by the British? It is partially due to a constant exposure to tea.
By the time the British took control of the entire island in the
early nineteenth century the daily habit of tea drinking was well
established in Britain. Rather than only seeing tea passing through
the ports, or while visiting a foreign country, tea was consumed
regularly by the dominating classes. Many Sri Lankans realized that
by emulating the habits and fashions of the British one could gain
the favor of the colonizers and become part of the local ruling
elite. Tea drinking was part of this emulation. The use of this
strategy to gain power from western colonizers began earlier than
with British rule. During the
Dutch colonization this ruling class had already begun to form.
Mudaliyars, as the male administrators were called, usually converted
to Christianity and were granted land, a title, and other honors.
When the British took over in the early nineteenth century the Mudaliyars
and their families remained a part of the ruling elite. They imitated
the British in all manners of dress, speech, habits, manners, food,
and names. Many of the local elite subscribed to British magazines
such as "The Lady's Home Journal" and "Women and
Home" in order to keep abreast of fashionable social habits
in Britain. Tea drinking was imitated, and there are accounts of
families of the ruling class drinking tea as the British did. Women
held "at home" hours in drawing rooms for visiting each
other, and tea was served at christenings, as well as other social
events. The British
knew the advantage of a British educated and British oriented local
elite to fall back on, and schools were set up in the coastal areas
to educate local children. Sri Lankans quickly learned that to gain
the favour of the British one should be western educated, and took
advantage of the opportunity. They were taught not only reading
and writing, but also that the British lifestyle was ideal, and
to be emulated. Both the British A-Level and O-Level tests were
available, and these, along with exams at the end of the school
year, were sent to Britain to be graded. Students of wealthy families
who wished to obtain prestigious careers travelled to Britain to
attend university. For the first time in Sri Lanka money could raise
one in social standing, and birth was becoming less important. The spread
of tea in Sri Lanka was initially due to emulation of the colonists,
as it was vital to the establishment of one's social position in
relation to the ruling classes. Unlike the tea usage of the general
population tea usage by the Sri Lankan elite is an example of the
type of spread of cultural practices that Sidney Mintz would call
intensification. It was used by groups of people who drank tea to
establish similarities between themselves and the people who drank
the tea initially. After tea had been in use for some time and became
more widely available, however, it began to fit into the Sri Lankan
culture in a way that suggests what Mintz would call extensification. Extensification
implies a larger number of people drank tea on a daily basis, and
that they didn't drink it to emulate another social group. Instead,
tea had a different set of meanings to those who were not of the
westernized elite class. They began to drink tea in the same situations
in which betel was chewed. Offering a visitor tea upon arrival to
one's house is a sign of one's hospitality, and an establishment
of social connections, just as betel was, and still is. There are
parallels between the British working class and the working class
in Sri Lanka in that many who have little money for food in Sri
Lanka also drink large quantities of tea to make a cold meal seem
hot. Tea drinking
in Sri Lanka, in spite of its unique cultural context and universal
consumption throughout the island, is for some still a symbol of
British colonization. When asked about tea as a symbol of the British
Sri Lankan university professor Gunapala Dharmasiri, who was living
briefly in America, agreed that although tea is universally consumed
in Sri Lanka most still consider it to be a foreign substance. He
and his friends drink an infusion of the crushed flower of a local
tree in season that tastes similar to tea, so as to avoid drinking
tea. A second university professor, Mahinda Wernake, who is also
living in America, vehemently disagreed with Dharmasiri when asked
as to whether tea was considered a symbol of the British in Sri
Lanka. He spoke of tea as completely assimilated into Sri Lankan
culture, partially because of Sri Lanka's economic dependence on
the crop. These varying opinions call for further questioning about
the tea drinking situation in Sri Lanka. Both of the
men interviewed were of similar educational and economic backgrounds,
and had spent a considerable amount of time in the West. I would
suggest, however, that the tea drinking Dharmasiri was referring
to, are the customs intensified by the British, whereas Wernake
was addressing tea drinking as a whole in Sri Lanka, and the customs
that developed through extensification. Modern colonization,
won its victories through the ability to create secular hierarchies,
not through violence, as other colonizers had. The colonization
of the British in Sri Lanka colonized the mind and affected the
world view of the colonized, as well as governing them physically.
The cultural influence still remains after independence from political
rule. This could also account for the difference in opinion between
the two professors; one was simply more aware of colonial influence
than the other. Western products, ideas, and values are often preferred,
or seen as more civilized that the traditional equivalents. The
west has become, to many post-colonial nations, not a geographical
category, but a psychological state of mind that is often equated
with success. Courtesy Vassar College USA One
boy's battle against cancer Dananajaya
is the kid who appears alongside members of the Sri Lanka cricket
team, in advertisements in aid of the Hope cancer hospital. Arguably,
he is the most cheerful seven year old you'd meet, even though he
has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing a very difficult
treatment regimen. His father lost the use of his hand when he participated
in the political rally that took the life of C. V. Guneratne. The family lives in a small lean-to in Mount Lavinia. Silver Hands, a group of eight ladies launched an eco friendly sale on 31.8.2002 to raise funds for a small house for the family. The foundation stone has already been laid, but the Silver hands group needs additional funds to proceed with building work. Well wishers could donate towards building the house by contributing to account number 1-0068-03-0716-5 at National Savings Bank Mount Lavinia. Silver Hands, the group of eight senior ladies, has been engaged in similar empowering projects. Let there
be... dog On the third
day, God created all the animals of the earth (especially the horse)
to serve as potential food for the dog. On the fourth
day, God created honest toil so that man could labor for the good
of the dog. On the fifth
day, God created the tennis ball so that the dog might or might
not retrieve it. On the sixth
day, God created veterinary science to keep the dog healthy and
the man broke. On the seventh day, God tried to rest, but He had to walk the dog. Ear, ear The only permanent
damage he suffered, though, was the amputation of both of his ears.
As a result of this unusual condition, he was very self-conscious
about his Because of
the accident, he received a large sum of money from the insurance
company. It was always his dream to own his own business. He decided
with all this money he had, he now had the means to own a business. So he went
out and purchased a small but expanding computer firm. But he realized
that he had no business knowledge at all, so he decided that he
would have to hire someone to run the business. He picked out
three top candidates and interviewed each of them. The first interview
went really well. He really liked this guy. His last question
for this first candidate was, "Do you notice anything unusual
about me?" The guy said,
"Now that you mention it, you have no ears." The man got
really upset and threw the guy out. The second
interview went even better than the first. This candidate was much
better than the first. Again, to conclude the interview, the man
asked the same question again, "Do you notice anything unusual
about me?" This guy also
noticed, "Yes, you have no ears." The man was really upset
again, and threw this second candidate out. Then he had
the third interview. The third candidate was even better than the
second, the best out of all of them. Almost certain that he wanted
to hire this guy, the man once again asked, "Do you notice
anything unusual about me?" The guy replied,
"Yeah, you're wearing contact lenses." Surprised,
the man then asked, "Wow! That's quite perceptive of you! How
could you tell?" The guy burst out laughing and said, "Well,
You can't wear glasses if you don't have any ears!" For sale
by owner The way of
all flesh |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
On
the second day, God created man to serve the dog.
having
no ears.
