Paper Title
Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
Asia, war
Abstract
Sri Lanka has a long history of monumentalizing and memorializing. Both rural and urban islandscapes are scattered with Buddhist stupas and irrigation tanks built by pacifist as well as war-mongering monarchs, rock stelae proclaiming conquests, cave inscriptions commemorating acts of beneficence, statues of colonial and national rulers, roads as and parks named after nationalist heroes and philanthropists, tsunami memorials, war cemeteries and memorials and ‘victory’ monuments. This paper will unpack this urge to remember and commemorate which is not only simultaneous with forgetting but imbricated in various ethno-nationalisms.
Keywords
Monuments, Memorials
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Monumentalizing & Memorializing in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has a long history of monumentalizing and memorializing. Both rural and urban islandscapes are scattered with Buddhist stupas and irrigation tanks built by pacifist as well as war-mongering monarchs, rock stelae proclaiming conquests, cave inscriptions commemorating acts of beneficence, statues of colonial and national rulers, roads as and parks named after nationalist heroes and philanthropists, tsunami memorials, war cemeteries and memorials and ‘victory’ monuments. This paper will unpack this urge to remember and commemorate which is not only simultaneous with forgetting but imbricated in various ethno-nationalisms.