The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017
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Item A glance at roadscape of principal roads from Colombo to provincial towns in the mid nineteenth century Sri Lanka(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Manatunga, A.The present study is a cursory survey on the roadscape of principal roads which have linked Colombo with provincial towns in the mid nineteenth century. There were seven principal roads from Colombo, the Capital City of Sri Lanka to provincial towns in and around the island. Some of these roads were passable by wheeled vehicles, but some of them were bridle paths which were used by horse riders and packed bull transporters. All these roads were leveled and remained as graveled roads and most of them developed as metaled roads used by mortar vehicles, at least partially, by the end of the century. Bridges were very rare over rivers and streams in these roads; hence, fords and ferries were used to cross water courses during this period. Toll stations were found usually in some of these places. Rest houses, postal stations, forts and garrisons were found in some places. Some roadside villages were transformed as bazars and townships and some places were newly developed as urban centers. Among these principal roads, the road which was known as ‘Round the island road’ linked all coastal towns with Colombo and were used by Portuguese and the Dutch who occupied the maritime provinces, prior to British. Starting from Colombo towards north, it goes to Jaffna in the North, Trincomalee and Baticaloa in the East and Hambantota, Matara and Galle in the South reaching Colombo, passing altogether 770 miles. Abandoning the traditional road from Colombo to Kandy via Hanwella and Attapitiya, a new road was constructed by British in 1821, via Mahara and Ambepussa to Kandy. This 72 miles road was the first road constructed in Sri Lanka during the British period and the present Colombo-Kandy road is a development of this road, with a few minor deviations. Apart from this road, three more roads were considered as alternative principal roads to Kandy from Colombo. One of them was the road, 84 miles via Kurunegala. Another road was 94 miles via Yatiyantota, Ginigathhena and Gampola to Kandy. The road which meets the main Kandy road at 45th mile stone, coming via Ruvanwella and Ballapana from Colombo which is 82 miles long was the third alternative road. Road to Badulla via Rathnapura and Balangoda which is 135 miles was a principal road of the mid nineteenth century. The road across the country to Trincomalee via Kurunegala and Dambulla which is 159 miles was considered only second to Colombo–Kandy main road in importance, by British during this period. A search on colonial records, photographs and remaining physical remnants will be the sources of this research which is asking for more advanced research on the subject.Item Traversing through the 18th Century Colombo-Kandy Trail(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Paranavitana, K.D.Colombo was linked with Kandy by a land route in the 18th century as the Kandyan and the Dutch authorities needed each other for mutual existence. The entire Colombo-Kandy route can be divided into two main sectors, firstly from Colombo to Sitavaka and secondly from Sitavaka to Kandy. The first sector ran through the Kelany Valley. Depending on the type of journey, the resting place was decided either at Hanwella or at Sitavaka. If the Governor leaves on an inspection tour, it was Hanwella and for an embassy with its retinue leaving for Kandy it was Sitavaka. The objective of the present paper is to examine this route through archival sources.Item Conservation and preservation of locomotive heritage in Sri Lanka(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Abeysinghe, A.Travel and tourism is a large income generator in Sri Lanka. As such, train travel plays a significant role in promoting tourism, rendering tourists local and overseas an exceptional travelling experience as well as a multi-faceted cultural exchange. In Sri Lanka the railways network covers the scenic hill country with exceptional views of verdant hills, pristine beaches and secluded countryside. The railway network in Sri Lanka was constructed on the legendary route in the 19th century. The Viceroy Special which is a vintage steam train built to resemble trains of yesteryear is a locomotive heritage rendering travelers a unique experience of train travel, especially the hill country train ride which is considered as one of the best journeys in the world. But there are many challenges facing the conservation and preservation of locomotive heritage. As the constant movement of the railway engines and carriages will wear out original parts and will have to be replaced leading to destruction of valuable historical and technological nature of the locomotives, there should be better solutions to conserve them. Thus, there should be proper pragmatic solutions to conserve such locomotive heritages without altering the ancient outlook of the engines and carriages or else the ancient nature of such locomotives will be destroyed. In this paper, I will be looking at pragmatic solutions to conserve and preserve locomotive heritage in Sri Lanka considered a valuable heritage of the past.Item Road network in Jaffna peninsula During the early 20th century(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Vettivelautham, P.Reaching to a place or migrating to place to place is very common feature in the human life. The passage for human needs had caused gradually to find the route system in the past. The culture and civilizations were developed and they had been brought from one place to another because of the well-organized route systems in both the sea and the land. The kings and merchants who emerged through the ages had used the well-designed main roads for their political and commercial activities. The Europeans in the first and the Asians in the next were discovered the sea routes to expand their colonial activities and naval power. The international silk route was the land route through which Europe and Asians countries were connected during the medieval period. Sri Lanka also had experienced for these activities in the past. European colonial activities over Sri Lanka were ultimately caused for the modern route network by which upcountry and the low lands were connected and the Jaffna peninsula also was brought under these route network systems during the colonial period. In this research an attempt has been made to expose the salient features of the route network in the Jaffna peninsula during the early 19th Century A.D.Item History of the Uva Railway from Peradeniya to Badulla The highest broad gauge line(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Munasinghe, I.The scope of this study includes a presentation of the development of the construction of the Uva railway from Peradeniya to Badulla during the period from 1872 to 1924. The construction of the Uva railway of 111 miles took nearly 52 years witnessing the reigns of three British monarchs and the involvement of ten British governors from Sir William Gregory (1872-1877) to Sir William H. Manning (1918-1925). If the Colombo-Kandy railway has had the honour of introducing the first railway line in Sri Lanka, it was the Uva line which has the honour of registering the broad gauge line 5´6" to ever reach the altitude of 6226 feet at the summit of Pattipola. The railway line from Colombo to Badulla is about 150 miles in length. In terms of engineering marvel and scenery, this line especially the Uva railway from Peradeniya via Idalgashinna, Haputale, Diyatalawa, Bandarawela, Demodara and Hali-Ela to Badulla is considered to be one of the finest train journeys in the world. In England, during the 19th century, railway lines were constructed and operated by private enterprise. The complete absence of any state participation in this sphere was not only an indication of the ability and willingness of private capital to engage in economic activities of such magnitude, but was also a reflection of the prevailing economic concept of laissez-faire. In contrast, the role of the colonial governments in countries was different, in that railways fell within the category of public works and hence constituted a legitimate sphere of government activity. In actual fact, there was no deliberation on this point. It was always assumed that the state should be the main vehicle in colonies of railway expansion or take a large part in the decision for railway construction. To the colonial government in Sri Lanka, the construction of railways in the colony was a necessary requisite for the advancement of production, trade and commerce of the island. Any discussion of policy should therefore be based on analysing the degree of government support given to any particular line. Regarding the Uva railway, it is evident that the profitability of it was the main factor in determining its construction. The extensive surveys and the estimates carried out suggest that the colonial government as cautious in undertaking this railway line especially up to Haputale. There is no doubt whatsoever that the railways were initiated and rapidly expanded due to the continuous clamour by the planters. The policy of the Governor Arthur Havelock (1890-1896) regarding the rail extension to Nanu-oya and Uva was to give consideration to such railway projects only as can be shown to offer a fair degree of certainty of profit sufficient to cover all the charges incidental to the construction and to undertake such projects in the order of their relative importance in respect of the interest which they will serve. Hence it is clear that at no time the colonial government was willing to promote planting interests only without due regard to the effect on the general economy and revenue of the island. This does not however mean that the planting community were not the main beneficiaries of the Uva Railway. Since it was the planting industry which provided the bulk of the government revenue, it is natural that the railways should be stated to serve the planting regions. What is contested here is the thesis that the colonial government championed the planting interests with no regard to consequences on the traditional sectors of the economy.Item Transition of modes of transportation from pre-modern to modernized Ceylon; Representations in Murals of the Buddhist Image Houses of the Upcountry Kandyan and Low Country Maritime Regions(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) de Zoysa, A.; Dissanayake, G.R.Modernized Ceylon under Dutch and British occupation marks paradigm shifts of transportation in three phases: Elephant-Horse-Palanquin- Sailing Ships through Bullock Cart- Horse Drawn Carriage to Train-Automobile -Steam Ship revolutionizing communication and transport systems locally and internationally. This presentation will sketch the methodology to gather information from main scenes of Buddhist narratives: The speedy delivery of the new born Prince Sidhartha Gutama from Lumbini to Kapilavastu, the journey out of the palace to view the “Four precursors to Renunciation of Worldly Pleasures” (Satara Peta Nimithi) and King Vessanatara’s Deparure to Vangagiriya. These three scenes will be compared in the Upcountry and Low Country traditions. With the help of photographs of the mid 19th century, we shall identify some of these modes of transport, which are also on display at the Martin Wickramasigha Museum in Koggala. The next section of the presentation will view development of Scenes from Srilankan History as seen in the paintings of Solias Mendis in the Kelaniya Rajamahaviharaya and the lithographs of the Buddha Caritaya by M. Sarlis and his school of painters demonstrating the historicizing modes of transport, questioning why the automobile did not enter to the repertoire of modes of transport in the temple murals.Item Railway to the Sacred City and Pilgrims from the South: This presentation envisages the connection between building railways and pilgrimage to Anuradhapura(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) de Zoysa, A.From a larger research on the “Rediscovery of Anuradhapura” by the British Orientalists and its elevation from a “Buried City” to a “Holy City”, I wish to present how modern transport enhanced pilgrims to visit Anuradhapura which triggered off events that finally led to the Anurdhapura Riots in 1903. I also argued in this study, that maybe the most affluent “new Buddhists” from the maritime mercantile sector of the coastal region from Chilaw to Colombo, supported this venture and not the Buddhists of the Upcountry Kandyan or Sabaragamuwa Region. During the times of the last Kandyan Kings only a few sites such as the Sri Maha Bodhi and Ruvanveliseya were visited by pilgrims. As there were no excavations of Auradhapura prior to the British occupation of Ceylon, the city remains as recorded in the writings of colonial administrators as a “buried city” that had to be excavated? In 1890 the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon undertakes the clearing of the sites and in 1894 four years later, publishes its first to seventh progress reports with actual drawings of embellishments on pillars and ground plans of stupas by Hocart. This marks the earliest endeavors to re-discover Anuradhapura from a “Buried City” of the mid eighteenth century to a “Ruined City”. Walisinha Harischandra’s (1876-1913) advent to the Buddhist Nationalist Movement seems to mark lobbying for the liberation of Anuradhapura to reclaim the city for the Buddhists and rebuild it for the pilgrims in its past glory, challaging the British who wished to preserve it as an archeological park of ruins. In 1894 Anagarika Dharmapala proposes Harischandra to take the position of secretary of the Mahabodhi Society branch in Anuradhapura. Harischanda seems to be following the trials of the colonial administration using Western knowledge, not the vernacular handed down by the pilgrims to Anuradhapura, in his initial quest to discover the city unknown to the western educated Sinhalese of the coastal region. Harischadra visits Anuradhapura for the first time as late as in 1899. He, like all other westernized Buddhists living on the coastal belt, does not seem to have acknowledged the value of the first capital till then. Just as Dharmapala wished to institute a “Holy City” in Bodhgaya, Harischanda was to make Anuradhapura the “Holy City” in the island. In 1902 the ‘Ruvanvälisēya veli chaitya Samvardhana Samithiya’ was inaugurated as the focal point for more organized activism independent from British intervention. The next year of the performance of ‘Sirisanga Bō Charitaya’ (1903) by John de Silva in Colombo gives the “Emotional fundament” for English speaking Buddihists in the quest of a National History of the Sinhalese. The Anurdhapura riots irrupt the same year. In 1904 there seems to a train service to Anuradhapura - one in the morning from Colombo and the return in the evening. Accommodation for the pilgrims seem to have been built by Mrs. S. S Fernando of Colombo and Mr. Simon de Silva of Negambo by already in 1897. The train service transports supporters from Colombo to Anuradhapura. I have also pointed in my research of an emergence of nostalgia of the glorious past was supported by other historical plays at the Tower Hall by John de Silva and Charles Dias. One may add the fact that by 1909 the Lankālōka press was publishing ‘Anuradhapura Puvat’ informing the Buddhists of the latest activities of the liberation of the city – using the print media in Sinhala to mobilize Buddhists. Momentum seems to gather in the turn of the century when trains transport printed newspapers and pamphlets from Maradana. Harischandra makes use of archaeological evidences and translations of inscriptions to substantiate the claim for the “Sacred City of Anuradhapura”. Harischanda in his ‘The Sacred City of Anuradhapura’ (1908) gives instructions to pilgrims to proceed from one place of interest to another. Into this proposed itinerary he weaves in the history of the city as narrated in the Mahāvaṃśa and photographs from the Skeen Collection. This presentation will trace the “Round Pilgrimage” (Vata Vandanava) suggested by Harischandra comparing it with the itinerary suggested in unpublished Vandanakavi from the archives of the Library of the National Museum.Item A content audit of Transport related government websites in Sri Lanka(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) De Silva, A.P.U.Today there is a new trend to develop websites for government institutes to distribute information to the general public. Besides, the concept of e-government and e- governance have become popular at present. But many cases, the websites have a lot of weaknesses. The aim of the content audit is to perform a qualitative analysis of the content of a website and to find out its relative strengths and weakness. The main objective of the study was to find out whether the government websites provide historical information to the public throughout their websites. On the other hand, weaknesses of the website were identified. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were applied. Mainly this is a survey research. By using desk research and website evaluation tools, primary data were collected. WAVE, Google Page Speed and Hubspot Marketing Grader used as evaluation tools for the study. There are 72 ministries under Sri Lankan government and four transport related ministries were used for evaluation. After analyzing the data and evaluating websites, it was realized that most of the transport related government websites have given less priority to publish historical information regarding those institutes. As well as there is a high demand for online services on government websites. But a very few government websites provided online services for the users. Evaluation tools are given low marks for sampled websites. In order to overcome this situation, some major moves are suggested to upgrade the rank of government websites which are, introducing a basic format for a website, following WCAG and proprietary accessibility guidelines, establishing formal web accessibility laws and guidelines, upgrading online services, recruiting a centralized post called web manager for all government institutes.Item Vintage cars a luxury in British Raj: a case study of different museum and private collections(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Ahmad, A.; Kumar, A.Transport is a part of our day to day lives, and in seeing cars, everyone feels a connection and pride in owning it. In India the first car ran on roads in 1897. Prior to independence in the 1940s India had no automobile industry to speak of. Cars were brought into the country in a knocked down condition from England. They were reassembled to serve the minuscule market provided by the British ruling class and some Indian elites. The presence of such vehicles led to the birth of an indigenous spare parts industry mostly concentrated in the south of the country. Road Transport in India grew rapidly after 1947 owing to rapid growth in urbanization and per capita income and to the vehicle production moving there. Museums and Private collections in India have different hues and designs of yesteryears car from British Raj period. ‘Vintage cars’ are the cars according to National Green Tribunal, any car manufactured between 1920 and 1939 is known as vintage car and those between 1940 and 1979 as classic cars. Collectors in India have pre- and post-world war cars, which were manufactured before and after World War 2. These collections mostly hail from “Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. These were prosperous towns and many Zamindars and rich merchants owned such beautiful pieces. There are so many stories linked to these cars that are why people come to the museum. They can love art and yet not be able to relate personally, to a statue or a painting, but they can easily relate to their family car and the adventures you have had in it. They are part of the heritage of India, and should be displayed and learnt about. This paper is based on the case study of the luxury of cars used by rich people and local rajas, baniyas during British Raj.Item Relic Shrines Pilgrimage(The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Kumar, A.In the South Asian world, the first and second centuries CE gives a new dimension to Buddhism and its pilgrimage with the rise of Buddha image in human form. Whether the image originated in Mathura school of Art or Gandhara school of Art had been a long time question for scholars. This paper does not dwell into the origination of Buddha image but inspite it offers some light on Gandharan regional sites, and relic shrines pilgrimage and routes. Chinese pilgrims' accounts this region mostly confined to Peshawar basin, but due to its unified artistic and stupa tradition which had an extent to South-Afghanistan, as well as on the east of it due to Graeco Roman influences on art, Kashmir is also taken in examples. Buddhist art, culture and traditions flourished in Gandhara which was an ancient region between north-western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. The spread of Semi-Mahayanic tradition and monastic art from India via Gandhara to Central Asia and China played a vital role in the propagation of Buddhism as a world religion. Rise of Buddhism is evident in the period of the 1st century CE to 4th century CE during the rule of Kusana Empire. A distinctive feature of this period was the sustained patronage of Buddhist monasteries, art and architecture. Buddhist chronicles give an idea of pilgrimage sites which venerated body relics of Buddha which later were enshrined in the stupa. It comprises several narrative strands that relate the life story of the Buddha and the manner in which Buddhist teachings and institutions were established on the Gandharan periphery in ancient times. The focus of this work traces the relics associated with the historical Buddha.This paper traces the art and religiousity of relic shrines via Buddhist and cultural context in selecting some specimens of the 4th century BCE until 5th Century CE. Thus the paper will address some broader parameters in the history of Gandharan pilgrimage and move to a focus on Gandharan sculptures and Indo-Greek antiquities, coins that have been subject to concerted collecting efforts in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.