Program
Program
Locale
Sri Lanka's historical roots, its religious and ethnic identities reach back to the first millennium before Common Era. Early in its history, immigrant groups from the northeast and south India brought Buddhism and Hinduism to the island. Over centuries of interaction, social and cultural features of these groups commingled at many levels, while political dominance of one or the other reinforced separate identities. Muslim traders established small communities as early as the 8th century, adding a further element of diversity to the island's populace. And from the 16th century until Independence in 1948, Sri Lanka was subjected to domination by successive Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial powers. These regimes dramatically influenced economic and political life and introduced several varieties of Christianity to the island.
The ISLE Program is based in Kandy, a city of about 100,000 people in the central highlands of the island. Built around a lake, surrounded by forested hills and tea estates, Kandy has a mild tropical climate that attracts seasonal visitors seeking relief from the heat and humidity of less congenial parts of the island. It is also home to the University of Peradeniya (see University photos), the institution of higher education with which ISLE has been formally affiliated since 1983.
Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth Relic), Kandy
The last of the island's royal capitals, Kandy remains the center of traditional Sri Lankan culture. In the city and surrounding countryside, music, dance, and other artistic and craft traditions are preserved and perpetuated as in few other places on the island.
Batik factory, Kandy
Sri Lanka celebrates 28 holidays a year. Almost every month they observe a festival or two. Most of the dates of these festivals vary from year to year determined by lunar movements. Each full moon (poya) has a special religious significance for Sinhala Buddhists. Various pilgrimage sites are associated with various poyas. ISLE students who participate in either the fall or the spring programs will have a chance to observe these and other festivals noted below.
The traditional Sinhala/Tamil New Year for Sri Lanka falls on April 12 or 13. Many events over about a week’s period or more are observed, including boiling new rice with milk, venerating parents, wearing new clothes, and visiting close relatives and friends. It is an especially auspicious time.
A very important Buddhist festival called Vesak falls on a full moon day in May to mark the birth and "final enlightenment" of the Buddha. Sinhala Buddhists celebrate this festival by decorating their houses with a variety of homemade lamps, singing devotional songs, and lighting firecrackers.
A Hindu festival, Deepavali, is celebrated in late October or early November each year by Tamil communities. In the evening, Tamil houses are decorated with rows of oil lamps to dispel the ignorance symbolized by the darkness of night. They worship the goddesses Saraswathi and Lakshmi for knowledge and posterity.