斯里兰卡的古老土著居民 维达人

<正>斯里兰卡地处南亚,是印度洋中的一个岛国。斯里兰卡大部分属热带雨林气候,终年炎热,雨水丰沛,森林茂密。在森林中,生活着一个特殊的部族——维达人。2015年3月,我和朋友在斯里兰卡向导的带领下,拜访了离康提3小时左右车程的维达人部落。维达人是斯里兰卡的少数民族,也是斯里兰卡最古老的土著居民,又称吠陀人。相传维达人的祖先早在斯里兰卡岛与南亚次大陆分离之前,就已生活在从印度中部直到斯里兰卡的土地上了。公元前5世纪左右,来自次大陆北部的雅利安人进入斯     

斯里兰卡纪行(五) 舌尖之味

正僧伽罗语意为“光明富庶之地”的斯里兰卡物产丰富,这颗“印度洋上的明珠”为世人奉献出得天独厚的海产品与农产品。我在品味其丰厚迷人的历史文化遗产之时,也不忘满足舌尖之欲。新年家宴天刚蒙蒙亮,我和导游KRISH前往斯里兰卡著名的尼甘布鱼市,那里已是人头攒动,车船密布,交易之声不绝于耳。几个工人从卡车冰库里,费力地将巨大的冻鱼拖到地上,苦中作乐的他们还偶尔摆些夸张的姿势让游客拍照。空气中充斥着刺鼻腥味,提防双脚不要误踩摊铺在地上的鱼虾,还有毛绒绒的     

斯里兰卡纪行(四) 古都探秘

<正>"在遥远的丛林深处和群山之中,有古城的废墟和破败的庙宇,那都是从前盛极一时的朝代和被征服的民族残存下来的遗迹―如果缺少那种神秘和古老的色彩,不能给人以深刻的印象,这种地方就不能算是十分圆满的东方了……"马克·吐温对斯里兰卡古都的描述,吸引着我前去一探究竟。     

锡兰茶香 斯里兰卡纪行(三)

“茶者,南方之嘉木也。”从神农氏尝百草遇茶,到茶圣陆羽之《茶经》,记载着中国是茶的故乡。茶文化在中国源远流长,并传播至印度、斯里兰卡等国。斯里兰卡高地红茶与中国祁门红茶、印度大吉岭红茶及阿萨姆红茶并称世界四大红茶。特别是近些年,斯里兰卡红茶格外受到国人的推崇。于是,自诩为茗茶爱好者的我,在斯里兰卡采茶叶、观制茶、品香茗……且听我将寻茶的故事一一道来。     

斯里兰卡纪行(一)魅力海洋

斯里兰卡,这座印度洋上的热带岛国,能满足“驴友”对旅行的全部幻想.妙曼旖旎的海岸线潮水涌动,天堂仿佛近在眼前;古都里信徒们虔诚的身影与温和呢喃的祷告声,为静谧的佛像增添了生机;与野生动物的不期而遇,发生在原始森林深处;乘坐茶园火车,在崇山峻岭间回味锡兰茶绵软悠长的甘甜……我用半个月的时间,在斯里兰卡不足7万平方公里的国土上逆时针转了一圈,感同身受马克·吐温的评语:“除了雪,这里拥有一切.”     

走进野性斯里兰卡

<正>01生活在天堂里的猕猴斯里兰卡的生物多样性真是极其丰富,猴子在斯里兰卡可谓随处可见。在佛牙寺、冈嘎拉马寺都可见到成群结队的猕猴。斯里兰卡的猕猴与中国的猕猴差异比较大。斯里兰卡的猕猴不仅眼睛特别大,且全部是黄色眼球,尤其是头上的发型。雄猴大多是中分的发式,发丝向两边蓬松分配,上了摩丝一般的造型;发式与雄猴略有不同,雌猴的发型更像头顶一朵盛开的菊花,前额部是     

走进野性斯里兰卡

<正>很多年前,就有一个想法,到国外去过年。主要是想躲避春节期间那些夜以继日且连绵不断的鞭炮声,当然也想给胃肠放个假,逃避一下那些盛宴上的饕餮。选择第一个过年地为斯里兰卡,其实理由非常简单,因为这是一个非常简单的国家。当然,还有一个原因,就是这里有着近乎原始的生态环境和极其丰富的生物多样性。     

神之岛国——斯里兰卡(上篇)

<正>当北下寒风无情地吹走秋日最后一丝温存;当冬日早晨在床上与寒冷斗争;当骑着自由车在街头不再惬意;当口罩都无法面对灰蒙蒙的雾霾……你是不是想如自由大雁一般来一次长途迁徙,寻找一个理想逃避严寒越冬之地?想象着静怡海岛,摇拽的椰子树,蔚蓝的天空,清澈的海水拍打着洁白沙滩;阳光下一杯充满热带情调缤纷冷饮,与爱的人感受海风穿透发丝的绵绵爱意,或与家人听     

Courses of Conflict: Transmission of Knowledge and War's History in Eastern Sri Lanka

After three decades of armed confrontations, the Sri Lankan civil war ended in May 2009 with the military defeat of the liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). To sustain the war for so long, mechanisms of knowledge reproduction were used legitimizing violence and assuring the conflict's transmission across the generations involved in it. Drawing on ongoing fieldwork in the island's Eastern Province, this article addresses the processes through which Sri Lanka's war-history has been taught and learnt, empirically linking the multiple sites of knowledge transfer. It suggests a trajectory moving from the institutional (policy and textbooks) to the defiant (specific schools and armed movements) spaces of transmission, while comparing the attitudes, memories of violence and transmission strategies of educators, students and former combatants. The data are embedded within the broader discussions on social change and the cultural reproduction of war, a process illustrated with the help of a new concept: semantic alliances.     

斯里兰卡的冶铁考古

介绍了斯里兰卡20世纪80年代以来冶铁考古研究所取得的成就。古代斯里兰卡的铁产品主要是块炼铁和高碳钢,冶铁技术主要有阿腊口腊瓦瓦的自然通风竖炉和以季风为鼓风动力的撒马纳腊瓦瓦开放性矮炉两种,可能与缅甸的自然通风竖炉、日本的踏踏拉以及西非的多哥兰地区抽风式竖炉存在某些历史联系。     

斯里兰卡纪行(二) 动物王国

<正>虽然国土面积不到7万平方公里,但斯里兰卡却拥有近百种野生哺乳动物及400余种鸟类,是个不折不扣的动物王国。在斯里兰卡旅行期间,有那么几天我不得不昼伏夜出,因为我要把我的作息时间调整为与动物们同步。伴着炎热的印度洋季风气候,我追随着它们谜样的身影,忽而赫然出现,忽而隐身消失。     

探访斯里兰卡“大象孤儿院”

<正>去"孤儿院"看大象斯里兰卡野生动物局于1975年建造了一所大象孤儿院,主要收养那些在丛林中失去母亲的幼象,这座大象孤儿院是世界上第一所大象孤儿院,位于距科伦坡约3小时路程的品纳维拉(Pinnawela)小镇。孤儿院成立30多年来,共收养了近百头大象。斯里兰卡大象是全球大象家族中较为独特的分支:它们不如非洲大象块头大,耳朵尤其小,成年后,象的耳朵、脸和鼻子周围的皮肤甚至还会显出一块与众不同的粉红色斑。目前世界上存在两所大象孤儿     

斯里兰卡掠影

斯里兰卡原名为“锡兰”,我国古籍中称其为“师（狮）子国”,今人喻其为“印度洋的眼泪”。研究中外文化交流的一些学者认为斯里兰卡是海上丝绸之路的重要一站,这诚然不假;但对于法显、玄奘等通过西域到南亚的西行求法者来说,对于公元5世纪时已是城中“多萨薄商人”,“诸国商人共市易”（法显《佛国记》）之地,斯里兰卡又何尝不是陆上丝绸之路的一处终点呢？     

斯里兰卡 听印度洋眼泪中的石头故事

正斯里兰卡,听名字就是一个非常美丽的地方,它是印度南面的一个岛国,地图上就在印度的下面,岛的形状像一滴眼泪,所以它被称为"印度洋的眼泪"。那是一个海洋的国度,蓝天白云映衬的金沙碧海装扮着那里,如同一颗眼泪荡漾在印度洋上。而当你以为水的温柔便是它的全部时,它却用石头的坚硬诉说起古老的故事,那故事里,有传奇,有信仰,更有着人们的生活。带着那份向往一步步走进斯里兰     

The Poverty Discourse and the Poor in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is cited as an exemplary case of direct poverty alleviation because of a long history of social welfare and high values in quality of life indices. Notwithstanding, anti-poverty measures in Sri Lanka founded on the international discourse of poverty and development do not serve the interests of poor people. This discourse begins by locating poor people in a distinct poverty sector and proceeds to examine its characteristics. Several attributes of that discourse make it intellectually incapable of seeing how poverty is socially constructed in a diffused nexus of production relations that extends far beyond the so-called 'poverty sector'. An alternative 'substantive approach to poverty' is presented. The arguments are illustrated using the theme of food production in Sri Lanka.     

候鸟的天堂 斯里兰卡本达拉国家公园

<正>别看斯里兰卡只是印度洋上的小小泪珠,但是这个岛国的自然生态和野生动物资源相当丰富,包括以花豹数量多而闻名于世的雅拉国家公园,亚洲象的乐园乌达瓦拉威国家公园,可以媲美南美亚马逊流域的辛哈拉加热带雨林保护区,还有就是众多鸟类栖息的湿地乐园:本达拉国家公园。本达拉国家公园位于斯里兰卡南方省内,靠近西南海岸边,距离首都科伦坡东南约250公里,周边最近的     

The Changing Accessibility of Educational Opportunities in Southern Sri Lanka

To handle the double challenge of economic competitiveness and poverty alleviation, there are increasing calls for dual education strategies designed to handle both these issues simultaneously. Based on field research in rural Sri Lanka, this article aims to contribute to the understanding of how educational opportunities of different groups in different areas are shifting in the context of a changing world of work and new skill requirements in the global economy. An ongoing stratification of educational opportunities is identified, based on the growth of private tuition and English‐medium education, as well as a rationalization of the education system. The article shows that future attempts to reform the education system in Sri Lanka must be better rooted in the preferences and aspirations of poor groups in rural areas, and that educational opportunities must be seen as relative, relational and contextual.     

War,Livelihoods and Vulnerability in Sri Lanka

As the number of de‐stabilized regions of warfare or post‐war conditions worldwide continues to grow, this article investigates how civilians survive in the context of a civil war. It analyses livelihood strategies of farmers in the war‐torn areas of Sri Lanka, using an analytical framework based on a revised form of DFID's sustainable rural livelihoods approach, placing particular attention on the institutional reproduction of household capital assets in the war economy. The author delineates a three pillar model of household livelihood strategies focusing on how households (1) cope with the increased level of risk and uncertainty; (2) adjust their economic and social household assets for economic survival; and (3) use their social and political assets as livelihood strategies. Empirical evidence comes from four case study villages in the east of Sri Lanka. Although the four case studies were very close together geographically, their livelihood outcomes differed considerably depending on the very specific local political geography. The role of social and political assets is essential: while social assets (extended family networks) were important to absorb migrants, political assets (alliances with power holders) were instrumental in enabling individuals, households or economic actors to stabilize or even expand their livelihood options and opportunities. The author concludes that civilians in conflict situations are not all victims (some may also be culprits in the political economy of warfare), and that war can be both a threat and an opportunity, often at the same time.