Searching for The Tradition or Creating it Newly: A Comparative Study of The Creative Contribution of Two Cultural Agents

Abstract

Post-colonial indigenization movement of Ceylon seems to be more interested in finding ethnic identities than producing a National Culture. Despite the great logocentric construction of the rights of the Sinhala community, Sri Lanka is a multicultural, multi-ethnic state. On the other hand, in creating a new cultural tradition, attention must also be paid to all social classes. There is very little support from the ancient traditions in creating a cultural tradition that focuses on ethnic and class differences in the present society. Then it would be more practical to create new traditions instead of exploring the ancient heritage. It could be observed that cultural agents in the post-colonial indigenization movement in Ceylon were afraid to create new traditions. Some of these cultural agents have made a special effort to show that they are discovering and re-establishing the tradition of the past. This study compares the cultural contributions of Ediriweera Sarachchandra, who said he was exploring the tradition of the past, and Sunil Santha, who said he was creating a new tradition. The first part of this research was to find out through field research what kind of connection Sarachchandra's local drama tradition has with Sri Lanka's ethnic and class divisions. He is trying to create a Sinhala Buddhist classical play. The second task of the research is to explore the relationship of Sunil Santha's musical tradition with ethnic and class differences of the present society. He wanted to create a music that could be enjoyed by all the people in society and therefore, he did not try to stick to one tradition. The analysis identified which of these two creators was most likely to overcome racial and class differences in society. This research proved that the most successful indigenization model in a society with multiple identities is the invention of traditions than in search of the ancient tradition.