Echoes of the Millstone: An Ethnographic Account of Life in a Village in Sri Lanka - Paperback

by Lokubanda Tillakaratne (Author)

This is the mosaic of Maradankalla, a small village in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. The firsthand accounts of archaic marriage customs; ancient door locks in the village; ambush of game at the dry bed of the village tank (irrigation reservoir); killing of a majestic tusker; work at a buffalo kraal; noosing wild buffalos; rendezvous of 7-month old baby and a baby elephant in a jungle farm; public caning (spanking) in the village school; lay priest ascending to divine trance with hypnomantic convulsions; bali rituals for various deities and demons; folk theater in the village square; slash-and-burn farming; honey collecting; and bone-chilling midnight cry of Devil's Bird or ulama - a cryptid writ large; all samples of the vivacious ways of a time being overtaken by changes. Complete with a glossary of Sinhala words, Bibliography, and Index.

Author Biography

Lokubanda Tillakaratne grew up in Maradankalla, a small hamlet in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka. He is retired from UCLA. His passion is research on 1950s rural life on this Indian Ocean Island. He is the author of 'Pulse of the Jungle, ' 'Amerikawata Ena Obata' (With Niranjala Tillakaratne, Ph.D.), and 'Monterey Withthi' (Sinhala translation of John Steinbeck's 'Cannery Row'). He writes extensively on village life for Daily News, Sunday Observer, The Sunday Times, and www.go2lanka.com.