Building Critical, Democratic and Peaceful Communities in Post-War Sri Lanka: the Role of Traditional Arts and Ritual

By focusing on traditional arts and ritual, this project contributes to knowledge about heritage, including intangible cultural heritage. It provides a critical perspective on current heritage politics in Sri Lanka and offers an alternative that is more inclusive and likely to facilitate cross-community exchange and reconciliation. Also, by treating traditional and ritual practices as important spaces of social and political debate, the project explores their significance in upholding and promoting human rights of which dignity is a core principle. Finally given the context of post-war Sri Lanka, the project is particularly concerned with considering how traditional arts and ritual are currently being used to come to terms with the legacies of mass violence and how they can by mobilised to prevent further violence in the future.