Sincere ode to Sri Lanka rarely found in history textbooks
When the Sunday Times Plus last met Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha, it was a decade and one year ago, and he had just published Strangers on the Camino- a book on the 800-kilometre walk along the Camino De Santiago pilgrim trail that he undertook with his son. This time we are meeting to discuss a trail that is somewhat longer; the Maritime Silk Roads, also known as ‘The Spice Routes’, which extended approximately 15,000 km across the ancient world.
Readers will be somewhat relieved to know that Dr. Wijesinha did not attempt the route through land and sea. However, his new book ‘Sri Lanka, Serendib and the Silk Road of the Sea’, in bookstores from August 23 via Perera-Hussein Publishing House, is an engagingly written and sincere ode to a Sri Lanka that few of us find in history textbooks.
Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Paediatric surgeon, family physician, Army medical officer (both in Sri Lanka and Australia) and Clinical Associate Professor at Monash University – these are the other titles Dr. Wijesinha has held when he’s not writing books. Recently retired, he says the ‘someday’ he had meant to write a book on Sri Lanka and the Silk Road finally arrived. The inspiration for the new book came from the 2024 Victor Melder Lecture delivered by Dr. Wijesinha – which in turn was inspired by his experience participating in the UNESCO Maritime Silk Road Expedition in 1990. The study trip was conducted between October 1990 to March 1991 with the participation of around 100 professionals and 45 journalists from 34 countries, travelling from Venice, Italy, to Osaka in Japan, visiting 27 historical ports along the way.
Dr. Wijesinha was working as a paediatric surgeon at the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital in Colombo at the time. A diligent reader of the Sunday papers, he spotted an ad by the Central Cultural Fund calling for applications for the voyage from interested citizens. Apart from a few standard criteria, applicants were asked about their interest in the Silk Road and Dr. Wijesinha had always been curious about the role that trade played in bringing over new diseases, medicine and procedures in ancient times, presented a compelling case. He was invited to join the Sri Lankan team.
Eminent Sri Lankan archaeologist Professor Senaka Bandaranayake commenced the voyage from Venice. Dr. Wijesinha took over from the port of Alexandria in Egypt, covering Oman, Pakistan, Goa and finally Sri Lanka where he disembarked and handed over to Professor Leelananda Prematilleke (former Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Peradeniya).
That voyage opened up a world of possibilities. At each port of call, the group was met by the country’s foremost experts relating to the maritime route. They would hold a symposium in each place with presentations by those onboard and in the country; ideas were exchanged and friendships formed.
This was also when Dr. Wijesinha happily discovered some fortuitous connections. In the book he describes visiting the ruins of the ancient port city of Sumharam in Khor Rori in Oman. This was the major port from which frankincense was exported to all parts of the world. As Professor Paolo Costa was explaining this to the group, Dr. Wijesinha was struck by a sudden thought. In Sri Lanka frankincense is known as ‘Samhrani’, which could suggest that it reached Sri Lanka from this ancient port which existed from about the 3rd century BCE to the 4th century CE. Professor Costa was delighted with this insight. “These are the clues from ordinary life that give credence to our academic research,” he is quoted as saying in the book.
The idea that history is not found in dusty tomes, but in our everyday lives is not a new idea – but it’s one that many of us forget. Dr. Wijesinha sets out to bring this way of thinking to a fresh audience with his book; it’s an insight that has delighted him all these decades. “Being asked to deliver the Victor Melder Lecture really refreshed my interest on this topic,” he remembers. Going through his old notes and revisiting memories, he spoke to a number of scholars on topics around the Silk Route as part of his research. His appetite was whetted by the success of his presentation, followed by a well-received lecture at the National Trust in Colombo a few months later.
The experience gave rise to a key theme in his book – interactions between cultures took place because of the existence of trade routes, and the ships that connected various places. For Sri Lanka, this point holds especially true. In particular, Dr. Wijesinha credits naval historian Lieutenant Commander Somasiri Devendra for invaluable input that shaped a key chapter in the book relating to Sri Lanka’s nautical heritage. For a time, it was assumed that although Sri Lanka was a trade hub, the country did not build its own vessels and engage in navigation. Devendra set out to change this belief through an extensive body of research and publications, including The Lost Ships of Sri Lanka – insights that he generously shared with Dr. Wijesinha as he was researching his book.
Sadly, Devendra passed in June of this year. Dr. Wijesinha quotes him from Maritime Heritage of Sri Lanka at the start of his book; “Yes, we are Sri Lankan. Yes, we sailed our ships. And yes, we are remembered. It is only we who have forgotten”. This insight is critical to the thesis of Dr. Wijesinha’s book. He wants readers to understand that Sri Lanka more than held its own in the ancient world – that its story was rich, diverse and more sophisticated than older texts may suggest. Historian and author Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads – a New History of the World is quoted in his book too – “There are alternative ways of looking at history- ones that do not involve looking at the past from the perspective of the winners of recent history”.
“The story of who we are has a few holes in it,” says Dr. Wijesinha. For example, the Mahavamsa’s telling of Sri Lankan history begins with the arrival of Vijaya in 543 BCE while portraying the indigenous tribes occupying Sri Lanka before as ‘naaga’ and ‘yaksha’ people. The author (mindful that he is not the first to explore this theme) wonders how such a supposedly uncouth people could have produced evidence of wealth, trade and civilization – and if perhaps we have simplified it for storytelling, in a way that has made a mark in how we treat differences in modern Sri Lanka.
He recalls participating in a Rotary exchange between doctors from two countries when he was asked, having observed a surgery being performed in the other country, if he noticed any stark differences. “I said, ‘well, once you cut into the skin, it’s the same no matter where I am’.” The comment earned Dr Wijesinha much praise although he had not intended to sound impressive, he grins, but it underscores a deeper truth that he sees in the world: that despite varying personal histories and heritage, we are not too different from each other.
It is a point that he labours to make in the book, and one he hopes will resonate with the reader. He recalls how his father, the late Sam Wijesinha, used to say- “oya lamai mewa danaganna oney (you children should know these things)”- laughing uproariously “I have become my father. I want young people – and everyone else – to know these things!”
“Sri Lanka, Serendib and the Silk Road of the Sea” priced at Rs. 1,750 will be in bookstores from August 23.
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