SUDHARSHAN SENEVIRATNE Professor of Archaeology University of Peradeniya Sri Lank *VESAK COMMEMORATION LECTURE. KATMANDU 28TH MAY 2007 EMBASSY OF SRI LANKA “The foothill of Himalaya, Inhabited by Kosalans Whose race is named after the Sun Whose lineage is Shakyan” “At a Shakyan city in the land of Lumbini A being to be enlightened, a priceless jewel, Is born in this world of men for welfare and weal; Because of that we are extravagantly gay. The Unique Being, the Personality Sublime, The Lord of all men and Foremost among mankind, Will turn the Wheel in the Grove of the Ancient Seers With the roar of the Lion, the monarch of all beasts” (Samuytta Nikaya III. i, III. ii) Thus I pay homage to an exalted son of Nepal – Shakyaputta Gautama Buddha, the compassionate one endowed with perfect wisdom, who gifted to humanity the doctrine of dialectics and analysis – to

Sudharshan Seneviratne Professor of Archaeology University of Peradeniya Sri Lank *Orginally published in LANKA GUARDIAN. Vol. 6 (1983) For nearly two and a half millennia the Vedda withstood the ravages of cultural and technological encroachments of ‘civilization’.  Today they do not possess any magic or charm powerful enough to stem the tide of ‘modernization’ that is literary bulldozing its way though the once serene forest and ejecting its inhabitants from their natural habitat. The Vedda are facing the ‘final solution’ or total obliteration though a process of assimilation as peripheral elements of   the cosmopolitan civilization.  They have finally come up against a techno-cultural contender capable of destroying the material basis sustaining them as a separate entity, which in itself is the antithesis to ‘civilization through modernization’.

Sudharshan Seneviratne Department of Archaeology University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka HENRY M JACKSON LECTURE. WHITMAN COLLEGE. WALLA WALLA. WA. USA. 12THAPRIL 2006 The level of academic standards they have sustained is a testimony to the commitment in intellectual capacity-building as your contribution towards humanizing knowledge. Mission statement to the next generation of archaeologists “The science of archaeology is problem-oriented and issue-related. It is essentially a multi disciplinary study investigating, documenting, interpreting and presenting human expressions, experiences and behaviour patterns of the past to its rightful inheritors, the next generation. The archaeologist investigating the past is a scientist who is objective, unbiased and unprejudiced. Above all, an archaeologist is a humanist and social activist who does not fear the past or compromises the future”.

Sudharshan Seneviratne Ph.D., FSLCA Professor of Archaeology. Department of Archaeology. University of Peradeniya Director Archaeology. UNESCO-Sri Lanka CCF Jetavana Project at Anuradhapura Co-Director Anuradhapura Citadel Archaeology Project Senior Advisor. Minister of Foreign Affairs INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON MARINE ARCHAEOLOGY

SUDHARSHAN SENEVIRATNE Ph.D., FSLCA Professor of Archaeology. University of Peradeniya. Sri Lanka Director Archaeology. UNESCO-Sri Lanka Central Cultural Fund Project at Jetavana, Anuradhapura. Co Director. Anuradhapura Citadel Archaeology Project. *This paper was originally presented in 2005 at the CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH ASIAN  ARCHAEOLOGISTS.  JULY 4TH TO 8TH at the British Museum, London. Anuradhapura, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in 1981 and holds the distinction of being a prime pilgrim as well as a visitor destination in South Asia. The essay questions certain values assigned to historical sites and the extent to which such sites tend to overplay the bona fide status legitimizing identities of particular cultures/groups thereby intentionally or unintentionally marginalizing the histories/antiquity of the ‘other’. As much as World Heritage sites are recognized, declared and inscribed by UNESCO, conversely the underlying ideology or at least certain narrow functional needs of member