News

The UNESCO has just published interviews of 58 pioneers of the World Heritage Convention. Among them are three from Sri Lanka: Late Dr. Roland Silva, former Director-General of the Department of Archaeology & the Central Cultural Fund and also the former President of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Natarajan Ishwaran, former Director of the Division of Ecological Sciences and Earth Sciences of UNESCO and Dr. Gamini Wijesuriya, former Director of Conservation of the Department of Archaeology and a former Project Manager/ Deputy Coordinator of World Heritage activities at the International Centre for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) based in Rome.

Interviews were conducted under the leadership of prof. Christina CAMERON, two times Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee and Canada Research Chair on Built Heritage at the University of Montreal, and Dr. Mechtild Rossler, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.  

Link for details:

http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2127

Out of the eight projects supported by the MOWCAP-ACC Small Grants Programme for 2020, two grants will fund Sri Lankan organisations in their conservation efforts of Sri Lanka’s cultural heritage, as well as their plans to make these archives freely accessible.

The organisations supported are; Chitrasena Vajira Dance Foundation (CVDF), who would be using the MOWCAP-ACC grant in their project to preserve Sri Lanka’s Dance and Dance Theatre heritage; Janamihira Nirmana organisation collaborating with the Library of the University of Peradeniya, who would be utilising the grant to transcribe and translate an ancient medical manuscript in order to bring more exposure to Sri Lanka’s indigenous medicine.

CVDF comprising of Chitrasena Kalayathanaya (Dance School) and the Chitrasena Dance Company have been major contributors to the growth of Sri Lankan dance and Dance theatre dating back to the first half of the 20^th century. Over the 75 years of their existence, they have amassed a wealth of historical material which consists of; program books, cast lists, newspaper articles, photographic images, musical scores, video and audio recordings, props in addition to costumes and their design illustrations.

Using the grant, CVDF completed the 1^st phase of their project in 2019; and this year CVDF will implement the 2^nd phase to conserve the Dance Heritage of Sri Lanka as follows:

1. Conserve these archives systemically by obtaining insight and advice from specialists in order to adopt the appropriate techniques for their storage and conservation.
2. Comprehensively catalogue and digitize the archives in order to effectively manage and access them
3. Make these resources accessible via the internet and on site to the wider public

Janamihira Nirmana organisation collaborating with the Library of the University of Peradeniya wishes to transcribe a rare medical palm-leaf manuscript, known as the Vasudeva Nighantuva (illustrated in the image below), and then translate and publish commentaries in English. There are 25 copies of this manuscript recorded in multiple temple libraries and the University of Peradeniya in a survey conducted between 1959 and 1964.

They hope to carry out this project as follows:

1. Conduct a field survey allowing them to pinpoint viable manuscripts. The transcripts of these copies will be compared and any significant differences will be identified.
2. The manuscripts will be then transcribed and reviewed by an expert committee before writing commentaries.
3. Finally, the commentaries will be translated into English and then published.

Dr. Punch Nilame Meegaswatte, Secretary-General of Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO shall assume chairmanship of this sub-regional consultations with the National Commissions of UNESCO on the preparation of UNESCO’s Medium-Term Strategy 2022-2029 (draft 41C/4) and Programme and Budget for 2022-2025 (draft 41C/5), to be held on Monday 22^nd June 2020. Given the global disruptions caused by COVID-19, this will be an online consultation as face-to-face consultations have not been made possible. The participating countries shall be; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The agenda for the discussions shall cover;

I. Regional trends and challenges and UNESCO’s Role in Medium-Term Strategy (2022-2029)

1. Overall guiding framework for UNESCO’s action in 2022-2029
2. Towards which SDGs UNESCO should concentrate its efforts and resources during 2022-2029?
3. Strategic cross-cutting areas of action
4. Global Priorities and Priority target groups
5. Other issues

II. UNESCO’s Programme for 2022 – 2025

1. Enhancing UNESCO’s Programmatic Focus: Education, Natural Sciences, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Social and Human Sciences, Culture Communication and Information
2. Strengthening interdisciplinarity and intersectoral work
3. Enhancing UNESCO’s presence in the world
4. Strengthening UNESCO’s field presence and relevance
5. Reinforcing UNESCO’s networks and partnerships
6. Leveraging public and private partnerships
7. Other issues of (sub-)regional relevance

This is indeed a great honour bestowed upon Sri Lanka and the Secretary-General of the Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO, Dr. Punchi Nilame Meegaswatte.

Researchers and Practitioners around the world in the water sector are invited to submit abstracts for presentation (in English, no less than 500 words). Please see the official website for more guidelines for submission. The submission system will be open until 15 July 2020.

A collection of abstracts will be published at the Forum. Based on public presentation and expert review, excellent papers will be published by the following high-profile journals:

• • Engineering (journal in English)
  • Advances in Water Science (journal in Chinese and special issue in English)
  • Chinese Journal of Geotechnical Engineering (journal in Chinese)
  • Water Science and Engineering (journal in English)

The official website of the forum is https://estds.yicode.ac.