Theravada Buddhist monk and Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, Rev. Dr. Kapugollawe Anandakiththi, will be the guest speaker during an event that will highlight Sigiriya – a 5th-century plateau-top palace situated in Sri Lanka’s serpentine geological zone.
Rev. Dr. Kapugollawe Anandakiththi, Theravada Buddhist monk and Senior Lecturer in
Linguistics at the University of Kelaniya. (Photo courtesy of Rev. Dr. Kapugollawe
Anandakiththi)
Dr. Justin Henry, Bhagwan Padma Prabhu Endowed Assistant Professor, and moderator
for the Sigiriya event. (Photo courtey of Dr. Henry)
The event will take place on March 19 at 5:00 p.m. and will conclude with an audience Q&A session.
Hosted by the Department of Religious Studies and supported by the Bhagwan Padma Prabhu Endowment, the event will highlight an ongoing project hosted by Louisiana State University (LSU) to generate a public open-access, VR-immersible digital model of Sigiriya as it would have appeared in the 5th century.
Moderated by Dr. Justin Henry, Bhagwan Padma Prabhu Endowed Assistant Professor in the religious studies department, Anandakiththi will also discuss the social and theological tensions at work among Buddhist lay people and monastics as early visitors to the palace complex reflected on the opulence and sensuality of the location, recording their impressions in the “Sigiriya graffiti,” some of the earliest attested vernacular poetry of Southern Asia.
“I met Dr. Anandakiththi 15 years ago when I was a student affiliated with the Department of Linguistics at Kelaniya University, where Dr. Anandakiththi currently teaches,” Henry said. “This year, he is a visiting fellow at LSU, where he is working alongside Professor Suniti Karunatillake, a planetary scientist and the son of my late language teacher, Professor W. S. Karunatillake. Professor Suniti is currently involved in a proposal to send an exploratory vehicle to Mars, which he hopes will yield a more detailed analysis of the planet’s surface geology. Specifically, he is interested in evidence of the past presence of microbial life which may be detectable at the microscopic level.”
“We have some understanding of subtle changes which occurred in the rock of the early Earth as a result of hosting microbial life, premier examples of which are found in the serpentine geology of inland Sri Lanka.”
“Professor Suniti and Dr. Anandakiththi are today involved in a multi-disciplinary collaborative initiative which includes not only geological sampling, but also broader questions in the realm of the humanities concerning ways in which the geology of central Sri Lanka inspired, hosted, and preserved local cultural worldviews, traditions, and artifacts,” Henry said.
As for the project itself, once completed, people will be able to access an immersive, virtual reality reconstruction of the Sigiriya palace complex as it would have appeared during the reign of its sponsor, King Kashyapa I.
“The expectation is that this platform will be hosted through the library server of Louisiana State University in a public, open-access format. A team from LSU is currently working with several Sri Lankan archaeologists, art historians, and literary scholars to realize the project, with preliminary videography and photography of the site undertaken last summer,” Henry explained.
Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress located in the northern Matale District near the town of Dambulla in the Central Province, Sri Lanka.
Henry said the hope is that the VR reconstruction will be operating by early 2026 and that it will offer an innovative classroom resource for those wishing to explore the architectural marvels, hydrological culture, and cultural diversity of an exemplary moment during Sri Lanka’s “golden age” of the Anuradhapura kingdom.
Henry says that due to America’s geographical situatedness, people may tend to have a Western bias when thinking about civilizational history and contributions.
“This is, I believe, changing however, thanks in large part to the initiative among scholars to move awareness of the accomplishments of Asian civilizations from the periphery to the center of public awareness. Audiences are often surprised in learning of the interconnectedness of cultures of antiquity, in some cases questioning the usefulness of categories of ‘East’ and ‘West’ altogether,” he said.
“Sigiriya is a recognized UNESCO World Heritage Site—one of 65 in South Asia alone—and hosts several hundred thousand visitors every year. Sigiriya exemplifies the cosmopolitanism of Southern Asia during the time of its construction, with paints made from lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan, and recent archaeological discoveries of coins from throughout the Indian Ocean world.”
“Understanding the rich continent-spanning tapestry of cultural innovation of antiquity helps us to avoid simplistic conceptions of civilizational history which sometimes serve to reinforce certain prejudices.”
Henry said he hopes attendees will come away with some foundational knowledge relating to Sri Lankan Buddhism, and with some insights regarding how it is that Buddhists navigated religious imperatives concerning austerity and simplistic living in relation to broader cultural expectations of courtly opulence.
To learn more or register to attend, please visit the event webpage. This event is free and open to the public.