Jaffna யாழ்ப்பாணம் Lost Heritage

Jaffna, the vibrant city in the North of Sri Lanka, has been the scene of tumultuous power struggles. First, the colonial powers; the Portuguese conquered the island in 1619, and then the Dutch took over in 1658. The final twist in the colonial saga occurred in 1796 when the British seized power. Post-independence, Jaffna became a battleground in the conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sinhalese government, which heavily damaged many of the city's prominent buildings, many of which date back to the colonial days. We explored places of shared cultural heritage and traced the colonial impact across pages of history. We reminisced about the shared past between Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, analysed what happened, tried to understand the different perspectives and imagined what could be next for these important heritage assets. We began a dialogue between the past, present and future: an imaginary Dutch soldier from the colonial era meets a modern-day Jaffna citizen, and together, they embrace artificial intelligence to explore what the future may hold…