A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Back to 500BC.
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, May 10, 2018
Old Kachcheri-JAFFNA, SRI LANKA
These abandoned ruins in the middle of Jaffna have withstood centuries of tumultuous power struggles.
Old Park is now a fancy modern park with playgrounds, fast food outlets, and well-curated jogging paths. But tucked away in a corner you’ll find the forgotten ruins of the Old Kachcheri. Vines and plants now look like integral parts of this beautiful example of Neo-Renaissance architecture, and moss adorns the Roman arches wrapping around the central yard. The crumbling roof now invites the elements to destroy the interior rooms.
A kachcheri is a district secretariat that functions as a liaison between the central Sri Lanka government
and its activities at district level. Within its own district, a
kachcheri also implements government projects, collects revenues, and
organizes elections. Expectedly, a bureaucratic branch of the government
of this magnitude requires a large facility to accommodate it. Jaffna,
being the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, is also
home of the local kachcheri.
Prior to delving into the Old Kachcheri buildings, it’s necessary to become familiar with Jaffna’s tumultuous colonial past. Portugal conquered
the island in 1619, and the Dutch eventually took over in 1658. The
final twist in the colonial saga occurred in 1796, when the British
gained control of all the Dutch possessions in Sri Lanka.
It was the British Government Agent Percival Ackland Dyke that bought
the 27-acre property and commissioned the building of an administrative
center. The administrative center became Jaffna Kachcheri, now known as
the Old Kachcheri.
History was not always kind to the Old Kachcheri, which went from being
targeted by rival armies to being abandoned. The presence of a huge
building tailor-made for administrative purposes didn’t escape the
attention of the country’s armies. Starting in the late 1970s, the Sri
Lanka Army was based at Old Park and made full use of the Old Kachcheri
buildings. As the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant Tamil
organization, seized Jaffna in the late 1980s, they also used Old Park
and Old Kachcheri as military and police headquarters.
When Sri Lanka regained control of Jaffna in 1995, an army camp was
briefly stationed at the kachcheri, but after the end of the Sri Lankan
Civil War the building was evacuated and abandoned. Disintegration that
began through human agency is now carried out by nature. Vegetation is
taking over buildings, and the weather is slowly but surely grinding the
building to oblivion.
Know Before You Go
There are rumors that renovation works may begin, but to date nothing has started.Mines still
represent a danger in and around the immediate area surrounding Old
Kachcheri. De-mining was undertaken, but the property hasn’t been
declared mine-free as yet. Caution recommended.