Patrick Harrigan (Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai)

updated: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 11:49:19 -0800

Patrick Harrigan
Editor
Kataragama Research Publications Project

Mailing address:
557 Broad Avenue
Manistee, MI 49660 USA

phone: (231) 723-8493
email: harrigan@kataragama.org
email: harrigan@murugan.org
url:   http://www.Murugan.org
url:   http://www.Kataragama.org

DESCRIPTION OF WORK:
Ongoing long-term photo, video and written documentation of the 
Kataragama Skanda jungle shrine and July festival, including indigenous,
Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic oral and performative traditions, and the
annual Kataragama Pada Yatra (May-July) from Jaffna/Trincomalee to
Kataragama. Structural/comparative studies of Tamil and Sinhala oral traditions. 
Variations of Murukan worship in Sri Lanka and South India. Refai and
Naqshabandhi Sufi mysticism and prophetic lore. Related studies in
cosmography or sacred geography including Kataragama and Sigiriya. 

Also, documentation of contemporary indigenous Wanniyal-aetto (Vedda)
communities in Sri Lanka as a part of a larger effort to create an
Indigenous Cultural Sanctuary for Wanniya-laeto displaced by development
activities. Electronic networking, e-mail and Web home page creation. 
Establishment of a Puranagama Village University of traditional studies
and crafts in Kurunegala district. Organisation of the First International
Conference Seminar on Skanda-Murukan to be held in Madras in December,
1998, and the Second Murukan Conference in Mauritius in April, 2001.