Russian professor cherishes Lanka links

Traditional customs of Sinhala people in spotlight:

Wijitha Nakkawita

A Russian Professor who had written in Sinhala, translated Sinhala literary and historical books and had studied the literature, grammar, history, customs, art and lifestyles of the Sinhala people, is in Colombo.

She was invited to attend the Russian Literary Festival held at the Russian Centre, Colombo, as the chief guest.

Prof. Nina Krashnadembaskaya started her oriental studies at the Leningrad University of the then Soviet Union and began learning Sinhala from a very old book of grammar written by James Charter in Colombo in 1815 as a young university student.. Then began her fascination for the Sinhala language and it increased with her further studies of the language. She presented a thesis to the university on the usage of inanimate verbs in Sinhala for her Ph.D.and continued to do research about the language, culture, history and civilization widely.

She has visited Sri Lanka more than once and says that her great love is this country. Her next task was to write her book The Traditional Customs of the Sinhala people.

During her visits to Sri Lanka, she was able to understand the evolution of the Sinhala civilization, see the ancient ruined city of Anuraadhapura and visit the museums in Colombo, Kandy and Anuradhapura and obtain an insight to the civilization of the Sinhala people. “Before my first visit to Sri Lanka, I had known about the hospitality, friendliness and kindness but when I visited the country what I saw among the people far exceeded my expectations.

“I became a friend of your beautiful country and am still in love with its people,” she said

Professor Nina Krashnadembaskaya, who is now the Director of the South Asia section of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology Ethnology, St. Petersburg, has written 110 books and articles on the Sinhala people, their history, customs and traditions.