This press release has been issued by the Royal Netherlands Embassy Colombo

30st April 2005

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The shared cultural heritage of Sri Lanka and the Netherlands is an integral part of the prevailing bi-lateral relations between the two countries. Notably, the past four centuries of the Dutch-Sri Lankan alliance has had a profound effect on the social, cultural, religious, economic and political spheres of Sri Lanka, resulting in distinctive influences on both the tangible and intangible heritage of the country. Although alliances in the imperialism age were detrimental to the conquered nation in some respects, recent relations have been mutually beneficial. As a matter of fact, the two countries have developed, and still maintain, a long-lasting and strong relationship. What remains today of the Dutch Period in Sri Lanka is a mutual heritage that evolved from the interaction and exchange of elements between the Sri Lankan and Dutch cultures. The Central Cultural Fund in Sri Lanka approached Dutch cultural institutions with the proposal to establish a cultural relationship programme, aiming to preserve built heritage from the Dutch Period. With the close involvement of the Royal Netherlands Embassy, this programme came into practice by the establishment of the Mutual Heritage Centre in 1999. The Centre has implemented several meaningful heritage preservation projects, with the assistance of the Dutch Cultural Fund. Precisely two years ago, on 30 April 2003, the governments of Sri Lanka and The Netherlands signed a joint policy framework on the preservation of their common cultural heritage. The joint statement is meant to be a dynamic framework for the valuable co-operation in the area of the common cultural heritage, shared by the two countries. The primary objective of the policy framework is to promote co-operation on the sustainable maintenance and management of mutual cultural heritage in Sri Lanka and The Netherlands, and to identify the priorities for co-operation in the future. It serves also as a benchmark for new project proposals aimed at preserving common cultural heritage. An example of the valuable co-operation in the field of mutual cultural heritage is the archive programme, implemented by the National Archive in The Netherlands and the Department of National Archives in Sri Lanka, with a facilitating role for the Central Cultural Fund and the Royal Netherlands Embassy. The programme, called Towards A New Age of Partnership (TANAP), encompasses activities such as the development of digital finding aids, courses in old-Dutch handwriting, microfilming the VOC records, a boxing project and the restoration of ancient documents. The documents, written in many languages, contain information about a variety of subjects, for instance, intrigues at the court in Kandy, populations that have disappeared over the years, local prices of products, weather reports, regional customs, clothing, religion and ancient traditions. Even the oldest handwriting in Tamil is to be found in the VOC archives. The remains are often in a very poor condition, which motivated the initiators of the TANAP programme to undertake immediate action to save an important part of mutual history. Furthermore, Sri Lanka and The Netherlands undertook a joint effort to renovate the Dutch Reformed Church in Galle. The main purpose of this mission, financed by the Dutch Cultural Fund (14.7 million Rupees), was to share knowledge, experience and information with the Central Cultural Fund. The church was established in Ceylon in 1642, and is the oldest Protestant Church in Sri Lanka. The church was built and completed in August 1755 and it has since withstood the test of time. The renovation of the church was completed in October 2004. On the 31st of October, at a colourful ceremony, Her Excellency Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, ceremonially handed over the church to the President of the Dutch Reform Church. The most actual and well-known project is the “Avondster Project”. The Avondster, a VOC ship from the 17th century, which was wrecked on 23 June 1659 in the harbour of Galle. The project is funded by the Dutch government (66 million Rupees). For an extensive and illustrative overview of mutual cultural heritage world-wide, link to www.atlasmutualheritage.nl