Sri Lanka will soon see an engagingly unique addition to its multi-dimensional experience in tourism.
After all, not every international tourist who visits the country can exhibit in-depth academic understanding of Sri Lanka’s culture and the Kandyan dance, or be able to tunefully sing a song from a renown Sinhala drama.
On the other hand, the twenty-two people from Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia, comprising faculty and students from the college, who are due to arrive in Sri Lanka shortly, are impressively conversant in the Kandyan Dance and will amaze listeners with their melodious rendition of a song from the Sinhala drama Sinhabahu. They delighted Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in the US, Mahinda Samarasinghe and the Embassy staff with one of these songs, on their recent visit to the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington DC.
There is another first, in relation to Sri Lanka, that Randolph College takes pride in. For the first time in its history, and probably in the history of Liberal Arts in the US, Sri Lanka’s Kandyan Dance is being taught in a university setting for academic credits. And the person behind this extraordinary achievement is Dr. Sudesh Mantillake, permanent Faculty Member at the University of Peradeniya, currently a Quillian Visiting International Scholar at Randolph College. His fascination of “the holistic learning environment” is what drew him to select Randolph College for his sabbatical, where he spearheaded the study of Sri Lanka’s culture, history and Kandyan Dance in an eminently distinctive academic setting. In February 2025, he organized the Movement Rhizome: Quillian International Symposium on Sri Lanka, which delved into Sri Lanka’s culture, history, and resilience through performances, workshops, and academic discussions. The highlight of the symposium was a unique “docu-dance” performance “Contextualizing My Devil Dance,” led by Mantillake himself, accompanied by Chinthaka Bandara on percussion and vocals, and Vajira Mantillake in dance and vocals. It was more a critical exploration of art, culture and history than a regular cultural performance.
Meanwhile, the leader of the academic team visiting Sri Lanka is Prof. Sue Ott Rowlands, the 11th President of Randolph College, who passionately believes in the importance of global partnerships, and who loves Sri Lanka since her first visit in 2010. She was introduced to the country by Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, Sri Lankan academic, geopolitics and foreign policy analyst and son of late politician Ossie Abeyagoonasekera, during a chance meeting at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prof. Rowlands has a widely consequential career in leadership in the Performing Arts in several colleges across the US, with acclaimed expertise in drama and theatre. She has also undertaken remarkable solo performances in India, Taiwan, New Zealand, Italy, Chile, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Wales, England, the Czech Republic, and Sri Lanka.
In the intervening years since her introduction to Sri Lanka, Prof. Rowlands has visited the country eight times. As much as she loves Sri Lanka’s unsurpassed natural beauty, it is the warm sincerity and graciousness of Sri Lanka’s ordinary people that keep beckoning her, and she is ready for another visit to the country that draws her half-way across the globe.
This time, Prof. Rowlands and her college group plan to visit the UNESCO heritage sites in Anuradhapura, Kandy and Galle. They anticipate a highly rewarding and meaningful cultural experience, with an expert in the subject from Peradeniya University due to accompany them to explain the significance of the cultural sites in relation to their heightened understanding of Sri Lanka’s culture and history. They hope to visit several architectural masterpieces of Geoffrey Bawa, one of the most influential Asian architects of his time. The Randloph College academics also hope to make an eye-opening visit to the village of Sirambiyadi off Puttalam, to learn about the Kaffir traditions of the last clan of versatile Africans in Sri Lanka. During the sojourn in Colombo, they hope to interact with the University of Visual and Performing Arts and lay a firm foundation for greater cultural collaboration in the future.
Prof. Rowlands is keenly preparing to sign two Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with the University of Peradeniya, and the Sripalee Campus of University of Colombo, focused on student and cultural exchanges, and demography-related research programs. These will be general MOUs, to be followed by specific projects later, as Prof. Rowlands explained.
Among the students in the visiting group is Prof. Rowlands’ granddaughter, Kaela, who is curious to understand “all the hype” about Sri Lanka. Her grandmother hopes she will fall as deeply in love with the country as she did.
As the group’s itinerary indicates, it is not going to be the usual “sun, sea and sand” touristic experience, or the favorite visit of tourists to the cooler climes of Sri Lanka’s tea country. The ten-day visit is too focused on culture and history to find time for such excursions. But one and all, the group said smilingly, the beaches and the hills will be an excuse to return to Sri Lanka soon.
As the saying goes, “Don’t call it a dream. Call it a plan.” The academia of Randolph College will fervently agree with this point of view.
