Islands of Jaffna Peninsula
Summer mornings at Pannai Bridge are busy. Everyday, two men in a fishing boat slowly paddle through the shallow waters near the bridge. They circle St Mary’s statue adjacent to the bridge and touch it reverently. They begin their daily work by seeking blessings for favorable winds, and a plentiful catch. The bridge and the waters beneath it connect– both visually and physically– sacred places like the St.Marys statue, and churches on the shore. With traffic towards the islands from Jaffna city and back on one the land, fishing boats in the waters, and birds soaring in the hot and brooding June air, the Pannai Bridge and the waters are the medium of connectivity between sacred places within the larger aqueous sacred landscape. The water, fishing boats, winds, mangroves, the bridge, shores, farming and sustenance, together shape the architecture of sacredness in the watery terrains of Jaffna Peninsula.
Daily sea cucumber farming and fishing by families on either side of Pannai bridge are integral to this sacred aqueous landscape. Like the St.Mary’s statue, another statue of St. Antony in waters closer to Gurunagar harbour, occupies a strategic spatial position. It functions both as a sacred place as well as a navigation spatial marker (much like a light house) during night. The statue, placed atop a tall pole is not only an everyday sacred place but also signals changes in the wind directions and water flow. The statues, thus serve as functional elements of architecture– mediating daily life, commerce, sacredness and survival.
Architectures of sacredness in this aqueous landscape are interconnected both spatially and temporally. Coming together of people in boats and inaugural celebration at another Saint Antony’s statue on a stepped rectangular plinth in the waters marks the first day of the annual festival at the St. Antony’s Church Passiyoor. At this site, light shines at night, and the decorated Antony’s statue during the day acts as a replica of the major church of Passaiyoor in the waters. This spatial interconnectedness of two sacred places is rehearsed annually in addition to its everyday relevance as a place of devotion.
Existing within what Anuradha Mattur and Dilip da Cunha call an ocean of wetness, these architecture of sacredness are celebrated during annual festivals that connect families from different localities by bridges or boats. The church in Kurusaditivu (on one side of Pannai Bridge), St. Mary’s church in Sirutheevu (on the other side) are just two among the many such places of worship on islands with no connecting bridges. In February and March, when the winds and other ecological conditions are favorable, people from shores of Jaffna Peninsula travel by boats to these islands, bringing tents and supplies to stay and participate in festivals. The church on Palaitivu, an island in the ocean almost 20 kms from Passaiyoor harbour, draws pilgrims even from regions like Manalkadu, Mathangal and Nainativu, Neduntheevu, Analativu and Eluvathivu during festival days. These islands with only a church or two with just one or two churches with no residential areas, become activated during these festivals, re-connecting regional communities and in effect, contributing to the making of architecture in the aqueous sacred landscape.
Much like the St. Antony’s and St.Mary’s, islands such as Sirutivu– with a single church and no residential structures– play a vital role in shaping this region’s landscape. Walkable through shallow waters during low tides from Pannai Bridge, the church on Sirutivu is a part of daily worship and commerce. Alongside its sacred nature, farmers in this place use the space to boil, clean, dry and prepare sea cucumbers for bulk sale to private export companies. Sirutivu remains active during day time due to its significance as both a sacred site and a daily work space. Like many such islands with isolated churches, it is one among several sacred nodes in this inter-connected aqueous sacred geography.
Architecture of sacredness here is fluid, porous, participatory, responsive, adaptive, relational– anchored in both place and practice. The sacred landscape is deeply entangled with daily activities, livelihoods and commerce. Sacred architecture in islands of Jaffna Peninsula transcends land-water division. With water itself as a primary agent in shaping the inter-connected sacred terrain. Centering attraction on the daily lives and spatial practices of people in islands and waters offers meaningful insights that challenge colonial disciplinary definitions of what architecture and the imposed notion of timelessness in sacred architecture in South Asia’s sacred architecture.
Kachatheevu, the farthest island from Jaffna city, and lying between India and Sri Lanka is an important case study for future research. Each March, its church’s festival (coinciding with festivals of the churches in other islands in the Jaffna Peninsula), attracts people from both the countries. This is the only time when devotees are allowed to access the island and needs prior precision from the border protection forces/ navy. Caught in the post colonial nation state borders, sacred places within the aqueous sacred landscape in this region can unravel an connected architectural history that extends beyond elitist, colonial, euro centric ideas of architecture.
Future research should consider the inter-connected cyclical human activities across islands in this cultural zone including southern India, Northern Sri Lanka and the water in between. Islands such as Sirutivu, Kachatheevu, Paruthitivu, Palaitivu, Kakarativu, and Nerianpitivu– each with only solitary church serve as vital modes in an interlinked network of sacredness, where cyclical human activities unfold across watery geographies and national boundaries. Exploring these interconnected sacred places shaped by water, movement, ritual, and everyday life, can offer alternative reading of architecture/sacredness.
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