Deepa Mehta's 'Funny Boy' is facing calls for a boycott as criticism mounts over the lack of Tamil representation in the film and Mehta's links to the Rajapaksa regime. The film, which is based on the 1994 novel written by Shyam Selvadurai, follows a queer Tamil boy in the years leading up to the 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms in Colombo, when thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces.
Photograph by Gajan Bala Shan Vincent de Paul who goes by the moniker SVDP, is a Toronto-based Tamil rapper and director. His debut album "Saviors" was released in 2016, followed by his sophomore album "Trigger Happy Heartbreak" in 2017. Shan has released a song from his upcoming album "Made in Jaffna" - titled "One Hundred Thousand Flowers" . The song reflects on the Tamil genocide. It shares name with a foundation newly founded by Shan, which aims to foster music, arts and culture for the Tamil community globally, with an emphasis on youth and those who have been affected by the armed...
The 217th victory day of Pandara Vanniyan, the last sovereign of the Vanni chieftaincy was commemorated last month with fanfare across the Tamil homeland in the North-East. Proceedings began early morning in Vavuniya in the presence of Urban Council Chairman E. Gowthaman who also organised the event last month. People gathered to pay respects to the statue of the chieftain who ruled the Vanni region in the 18th century. Known as the 'Last King of Vanni', he died fighting colonial rule by the Dutch and British. They decorated Pandara Vanniyan’s statue with garlands and ceremonially showered...
Sri Lankan troops have been deployed at the Nallur Kandasamy Temple in Jaffna this week, as the temple’s annual festival – thiruvizha – began last month .
The new moon in Aadi (July) is one of the three most powerful new moons of the year. Devotees honour their ancestors by observing fasts, feeding crows and bathing in large bodies of natural water to rid themselves of their sins.
The annual Nainativu Nagapooshani Amman Temple ‘Ther’ was held on Friday. The historic temple festival was celebrated in its traditionally spectacular fashion with the day commencing with the “Vasantha Mandapam Pooja” at 7am, followed by the chariot being transported to offer blessings to the devotees.
The historic Oddusuddan Thanthondreeswarar temple hunting festival ( Vettai thiruvizha) was held in Mullaitivu on Wednesday to conclude the temple's annual Thiruvizha.
Human Rights Solidarity commemorated refugee week and world refugee day by speaking to Gayathri Thivyaa, a medical student at Imperial College London and the child of Tamil refugees who fled the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. Reflecting on her own experiences as well as the experience of her parents, Thivyaa spoke about the impact that trauma has on refugees and their children, saying also that “the impact […} on subsequent generations is overlooked.” She also spoke about the hardship of Tamils in Sri Lanka as well as the difficulties they face once they come to a new country. “I’ve seen...
Tributes have poured from across the Tamil Canadian community for 52-year-old Surendran Thambirajah, who passed away earlier this month after he stopped to help another driver who had crashed their car in Ontario. Thambirajah had stopped at the scene of a crash to offer his assistance, after another vehicle has crashed into a hydro pole. He passed away after being struck by a downed wire. He was a popular and well known community activist after he moved to Canada in 1986, fleeing the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. Once in Canada, he was a founding member of a Tamil school in Ottawa and created...
The following pieces are by Yhalisai and Kulalisai, both escaped the war in the Vanni in 2009 and now live in the diaspora. 18th of May Our hopes and dreams, they did betray. For all their cruelty, they must pay. For our freedom, it's a long delay. We didn't want war, but there was no other way. Some people think Sri Lanka's a display, A "beautiful" island for their holiday. But they only see what the government portrays, Not the truth that's hidden away. The Sri Lankan government is to be blamed. Tamil genocide has always been their aim. By calling us "terrorists", they wanted to frame Us,...