The evaluation team was highly impressed with the presentation and the collections and took the requests positively. Prof. Dr. Abhi Subedi, Vice President, Prof. Dr. Churamani Bandhu, Secretary General, Mr. Tej Prakash Shrestha, Treasurer, Dr. Jai Raj Pant, Secretary and Mr. Bhim Narayan Regmi were present during the presentation. Prof. Dr. Abhi Subedi and Dr. Sangita Rayamajhi have presented on the works done under the projects run by NFS at one day seminar organized for the NGOs that are running projects in Finnish Local Cooperation.

A group of Nepali Schorlars participated in ‘International Workshop on Traditional Knowledge Systems, Museums and Intangible Natural Heritage: a capacity building workshop’ held at Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad and Araku Valley, Andhra Pradesh, India from 2-8 February 2008 organized by ICOM in collaboration with Salarjung Museum, Government of India and Pacific Asia observatory for cultural diversity in human development.

The capacity building workshop aimed to promote museums as the hubs for documentations of traditional knowledge, intangible heritage and natural history and systems that are culturally perceived. There were more than 50 participants from different countries like France, Italy, Afghanistan, Australia, Pakistan, Vanuatu, Maldives, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India

and Vietnam. The opening key note was delivered by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan IIC chairperson, Asia Project. Prof. Tulasi Diwasa, Prof. Dr. Churamani Bandhu President, Secretary General respectively of NFS (Nepali Folklore Society); Mr. Jal Krishna Shrestha, Mr. Bharat Rawat, President, Secretary General respectively of Nepal chapter ICOM and specialists Prof. Prem Kumar Khatry, Dr. Hari Prasad Shrestha and Mr. Bhesh Narayan Dahal were the participants from Nepal.

Prof. Tulasi Diwasa presented the country report “Traditional Knowledge and Intangible Natural Heritage of Nepal” on behalf of the participants from Nepal. Prof. Khatry, Dr. Shrestha and Mr. Dahal also presented a paper on documenting intangible natural heritage.

The topic I have selected may seem rather paradoxical. How could folk poetry which expresses the traditional 'peasant sensibility' be used to express a modern sensibility; convey thoughts and emotions of a modern society which is far removed from the traditional peasant society. But if we examine the works of our modern poets in Sri Lanka, and their attempt to express a modern sensibility, this apparent paradoxical nature turns out to be rather baseless. Such a view I believe is a result of superficial observations made on this matter by those unaware of the craft and function of the poet; the alchemy that goes into the production of poetry.

To use poetry as a vehicle to convey thoughts and emotions of a modern urban society has been a main concern of our poets during the last century. Almost all of them have grappled with this problem. In terms of this pursuit they could be grouped into four categories. The first category of scholarly poets belonging to an older generation who attempted this task looked up to our classical literature which had ceased to evolve after the 17th century. Our classical literature which had an unbroken record of evolution over centuries came to an abrupt end with our coming under foreign rule in the seventeenth century.

Colonial rule and the cultural imperialism that came along with it made it impossible for that classical literature to survive any longer. The indigenous literati disappeared and was replaced

by an English educated literati who tended to look down upon the indigenous literature and culture. The first generation of poets who attempted to express a modern sensibility looked for a poetic tradition in that classical literature which had ceased to evolve after the 17th century. What they picked up for a tradition was a fossilized past, an archaic language and worn out poetic forms .Little did they realize that a literary tradition does not reside within the main stream once it gets stagnant but seeks new paths ,new tributaries for its continuance .Once such path is the folk literature of the people .What happens in this instance could be looked upon as tradition going back to where it originated , from where the literati took it over to express their more complex more sophisticated thoughts and emotions. This relationship between the literati and the folk is a feature we see through out our literature over the centuries. The first generation of our poets never realized this, and took over a fossilized poetic diction which was incapable of expressing a modern sensibility.

It was the failure of this first generation of scholarly poets that brought about the emergence of a new group of younger poets called 'Colombo Poets' in the middle of the last century. They were less informed and also less aware of the classical literature .They had a nodding acquaintance of the English poets, Tennyson Shelly and Wordsworth whom they had read as school children . They attempted to express a modern sensibility through a people diction was 'invented ' by them. They never realized the necessity of a poetic tradition. The poetic diction they 'invented' was forged out of new journalistic language of the newspapers, and new fictional works based on the western novel . They invented new metaphors, images and symbols to which the Sinhala reader could not respond .

With the newly invented language what they could do was to present a prosaic picture of the modern world them, and not a poetic interpretation of that world . That prosaic picture was so often a sentimental one and at best reflected a yearning to escape from the realities of the modern world . Being unaware of a poetic tradition it is not surprising that they could not grapple with a what they experienced and make poetry out of them. The novelty of their poetry did not last for more than two decade or so.

These poets were replaced in the sixties by another group of young poets centered round peradeniyz University. They were well versed in western literature. They knew not only Shelly and Wordsworth but practitioners of most recent forms of poetry as free verse  - TS Eliot, Ezra Pound and Baudelaire were their gurus. They assumed that the failure of the Colombo poets was due to their sticking to a traditional poetic form and if that could be replaced by a kind of free verse then one would be able to express a modern sensibility. They too completely ignored theneed for a poetic tradition. The language they invented, the images and the metaphors they created were almost unintelligible to the average.

Sinhala reader, and to understand these, sometimes one had to go to Eliot or Baudelaire. The result of this new free verse movement was to wean away the reader from the enjoyment of poetry. The attempt to present a modern sensibility through their poetry has in fact caused death of poetry and weaned the reader away from poetry. The fourth category of poets who have attempted to present a modern sensibility through their work could be distinguished from the above three groups by their search for a poetic tradition. They have realized the importance of a poetic tradition and the fact that any new sensibility had to have recourse to a tradition for its expression. They have gone to folk poetry for discovering this tradition. They believe that with the disappearance of our poetic tradition from the main stream of the classical literature of the seventeenth century, it has continued its survival through folk poetry. They believe a new poetic diction could be forged to present a modern sensibility through elements of folk poetry.

Their work can be seen as the most successful attempt at expressing a modern sensibility. As a poet I myself have chosen this path and used elements in folk poetry to present a modern

sensibility.