The productive knowledge collected for a long period of time by the people who lived in any society of the country, the identity of the nation and the valuable things we inherited from our past which we can show to the world can be called as our national heritage. We have inherited this national heritage as nature gifted things and human creations. National heritage becomes diverse as language, Technology, literature, Art creations, Carvings, Paintings, Sculptures, Natural Resources and Customs and Manners.
It is true that these are the identical features of a nation that shows its dignity, independence and pride. Therefore, the countries with a heritage have gained the highest places in the world. We have to accept the fact that when we compare the civilizations of Babilonia, Greece and Egypt, Sri Lanka has a great heritage that comes from the primordial past. Though Sri Lanka is a very small island in extent, it has an ancient heritage in the human civilization which has passed several distinguished turning points regarding the cultural, social and linguistic fields and conceptual capabilities. Human beings that are born as Sri Lankans bearing that great heritage on his or her shoulders has a pride as well as a responsibility to safeguard it.
Our real ancient heritage is buried under each and every inch of this land. Many things that we gave to the world from this land of ‘Hela Dweepa’(Island of Sri Lanka) are innumerable. We must always be aware of the national heritage that we inherited and its values. If we don’t have any understanding about our heritage it will be destroyed. In the long written history more than 2000 years old and verbal history that gone beyond that era there are incidences we can hear that our heritage had gone to the mouth of destruction. The damage occurred to our national heritage because of the cultural invasions by neighboring countries is very serious. Because of the way they have destroyed some of our indigenous creations there is no any clues or news at least that we can access to.
This Sinhala Dweepa (Island of Sri Lanka) was governed by three nations from time to time. Those were Portuguese, Dutch and British invaders. They deliberately destroyed our national assets and valuable belongings. They robbed some more valuable things from us. Among them were the written evidence belonging to the King Rawana and many more. We all, despite of our community, cast and religion should protect this great heritage and respect it. Otherwise, our history, our self-esteem and our identity will lose forever.
When it comes to Archaeology, the great service they do by searching for physical factors as well as conceptual factors to tell the world, the heritage and the pride linked with it, is a praiseworthy task. The students who gain the highest utility of free education of this country will take Archaeology as their subject field and be capable of imparting the knowledge of history and heritage to those who are ignorant of it. We, as a country and a nation are obliged to them.
Sri Lanka has been a state with its own indigenous skills and know-how taken from other civilizations such as India, Persia,China, small Asian counties as well as Egypt and East Asian Countries. And now it is passing a revolutionary period abreast of the time.
In an atmosphere where the actual rights of those creations do not possess to the present generation, the efforts taken by the Archaeologists to regain them is of great importance. In the context of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Archaeological Department, the Central Cultural Fund As well as some Archaeological Research Institutes affiliated to Universities are engaging in an incomparable task. Hence, in an environment where the present generation is stepping into the digital world, it is very important to transcribe the information about our heritage for the sake of future generation. In this historical endeavor, we too, contribute to it as possible as we can
