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| Sunday, 23 June 2002 |
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Features |  |
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Sel Lipi : A Shih on the Lion's throne Last week several members of a Chinese family called Shih, who claim to be descended from a certain Ba-lai-na, were welcomed to Sri Lanka. It seems that 'Shih' means 'Sinhalese' in Chinese, while Ba-lai-na was an envoy of King Parakramabahu VI (known as 'Seay-pa-nea-na' in Chinese) to the court of the Chinese Emperor. Apparently, Ba-lai-na settled in Ming Dynasty China after marrying a Chinese girl of Persian origin. Those who remember their mediaeval Sri Lankan history will recall that the Ming Emperors sent the intrepid eunuch Admiral Cheng Ho on a voyage of discovery and around 1410 he visited Kotte, where Bhuvanekabahu V treated him rudely. Consequently, he deposed Bhuvanekabahu and exiled him to China. Later, Parakramabahu VI was appointed monarch in his place. Of course, there have been no shortages of Sri Lankan relatives in East Asia. It has been reported that the descendants of the deposed Bhuvanekabahu live in South China. Further, it seems that a Sri Lankan princess married into the royal family of Korea. However, the existence of these particular relations raises certain complications. The appointment of a King of Sri Lanka by the Son of Heaven, as the Ming Emperors were titled, would, de-jure make that king a vassal of China. His envoy would have belonged to the royal family, as sending someone less exalted would have been demeaning to the Ming Emperor. Hence, would it be wrong to assume that the Shihs are direct descendants of the Kotte dynasty? The Kotte dynasty became extinct with King Dom Joao Dharmapala, who left his kingdom to the Portuguese. The Kandyan Kings traced their legitimacy through Dona Catherina, the descendant of the Peradeniya dynasty, and who had been forcibly married by Konappu Bandara, alias Wimaladharmasuriya, alias Dom Joao of Austria. One assumes that if there had been any members of the Kotte family who opposed Portuguese rule, the Kandyan kings would have forged links with them. Instead, they married into the Nayakkar family, which gave us the last King of Kandy, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe. The pretenders to the throne of Sri Lanka are the scions of Sri Wickrama's clan. The Kandyan kings were never acknowledged as suzerains of the whole island, only of the Kandyan kingdom itself. However, the Kotte dynasty was the hegemonic power in the whole island. Now, in the Shih clan, we find a legitimate branch of the Kotte dynasty. Furthermore, it is a branch known to have enjoyed the mandate of the Mandate of Heaven, the Ming court being sovereign of Sri Lanka at the time. Hence, the Shihs must be the legitimate monarchs of this country! Of course, we are a republic now, so such considerations should not matter. They do, however: our aristocrats love to show off their genealogies and their swords and elephant tusks. Some people go to the extent of inventing exalted ancestors to prove they are more aristocratic than others. Alas for the radalas, both low-country and Kandyan, they may all have to bow before the Shihs, who are royalty, not mere aristocracy! - Gotabhaya |
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