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Traditional Passion shows:
A spiritual and religious exercise
by W.T.A. Leslie Fernando
The events connected with the Passion, Death and Resurrection of
Christ have been enacted and dramatised all over the Christian world. It
is said that events in Easter gave birth to Christian drama. In Sri
Lanka too we have a popular form of drama on the Death and Resurrection
of Christ known in Sinhala as Pasku.
On Good Friday, in many Catholic churches in the Western coastal belt
in our country, Passion shows known as Pasku are performed. The history
of these Passion plays relates to the Portuguese period.
It is on record that in Portuguese times, a Fransican friar at
Matara, called Antonio Peixoto had enacted a drama on Christ and on the
lives of Saints. These plays had even impressed non-Catholics. He also
had composed plaintive hymmns on the Passion of Christ that inspired Fr.
Jacome Gonsalvez when he composed Pasan during Dutch times.
It is very likely that Antonio Peixoto had staged plays on the
Passion of Christ. However, none of the plays performed during the
Portuguese times has come down to us.
It was the Oratorian Father who came to the island in the latter half
of the 17th century who introduced the traditional Passion plays. The
Jesuit priests in Goa used the technique of puppet plays to instruct and
edify the faithful.
Blessed Joseph Vaz, seeing that people loved to see the puppet plays,
initiated the performance of Passion plays in Sri Lanka on the model of
religious puppet drama he had witnessed in Goa with images of sacred
personages.
It is recorded in 'The Oratorian Mission' that there were Passion
shows in Kandy and in Wanni during the season of Lent in 706 and later
in Trincomalee and several other places.
Book of sermons
Fr. Jacome Gonsalvez, the assistant, companion and successor of
Blessed Joseph Vaz, did much to improve these Passion plays. Fr.
Gonsalvez wrote Dukprapthi Prasangaya, a book of nine sermons to be
recited while the show was on. To break the tedium of listening to
sermons he also composed Pasan or lamentations to be chanted in a
plaintive tone. When Fr. Gonsalvez was at Bolawatta, the Passion shows
were performed there with all the solemnity.
 These Passion shows were performed inside a large shed which was
covered at the bottom with cadjan walls, about eight feet in height. The
statues were moved by people, covered by the cadjan walls, so that to
the spectators it appeared as if they were moving on the stage. A leader
called Annavi Rala who had an appealing voice explained the various
scenes in a melodious tone.
As time went, a permanent shed was built near churches, to enact the
Passion show. However, when most of the scenes of the Passion plays
began to be enacted in the open air, these Pasku sheds were removed.
Today you get Pasku sheds only in Pitipana and Pamunugama. Still the
Passion play at Pitipana is enacted in the Pasku shed.
According to Prof. E.R. Sarachchandra, the earliest traditional
Passion play in the present form was performed at Pesalai, Mannar. Most
of the scenes in these Passion plays were performed in the open air. The
movements of the statues were effected by strings.
The fisherfolk of Negombo and Chilaw who went on fishing expeditions
in the Mannar area during the off-season followed the Pesalai Passion
play and enacted Passion plays in their native areas as well. Till
recently, a Passion play in Tamil similar to that at Pesalai was enacted
at St. Sebastian's Church, Sea Street, Negombo. These Passion plays
later spread to Sinhala Catholic areas such as Duwa, Pitipana, Negombo,
Katuwapitiya, Pamunugama, Bolawatta, Wennapuwa, Katuneriya, Chilaw,
Wadduwa, Payagala and Maggona.
Human actors used
The famous Duwa Passion play surpassed all the traditional Passion
plays performed in churches. In 1939 when Rev. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody
became the parish priest of Duwa, he revised and recast the Passion
play. He used human actors for all the scenes except for Christ and
Mary. In addition to the traditional Pasan Rev. Fr. Jayakody composed
his own hymns for the play.
Since then the fame of the Duwa Passion Play spread far and wide. At
that time the colourful Duwa Passion Play enacted with over 250 actors,
all drawn from the hamlet of Duwa, was considered as the greatest
Passion show in Asia.
The Pitipana Passion Play was performed once in three years when the
statue of Christ at Duwa was taken for the Passion show at St. Peter's
Church, Negombo. It was enacted with the traditional sermons, Pasan and
Lthoni in the permanent Pasku shed in front of the church. Later it was
presented by a Pothegura with some Nadagam aspects such as Innisai,
Thodayama and Demala Bera. The Pitipana Passion play was a blend of
Pasku drama and Nadagam traditions.
Likewise, the traditional Passion play in each place developed into
an identity of its own. In Katuwapitiya for instance, Three Hours of
Agony of Christ on the Cross is presented by a Pothegura in Nadagam. In
most of the churches, the Passion plays and Three Hours of Agony of
Christ on the Cross are performed with a combination of statues and
human actors.
In the past the Passion play began on Palm Sunday, when some scenes
from the Old Testament, the Temptation of the Christ by the devil and
the triumphant entry of Christ to Jerusalem were shown. The next show
was on Maundy Thursday where the Last Supper, the Agony of Christ in
Gethsamanee Garden and taking of Christ as a prisoner were performed. On
Good Friday the scenes at the Judgement Hall of Pilate, carrying the
Cross and the Crucifixion were enacted.
The Resurrection was shown on Easter Sunday. Today, there is a line
of thought including among some members of the clergy that the
traditional Passion shows and Three Hours of the Agony of Christ on the
Cross should be abandoned.
They submit that although the plays served some purpose in the past,
today they are an anachronism to the enlightened Catholics of the modern
age.
Some say that Passion shows are a form of idolatry, a useless
exercise bent on emotion, found only in Sri Lanka. They argue that
instead the life of Christ should be inculcated to people in other ways
so as to appeal to their intellect.
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Scenes from Passion plays |
It should be emphasised that the traditional Passion shows have been
enacted for several centuries for instruction and edification of the
faithful and they have stood the test of time. Even today, when the
crucifixion is enacted with the statue of Christ in churches on Good
Friday, they move the devotees with devotion.
If Passion plays were deemed as an emotional exercise based on
idolatry, pilgrim centres such as Madhu, Talawila and Our Lady of Matara
could be censured as places based on legendary statues.
We could also hear of phenomena such as bleeding from wooden statues
and reflections of statues on walls which are temporary. There are also
various healing devices based on mass hypnotism. At one time thousands
of Catholics flocked to Kudagama for miraculous healings, but the place
is now deserted. In comparison to these emotional outbursts, the Passion
shows are a harmless spiritual exercise.
It is customary for Catholics in Sri Lanka to come to their native
place for religious observances during the Holy Week. They do so for
Christmas as well. After Christmas Mass, they spend time on festivity,
merry making and visiting relations and friends.
On the contrary, more emphasis is placed on religious observances at
Easter. The Passion plays and Three Hours of Agony of Christ at the
Cross have helped in no small measure to maintain this religious
atmosphere at Easter. On the other hand, by abandoning the traditional
Passion shows, we would make more room for sophisticated drama and
commercialisation of the life and Passion of Christ.
As such the traditional Passion shows in Sri Lanka should be
encouraged, preserved and maintained as a spiritual religious exercise.
The writer is a former High Court Judge and Vice President of the
Newman Society Alumni Association.
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