The 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

RESPONSE of Wannakuwatta Amaradeva

Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies
Manila, Philippines

Your Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, members of the Magsaysay family, distinguished guests, trustees, fellow awardees, ladies and gentlemen, Mabuhay!

I am deeply honoured as a Sri Lankan to be conferred the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award tonight -- an award which in turn, honours the name of one of the most outstanding statesmen of Asia, a humanistic leader and a staunch champion of liberty of whose services the world was tragically deprived 44 years ago.

I still have pleasant memories of my first visit to Manila way back in 1966 to attend the International Music Symposium.

The last recipient of the Magsaysay Award from my country was Prof. Ediriwira Sarachchandra, the father of modern Sri Lankan drama, with whom I was privileged to enjoy a fruitful partnership of over four decades until his demise five years ago. I collaborated with him in his musical plays and it was indeed a rich and rewarding experience.

If Dr. Sarachchandra’s pioneering role was to adapt the traditional drama to the modern stage, I in my own humble way have sought to undertake a similar task for my country’s music. What I have tried to do is to blend the North Indian classical tradition which is inseparable from the great tradition in our part of the world, with the folk music of Sri Lanka to make of it what I hope is a distinctive idiom of music.

While recognizing this great tradition, I have also been fully exposed to other influences, both occidental and oriental, believing with Mahatma Gandhi that, I quote - “I want cultures of all lands to blow into my house as freely as possible but I refuse to be blown off my feet”, unquote.

Critics have been kind enough to say that I have been able to create a national idiom of music without merely theorizing on the need for one. What, then, has been my approach to music?

Basically, what I have tried to do is to build on the work of masters both in India and Sri Lanka while not adhering slavishly to either the classical tradition or the folk tradition.

My life’s mission has been to refine this folk tradition and synthesize it with the Indian classical tradition, which I consider to be part of our heritage, without diluting its quality but adding a new dimension to it.

I thank the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for this honour conferred on me personally and on Sri Lanka in general, and hope that this will be a source of inspiration to my country’s new generation.

Maraming Salamat!