The Violins that Survived (Monday’s Bow Nov. 28)

The Violin that Survived a War

During his time in Sri Lanka, Priyath Liyanage of the BBC World Service caught a brief sight of a young boy working his way across the battlefield with something quite unusual: a violin case slung over his shoulder. He asked himself: “At a time when people took the one thing they could carry, why was this instrument so precious?” With only a picture of this boy and the handful of men who walked with him, Liyanage returned to Sri Lanka to find the “boy with the violin.”

He never found him.

The boy remains a “glimpse on a newsreel.” Yet it was that image that spurred Liyanage on his journey for the BBC, and the course of that journey revealed to him the stories of a land torn by decades of conflict.

Plagued with the scourge of civil war, the lives of many Sri Lankan people were under siege for years, caught in the crossfire between the military and the Tamil Tiger rebels. While the war ended in May of 2009, the bloody conflict has left wounds that are still fresh in more than just the hearts and minds of the people. Almost 300,000 were driven out of their homes along with the retreating Tigers and trapped with them in a small strip of land where they largely suffered the same fate as the rebels.

Through all of that, artists continued to operate during and after the war, performing on the street, in bars, in bunkers… their musical lives persisting against the backdrop of a bleak existence. Many of the artists felt like giving up, but they continued on. Some sang for the Tigers. Some played for the government soliders. Others made their music for whoever would listen: visitors, journalists, other musicians.

How does music thrive in such a life? We can think of many musicians who struggle in the United States, fighting over auditions, jobs, gigs, and their artistic pride and honor. Often, artists are willing to go through that struggle because their music represents something to them that cannot be fully understood just with the brain. In Sri Lanka there is a culture that, against overwhelming odds, remains and perhaps even flourishes. It flourishes in the way it has helped preserve the souls of those who survived the war.

When the music ends, what’s left is all in the remains they have inherited from the pains that have suffered.

Depressing? Yes, but also inspiring. Music stands as a powerful testament to our ability to endure and overcome adversity. The boy and the violin, though they have not been found… or maybe because they have not been found… symbolize that never-ending journey and struggle.

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