Preserving small historic townscapes in Southern Province, Sri Lanka : identifying core-elements of towns' identities based on residents' and visitors' cognition of these towns

Abstract

This study addresses the issue of preservation and revitalization of small historic towns in the southern province of Sri Lanka. The origin of these towns, dispersed over the Galle and Matara Districts, goes back to the period of colonial domination of the Maritime Provinces of the island in the 18th and 19th century. The changes occurred within these towns are much slower compared to the another parts of the country, but now they are faced with increased pressure for growth and change, and hence needs preservation efforts to retain their identity while achieving the desired growth. The study argues that preservation activity, in this context, has to be a culture-supportive activity while dealing with the change of the culture due to development and its resultant stress. Approach to culture-supportiveness desires the identification of core and peripheral aspects of the culture and the cultural landscape. The core-elements of a culture and the cultural landscape need preservation while the peripheral elements can be allowed to change. In order to identify these core/peripheral elements, the study proposes to adopt environmental cognitive theory and cognitive mapping technique. Accordingly the study analyzes the cognitive maps collected from both the residents and visitors of the selected towns and identifies the elements of these southern small towns that are worth preserving