A tweet by BRISL (an Organisation masking information, evaluation & analysis on Belt & Road Initiative from a Sri Lankan perspective), claiming the “Lanka Princess” Xu Shi Yin’e attended this yr’s Vesak celebrations on the Sri Lankan Embassy in Beijing on May 26 and she is a nineteenth era descendant of a prince from the courtroom of King Parakramabahu VI of Kotte, has set the web on fireplace throughout Sri Lanka and its diaspora all around the World.
Many Sri Lankans who’re already cautious of the rising presence of China and Chinese nationals throughout the Indian Ocean island nation have taken to social media platforms to query and ridicule these claims. Some are expressing anger and dismay over the brazenness of China.
Xu Shi Yin’e, the “Lanka Princess” attended the Vesak celebrations 2021 on the Embassy in Beijing on twenty sixth May 2021. She is a nineteenth era descendant of a prince from the courtroom of King Parakramabahu VI of Kotte. pic.twitter.com/hntzEsLgYZ— BRISL (@BRI_SL) May 28, 2021
According to Sri Lankan mythology, a Fifteenth-century Sinhalese prince had stayed again in China after he married a Chinese lady. Chinese media and officers declare Xu Shi Yin’e is a direct descendant of that prince.
In the Nineties, her id got here to gentle when a improvement challenge threatened to destroy her household’s burial tombs in Shijia Tomb on Mt. Qingyuan. Hence, the historical past of the Ceylon Prince in Quanzhou was unveiled. Legends state {that a} Ceylon prince visiting China was not in a position to return to his nation due to a cousin who had usurped his father’s throne at Kotte (kind of, the present-day Colombo) and killed his brothers. So, he stayed in China, married and settled down, taking over the title of ‘Shi’. According to Yin’e, the rationale he didn’t return is just not political however merely love. Some even argue that the prince was Alakeshvara, the courageous king of Kotte who was kidnapped and taken to China by the generals of Ming dynasty. After pardoning him, the Ming emperor had put in Parakramabahu VI as the brand new king in Sri Lanka.
All these tales are shrouded in thriller and nobody is able to authenticate them.
According to Sasanka Perara of South Asian University, there’s a deafening silence on the Chinese belligerence in the Fifteenth century although there are enough references to the incident from data of the time in addition to from the work of latter-day students reminiscent of Edward Dreyer, Louise Levathes, Senarath Paranavitana and others. All these sources collectively supply an affordable sense of what occurred not solely in Lanka however the total contexts and politics of Chinese naval enlargement in the Fifteenth century.
The newest claims are being dubbed as a Chinese joke on Sri Lankan historical past. Some are even calling it a Chinese psychological operation to seize Sri Lanka by planting such “nonsensical” tales to ascertain an historical hyperlink.
Philip Friedrich, a historian and researcher, rubbishes the Ceylonese prince principle. He mentioned, “The Mahavamsa and Sinhala vamsas (texts like the Rajavaliya and Rajaratnakaraya) don’t offer a clear genealogy of Parakramabahu VI’s royal household. This whole period is a historiographic morass”.
In a collection of tweets, he has tried to debunk the Ceylonese “princess” story.
“I don’t know what the intentions behind the ‘Ceylon Princess’ story are – if it’s part of long-con, Chinese influence operation in SL, at least they got the Quanzhou part right! But one thing that the story can’t offer is an unmediated link to an ‘authentic’ Sinhala sovereignty,” he mentioned.
China has invested closely in Sri Lanka and the island nation has borrowed billions of {dollars} from it in the final 10 years to take up big infrastructure initiatives. China already controls the Hambantota port in the south and is constructing a global port metropolis proper subsequent to the Sri Lankan President’s official residence on the land reclaimed from the Indian Ocean. This port metropolis will probably be like a Chinese colony in the Sri Lankan capital, allege many locals.
Though the Sri Lankan authorities is just not commenting on the newly-found Ceylonese “princess” in China, the general public temper is kind of in opposition to it.
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