Talk:Sri Lanka: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:15, 4 March 2026

Talk

Discussion for: Sri Lanka • View • Links • Related changes

Use this page for verification notes, disputes, and action items. Keep narrative content on the article.

Page scope

This page documents cannabis in Sri Lanka — legal status, cultivation history, cultural context, and conservation. General country information belongs on Wikipedia.

Content guidelines

* Claims require sources — field reports, academic papers, news articles

Data aggregates from accession pages where possible
Legal/policy info needs dates and citations

Sections needing work

* Vocabulary (historical Ayurvedic terms, Tamil vocabulary, contemporary slang)

Culinary and recreational use (stub)
Cultivation (provincial detail, methods, civil war effects)
Kerala Cannabis (morphological comparison, trade history)
Varieties and Genetics (entirely empty pending fieldwork)
Conservation Status
Drug price history
Several ^{citation needed} tags remain

Discussion

Page history

This country page was built across multiple sessions in March 2026 as part of the Landrace.Wiki Sri Lanka documentation project.

Session 1 (2 March 2026): Source verification of 8 previously rejected historical news items (1675--1961). Established sourcing status for all items. Identified the 1675 Dutch ban claim as unsourced. Uploaded Uragoda (1983), SLMA (2018), and Weliange (2018) to project files. Produced the source verification report.

Session 2 (3 March 2026): Drafted the country page, the Uragoda (1983) and Weliange (2018) Historical Source pages, and the first Patreon blog post ("Twenty Texts, Seventeen Centuries"). Integrated all seven colonial policy items (1867--1961) directly into the Legal History section rather than as standalone news items. Drafted the Knox (1681) and Hooke (1689) Historical Source pages and accompanying blog post ("The Sailor, the Scientist, and the Bangue").

Session 3 (4 March 2026): Drafted the Thalpathe Piliyam Historical Source page and the Diddeniya & Kulatunga (2021) Research Item, based on a newly identified peer-reviewed paper reviewing 267 cannabis formulations in the government's 21-volume ola leaf transcription series. Accompanying blog post ("267 Formulations on Palm Leaf") and talk page for the Thalpathe Piliyam page. Updated country page to reference Thalpathe Piliyam findings. -- Éloïse Dillon

The 1675 Dutch ban

The claim that the Dutch banned narcotic trafficking in Ceylon in 1675 is flagged on the page as unverified. Uragoda (1983), the most thorough scholarly treatment of the Dutch period, does not mention it. The claim circulates through a chain of secondary sources originating from Wikipedia. The best lead is Jayasuriya (1986), which we have not been able to consult. If anyone can check Jayasuriya pp. 4--5, this could be resolved. -- Éloïse Dillon

Van Goens memoirs

A standalone Historical Source page for Ryckloff Van Goens' memoirs (1663) was drafted but not published. The memoirs document the opium trade under Dutch administration but contain no cannabis content. The Uragoda (1983) page already cites Van Goens appropriately. A standalone page for a non-cannabis source was hard to justify. -- Éloïse Dillon

Thalpathe Piliyam as Historical Source

The Thalpathe Piliyam is a modern government publication (1992--present), not a historical text in the conventional sense. It was given a Historical Source page because its content derives from ola leaf manuscripts of unknown but potentially considerable age, and the 267 cannabis formulations it contains constitute primary evidence of how cannabis was used in Sri Lankan traditional medicine. Full editorial reasoning is on the Thalpathe Piliyam talk page. -- Éloïse Dillon

Policy items as page sections

The seven colonial legislative milestones (1867 Ordinance, 1893 meeting, 1897 import ban, 1907 debate, 1907 Indian Hemp Ordinance, 1935 PODD, 1961 Ayurveda Act) were integrated into the Legal History section rather than created as standalone news items or pages. They are sourced from Uragoda (1983) and UNODC (2005), neither of which has a URL suitable for the news item source field, and the narrative context is better served by connected prose than isolated items. -- Éloïse Dillon

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 === Thalpathe Piliyam as Historical Source ===
-The Thalpathe Piliyam is a modern government publication (1992--present), not a historical text in the conventional sense. It was given a Historical Source page because its content derives from ola leaf manuscripts of unknown but potentially considerable age, and the 267 cannabis formulations it contains constitute primary evidence of how cannabis was used in Sri Lankan traditional medicine. Full editorial reasoning is on the [[Talk:Thalpathe Piliyam|Thalpathe Piliyam talk page]]. -- [[User:Éloïse Dillon|Éloïse Dillon]]
+The Thalpathe Piliyam is a modern government publication (1992--present), not a historical text in the conventional sense. It was given a Historical Source page because its content derives from ola leaf manuscripts of unknown but potentially considerable age, and the 267 cannabis formulations it contains constitute primary evidence of how cannabis was used in Sri Lankan traditional medicine. Full editorial reasoning is on the [[Talk:Thalpathe Piliyam|Thalpathe Piliyam talk page]]. -- [[User:Eloise_Zomia|Éloïse Dillon]]
 === Policy items as page sections ===
 The seven colonial legislative milestones (1867 Ordinance, 1893 meeting, 1897 import ban, 1907 debate, 1907 Indian Hemp Ordinance, 1935 PODD, 1961 Ayurveda Act) were integrated into the Legal History section rather than created as standalone news items or pages. They are sourced from Uragoda (1983) and UNODC (2005), neither of which has a URL suitable for the news item source field, and the narrative context is better served by connected prose than isolated items. -- [[User:Éloïse Dillon|Éloïse Dillon]]