6000 YEAR IMMORTAL & YOUNG TAMIL
2011-07-19 09:43:36 UTC
She will be the first serving US Secretary of State to visit Chennai, which has American investments from automobile companies like Ford Motor Company and Caterpillar.
We expect more from her and hence her visit will be more historical like American Ceylon Mission to Jaffna in 1813.
http://www.srilankanchristiansociety.org/us--sl-history.html
The American Ceylon Mission (ACM) to Jaffna, Sri Lanka started with the arrival in 1813. Opening the first printing press in Sri Lanka is a revolutionary contribution by these Believers. During this time, they engaged in original translations from English to Tamil, printing, and publishing, establishing primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions and providing health care for residents of the Jaffna Peninsula. These activities resulted in many social changes amongst Sri Lankan Tamils that survive even today. ACM was sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). The British colonial office in India and Ceylon restricted the Americans to reside only in the relatively small Jaffna Peninsula for geopolitical reasons for almost 40 years. The critical period of the impact of the missionaries was from the 1820s to early 1900s. They also led to the attainment of a lopsided literacy level among residents in the relatively small peninsula. Many notable educational and health institutions within the Jaffna Peninsula owe their origins to the missionary activists from America.
Uduvil Girl's College: Asia's First girls boarding School was established in 1820 by missionaries associated with the American Ceylon Mission (ACM).
Rev. Miron Winslow (1789-1864) was an American Congregational missionary. He was born at Williston, VT., studied at the Andover Theological Seminary and 1819 went to Ceylon. Lived there for 44 years. He prepared the most advanced Tamil and English dictionary,
Dr. Green, an American served the people of Northern Sri Lanka. The Green Memorial Hospital in Manipay, Sri Lanka was founded by Dr Samuel Fisk Green in 1848. It is a charitable hospital run by Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI). This hospital was first medical school in Sri Lanka, and was used by Dr. Green to train more than 60 locals as doctors during his 30 year tenure in Sri Lanka as part of the American Ceylon Mission. In the middle of the 20th century, it was a state of the art medical institution that served the rich and the poor alike. Currently it is no longer considered to be premier medical institution in minority Sri Lankan Tamil dominant Jaffna Peninsula in Sri Lanka.
http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2011/1/64156_space.html
Traditional courtesies and rituals complete with melodious nathaswaram music to the accompaniment of rhythmic thavils, nilappavadai welcome, garlands especially of cloves and cardamoms and Golden Shawl honour greeted the US Ambassador in Sri Lanka Her Excellency Ms. Patricia Butenis when she arrived at the Green Memorial Hospital, Manipay Tuesday January 25,2011.
Her Excellency Patricia Butenis made many references to the work of the American missionaries in the North counting many firsts in their achievements when she declared open the American Corner at Jaffna City the previous day.
In her speech she said: Not everyone may realize that Americans have a long relationship with the people of Jaffna. American missionaries arrived here in 1813, almost two hundred years ago. They taught English and learned Tamil, founded the first printing press in Jaffna(American Ceylon Mission Press), started the first Tamil language newspaper anywhere (The Morning Star) , and established Sri Lanka`s first medical school.
Last June, during my first trip to Jaffna, I visited a cemetery in Uduvil where several Americans lie in rest. There I learned that former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, one of the United States` most renowned diplomats, visited the gravesite of his great-grandmother Harriet Winslow, founder of Uduvil Girls School whose choir sang earlier in the ceremony. This was the first girls` boarding school in all of Asia.
The opening of the American Corner, she said, is a symbol of our sustained commitment to the people of Jaffna. And, with its opening, we add another American `first` to the list for the American Corner is the first facility in Jaffna to have an operating ADSL internet connection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Ceylon_Mission