The Sri Lankan tradition for shelter

Abstract

The tradition is the opinion or belief or custom handed down from ancestors to posterity. The tradition is not static, it is the product of the functional demand adopted with the nature and environment, flavoured with culture and belief. It was developed with certain value systems, anything that was not acceptable to the society was gradually rejected, only what was proved useful for people were retained and adopted. The outcome of confidence and the human satisfaction experienced by the ancestors, formulated and precipitated the tradition. Today it is assumed that the ultimate objective of modernizing development is the urbanization and industrialization. In a country like Sri Lanka with a rural population of more than 80% one must be careful in formulating development policies. The result of inappropriate develop­ment policies which assume that increased agricultural production is synonymous with rural development, Where such policies are based on large scale, capital intensive agro-industrial projects, there may be serious disturbance to existing settlement patterns