Sinhalese Folklore Notes, Ceylon

Perera, Arthur A.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 255K words
Chapters: 26

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Sinhalese Folklore Notes, Ceylon by Arthur A. PereraAuthor: Perera, Arthur A.,Language: English, Class: GR: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation: Folklore, Release Date: Apr 1, 2016

Editor's review

This book is an English collection of notes on Sinhalese folklore from Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), a primary-source text in folklore studies and anthropology. Arthur A. Perera records local oral narratives, customs, and fragments of belief in note form; the volume is concise and information-dense, suitable as an introductory reference for South Asian folklore research. Its value lies not in literary quality but in the immediacy of the original record: readers encounter firsthand how early collectors organized indigenous narratives, and can observe the perspectives and limitations of colonial-era knowledge production. The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to search and excerpt, making it convenient for desk reference. Readers should approach it with a questioning awareness, attending to the recorder's selections and classificatory framework rather than expecting a complete, systematic folklore theory. For readers studying Ceylonese culture, South Asian folk belief, or comparative folklore, this is a usable historical source; for general casual readers, it may seem fragmentary.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of folklore and anthropology seeking primary source material on South Asian folk traditions
Scholars and enthusiasts researching Sri Lankan culture and South Asian belief systems
Researchers of cultural history interested in colonial-era folklore documentation methods
Readers seeking short English folklore texts for comparative reading

Not a good fit for

General readers expecting systematic folklore theory or a complete story collection
Casual readers who prefer Chinese and are unaccustomed to English note-form writing
Readers seeking analysis of contemporary Sri Lankan society rather than historical texts

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and preface to understand the scope and classification of the records, then read selected entries.
Keep a notebook and excerpt by theme (stories, customs, beliefs) to facilitate cross-comparison.
Read alongside general works on South Asian folklore to avoid interpreting individual records in isolation.
Pay attention to the recorder's wording and choices, treating the text as historical material rather than settled fact.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a complete collection of Sinhalese folk tales?

No. It is closer to folklore notes, recording story fragments, customs, and beliefs in note form rather than a systematically compiled complete story collection. Readers should treat it as primary record material, not a popular storybook.

Can I read this book if my English is not good?

This is an English note-form book with short sentences but involving local names, objects, and folklore terminology. Readers with basic English proficiency can work through it with a dictionary; if English reading is difficult, it is advisable to first find relevant Chinese overviews of folklore as background.

Is the e-book edition suitable for academic citation?

It can be used as a source of leads, but before citing, verify the original page numbers and edition information, and note the typesetting differences of the Project Gutenberg e-book. For formal academic writing, it is advisable to check against library holdings or authoritative editions.

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About the author

Perera, Arthur A. Author

Perera, Arthur A. is an author about whom little public information is available; his nationality, dates of birth and death, and personal history are not clearly recorded, and only one of his works is held in the collection. On the basis of the available information, he is associated with the documentation of folklore in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). His representative work, Sinhalese Folklore Notes, Ceylon, takes Sinhalese folklore as its subject and is essentially a notebook-style compilation of folkloric materials. Writing of this kind is usually based on field observations and oral sources, emphasizing records over elaboration; its style is plain and its purpose is clearly the preservation of materials. Although the author's life remains difficult to examine in detail, the work still offers primary material for the study of Sinhalese folk beliefs, customs, and oral traditions, and has a certain value for the regional documentation and preservation of folklore.