Introduction of SARERS

What is "NPO-SARERS"?

The South Asian Ruins Exploration and Research Society (SARERS) is a non-profit organization (NPO corporation) that was established in 2008 with the approval of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. And is working with the aim of "exploring the unknown ruins remaining in South Asian countries, as well as conducting Enlightenment activities to study and preserve them".

NPO-SARERS also aims to promote cooperation with local people and contribute to the conservation and restoration of archaeological sites, which are a historical and cultural heritage shared by humankind, and the promotion of international cooperation for that purpose.

These activities in Sri Lanka have their origins in the activities of the "Sri Lankan jungle ruins Expedition", which had been carried out seven times by the Exploration Club of Hosei University since 1973. However, with the launch of this NPO, which includes the general public and students from multiple universities, it has become a new start. Since the establishment of the NPO, we have already conducted six joint expeditions with the Department of Archeology of the Sri Lankan Government and have accumulated results.

In the future, we will continue to collaborate with the Department of Archeology and the private sector of Sri Lanka to promote research activities, along with enlightenment activities for the protection of ruins to local residents and welfare activities such as support for school supplies.

Half a Century of "Ruins Exploration in Sri Lankan Jungle"

Origin is an activity in 1969

The beginning of the half-century long-term project was that the "Maldive Islands Expedition" dispatched by the Hosei University Exploration Club stayed in Sri Lanka (Ceylon at that time) in 1969.

The team of students, led by Takashi Okamura, was forced to stay in Sri Lanka for three months due to difficult negotiations to enter the Maldives. And in the meantime, they learned that the jungles of the Mahaweli Ganga basin in Sri Lanka were filled with unknown ruins. Further, in an attempt to see real examples of those ruins, they tried a reconnaissance plan down the Mahaweli River by a rubber boat. Although the plan was eventually interrupted by a capsizing accident that occurred upstream, after completing the Maldives research, Okamura proceeded to collect information on the jungle area and ruins of Sri Lanka, purchased maps and materials, and returned to Japan.

The ruins exploration plan in Sri Lankan jungle began with the experience and information at that time, and an expedition team was organized by the advocate Okamura, and in 1973, the first visit to the site was realized.

Fortunately, this first team was able to receive guidance and advice from the Archaeology Department of Ceylon Government and Professor P.L.Prematilleke of Peradeniya University, and was able to enthusiastically pursue a six-month activity in the jungle of Mahaweli Ganga basin. As a result, the team could discover or confirm 31 Buddhist temple ruins and 27 irrigation facility ruins in the jungle of the area and collect survey data.

At the same time, through this first exploration, the team strongly realized the following things.

In the jungle of Sri Lanka, there are more abundant and valuable ruins undiscovered and uninvestigated.
They are still unknown and are still being damaged by illegal digging or natural weathering, and if nothing is done, they will disappear before they are researched.
Sri Lankan authorities want to proceed with those researches, but are unable to undertake them due to lack of personnel and budget, difficulty by natural barriers, etc.

From the above, it seemed clear that this was the situation that someone had to do something about. Therefore, a consideration was made within the Hosei University Exploration Club, about “if we could continue this important work on behalf or in cooperation with the Sri Lankan people”. And, as a result, the exploration activities in the area were continued after that also.

Continued exploration

After the first expedition in 1973, the Hosei University Exploration Club dispatched expeditions in 1975 and 1976, and in 1980 there was also an independent survey by a member. All of these expeditions targeted ruins in the middle reaches of the Mahaweli River.

However, from this period, a large-scale development plan "Mahaweli Project" with foreign aid started on the east bank side of the middle reaches of the Mahaweli River, and the jungle disappeared at a high speed. For that reason, subsequent explorations would move the field to the jungle of the Ruhuna region in the southeast of the island. Then, in 1985, 1993, and 2003, exploration activities were continued intermittently in the form of finding opportunities between the intensified civil wars.

After 1993, it became customary to form a joint expedition with the Archaeology Department of the Sri Lankan government.

This was triggered that the Hosei University team cooperated to form a joint expedition, when the Archaeology Department tried to confirm the Buddha statue ruins (Wila Oya Budupatunna), discovered by Hosei team on the banks of the Wila River in Monaragala District in 1985. Dr. Senarath Dissanayake, the Director of Exploration Division at that time, became the Director General of Archeology Department, and the cooperation was further strengthened.

Since the establishment of the NPO in 2008, the headquarters of the expedition has left Hosei University. The expeditions were conducted four times in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013, by a wide variety of participants in the west bank of Mahaweli Ganga, which was not affected by the civil war.

Then, after the series of researches was completed and the end of the civil war (2009), the investigation site was moved to the Ruhuna region in the southeastern part of the island again.

These are the activities of 2016 and 2018 included in the newest report issued in 2021, and for our NPO, it has become a new milestone in the exploration project that will continue in the future.

Assistance and enlightenment activities for villages

By the way, each expedition team so far has not only conducted archaeological research in Sri Lanka, but has continued various support activities related to the welfare of residents in the jungle villages in the research area since 1973.

Since the villages were once pointed out that there was a shortage of clothing and school supplies due to poor economic conditions, each research team called on Japanese friends and supporters to donate used clothing at the time of departure, and also asked several manufacturing companies to donate the actual items of notebooks and pencils etc. And each time, we distributed them to residents and school children in the presence of the district governors or officials.

The donation of school supplies is still ongoing, but these activities were also due to the idea that the poverty, ignorance and indifference of the local residents could lead to the destruction of the ruins.

So far, we have also brought pictures drawn by children from Japanese elementary schools and exhibited them at Sri Lankan local village schools, and brought back pictures of village children and exhibited them on the Japanese side as well. In that way, we also worked on grassroots cultural exchange.

Since 1985, the villages in the Ruhuna region of the study site have been suffering from water shortages, so we raised a well digging fund in Japan and completed the common well in Kotiyagala village based on it.

Furthermore, in case of damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami , we discussed support measures in study groups, and called on the workplace or campus to provide clothes, towels, soap, etc., developed activities such as sending them to the disaster area.

And then, since the NPO South Asian Ruins Exploration and Research Society (SARERS) was officially established in 2008, while accumulating six field survey activities, at the same time, we have also started educational activities for ruins conservation for local residents. That is, in order to raise the residents' awareness of the conservation of cultural heritage such as ruins, we thought that education from childhood was important, and started activities to teach the importance of ruins at the village school.

Until now, we had only provided school supplies to the children of the village as part of the welfare of the residents, but we switched to an event that emphasized the importance of ruins and their conservation with the staff of the Sri Lankan Department of Archaeology. This activity is planned to be continued in the villages where we put the base of research in cooperation with the Department of Archaeology.

Chronology of Archaeological Exploration in Sri Lanka
By Hosei University and NPO-SARERS

Expedition dispatched by Hosei University Exploration Club

1969 Reconnaissance of the Mahaweli Ganga: (June, Interrupted by a rubber boat accident); Member : Takashi Okamura, Masayuki Oka, Keiro Sugimoto

1973 Exploration of the Mahaweli Ganga midstream basin: (July to November, Researched 58 ruins sites by camping in Hembarawa and Yakkure Villages); Member : Takashi Okamura, Norihiko Masunaga, Osamu Ito, Masuyuki Takatsuki, Tetsuo Kai, Mikio Yagi, Hideo Sato; Report : THE RUINS OF ANCIENT SINHALESE CIVILIZATION (1975)

1975 Exploration of the Maduru Oya basin: (July to October, Researched 27 ruins sites by camping in Pimburettawa Village); Member : Mikio Yagi, Sadatoshi Sumiya, Masahiro Azuma, Kazutoshi Shigyo, Shinsuke Horie, Takashi Okamura; Report : THE RUINS OF ANCIENT SINHALESE CIVILIZATION (PART Ⅱ) (1978)

1976 Exploration of the Mahaweli Ganga midstream west bank: (August to November, Researched 38 ruins sites by camping in Maraka and Kadurupitiya Villages); Member : Ken Tanaka, Mitsuru Shimosaka, Yukihiro Fukaya, Masahito Sakai; Report : THE RUINS OF ANCIENT SINHALESE CIVILIZATION (PART Ⅱ) (1978)

1980 Exploration of the Maduru Oya basin and the Mahaweli Ganga west bank: (January to February, Researched 24 ruins sites by camping in Pimburettawa Village); Member : Kazutoshi Shigyo; Report : Not published

1985 Exploration of the Kumbukkan Oya north bank area in Ruhuna region: (June to October, Researched 51 ruins sites by camping in Kotiyagala Village); Member : Kazutoshi Shigyo, Kazuhito Kataoka, Yoshihiro Aida, Takuya Wada, Kenichi Amano, Yoshihiro Niwano, Masahito Sakai, Takashi Okamura; Report : RUINS OF THE ANCIENT RUHUNA CIVILIZATION (1999)

1993 Exploration of the Kumbukkan Oya north bank area in Ruhuna region: (August to September, Researched 15 ruins sites by camping in Kotiyagala Village); Member : Takashi Okamura, Kazutoshi Shigyo, Isao Takauchi, Masahito Sakai, Takuya Wada, Kenichi Amano, Yuzo Ishida, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Senarath Dissanayake, P.Pemasiri, A.E.L.Thilakawardana, B.A.Gaminikumara, K.Keerthi Sri Manatunga; Report : RUINS OF THE ANCIENT RUHUNA CIVILIZATION (1999)

2003 Exploration of the Ruhuna region: (July to August, Researched 17 ruins sites by camping in Kotiyagala Village); Member : Kazutoshi Shigyo, Koji Kawakami, Yu Hisatake, Mikiaki Komiya, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Akemi Sudo, and several staff members of the Department of Archeology (names unknown due to lack of report); Report : Not published

Expedition dispatched by NPO-SARERS

2009 Exploration of the Wasgomuwa National park: (July to August, Researched 6 ruins sites by camping in Yakkure Village); Member : Kazutoshi Shigyo, Norihika Masunaga, Yayoi Matsuyama, Akemi Sudo, Naoya Kurihara, Yu Sasaki, Takuya Sagami, T.M.C.Bandara, J.V.Amalka Wijesuriya, Wijenayake; Report : Ruins of Wasgomuwa National Park, Sri Lanka (2012)

2010 Exploration of the Wasgomuwa National park: (July to September, Researched 5 ruins sites by camping in Yakkure and Galmulla Villages); Member : Takashi Okamura, Saburo Motai, Takuya Sagami, Isao Takauchi, Yayoi Matsuyama, Noriaki Nishiyama, Taiga Sassa, Aki Iesaki, Shoichi Sugita, Naoki Chagawa, Jun Yamaguchi, Keiichiro Suganuma, Daiki Takikawa, T.M.C.Bandara, Karanapriya Marasinghe, Wijenayake; Report : Ruins of Wasgomuwa National Park, Sri Lanka (2012)

2011 Exploration of the Amban Ganga basin and Dastota area: (August to September, Researched 15 ruins sites by camping in Galmulla Village and Polonnaruwa); Member : Keiichiro Suganuma, Masafumi Mizutani, Satoshi Shirasawa, Kazuhiko Hagiwara, Daichi Murase, Iori Hasegawa, Kota Matsubara, Tomoyoshi Kawamura, T.M.C.Bandara, Wijenayake; Report : RUINS IN CENTRAL EASTARN AREA OF SRI LANKA (2015)

2013 Exploration of the Nuwalagalkanda, Galwattahena and Kaldiya Pokuna: (July to September, Researched 10 ruins sites by camping in Sigiriya); Member : Kota Matsubara, Rintaro Yamamoto Ryota Murai, Akito Sudo, Yosuke Sugiki, Jayalath Kulasinghe, Chinthaka Wijetunga, Gamini Karunarathna, Chandrawansa; Report : RUINS IN CENTRAL EASTARN AREA OF SRI LANKA (2015)

2016 Exploration of the Yala National park Block 3 area: (June to August, Researched 1 ruins sites by camping at Kumbukkan riverbank); Member : Takashi Okamura, Masahito Sakai, Yayoi Matsuyama, Tatsuya Owada, Ryouta Kimura, Shuhei Yamamoto, Daichi Kutsuzawa, Yuji Yashiro, Hidetake Matsumura, Kentaro Kogetsu, Taro Takeda, Syoji Ago, Hisato Kimura, Takuya Akahori, Narumi Ishino, Shota Misaka, Asahi Nakamori, Michiyoshi Hashitomi, T.M.C.Bandara, Karanapriya Marasinghe, Chinthaka Wijetunga; Report : RUINS IN AND AROUND YALA NATIONAL PARK, SRI LANKA (2021)

2018 Exploration of the Yala National park Block 3 area: (June to August, Researched 10 ruins sites by camping at Kumbukkan riverbank and Galge); Member : Takashi Okamura, Saburo Motai, Yayoi Matsuyama, Shinya Suzuki, Ryouta Kimira, Shoji Ago, Asahi Nakamori, Michiyoshi Hashitomi, Kotaro Ishida, T.M.C.Bandara, Chinthaka Wijetunga, Jagath Chinthaka Wijeratne, Palitha Herath; Report : RUINS IN AND AROUND YALA NATIONAL PARK, SRI LANKA (2021)