Papers by Patrick D Harrigan
Fourth World Journal, 2025
Drawing from interviews with Nallein Sowilo, Justice Minister of Ezidikhan, this article explores... more Drawing from interviews with Nallein Sowilo, Justice Minister of Ezidikhan, this article explores the philosophical and historical underpinnings of the NICT as well as its potential to reshape the international legal system. The Yezidi tradition of reparative justice composes the core philosophy by which the NICT addresses humanitarian crimes and safeguards Indigenous
sovereignty. Improving on existing institutions like the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the NICT prioritizes culturally specific and community-based solutions. Case studies, including Barbados, Germany, and Armenia, illustrate the court’s
ability to promote solidarity and foster knowledge exchange among ally nations. The NICT is also proven to encourage a more expansive understanding of human rights violations, including genocide, ecocide, culturcide, and gender-based violence—thus accounting for transgressions
previously overlooked and ignored among the international community. Serving as a blueprint for nations enduring ongoing oppression, the NICT provides a vision of a value-driven global order based on dignity, accountability, and collective justice.
Fourth World Journal, 2022
Public Information Bureau Chief for the Government of Ezidikhan Patrick Harrigan contributes the ... more Public Information Bureau Chief for the Government of Ezidikhan Patrick Harrigan contributes the hopeful and information-packed article Ezidikhan Rises from Genocide: 66 Indigenous Nations Establish Middle East/North Africa Confederation describing the proactive work of Prime Minister Barjis Soso Khalaf, Justice Minister Nallein Sowilo, and the Governing Council to restore the Yezidi after the vicious Islamic State (ISIS) and genocidal attack in 2014. Harrigan reveals subsequent attacks and occupations by the Kurdish Regional government and bombings of Yezidi villages by the government of Turkey as well. This remarkable account demonstrates the resilience of this ancient nation as it formed a central government over forty-two villages and began working to establish a legal mechanism to establish accountability for crimes committed it.
The Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies, 1997
... In this they reveal their common affinity to Hermes, the Greek god of cunning, theft and eloq... more ... In this they reveal their common affinity to Hermes, the Greek god of cunning, theft and eloquence whose caduceus or herald's magical wand finds its counterpart in Skanda-Murukan's vel (Tamil: 'spear'), called his Jñāna Shakti or 'power of gnosis'. ...
Sri Lanka and the Silk Road of the Sea, 1990
Across the ancient world from Europe to the Far East and from remote prehistory, down to modern t... more Across the ancient world from Europe to the Far East and from remote prehistory, down to modern times, the island known variously as Lanka, Serendib, or Taprobane has powerfully influenced the imagination of travelers, storytellers and students of sacred geography, or cosmography, the mapping of the known universe. Down the centuries, a host of colorful characters, from Gautama Buddha to Sinbad the Sailor, has in fact or in legend visited this resplendent isle to partake of its reputation for wisdom, wealth, and enchantment.
Only recently have modern scholars, through computer training, networking, and of course, use of the internet, begun to analyze in depth the patterns of structure and meaning common to all ancient accounts of Lanka, as truly fabulous as most of them are. In this article, a modern investigator of traditional lore surveys the field of Lankan cosmography down the ages with special attention to the methodology and purpose of 'sacred geography'.
Murugan Devotion among Tamil Diaspora, 2000
With the exception of Lanka where Tamil community took root long ago and has remained ever since,... more With the exception of Lanka where Tamil community took root long ago and has remained ever since, it was only with the rise of international trade in the 18th and 19th centuries that Tamils in search of a better economic opportunities ventured to cross the Indian Ocean and settle in far-off lands such as Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles and Reunion Island to the west, or Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Australia and even Fiji to the east. Most were simple rural folk, often landless, who signed on as indentured labourers on the great rubber, coconut and sugar estates that were the mainstay of early colonial economies in the region.
In most world religions, pilgrimage is given relatively low status in the hierarchy of religious ... more In most world religions, pilgrimage is given relatively low status in the hierarchy of religious practices. But in one ancient yet still vibrant Sri Lankan tradition, the practice of pāda yātrā or foot pilgrimage demonstrably embodies profound metaphysical truths while serving as a working framework or matrix for the exploration of progressively subtler levels of religious practice that have long escaped the attention of non-participant observers. Far from being a merely outward practice suitable only for laity or the exceptionally naïve religious specialist, pilgrimage in the Kataragama Pāda Yātrā tradition is a comprehensive exercise of body, mind and spirit having ramifications far exceeding the suppositions of present day indological scholarship.
Despite its great antiquity, stature and symbolic importance in Sri Lanka's multi-ethnic society, the tradition of annual Kataragama Pāda Yātrā has never been the object of modern scholarly study. This is partly because it takes place in remote districts in the North and East -- precisely the districts most affected by the ongoing conflict between insurgents and Government security forces -- and partly because pāda yātrā survives as a rural village 'little tradition', beneath the purview of older scholarship. Studies of Kataragama to date have tended to underplay the religious dimension of Kataragama as the tradition's custodians themselves understand it, focusing instead upon emerging social trends and regarding the Kataragama festival less as a religious tradition than as a release valve for social tensions in post-Independence Sri Lanka. This study, however, surveys Sri Lanka's longest and oldest pilgrimage tradition from the religious perspective as articulated by the tradition's practitioners themselves and assumes that a religious tradition is best understood within its own frame of reference.
Among the ancient living traditions that survive in island Sri Lanka's rich cultural environment, few are as well-known or as poorly-understood as that of the Kataragama Pāda Yātrā. Starting from the island's far north and ending up to two months and several hundred kilometers later at the Kataragama shrine in the island's remote southeastern jungle, the Kataragama Pāda Yātrā tradition has played a major role in propagating and perpetuating traditions of Kataragama throughout Sri Lanka and South India. Predating the arrival of all four of Sri Lanka's major religions, it is essentially a tradition inherited from the island's indigenous forest-dwellers, the Wanniya-læto or Veddas, as the Kataragama shrine's Sinhalese kapurāla priest-custodians themselves readily concede.
Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies, 1997
In the dry jungle of remote southeastern Sri Lanka lies Kataragama or Katir-kamam, the (place of)... more In the dry jungle of remote southeastern Sri Lanka lies Kataragama or Katir-kamam, the (place of) 'light and love-passion', a shrine complex of exceptional antiquity and sanctity that attracts many thousands of Buddhist, Hindu and even Muslim devotees year round, particularly during the fortnight-long Aesala festival in July-August, when a small casket believed to contain the secret of the god's birth—nay, the god himself—is taken out in solemn yet joyful torch lit procession nightly, escorted by his women-votaries and troupes of riotous dancers representing the animal, human, chthonic and heavenly spheres. An archaic spirit of paradox, fertility, rejuvenation and play, the Kataragama god also preserves an essential soteriological dimension as the Divine Psychopomp who guides his followers beyond the Portals of Death into an unconditional realm of freedom from the tyranny of the pairs of opposites (Sanskrit: dvandva).
In this study, I propose to demonstrate, using structural and thematic analysis as well as historical evidence and my own field observations, how Kataragama actually embodies the survival into the twenty-first century of one of humanity's most archaic religious traditions long considered to be extinct—the initiatic mystery religion. Astonishing as this conclusion may appear to scholars, there are ample grounds for such an identification, which may be said to be inherent in the very structure of Kataragama itself. As such, Kataragama represents an extraordinary paradigm spanning both archaic and modern worldviews and over two thousand years of human history.
How could such a remarkable phenomenon pass unnoticed by millions of pilgrim-observers and generations of scholars and what implications may follow for our understanding of ancient and modern cultures the world over? This study, although not exhaustive, presents an overview of the evidence and an outline of the reasoning behind this hypothesis.
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Papers by Patrick D Harrigan
sovereignty. Improving on existing institutions like the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the NICT prioritizes culturally specific and community-based solutions. Case studies, including Barbados, Germany, and Armenia, illustrate the court’s
ability to promote solidarity and foster knowledge exchange among ally nations. The NICT is also proven to encourage a more expansive understanding of human rights violations, including genocide, ecocide, culturcide, and gender-based violence—thus accounting for transgressions
previously overlooked and ignored among the international community. Serving as a blueprint for nations enduring ongoing oppression, the NICT provides a vision of a value-driven global order based on dignity, accountability, and collective justice.
Only recently have modern scholars, through computer training, networking, and of course, use of the internet, begun to analyze in depth the patterns of structure and meaning common to all ancient accounts of Lanka, as truly fabulous as most of them are. In this article, a modern investigator of traditional lore surveys the field of Lankan cosmography down the ages with special attention to the methodology and purpose of 'sacred geography'.
Despite its great antiquity, stature and symbolic importance in Sri Lanka's multi-ethnic society, the tradition of annual Kataragama Pāda Yātrā has never been the object of modern scholarly study. This is partly because it takes place in remote districts in the North and East -- precisely the districts most affected by the ongoing conflict between insurgents and Government security forces -- and partly because pāda yātrā survives as a rural village 'little tradition', beneath the purview of older scholarship. Studies of Kataragama to date have tended to underplay the religious dimension of Kataragama as the tradition's custodians themselves understand it, focusing instead upon emerging social trends and regarding the Kataragama festival less as a religious tradition than as a release valve for social tensions in post-Independence Sri Lanka. This study, however, surveys Sri Lanka's longest and oldest pilgrimage tradition from the religious perspective as articulated by the tradition's practitioners themselves and assumes that a religious tradition is best understood within its own frame of reference.
Among the ancient living traditions that survive in island Sri Lanka's rich cultural environment, few are as well-known or as poorly-understood as that of the Kataragama Pāda Yātrā. Starting from the island's far north and ending up to two months and several hundred kilometers later at the Kataragama shrine in the island's remote southeastern jungle, the Kataragama Pāda Yātrā tradition has played a major role in propagating and perpetuating traditions of Kataragama throughout Sri Lanka and South India. Predating the arrival of all four of Sri Lanka's major religions, it is essentially a tradition inherited from the island's indigenous forest-dwellers, the Wanniya-læto or Veddas, as the Kataragama shrine's Sinhalese kapurāla priest-custodians themselves readily concede.
In this study, I propose to demonstrate, using structural and thematic analysis as well as historical evidence and my own field observations, how Kataragama actually embodies the survival into the twenty-first century of one of humanity's most archaic religious traditions long considered to be extinct—the initiatic mystery religion. Astonishing as this conclusion may appear to scholars, there are ample grounds for such an identification, which may be said to be inherent in the very structure of Kataragama itself. As such, Kataragama represents an extraordinary paradigm spanning both archaic and modern worldviews and over two thousand years of human history.
How could such a remarkable phenomenon pass unnoticed by millions of pilgrim-observers and generations of scholars and what implications may follow for our understanding of ancient and modern cultures the world over? This study, although not exhaustive, presents an overview of the evidence and an outline of the reasoning behind this hypothesis.