One of the most traumatic events in the early stages of the
civil war in Sri Lanka, still raging after more than 25 years,
was the burning of Jaffna Public Libraryâ€“a major landmark in
Tamil cultural heritage housing more than 97,000 books and
irreplaceable palm-leaf manuscripts. This documentary attempts
to document the war-scarred life of the Library and the socio-
political violence connected with it. The Jaffna Public Library
was the major repository of literary source materials of the
Tamil people and Tamil language. It was a vibrant place of
historic and symbolic importance to the local minority Sri
Lankan Tamil people until 1981, when police and government-
sponsored thugs set fire to it, destroying it completely. The
film narrates the entire history of the library since its
inception in 1933 by juxtaposing voiceovers and interviews with
former employees. The interviews of the people who had benefited
from the library are heart-rending, including Mr Sabaratnam who
had been the member of the library sinc