In March 1896, in the San Francisco suburb of Oakland, the Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist and missionary Hewavitarne (Anagarika) Dharmapala, on a lecture tour of the USA, met Countess Canavarro. Seeking spiritual sustenance, she struck him as determined and forceful. According to Tessa Bartholomeusz, four months after meeting her, Dharmapala proposed that she travel to Sri Lanka and establish an ...
There was a time when being labelled a ‘nerd’ meant you were the laughing stock at your school or your workplace. But the term has taken on a new meaning in recent times, and is often used in relation to pop culture and ‘geekism’ in the modern era—and being a ‘nerd’ (or a ‘geek’) is now celebrated worldwide. Sri Lanka ...
The Sinhala language should be a happy minefield for anyone looking at unearthing the jewels of the past. It is embedded with strata or layers from different times, showing how much the language has been overlaid by the influence of different peoples over the ages. In unearthing these layers, linguists become archaeologists, scouring lexicons instead of digging the earth. But ...
It has been three and a half centuries since the Portuguese colonisers left Sri Lanka, but the language they spoke while here still lingers in the eastern coast of the country. Although few are aware of the existence of this language, Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole (SLPC) is spoken by the Portuguese Burghers, descendants of the early mestiços or the people ...
It has been three and a half centuries since the Portuguese colonisers left Sri Lanka, but the language they spoke while here still lingers in the eastern coast of the country. Although few are aware of the existence of this language, Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole (SLPC) is spoken by the Portuguese Burghers, descendants of the early mestiços or the people ...
“They usually set off after the monsoon with the onset of favourable winds, their boats oiled, often for several months at a time… they went to Porbunder and Aden, to Sri Lanka in search of trade in precious materials…” – Sindhi Sufi Scholar, Shah Abdul Latif, mentions the community’s adventures in his epic, Sur Samundi. Making up less than 1% ...
When stamps were first introduced to Ceylon by the British, our ancestors probably never thought these little pieces of paper would one day become so valuable. Our stamps are unique and interesting in their own way; a glance at a stamp—or better yet, a whole collection of them—can give one a glimpse into Sri Lankan culture and history. The most ...
The distinctive jewellery worn by a Kandyan bride has always been the cynosure of many eyes. There are many contemporary versions of Kandyan bridal jewellery that appeal to the present generation. However, the traditional jewellery set is different—in colour, texture, weight, and appearance. It is a widely held belief that a traditional Kandyan bride wears 26 pieces of jewellery on ...
Colpetty, the small yet plush ward of downtown Colombo, still has a certain charm to it. It’s a mini town of sorts, with a cinema, shopping complex, municipal supermarket, ice cream parlour, a plethora of restaurants, some choice schools, finance houses, and a variety of small businesses, hobnobbing with high-rise developments that are slowly but surely changing its skyline. Yet, ...
