Photo courtesy of my old student pal Piyasiri Wickramasekara ….more details below
Category Archives: architects & architecture
KD Paranavitana’s Felicitation Volume: A Treasure Trove
Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, paintings, power politics, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
A Restrained but Reconciliatory Feast at St. Anthony’s in Kachchativu in 2021
The Jaffna Divisional Secretary informed the public, well in advance, that St. Anthony’s Feast in the Kachchativu island had been cancelled this year due to the Covid- 19 pandemic. The decision was well understood by devotees of both Sri Lanka and India.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, pilgrimages, Rajapaksa regime, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Randolph Ranjith Alwis of Sri Lanka & Adelaide: Epitaphs in Depth
ONE: from Victor Rebikoff OAM, and Former FECCA Chair 1992-96
I am deeply honored to have been asked by the Alwis family to provide this personal eulogy on my close friend Randolph Alwis AM whom I have known for over 35 years since we became the Presidents of our respective State and Territory Multicultural Communities Councils in the early 1980’s and as a consequence Deputy Chairs of Australia’s peak community body FECCA – viz, -the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia. At that time both of us were the ‘young guns’ at the forefront of Australia’s multicultural movement and became closely involved in working with Commonwealth, State and Territory governments in the initial introduction of culturally and linguistically appropriate services for migrants and refugees Australia wide.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, charitable outreach, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, language policies, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Mirigama Expressway Soon Operational
Dinitha Rathnayake, in MorningLK, 25 March 2021, ….
The Mirigama-Kurunegala section of the Central Expressway (E04) is to be opened in May, making it possible to travel the approximately 39.7 km distance between the two points “within 25 minutes”. Mirigama is a town in the Gampaha District.
Highlights of the Jesuit Era at St. Aloysius College, Galle
K. K. de Silva, as Compiler……. (at Sacred Heart Convent: 1943-44; then at SAC:1945 -1958; on Staff in 1959) … with highlighting being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi
Introduction
St. Aloysius College & St. Mary’s Cathedral stand together on Mount Calvary Hill, known in earlier times as ‘Poraka kande’ or Gibbet Hill, in Galle. The Hill was the place where executions were carried out during Dutch rule, & Hemantha Situge, a distinguished old Aloysian, refers to its significance in his blog of 31 Dec. 2012 titled “The Scaffold City Galle”.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, religiosity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people, world events & processes
In Search of Archaic Practices & Features in Ancient and Medieval Lanka
Two foreign personnel, one a British man and the other a Taiwanese Chinese lady, have developed a deep interest in Sri Lanka and a considerable äcquaintance”, so to speak. with the land and its peAnswer: perhaps Sigiriya?oples, and have recently sent me these fascinating inquiries on arcane topics. Michael Roberts
ONE: A NOTE from Lewis Bower [i], late February 2021
Have you heard the term “Argyra” before? It was mentioned in Stephanus of Byzantium’s contribution to the geographical dictionary Ethnica to describe a “thriving metropolis” that he came across on his travels of Sri Lanka… Typing that made me feel like I’m on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”.
We’re talking 5th/6th Century AD so I’d be really interested to find out where he was talking about,”
… Answer: perhaps Sigiriya? … Michael Roberts
Filed under ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, Buddhism, cultural transmission, governance, heritage, Hinduism, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Kandyan kingdom, landscape wondrous, life stories, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Galle: Four Hundred Years Ago
Chandra R. De Silva
The political and military history of the port city of Galle, located on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, is well documented. This brief report is merely an effort to fill in a gap in the records relating to the history of this port in the half century between the 1580s and the 1630s.
The popular belief is that the name of the settlement comes from the Sinhala word Gaalla or cattle pen, but in his description of Galle in the Saragossa manuscript probably finalized in the 1630s Constantino de Sa de Miranda suggests that the name comes from the word Gal (stone) (Flores p. 130) of which there was plenty around Galle harbor. The Portuguese historian de Queyroz (p. 31), writing in the late seventeenth century, also suggests that the name comes from the word Gal (stone) or Galgue (stone house).
Filed under architects & architecture, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, military expenditure, politIcal discourse, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
Snippets on the Fort of Galle … and Ashley’s Dire Warnings
A Question from one Sanjay Gunawardena, 12 February 2021:
“Thank you for this great article Dr Roberts.[i] Has anyone got a picture or a painting of the Old Windmill which has been in the Galle Fort. This has been mentioned E.F.C Ludowyk’s book Long Afternoons in Colonial Ceylon. If you can please share an image, it will be much appreciated. Thank you.
A Response from Hemantha Situge: “Lyn Ludo says the windmill was one of the five landmarks that crowned the Fort. It was erected during British times. I have seen two photographs which I have not copied.”[ii]
Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, British colonialism, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, tourism, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
The Old Lighthouse within the Fort of Galle … and More
Michael Roberts
My recent presentation of amateur photographs of the renovations that were being carried out on the Galle ramparts in July-August 2020 encouraged some comments from Bunchy Rahuman and Ashley de Vos amongst others, with the latter objecting strongly to what he terms “the gentrification” of the Galle Fort.[1] That important issue will be taken up soon in Thuppahi; but the exchange has generated a striking photograph of the “old light house” sited on the bastion.at the south-west corner of the Fort — courtesy of Bunchy.
Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, British colonialism, cultural transmission, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, photography, rehabilitation, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
