Category Archives: architects & architecture

Galle Fort Featured in Striking Desk Top Calendar for 2023

Desktop Calendar with Scenic Shots of Galle Fort in Sri Lanka …. 11.5X6.5 inches, wire bound, 14 printed pages, 180 gsm, gloss finish, in colour

Order by 25th December 2022 to P L Ariyananda (pariyananda@gmail.com). Payment instructions will then be notified.

Price: In Sri Lanka Rs 3,500 (courier charges inclusive); Overseas USD 15 plus courier charges

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Working on the Book PEOPLE INBETWEEN

Michael Roberts

The ‘discovery’ of the Lorenz Cabinet in the Royal Asiatic Society in the 1980s led me to combine with Percy Colin-Thome[1] and Ismeth Raheem in working up this material into a plan envisaging a  set of books (four volumes).[2] The first in this projected series was drafted by me and came out in 1989 courtesy of Sarvodaya Publishing Services (within the limitations of book production in that period).[3] This book, People Inbetween,  has been out of print for quite a while.

 

 

 

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Glenquarry Farm: In The Steps of Don Bradman

If so motivated and financially capable, one can rent out Glenquarry Farm at 117 Sheok Rd, Crafers West, off Adelaide, for only (!@#!) …. and bask in the imaginary footsteps of the one and only Don Bradman.

 

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EM Karunaratne: Doyen of Cricket in Galle

Michael Roberts

EM Karunaratne was a doyen among cricket adminsitrators in Galle and his work is quite appropraitely marked in the Janashakthi Book of Sri Lanka Cricket, 1832-1996 edited by SS Perera in 1999 (sse pp.11-12) …where he is placed among an illustrious list: viz, George Vanderspar, Dr John Rockwood, SP Foenander, P. Saravanamuttu, Robert Senanayake and Gamini Dissanayake.

 

 

 

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Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, Dutch colonialism, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, photography, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes

Working on the Book PEOPLE INBETWEEN

Michael Roberts

The ‘discovery’ of the Lorenz Cabinet in the Royal Asiatic Society in the 1980s led me to combine with Percy Colin-Thome[1] and Ismeth Raheem in working up this material into a plan envisaging a  set of books (four volumes).[2] The first in this projected series was drafted by me and came out in 1989 courtesy of Sarvodaya Publishing Services (within the limitations of book production in that period).[3] This book, People Inbetween,  has been out of print for quite a while.

 

 

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Early Academic Endeavours: Michael Roberts & His D. Phil. Dissertation

Michael Roberts

Rather out of the blue, Avishka Mario Seneviratne approached me seeking access to my first academic work , viz., the D. Phil. dissertation in History that I had secured in Oxford in mid-1965. I have a copy and it is possible there is one at Peradeniya University Library, but it is not widely available.

Mario   

 Milos

 

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Location! Location! …. and Now Renovation! The DBU in Colombo

The Dutch Burgher Union’s ‘home’ with a restaurant, bar, billaird tables and meeting rooms has been located centrally in Colombo for over a century at the junction of Bauddhaloka Mawatha (ake Buller’s Rd) and Havelock Rd running south-north across colombo — and thus withina stone’strow of many facilitees including the University of Colombo, Nomads cricket ground, the SL Broadcasting Corporation, Archives, et cetera.  I have used it as a meeting spot often and in mid-September 2020 held a THANK YOU party for friends and relatives who had sustained me over a five-month covid-informed stay in Lanka.

So, its is a delight to feature its further growth in pictorial form…. Michael Roberts

 

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Sigiriya Rock Fortress: Some References & Unusual Photographs

This presentation is a pot pourri …. commencing with a striking photograph of those who provided the labour for restoration work in the British era …. proceeding to references for items within Thuppahi and then moving to present some more photographs (quite striking these) of restoration work in the past that were unearthed by Raja De Silva  and then providing some amateur shots associated with one Michael Roberts. The first photograph in this excursion into our island’s past has been selected consciously to mark and honour the sweating labour that went into the tasks of restoring access to the ruins and its magnificent mementoes. This labout, it is evident,was mostly Indian Tamil …. drawn perhaps from the same sources as those that provided labour for the coffee, tea, rubber and coconut plantations that were being developed then in the late 19th century. This is buta tiny memento marking their work ….and placing them alongside the British and Sri Lankan administrators who organised the tasks of archaelogical preservation.

 

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Galle Fort Today: Its Dutch Legacy

Mahil Wijesinghe, in Sunday Observer Epaper, 23 October 2022, with this title “Dutch Legacy of Galle fort

The Galle city is home to a population of around 100,000. Easily reached via the Southern Expressway, the A2 Highway or the coastal rail track, Galle is indeed a place worth a stop. A quick walk through the chip-stone laid busy streets, you will discover the rich history of the colonial period and the natural beauty of the seascape.

 

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Galle Face Green in Colombo Over the Decades

Ismeth Raheem and Angeline Ondaatjie, in Elanka, 10 October 2022, where the title runs as “The Changing Face of Galle Face Green”

Galle Face is Colombo’s most-prized open-aired public space, extending over a mile along the Fort oceanfront in Colombo. Over the course of Sri Lanka’s history, it has been the de facto stage for landmark public gatherings. Most recently over the months of April to July 2022, the Galle Face Green was the centerstage of the People’s Aragalaya, a protest movement that arose from economic hardship in Sri Lanka.  During those weeks the protestors renamed it GotaGoGama (GGG) and even had a Google marker to prove it.  On July 9th 2022, unprecedented crowds from all parts of Sri Lanka gathered in the Galle Face Area breaking attendance records of Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake funeral in 1952, the 1953 hartal, and Pope Francis’s holy mass in 2015.

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