Category Archives: architects & architecture

March 11, 2022 · 2:01 pm

Galle Fort Renovations Completed ….. Volaare! Cantaare!

Item in The Daily Financial Times, 19 March 2022, bearing this title “UDA completes Rs. 210 m beautification of Galle Fort area”

The Ministry of Urban Development and Housing has carried out renovations in Galle Fort on the instruction of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who is the minister in charge of the subject. The Urban Development Authority which carried out the renovations has done so in a manner that would preserve the antiquities and heritage of Galle Fort. This was done with the assistance of the Department of Archaeology and the Galle Heritage Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

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February 21, 2022 · 1:24 pm

Beckoning: Emma Thompson’s Sri Lankan Pictorials

The photographs adorning Emma Thompson’s travel tale … at …………………………………. https://thuppahis.com/2022/02/21/british-tourists-commence-return-to-sri-lankas-touring-delights/ .….. have been sent to me by Amal Abeywardena of London — circumventing the Sunday Times requirement of a subscription!

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February 16, 2022 · 12:30 pm

Chandrahasan broaches ‘Pragmatic Amendments’ in Sri Lanka’s Political Framework

Dr Nirmala Chandrahasan,  in The Island, 11 February 2022 , with this title “13th Amendment and Tamil polity: A pragmatic approach”  …… with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

There is much speculation in the Tamil political circles as to the usefulness or otherwise of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and whether the Provincial Council system set up under its aegis gives a measure of power sharing or devolution of powers to the Tamil speaking provinces, or whether it is an ineffective institution which blocks out any greater devolution under the exercise of internal self- determination. This debate has been sparked by the decision of Tamil speaking parties including the TNA, to send a letter to the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, requesting him to use his good offices to induce the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the 13th Amendment fully, in the context that the 13th Amendment arose out of the provisions of the Indo -Sri Lanka Peace Accord of July 1987, to which treaty India and Sir Lanka are signatories.

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February 15, 2022 · 11:19 am

Advancing Medical Reach: Quintus and Co reach out

Quintus de Zylva

SAJITH BANDARA is a first year medical student at Sri Jayawardanepura University. His partner is Punsala Hewage. She is also a first year medical student at the same University. She entered Uni from Furguson College Ratnapura.

 

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February 11, 2022 · 12:44 pm

Hambantota Port in Expansive Paths

News Item in The Island, 11 February 2022, with this title “Hambantota International Port broke new ground in 2021”

2021 was a watershed year for HIP with the port’s activities spreading in several new directions, which has created a unique ecosystem for economic prosperity for Sri Lanka.  The port worked to provide opportunities for maritime trade and investment on the East-West routes of the Indian ocean. HIP which is slated to become a topnotch multipurpose port is uniquely positioned to be a catalyst for the industrial development of the south of Sri Lanka through its industrial park situated within the port and adjacent development activities earmarked by the government of Sri Lanka.

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February 6, 2022 · 11:36 pm

Remembering DS Senanayake on Sri Lanka’s Independence Day

Senanayake Foundation, Item in Daily Mirror, 4 Feb 2022

The first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) D.S. Senanayake entered the National Legislature in 1924. He was relatively unknown in the country and was pushed into prominence by his elder brother F.R. Senanayake, who was a very popular and active figure in the social and political arena. Many were surprised and taken aback to see D.S. entering the political field, as they were expecting his brother F.R. to fit the role. Perhaps the only person who had faith in D.S’s capability at that time was none other but F.R. Senanayake himself. 

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February 6, 2022 · 10:43 pm

The Pioneering Planters of Maskeliya

Hugh Karunanayake, with highlighting and spacing imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The economy of Sri Lanka or Ceylon as it was then known, was basically a peasant economy which through the nineteenth century transformed into a plantation economy. The change commenced with the introduction of the first commercial crop, coffee. Commercial cultivation of coffee as a crop was introduced and encouraged during Governor Sir Edward Barnes’ tenure in the 1830s and by the 1860s had covered most of the upcountry areas. Maskeliya District  opened up in the late 1860s, the first estate to be cleared and planted upon in the district being Bunyan Estate.

View of Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada, Sri Paadaya) from Maskeliya, Central Province, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Date: circa 1910

 

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February 4, 2022 · 11:47 pm

Lanka’s Independence Day Highlighted in Brisbane

BRISBANE

 

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February 1, 2022 · 11:38 pm

British Imperial Pillage? The Parthenon Marbles

An Item in the Archaelogy News Network, 20 October 2021, with this title  “Trophies For The Empire: The Case Of The Parthenon Sculptures”

A recently published article by eminent Professor David Rudenstine at New York’s University Cardozo Law School examines the cultural property dispute between Greece and Great Britain over the Parthenon Sculptures taken to London in the early 1800s by the British ambassador, Lord Elgin. The article specifically assesses the legality of their appropriation and argues that, contrary to conventional narrative, there is no evidence that establishes that Ottoman officials gave Elgin prior or subsequent written permission to remove the Parthenon Sculptures from the edifice. Three translations of the document were said to have been made (Ottoman to Italian, then Italian to English), however the English document has since been lost.

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January 31, 2022 · 12:33 am

The Black Fort and the Many Gems within Galle Fort

Juliet Coombe, in Daily News, 28 January 2022, where the title reads thus “Santa Cruz – The Portuguese Black Fort Of Galle”

Walking along the ancient walls it is easy to distinguish the black smoke covered walls of the Portuguese from the lower walls with the cannon positions built by the Dutch and later added to by the English.

 

 

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