Your chance to support a 2024 a film on a great Sri Lankan artist, conservationist and visionary, Nihal Fernando (1927-2015).
In search of Nihal Fernando …. A documentary film by Martin Pieris
Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, heritage, landscape wondrous, leopards in the wild, life stories, nature's wonders, photography, photography & its history, plantations, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, wild life
Dr. Damayanthi Herath, in DailyFT, …. https://www.ft.lk/news/In-retrospect-Pera-EFac-pays-tribute-to-Prof-E-O-E-Pereira-celebrating-legacy-of-75-years/56-766595 …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
As the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Peradeniya (affectionately known as Pera EFac) proudly celebrates its Diamond Jubilee, a series of events is being organised to mark this milestone, culminating in 2025 with emphasis on its rich history and its vision for the future. Among the planned events, a significant one was the commemoration of its founder, Vidya Jyothi Eng. Prof. E.O.E. Pereira (13 September 1907–22 May 1988), a visionary leader who not only established the faculty, but also laid the foundation for engineering education in Sri Lanka. This commemorative event took place on 21 August 2024 at the faculty premises.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, education policy, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people
Nissanka Warakaulle, in The Island, 12 & ….. July 2024…. with highlightsing imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
It was sixty five years ago, and that is very long time ago, on 29 June 1959 that a batch of 378 students from all parts of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) entered the portals of the most beautiful university at that time, the University of Ceylon, situated in the salubrious surroundings in Peradeniya, just four miles from the historic city of Kandy, after having successfully passed the then University Entrance examination conducted by the university itself, to read for our varied degrees in Arts, Oriental Languages, Law, etc.
Hilda Obeysekara Hall
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, architectural innovation, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, female empowerment, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes
Rajiva Wijesinha, in The Island, 11 August 2024, … where the title reads “Raja de Silva at 100″
I have been privileged to have come to know in the last few years the former Commissioner of Archaeology, Raja de Silva. He was at school with my uncle Tissa and last year he came home – as he used to do in his schooldays – to a celebration of what would have been the latter’s 100th birthday. And before that he had been a source of interesting books, for in downsizing his library he passed on to me several books he thought I might like.
Raja …. Cutting birthday cake
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, photography, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people
Nihal Perera, whose chapter 16 is entitled “From colonial outpost to indigenous kleptocratic city”
ABSTRACT : This chapter maps out the trajectory of the production, reproduction, and transformation of Colombo through colonial, post-colonial, neoliberal, and kleptocratic periods. Created as part of a European-imperial system of cities, Colombo’s identity is tied to larger systems of cities. Using the threshold between the city and outside to look from inside, the chapter approaches the story of Colombo more from indigenous and local people’s vantage points and perspectives, acknowledging and adapting significant local interpretations. The discussion focuses the neoliberal and kleptocratic periods. The neoliberals transformed the city’s form to attract foreign investment, shifting the purpose of planning to finding sites for investors, and enabling growth. Replacing investment for development with growth for investment, the kleptocrats intensified the movement of money and intercepted the circuits at the state level, via the government. They allow individual projects to shape the city. Colombo’s subjects have incrementally transformed it, by living and familiarising it. The layers of society and space created by these processes contest, cooperate, and entangle with each other in the form of cascades, generating new elements.
Figure 16.1 Colombo as part of the Portuguese Indian-ocean space .... Source: Perera (1998), drawn by Ashra Wickramathilaka.
Filed under architects & architecture, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, commoditification, demography, economic processes, historical interpretation, island economy, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, population, sri lankan society, transport and communications, working class conditions, world events & processes
In 1926, a translation of Reize te voet door het eiland Ceilon (Travels on Foot through the Island of Ceylon) by Jacob Haafner was serialized in the Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon. The translators, L.A. Prins and J.R. Toussaint, included in their work several passages critical of British rule in India that had been left out of the original (1821) English translation of Haafner’s book. The Twenties were a period of intense political ferment in colonial Ceylon, and the author’s fulminations against the British were very much the point of the project.
Filed under ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, cultural transmission, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, sri lankan society, travelogue, world events & processes
Ranil Bibile … reproducing an old essay without all its pictorial embellishments because the author does not have the original photos in his computer “as .jpegs as the articles were composed 20+ years ago and there have been many computer changes since then.”
Kandy! The very name is redolent of history, culture, festivals, dances, caparisoned elephants, and historic rituals. Ancient temples nestle in remote corners of this Cande Udarata – the old Kandyan Kingdom. The architecture, hipped roofs, frescoes, wood carvings and antiquities of these places of worship provide a veritable feast for the eyes, vying for attention with the surrounding vistas of cloud-capped mountains, rivers, waterfalls and verdant plateaus.
Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, architectural innovation, art & allure bewitching, Britain's politics, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people, world events & processes
Randima Atytgalle, in The Sunday Island, 28 July 2024 where the title reads “A monument to all things Dutch,” … while the photos are his work or that of Prof KD Paranavitana.
The Dutch Museum in Colombo, located at Prince Street, Pettah, was closed for several years for renovation. It was reopened to the public early this month. The conservation project which is nearing completion hopes to restore this archaeologically protected monument to its former glory.
Filed under architects & architecture, architectural innovation, art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, rehabilitation, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Nagraj Gollapudi, in The Cricket Monthly at ESPNcricinfo, 31 May 2024, where the title reads “New York’s beautiful monster: how a cricket venue was created from scratch”
In Eisenhower Park on the outskirts of the city, a stadium has come up in a race against the clock.
The Cricket World Cup Trophy on display Wednesday March 19, 2024 at Eisenhower Memorial Park in East Meadow.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, architectural innovation, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, cricket for amity, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, unusual people, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
It appears that the Test cricket grounds at Galle has been voted to be the BEST of the Test-featuring grounds in the world. THAT is quite a mark—considering the picturesque setting of some other grounds. Since this was the municipal arena where St. Aloysius College pursued all its sports activities every evening in the 1940s and 50s; and an arena which featured hockey and soccer matches besides cricket …. and even the occasional hackery or elephant race on special occasions, these heights are quite a TRANSFORMATION.
SO, let me spice and flavour this moment with a pictorial history: when it was not a sports arena; …. when its pavilion was as confined as unremarkable; … when Nihal Fernando, cameraman extraordinary snapped a cricket match in the 1980s; … and thence to the tumultuous present day scenarios – with a horrifying pause after the tsunami shattered the grounds and neighbouring bus-stand.
thuppahi
