Category Archives: cultural transmission

March 31, 2025 · 5:39 pm

Reflections on Gananath’s Wide-Ranging Corpus of Work

Professor M.W. Amarasiri de Silva, about 3/4 years back in … … where the full title of the essay reads thus: “Sinhalese Society Through The Prism Of Religion: An Appreciation Of Gananath Obeyesekere’s Work On Sinhalese Buddhism”

This article celebrates the remarkable scholarly contributions of Gananath Obeyesekere, specifically in the field of popular Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Obeyesekere, now aged 93, embarked on his anthropological career at the University of Ceylon (now University of Peradeniya), where he earned his undergraduate degree in English. Subsequently, he served as a lecturer and professor in the Department of Sociology from the 1960s to 1972, before moving on to the United States. He was Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University from 1980 to 2000.

 

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March 29, 2025 · 11:28 am

Launching the Book THOMIA … in Colombo

IN  PICTURES   

     the author speaking ….. and signing books

… with Suresh Navaratnam in this  picture

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March 29, 2025 · 12:07 am

Nationalisms in Sri Lanka: A Bibliography Cast in 2014..

bull-mascot-team-logo-design-longhorn-133746227 Presented here at ……………………………………………………….. https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/nationalism-the-past-and-the-present-the-case-of-sri-lanka/…. & thus in need of updating.; while being dedicated to a Peradeniya University buddy -alas deceased– with whom I shared notes and thoughts during undergraduate days and thereafter in the 1970s & 1980s in Chicago: namely, Ananda Wickremeratne …

Amunugama, Sarath 1979 ‘Ideology and class interest in one of Piyadasa Siris­ena’s novels: the new image of the “Sinhala Buddhist” nationalist’ in M Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka, Colombo:: Marga Institute, pp 314-36

Anderson, Benedict 1983 Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of Nationalism.  London: Verso

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March 28, 2025 · 7:10 pm

Donald Friend’s Acid Readings of the Sri Lankan Scenario, 1957-1962

EXTRACTS From The DIARIES Of DONALD FRIEND, Volume 3** …. The Ceylon Diaries cover the period 25th January 1957 to 22nd July 1962 and run into 180 pages in small print. During this period Donald Friend, the gifted Australian artist, based himself at Bevis Bawa’s ‘Brief’, Bentota.

“His diary entries are pithy, sarcastic, self-critical and wonderfully observant of people, places and events. I dare say he was a better writer than a painter. One can only look on aghast at how little things have changed in Sri Lanka in nearly 50 years of turmoil. ….”  .… (the author of this ASSESSMENT remains unclear; while the highlights are interventions on my part: Michael Roberts).

26th January 1957: Time drifts through all this…. carrying on his back, like a turtle, a weight of the idiotic likes and dislikes….

4th February: Who like Bevis, is a hypochondriac. They both make a fascinating hobby of pills and injections …

19th March: The horrid old guide jibbered on endlessly, telling whopping lies.

24th March: Ratnapura Resthouse – nauseatingly loud Americans and a rabble of Ceylon drunks.

11th April: Orientals fortunately regard madness as something allied to holiness.

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March 26, 2025 · 10:05 pm

An Epitaph for Gananath Obeyesekere

Chandra R. De Silva, … with highlighting emphasis added by The Editor, Thuppahi

I write to add a few words to the outpouring of appreciations of Gananath Obeyesekere, a scholar whose research in anthropology, religion, myth, and cultural practices  has won him accolades across the world. I will not comment on the advances in knowledge and the discussions he provoked by his many scholarly works of which among the best known are Land Tenure in Village Ceylon, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, Buddhism Transformed (co-author), The Work of Culture, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, and The Doomed King. There has been much written on this world renowned scholar, and there will undoubtedly be more comments by experts in the years to come.

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March 26, 2025 · 1:34 pm

Deeply Lankika: John De Silva

Responding to a Request from An Aloysian Schoolmate and Friend named Roberts, John de Silva, aka “Johnny,” provided these fascinating genealogical details…… Michael Roberts

 UNIQUE FAMILY CONNECTIONS

I am not too sure if I had sent you details of where I came from! In other words, who were my parents and who were their parents. This is often a mundane Family Tree exercise and bears not much significance in the scheme of things. However, I feel that my family connections are unique when it comes to the Island of Sri Lanka.

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March 24, 2025 · 7:18 pm

Wed Firm: Gregory Peck and His Veronique

An Item in Facebook presented by Nimal Dias Jayasinha

It was October 1955 when Gregory Peck, already a Hollywood icon, married the elegant French journalist Veronique Passani. Their love story began in Paris, where she interviewed him for “Roman Holiday.” He had been married before but found himself drawn to Veronique’s intelligence, warmth, and the quiet depth in her gaze. Within a year of meeting, his first marriage ended, and he followed his heart. Their wedding was intimate, surrounded by close friends and a future neither of them could have fully imagined.


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March 23, 2025 · 11:54 pm

Sustaining Mahinda College in Galle: E. A. Wijesooriya

A Mahindian in Facebook … with Malware blocking the photo displayed from deployment here … but see below

The following is a write-up appeared in the book the “Century of Memories” edited by the Late Tiddy Wijeratne, Percy Samara-Wickrama and my friend Duleep Dantanarayana, which was published in 1993. The article I am uploading is written by the Late Professor Vinnie Vitharana and I hope it will be read by the present day Students of Mahinda College. Duleep, one of the Editors was very kind in giving me permission to upload this for the benefit of the Mahindians who have not read this.

Born on 23rd March 1905, Mr. E.A. Wijesooriya would have been 120 years today.
Edgar Albert Wijesooriya …….. On a wet morning in May over five decades ago a lad from southern village, characteristically awkward and unpolished, approached the gates of a school in Galle. And at the sight of the elephants in bas-relief on the stone posts, his rustic feet faltered. Within, a broad pathway fringed with slanting Araliya trees in bloom meandered up a hillock marked by imposing buildings and taller flowering vegetation. Halfway up on the right was flight of steps in stone clinging to an arbour ed slope that showed the way direct to the summit.

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March 23, 2025 · 12:06 pm

Simon’s THOMIA sways Sri Lanka

Rohan Pethiyagoda, reviewing the new book THOMIA written by Richard Simon, in The Island, 16 March 2025

As schools go, St Thomas’s College Mt Lavinia has, since its inception in 1851, had a disproportionate influence on the affairs of Sri Lanka. In ways both good and bad, it created the modern incarnation of this country. After all, four of our first five prime ministers were Thomians (‘Thomian’, by the way, is a Latin diminutive of Thomas, like Tom in English).

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March 22, 2025 · 12:43 am

Christina A. Bejan: Multi-Talented Authoress, Performative Artist, ….

A NOTE From the RHODES TRUST Secretariat, 24 March 2025

Cristina A. Bejan is a Romanian-American theatre artist, poet, and historian. A prolific playwright, Bejan has written nineteen plays, with productions in the United States, United Kingdom, Romania, and Vanuatu. Her hit play “Districtland” was bought for TV development, and Next Stage Press has released three of her scripts. She writes creatively in five languages and has published countless poems, plays, and poetry translations in literary journals and anthologies.

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