Category Archives: cultural transmission

March 21, 2025 · 4:45 pm

The THOMIA is Flying ….

A Note from Richard Simon, 21 March 2025

It’s taken longer than I expected – just like everything about this project has – but I’m happy to say the first batch of overseas orders was posted via Expedited Mail Service yesterday. We have to do them in batches for reasons of practical logistics: (a) there’s just Lionel the Cat Herder and me to carry these 3.3kg bubble-wrapped and manila-swathed bricks about, and (b) only so much room on the post office parcels desk to accommodate them; not to mention (c) other customers in the place staring daggers at us and our time-consuming transactions. But we got them off anyway, after sacrificing one to the nice lady behind the counter who wanted it opened so that she could see what was inside. Obviously that one did not go off yesterday, so my apologies to Mr T.A. of Castle Hill, NSW, whose nude and blue-bushing copy we brought back home for rewrapping. It will go off in the next batch, sir, I promise.

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March 20, 2025 · 5:39 pm

Ravi Ratnayeke Visits SL Cricket Museum at SSC

A News Item in Web-Space: ……………..

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March 16, 2025 · 5:16 pm

An Epitaph for Charlie Ramanaden THEN, 13 March 1997

Dushy S. Perera

Jerry ‘Anna’ to his relations, Sir to his numerous subordinates and Charles to his friends, passed away suddenly whilst playing tennis (a sport close to his heart) partnering his son Pravin, at the Annual Darrawela Club Tennis Meet on 15th March, 1997.

He once told a friend that he would like to die playing tennis and also mentioned to me that he would like to see a Trogon (a rare endemic Ceylon bird) before he dies. It was only on the last Poya that Charles along with his good friend Doca drove into the Peak wilderness and had a glimpse of this endemic bird. So, in a sense, his wishes had been fulfilled.

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March 16, 2025 · 12:58 pm

Trimming the Teams & Sharpening Skills: Lanka Cricket

Rex Clementine, in The Island, 16 March 2025, where the title reads “Chandraguptha in the running for a Test spot”

We have just witnessed a fiercely contested First-Class season culminate in Bloomfield being crowned champions – a long-awaited triumph after 15 years in the wilderness. The tournament had all the hallmarks of a riveting contest, but as the dust settles, a significant shake-up has taken center stage.

PIX censored by Malware = Ron Chandraguptha was unstoppable in the First-Class final, delivering a match-defining knock that secured Bloomfield’s first title in 15 years. A strong showing in the NSL could now earn him a Test cap

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March 15, 2025 · 9:04 pm

In Memory of Mark Cooray, Sri Lankan Scholar & Patriot

Michael Roberts 

One of my batchmates at Peradeniya University when I entered in 1957 was Mark Cooray. He resided at Arunachalam Hall and not at Ramanathan Hall where I was. But both of us were churchgoers and attended the Anglican Chapel where Fr Lakshman Wickremasinghe led the flock in charismatic manner.

The various modes of Christian fellowship and the activities organised by the Student Christian Movement – both within Pera-Uni and in island wide conferences – brought Mark and me into frequent interaction. On occasions I even lodged at his parental residence in Kollupitiya [aka Colpetty] within Colombo during visits there for this or that [even though I had two sisters living in the city]. His mother was as sweet and supportive a figure one could ask for.

In brief, we were buddies – a friendship made all the stronger when he and Noreen Fernando fell in love and tied the nuptial know at some point. Noreen had been part of the Peradeniya SCM and was one of the sweetest women one could ask for.

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March 13, 2025 · 4:58 pm

Jaffna Women: Their Hidden Powers

Kenneth David ** whose article in  a book edited by Susan Wadley in  1980 (see end)  is entitled “Hidden Powers: Cultural and Socio-economic Accounts of Jaffna Women”

The general concern of this volume is the social position of Tamil women and cultural representations about them. This paper deals with both of these issues. The first part is a symbolic account of the life stages and associated ceremonies of Tamil women from the Jaffna region of Sri Lanka. In the course of showing the varying degrees of subordination or of influence that women have during their lives, I focus on two spe­cific strands of symbolism in these life cycle rites: binding and shaving. These are interpreted as a dual­ image of the woman as slave and renouncer, bound on the exterior but internally powerful. The second part is a socio-materialistic account. It contrasts the public images of female subordination with the practical reality in which women control property and covertly effect pro­ductive and other crucial decisions. The third part situates the first two in the context of a general theo­retical question. What are the pitfalls in studying a disadvantaged sector of society? My critique is di­rected towards the theoretical practice of linking pairs of descriptive terms and asserting that such linkage constitutes explanation. This practice is especially problematic when one is trying to understand a disadvantaged sector. Finally, the symbolic account is linked to the socio-materialistic account.

 

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March 9, 2025 · 2:59 pm

Teenager Rambles in the Galle Arena, 1950s

Michael Roberts

‘Arriving’ in this world in 1938, I was lucky to reside within the Fort of Galle as the youngest in a large family.  My father TW Roberts was a retired Ceylon Civil Servant and a respected member of the upper-class circles in town – with his membership of the Galle Gymkhana Club as one mark of this position. This status notwithstanding, we lived in rented houses –first in Pedlar Street and then in Middle Street.

 Galle fort & port in British times … & an Aerial View more recently

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March 8, 2025 · 10:36 am

Galle Face Green in Colombo: Pictorials Over the Years

A Thuppahi Journey

Panoramic view of Galle Face Colombo, Sri Lanka around 1880s-1900, looking south from Galle Road (later this path became the Galle Road), ClubHouse & Galleface Hotel (far right) showing in the background……… Lankapura …. https://lankapura.com/2011/04/panoramic-view-galle-face-green-colombo/

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March 5, 2025 · 10:05 pm

The Royal-Thomian: A Message from Revd Marc Billimoria

A Message in Facebook from the Retd Warden, Fr. Marc Billimoria. early March 2026 

It is one year this week since I was part of organizing this spectacular sporting event – the blue ribbon and quintessential Big Match, the Battle of the Blues, the Royal-Thomian Cricket encounter, for the last time as Warden. The run up to the event and its aftermath, (particularly in the face of a loss) are equally or even more stressful for those in the ‘hot seats’ at both Mount Lavinia and Reid Avenue, the Warden and the Principal, due to so many ‘behind-the-scenes goings-on’ as well as the expectations of so many different individuals and groups, such as the unfair and unrealistic expectation that amateur schoolboy cricketers will play like professionals or the undue pressure on them to win at any or all cost.

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March 5, 2025 · 12:12 am

Chinese Fleet’s Impact on Sri Lanka in the Early 15th Century 

Charles Schokman’s Discovery of Amazing Facts conveyed in an Email entitled “A Bit of Ceylon History”

Amazing how they sailed with 30,000 sailors on 35 massive ships
In fact some ships were garden ships supplying food to the sailors!
In 2014, I had read that the Chinese had a map of  the East and West coasts of both North and South America dated about 80 years earlier than Columbus’s voyage, owned by Zheng He.

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