Category Archives: economic processes

The Walawwa in Sri Lanka: Its Origins

Dash De Soysa, …. with a modification by the author of the original Thuppahi entry set out in blue lettered text; and two ‘pictures’ of the Prince of Wales’ visit to Ceylon added on 28th Novembe 2023

The walauwa was a residence of an aristocrat in the past and, according to the Sinhala Dictionary, it is derived from the Tamil or Telugu word ‘walawu’. Some also refer to it as a place of jurisdiction. The earliest sources that refer to elite residencies and residents of Lanka can be found in many ancient Brahmi inscriptions dating from about the 2nd century BCE. The ‘prabhu‘ (elite) of various sectors – administration, military, tax collection, navigation, ports, agriculture, infrastructure and so on were referred to as ‘parmuka‘, and the king as ‘Mapurumukā‘. Similarly, ‘pramukha’ and ‘pramukhän’ in Sanskrit and ‘perumakan’ in Tamil also mean foremost, chief, principal or a distinguished person. The term ‘grahapati’ (from the same era) meaning householder is perhaps the earliest recorded version of the subsequent gruha(pati), geya and gedara, terms which are in use even today. The term derives from the Sanskrit ‘gṛha’, meaning house. Whilst subsequent literary sources also mention wasala, niwasa and medura, there is no mention of walawwa until one comes across sources from the more recent centuries.

Badulla Pillar Insciption

  Mannar Kacceri Pillar Inscription
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Outreach: Solar Lights Dstribted in Lankan by ANDUREN ELIYATA

ITEM courtesy of Chandra Fernando &  Leslie De Silva of Anduren Eliyata …. Visit their Web site  www.andureneliyata.com.au  for more details

This particular example displays Chief Priest Rev Kovida from Katoomba Bhavana Vihara, donating lights to people of his village in the Udugama area of Galle Districtgalle district.

 

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The Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya

Udumbara Udugama, in The Sunday Times …. and retrieved here by Moira Djukanovic for the ASLA  Web Magazine in Adelaide

The full title in the Times runs as ; 200 years ago a green haven began to grow: the Royal Botanical Gardens Peradeniya

The Royal Botanic Gardens Peradeniya, beloved to Lankans and known simply as the Peradeniya Gardens celebrated it’s bicentenary in 2022. Founded by the British as a premier research institution for agriculture and plantation crops in the country, it was brought under the purview of the Department of Agriculture in 2006, The Department of National Botanic Gardens was formed to administer this and other botanic gardens around the island.  Dr. Shelomi Krishnarajah, the seventh Sri Lankan Director General of the Gardens became the first woman to hold this post. Dr Krishnarajah who was appointed in 2018 has a solid background in floriculture and tissue culture.

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Reaching Out: VANNI HOPE’s Aid to A Peasant Family in Lanka

Dear Friends, Relatives, and Well-Wishers,  ……“The Reason Someone Smiles Today”

As part of our continued mission to serve the communities in need within Sri Lanka, Vanni Hope is embarking on an ambitious project that seeks to bring economic stability and enhance the livelihoods of our people, especially those who have suffered due to the current economic hardships the island faces.

➢ There are doing agriculture. They have coconut, banana grove. They cultivate nut plants.

➢ Nagusami is the head of the family. He lost a hand due to an accident.

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Michael Roberts Papers at Adelaide University Library

Michael Roberts Papers, mainly on Sri Lanka ……MSS 0031 …. AT = University of Adelaide Library………………………………………………. https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/roberts/transcripts%20list

Philip Gunawardena

Edmund R Leach

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From Little Things Big Things Grow: Antonians Who Excelled Beyond Excellence      

Bernard Vancuylenburg & Sisira Weragoda

 

Prologue: As an introduction to the subject of this article I had to choose a title which nails it all in just one line. It is the story of an academic miracle which emanated from a simple school in its infancy, St. Anthony’s College Katugastota, by a group of students who raised the bar of achievement and excellence in the prestigious London Matriculation Examination in 1934, with a 100% pass rate THUS OBTAINING THE BEST RESULTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE. It was a path breaking year for the College and a validation of the school’s excellence. Twelve students sat the examination that year of whom six obtained first division passes, and six obtained second division passes. Their names which should be emblazoned in letters of gold in the field of education will be mentioned in this article. Paraphrasing the title of the book by Rubeih Murray James, we should “Carve their names with pride”.

 

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“Our Present and Our Future” –Erudite Reflections on Ceylon’s Situation in 1850

A.C.[1]

“But where the stirring crowd, the voice of strife,

The glow of action, and the thrill of life?”

It may not perhaps be altogether useless to ask, How many of our countrymen have reflected seriously upon their condition and their prospects? How many have cast a thought beyond the events of yesterday or the business of to-day? We fear, not many. We are too content to move in the same mechanical circle of samenesses to-day as yesterday, to square our ideas with those of other men, to believe and to speak according to dictates; that we should entertain the remotest idea of comparing our Past with our Present, so as to arrive at a probable conception of the Future. Our life-time passes with the dreamy knowledge that we are, and but little beyond that. But What may we be? What ought we to be? Are questions which are never engendered in our minds. For any one original thought on the subject which may exist, we may be dwelling in Fairyland.

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Revelations within Colonial Photographs of Ceylon: “Veins of Influence”

Veins of Influence: Colonial Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in Early Photographs and Collections, by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra

 [This book is a pioneering monograph that brings a rich array of early and previously unpublished images of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) into the global discourse of photography, pairing a striking lens of visual appreciation with distinctly humanizing perspectives.

 

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How Collective Belief Heals War’s Hidden wounds

Daya Somasundram, Alvin Kuowei Tay & Rajitha Wickremasinghe, in Cambridge Core Blog, 2 November 2023 ... with the highlights being imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The mental and emotional aftermath, particularly from modern warfare that targets civilians, is profound. Civilians suffer alongside combatants, facing deaths, injuries, chronic disability, torture, disappearances, multiple displacements with uprooting of whole communities, loss of homes, destruction of essential services, infrastructure and environment. These traumatic experiences lead to a wide range of mental health issues, from depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance abuse to family and collective trauma impeding personal and community recovery.

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“Karlsruhe Bungalow” …. Today … Yesterday

Avishka Mario Senewiratne

The Karlsruhe Bungalow was the final abode of Sri Lanka’s greatest Burgher, C. A. Lorenz. The origins of Karlsruhe are not clear. Lorenz purchased it from Drs. Vam Beck and Dickman in 1870, but lived there only for a few months till his untimely death in 1871. Lorenz bestowed this valuable property opposite the Welikada prison to his loyal housekeeper. Later, in the early 1900s the Methodist Church brought this property to site Wesley College.

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