A Novel entitled “Lake Beauty” by Rob George …. with hihlighting mpose d by The Editor, Thuppahi
... where Sam and Annie conspire against authority to bring about justice for a murdered woman.
Category Archives: literary achievements
François Valentijn’s Book on Ceylon in 1724-26
Thiru Arumugam, in The CEYLANKAN, 2023, where the heading runs thus: “François Valentijn wrote a 462 page ‘Description of Ceylon’ 300 years ago”
Part 1: Francois Valentijn (1666–1727), Fig. 1, was a Dutch Calvinist Minister employed by the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie or VOC) which established its Asian base in Batavia, which is present day Jakarta in Indonesia. Between 1724 and 1726 he published a book in Dutch titled Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien1 (Old and New East Indies) which was in five volumes and eight books in all. The book describes various countries including Ceylon. His description of Ceylon is in Volume 5 and is 462 pages long. The interesting point is that he never set foot in Ceylon!
D98PE4 Ds. Francois Valentijn, famous for his voluminous work on the Dutch East India Company, a clever compilation from essays or studies, written by others. His book contains a lengthy chapter under the heading ‘Descriptions of the Cape of Good Hope’, 1726.
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Amitav Ghosh: Straddling the Mediterranean & Indian Worlds
Dr. Shalva Weil, in https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/in-an-ancient-land-trade-and-synagogues-in-south-india/
The Calcutta-born novelist Amitav Ghosh tells the tale, in his novel In an Ancient Land, of a medieval traveler by the name of Abraham Ben Yiju who conducted an import/export business from Cairo through Aden to India. Ben Yiju was a member of the Synagogue of Ben Ezra, or the”Synagogue of the Palestinians”, as it used to be known while it was still standing, in Cairo, at the end of the nineteenth century. It was in that synagogue that congregation members used to accumulate and store their papers and manuscripts. The last In an Ancient Land Revisited Trade and Synagogues in South India document that is known to have been deposited in this Genizah was a get, a divorce settlement, authorized in Bombay (today Mumbai).
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A Mind For One and All: Jayantha Dhanapala
Tissa Jayatilaka, in The Island, 4 June 2023, … with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
The splendid career and the many glittering prizes won by Jayantha Dhanapala is common knowledge and does not require reiteration here. Rather I wish to focus on the man himself in this tribute to an exceptional person whom I had the privilege of getting to know personally at the tail end of the 1980s – I had of course heard of Jayantha and his many accomplishments long before our first meeting. Having read a newspaper review of North-South Perspectives, an international affairs journal that I edited, which focused on the promotion of greater understanding between the ‘developed’ and the ‘developing’ world, Jayantha telephoned me to ask if we could meet. I readily agreed and thus began a friendship that lasted until his death a few days ago.
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Profound Currents of Thought at Trinity College: Fraser, Martin Wickramasinghe & Bishop Wickremesinghe
Uditha Devapriya, whose chosen title was “Martin Wickramasinghe and A. G. Fraser.”
On 7 February 1971, Trinity College, Kandy held its 99th annual Prize Giving. Presided by the then Anglican Bishop of Kurunegala, Lakshman Wickremesinghe, the ceremony featured Martin Wickramasinghe as its Chief Guest. By this point Wickramasinghe had established himself as Sri Lanka’s leading literary figure. A grand old man of 80, he was now writing on a whole range of topics outside culture and literature. His essays addressed some of the more compelling socio-political issues of the day, including youth unrest. His speech at the Prize Giving dwelt on these issues and reflected his concerns.
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Alastair Roosmale-Cocq: Appreciations & Memories
VALE ONE by Jeremy Ludowyke
My name is Jeremy Ludowyke and I’d like to tell you something of Alistair’s life before he came to Australia in 1969.
Like Alistair, I was born in Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, of Dutch heritage and ancestry. The first Roosmale Cocq arrived in Ceylon from the Netherlands in 1763 and many were Magistrates or Judges in the first Dutch then British colony. Perhaps this is where Alistair inherited his magisterial bearing.
The Trinitian Doctor Malcolm Jansze’s Service to Humankind
David Jansze, in Email Letter to Michael Roberts, April 2023 **
Dear Michael,
Malcolm and I were the only members of our branch of the Janszé family of our generation (and those previous) left behind in Sri Lanka at the time of his death. My son has yet to beget an heir.
Our grandfather, who had his secondary education at Trinity College, Kandy, was a Lawyer. All five of his sons also attended Trinity College and, in turn, so did the males of the next generation, with the exception of my father’s two sons (my elder brother and I), who had their secondary education at S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia. My dad, too, qualified as a Lawyer at the Colombo Law College and remained in Colombo.
Ceylon and Beyond: Hugh Karunanyake on Antiquarian Books
Hugh Karunanayake : “Collecting Antiquarian Ceylon Books,” .… Victor Melder Lexture …. Sunday 30 April 3pm-4pm ……Clayton Hall, 264 Clayton Road
Sri Lankan-born Hugh Karunanyake is a collector of unique antiquarian books about Sri Lanka, and has established an extensive personal library that extends to maps, prints and old postcards. For Hugh, the collecting of knowledge and ephemera has never been purely about acquisition, but also about the sharing of knowledge.
With a B.A. in Sociology from Peradeniya University in Sri Lanka, Hugh has worked across both public and private sectors. He was the founding president of the Ceylon Society of Australia and is a prolific writer about all things Ceylon and Sri Lanka.
The Victor Melder Lecture honours the work of Victor Melder and the extensive library of books, journals and magazines relating to Sri Lanka that he established in 1968.
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The Origins of Burgher & Malay Surnames in Colonial Ceylon
Author Unknown … sent to Thuppahi by Kodi Kodituwakku of Chandos St, Fort, Galle
The Ceylon Burgher Community is the finest exponent of this European onoma-tology in Sri Lanka, as the members of the community carry some of the world’s rarest surnames which at present verge on extinction. The ancestors of the Dutch Burghers were not necessaril.y Dutch by ethnic origin as the Dutch East India Company [recruited] hundreds of mercenaries from all parts of Europe who later reached the shores of Lanka to strengthen the Dutch garrisons on the Island. These Europeans later espoused local women and paved the way for the Lankan Eurasian Community, which later came to be known as ‘Dutch Burghers’ meaning ‘Town Dwellers’.
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Serving Sri Lanka: Skandakumar on Mevan Pieris
Somachandra Skandakumar’s Address at the Launch of Mevan Pieris’s THE COMMUNITY,21 March 2023 … with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Chief Guest Professor G.L Pieris, Guest of Honour, the Reverend Warden Marc Billimoria, distinguished Guests, Ayubowan ,Vanakkam, Assalam Aleykum, Good evening,
It was three years ago that an equally eminent Thomian Anura Tennekoon invited me to speak at the launch of his book. Today I am privileged again by one of similar standing and must thank Mevan for the opportunity. Such moments merely reinforce the values of our two great Institutions, where the fierceness of competition on the playing fields have led to the strongest of bonds off it .
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