Category Archives: literary achievements

September 24, 2023 · 9:53 pm

Rave Reviews of LAKE BEAUTY from Adelaidians

LAKE BEAUTY – A murder dissolves.

Here’s what readers have to say:

Justin La Brooy: “Lake Beauty is a novel based in rural Australia covering much of the first half of the last century.  It gives an exquisite glimpse into a time and place that has changed out of recognition, though one is left with a sense that the mind-sets and patterns of behaviour may be still with us…. The story grabs the attention of the reader from the beginning and maintains its interest as the plot develops…………………. A great read.”

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September 22, 2023 · 5:49 pm

Scrutinizing Sri Lanka’s Past in ATITA

A New Investigative Website …. https://atita.org/

 

About Atita: Atita is dedicated to the investigation of historical events in Sri Lanka. Taking its name from the Pali word for “past” (atīta), Atita serves to fill in gaps in English-language literature of Sri Lankan history.

All are welcome to read our work, but those already familiar with Sri Lankan history since 1948 will find it the most enriching. Our primary focus is on events from 1948 to 1972, when Sri Lanka was still called “Ceylon.”

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August 31, 2023 · 11:23 am

Placing Valentijn’s Book in Its Context

Chandra R De Silva

We should welcome the efforts of Thiru Arumugam to draw attention to the Description of Ceylon by François Valentijn ……………….  (see ……………………. https://thuppahis.com/2023/08/27/francois-valentijns-description-of-ceylon/#more-74805).  That work is a valuable source of Sri Lankan history,  and as Sinnappah Arasaratnam has pointed out, his work has been used by many subsequent writers. However, Valentijn’s work needs to be used with caution. When Arasaratnam writes that ‘Valentijn’s is one of the most accurate accounts of the pre-European period of Ceylon history up to his time’ (p. 33), he is comparing Valentijn’s work only to those of other Europeans. Despite their defects, Sinhalese and Pali historical works written before Valentijn (from which European writers drew information) were certainly more comprehensive on that subject. As Arasaratnam himself comments, ‘it was noted that Valentijn often had only partially published his source and that he was not always the best judge of what was important. . .’ (p. 43).

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August 29, 2023 · 1:32 am

Charles Dickens and Ceylon

Raja Bandaranayake, in THE CEYLANKAN vol 26/3, August 2023, where the title runs “Charles Dickens on Ceylon”

Introduction: An anthology by Charles Dickens entitled Sunshine on Daily Paths (or the Revelation of Beauty and Wonder in Common Things,1 picked up in an antiquarian bookshop in the UK, included six of its forty-five chapters on different aspects of life in Ceylon, all written in the first person. I asked myself the question: Did Dickens really visit Ceylon? If he did, why is there no record of the visit of such a famous person in our 19th century history? Could he have visited Ceylon incognito? If he did not visit, how did he write so accurately, and in such detail, about the places visited?

I decided to investigate these questions.

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August 26, 2023 · 9:45 pm

Influences in the Characterisation of the Princess in MANAME

Ernest Macintyre, being an article entitled “The Growth of a Tragic Princess”…. published in The Ceylankan, Journal 104, Vol 26/3, August 2023 MANAME

Hemamali Gunasinghe as Princess Maname in 1956

Sometimes desultory, at a passing social phenomenon in early Peradeniya that was the Japanese Noh theatre, a powerful and proximate influence on the creation of Maname and Ediriweera Sarachchandra’s sub- sequent major plays. In essentials, Noh theatre shares a good deal with Sanskrit theatre, but the latter is extinct. The texts of the Sanskrit plays do exist, but these alone were insufficient to instruct and inspire meaningful theatrical innovation.

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August 25, 2023 · 12:42 am

In Appreciation of Tissa Devendra, 1929 -2023

Ashoka De Silva, in The Ceylankan 

Deshamanya Tissa Devendra passed away on 23rd June 2023 at the age of 94. Tissa joined the Colombo Chapter of the Ceylon Society of Australia (CSACC)on 7th March 2008. He was elected President of the of the CSACC in 2013 and remained in this position till the year 2020. He was also a Senior Administrative Officer of the Government of Sri Lanka.

Tissa leaves behind his wife, Indrani, children, Jaliya and Rashmi, brother Somasiri, sisters Yasmin and Ransiri Menike.

May he attain Nibbana.

We are deeply saddened to announce the passing away of Tissa Devendra, our beloved and highly esteemed former President and Convenor of the Colombo Chapter of the Ceylon Society of Australia (CSA CC) on June 22, 2023, following a brief illness.

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August 13, 2023 · 6:39 pm

A Maiden’s Prayer …. Set in Sri Lanka

A Notice sent by Charles Schokman of Melbourne

Srianthi Perera, a journalist and former reporter at The Arizona Republic in the USA, has authored a whimsical and endearing literary novel based on her native Sri Lanka. 

 

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July 25, 2023 · 8:22 pm

Death of a Trotskyist … In Memory of Nathan Sivasambu

Jane Russell … presenting “a fictional short story in warm testimony fo Nathan Sivasambu who was a one-off: a convinced Trotskyist, his greatest gift was in bringing people together to celebrate the era of ‘British Ceylon’ of which he was a true patriot.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was October 23rd, two days before the Centenary of the Revolution. The black and white photo of Leon Davidov Trotsky looked down from his ebony frame on the sitting room cum study wall. This version of Trotsky was unsmiling: stern – very much Creator of the Red Army, Hero of the Revolution. The photo had been taken in the early 1920’s, in St. Petersburg, when it was still called Petrograd.

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July 12, 2023 · 11:09 pm

Remembering Venerable Vipulasara Thero, Artist & Scholar Monk

Ven. Prof. Bellanwila Wimalaratana Thera, Anunayaka of the Kotte Chapter & Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura,  posted on May 13, 2020  by sinhaladhamma… and sent to Thuppahi in July 2023 by Tommy Fernando **

Ven. Mapalagama Vipulasara Thera was born on March 03 , 1925, in a village named Mapalagama in the Galle District. He studied at Paranthaneyamgoda Govt. school. He was ordained on July 14, 1940 at Paramadhamma Chetiya Pirivena, Ratmalana and obtained his Higher Ordination on February 18, 1946.

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July 10, 2023 · 6:29 pm

Intertwining Pathways in Past Lanka Time …. A Tale. A Tale

Synopsis by the Publishers

In the month of 11 in the year 2048 of the Buddhist era, how many people knew that the South of Lanka would face a deadly cyclone which would change the entire history of the country. The lion race came to know of the year 1505 of the Christian era only then. The life of ten-year-old Hethu who lived on the coastline of the South changed in the same way as everybody else’s life. The life of 10-year-old Juan who worked on the Portuguese ship “Maria Helena” also changed on the same day. Their lives became intertwined with that of a monk named Rahula who lived in a Vihare in Kotte. Destiny brought them together in a strange way. It is through their meeting that the thoughts and knowledge of the realities of life changed each one of them. They see God and man in different ways. “Balakotu and Nauka ” is a new kind of novel.

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