Category Archives: population

October 5, 2025 · 1:44 pm

Kyle Joustra’s Genealogical Treasure Trove on Ceylonese & Sri Lankans

Michael Roberts

KYLE JOUSTRA lives in Melbourne  and has assiduously pursued his accumulation  of data on Sri Lankan lineages for  decades. I sought information  from him  when subject to a vicious personal attack recently. It strikes me that few Sri Lankans are aware of  Kyle’s store  of information.  The initial clarification of his genealogical researches set out below by Kyle is a belated  introduction to his capacities and the ‘treasures’ he can root out.

MEMO FROM KYLE  JOUSTRA, 14 September 2025

There are those who carry on about my work that I am not a professional genealogist  and that I should give all the information free to everyone. If I were to break this down.

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August 16, 2025 · 12:53 pm

A Thoughtful Assessment of THE CEYLON JOURNAL

Dhanuka Bandara, in The Daily Mirror, 15 August 2025 … where the  title reads “The Ceylon Journal III: A Review,”  while the title here and the  highlighting are  the imprint of The Editor, Thuppahi

 The third installation of the bi-annual periodical The Ceylon Journal certainly continues the success of the two previous issues. Edited by Avishka Mario Senewiratne, The Ceylon Journal was first launched in July 2024. This unique journal, which in turn draws inspiration from Young Ceylon, a 19th-century Sri Lankan journal published by Charles Lorenz Ambrose and his friends, continues to publish immensely readable, yet well-researched and informative articles on a wide range of topics.

 

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August 14, 2025 · 1:57 am

UNHRO Calls for Investigation of Past Killings in Lanka

 

Tamil and Sinhala versions attached

Sri Lanka has opportunity to break from past – Türk

GENEVA (13 August 2025) – A report published today by the UN Human Rights Office calls on Sri Lanka’s Government to seize the historic opportunity to break with entrenched impunity, implement transformative reforms, and deliver long-overdue justice and accountability for serious violations and abuses committed in the past, including international crimes.

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August 8, 2025 · 6:58 pm

Sri Lankan Migrants Abroad as Productive Oysters for the Island

Item circulated by Sunil Thenabadu, Keith Bennett and  one Dee de  Silva

The Sri Lankan diaspora consists of approximately three million Sri Lankans living abroad, significantly contributing to their host countries and maintaining ties with Sri Lanka.

Demographics and Distribution

The Sri Lankan diaspora includes emigrants and expatriates from Sri Lanka residing in various countries, with significant populations in Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, Australia, and North America. An estimate from 2013 indicated that around three million Sri Lankans live outside their home country, with about one million permanently settled abroad. This diaspora is characterized by a diverse mix of ethnicities, including Tamils, Sinhalese, and Burghers, each contributing uniquely to the cultural landscape of their host nations. 

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July 23, 2025 · 1:01 pm

A Pathway to History: Biographical ‘Hits’ in Thuppahi, 22 July 2025

Michael Roberts

Biographical tales and investigations serve as one pathway to historical enquiry.  Because they resonate with readers interest in their own personal journeys this fascination seems to evoke continuous appeal. The WORD PRESS record of readers hits on items in THUPPAHI confirm this fact. Let me, therefore, provide TPS readers with a list of some of the items that drew at least one reader …. that is one HIT …. today/yesterday.

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July 4, 2025 · 7:26 pm

Biographical Paths to Lankan History via ‘Hits’ on TPS

A MEMO From Michael Roberts as Editor, Thuppahi,  July 2025

The Word Press system keeps me informed about the HITs on TPS items everyday and also assembles figures for each week. Reviewing these details provides one with a glimpse of internet viewers and their interests. As an exercise with this objective I provide figures of HITS on items carrying biographical tales.

HEREWITh, then, are the figures of such hits — HITS on bio-tales –– during the past week.

 

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March 8, 2025 · 4:56 pm

Developing Hambantota Port: The Controversy in 2019

Michael Roberts

An aerial drone photo taken on March 28, 2024 shows the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka. Located in the south of Sri Lanka, the Hambantota Port is one of the signature projects of Belt and Road cooperation between China and Sri Lanka. (Photo by Xu Qin/Xinhua via Getty Images)

My Set of Bibliographical References

An Insider: “The Internal Tussles & Vagaries and Scheming that hindered the Development of the Hambantota Port Project,” 15 September 2021, https://thuppahis.com/2021/09/15/the-internal-tussles-vagaries-and-scheming-that-hindered-the-development-of-the-hambantoa-port-project/#more-55017

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February 18, 2025 · 4:35 pm

Hero Stones in India in the Past

https://kvramakrishnarao.wordpress.com/2024/05/05/the-origin-development-and-importance-of-hero-stones-in-india-special-lecture-by-dr-poongundran-organized-by-the-indological-research-institute-iri-2/

rao’s Blog

Posted on May 5, 2024 by kvramakrishnarao

 

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December 26, 2024 · 11:34 am

The Tsunami Twenty Years After

Padraig O’Leary writing from the vicinity of Colombo now

Twenty Years after the Tsunami

Did the children and I come to you when the waves came?

Were the kids there with you when death came?

In eternity, do you want to be mine again?

Will you come back at least in my dreams?

Those words were written by a grieving husband on the side of a rusting railway carriage at Peraliya in southern Sri Lanka.

 

On 26 December 2004, 36,000 to 50,000 people (the numbers of dead vary depending on the source) died in Sri Lanka in the St Stephen’s Day tsunami. Between 1,700 and 2,500 passengers on the holiday train, Queen of the Sea, perished as the wave engulfed it at Peraliya, between Colombo and Galle. Rescuers recovered only 824 bodies, as many were swept out to sea or were taken away by relatives without informing the authorities. The village itself also suffered heavy losses: hundreds of inhabitants died and out of 420 houses, the great wave spared only ten.

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December 26, 2024 · 11:03 am

Remembering the TSUNAMI …. 26 December 2004

Michael Roberts

The Roberts family were assembled at a house-for-hire off Goolwa and near a beach in South Australia when the first news of the devastating tsunami of 26th December 2004 hit the headlines. One of the first inklings the world received about this massive disaster came from Galle in the southwestern corner of Lanka. This was through a series of photos or a movie-camera display of a body of seawater moving from left of screen to right with cars and bodies amidst the debris….. and the walls of the Fort of Galle in the background.

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