Category Archives: sri lankan society

August 30, 2023 · 10:21 pm

Dilmah Tea & Barossa Wine in Perfect Match in Adelaide

Glam Adelaide, with this title  “Dilmah joins forces with University of Adelaide expert to refine tea and wine production” …. & with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dilhan C. Fernando, Dilmah Tea’s Chairman, is in Adelaide to explore the synergies and opportunities between South Australian wine, and Sri Lankan Tea.

In a pioneering venture that fuses the world of tea and wine, Dilmah, a globally-renowned tea brand, is collaborating with Associate Professor in Oenology and Sensory Studies Sue Bastian from the University of Adelaide. Their shared mission? To hone and perfect the way Sri Lankan tea and South Australian wine are crafted, emphasising the profound impact of climate, soil, and geography on their distinctive flavours.

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August 30, 2023 · 3:28 pm

“Mama Papa,” aka MarcSri, sustaining Disabled Children in Kalutara

There are numerous worthy charities all over Sri Lanka. MAMA PAPA is just one … but is now one I have chosen to support and to advertise. I encourage friends and relatives within easy reach of the institution to visit, assess and place their thoughts in this THUPPAHI spot….. Michael Roberts

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August 30, 2023 · 2:29 am

Sri Lanka’s Topsy-Turvy Economy in the Last Decade

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake*…. with her choice of title being “Sri Lanka Back as Donor Darling Ignores the BRICS” and a sub-title that runs thus “France’s Macron and the US Fish in the Indian Ocean …. presented here with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi 

Sri Lanka continues to swing wildly between being a ‘Donor Darling’ flooded with foreign ‘aid’ and ‘advisors’ on the one hand to a ‘bankrupt’ pariah or outcast on the other. Last year, the strategic Indian Ocean Island went from South Asia’s wealthiest nation with the best social and human development indicators to a beggar—humiliated and shunned by the ‘international community.’ This was after staging its first-ever Sovereign Default due to a Eurobond debt trap and purported lack of US dollars. The default triggered rapid rupee depreciation and instantly beggared citizens amid a distracting transnationally networked, remote-controlled ‘Aragalaya’ protest operation led by social media influencers. Ironically, there was a blockade on fuel shipments to the country amid the United States Marine’s ‘Sea Vision’ training program for the Sri Lanka Navy.

Newly formed Sri Lankan Marine Corps gets 241 years of experience in under a week. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jacob L. – Photo: 2023  .

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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 28, 2023 · 7:24 pm

Sinhalese & Tamils Locked in Prejudice?

Michael Roberts 

An interesting chat with Mark LaBrooy in Melbourne on the phoe today induced me to re-visit my old SIGNATURE PIECE on “The Sinhala Mindset” in my Thuppahi site ….. Some of the commentary is as enlightening today as refreshing. That inserted by Jane Russell on 1 March 2012 and Chandre Dharmawardena’s  response  should continue to stimulate our thinking TODAY.

The problems of YESTERDAY still persist today.

Note that Jane is an Oxford graduate who secured her Ph.D in History at Peradeniya under KM de Silva’s supervision in Peradeniya in the 1970s. She has lived for lengthy spells in Sri Lanka since then because of her deep commitment to individuals and places within the land.

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August 27, 2023 · 11:29 pm

François Valentijn’s Description of Ceylon

Thiru Arumugam in The Ceylankan Vol 26/3, August 2023, where  the title reads “François Valentijn wrote a 462 page ‘Description of Ceylon’ 300 years ago … Part 2” ……… Part 1 having appeared in The Ceylankan J 102 Vol 26(2) May 2023, pp 24-25. …..  also by Thiru Arumugam

First and Second Chapters [Geography] For his sources of information about the geography and history of Ceylon up to the Portugueseperiod, Valentijn relies on the Portuguese writer Diogo do Couto’s Ceylon section of his books Decadas da Asia (Decades of Asia)5. Couto was Chief Keeper of the Records in Goa from 1595 to 1616. Goa was the Asian headquarters of the Portuguese. Valentijn also took information from the Dutch writer Father Philippus Baldeus6, who lived in Jaffna from about 1656 to 1665. For the description of the interior of Ceylon he relies on Robert Knox7, as the Portuguese and Dutch had limited access to these areas. There was a pirated Dutch translation of Knox’s book by S de Vries published in Utrecht in 1692 and Valentijn would have used this translation. Valentijn plagiarised freely, sometimes copying entire sections from these books. In those halcyon pre-copyright days, the printed word was considered public property!

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August 27, 2023 · 2:31 am

Jaya Ganga: The Engineering Marvel of the Kala Oya Valley

M. Asoka T. De Silva, in The Ceylankan, Journal 103 Vol 26/3, August 2023

Introduction: The first ancient historical record of any type of irrigation work is accredited to an inscription left by King Eannadu of Shirpurla in Southern Baby- lonia, in the ancient Kingdom of Mesopotamia, who had ruled in 4000 BC, and who mentions his construction work of several canals, one of them being known as Lummadimshar, at the side of which he made a reservoir, the first ever on record.

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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 26, 2023 · 5:21 pm

Leopards in Sri Lanka: Good Prospects

WWCT in Daily Mirror, 22 August 2023 … with this title “The Leopard – An Ideal Conservation Umbrella Lankan Leopards. A Symbol of Hope”

 The Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) – IUCN Status: Vulnerable. Estimated range loss (2016): 63%
We are the IUCN Red List assessors for the Sri Lankan leopard having been members of the IUCN’s Cat Specialist group since 2002

It may be a dubious feat to celebrate, but the Sri Lankan leopard has the lowest overall loss of historic range of all the sub-species, with ~37% of its previous range remaining.

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August 25, 2023 · 8:14 pm

Wunderbar!! Pakistan face Afghanistan in Hambantota

Michael Roberts

The Afghanistan vs Pakistan three match series being played out at Hambantota in Sri Lanka ……. YES, YES, in Hambantota if you happen to know where that is … snuck up and into my world in distant Australia with quite a bang – only after the outcome of the second 50-over ODI. The BANG lay in the scores: when a side reaches 302 runs and by a whisker in the last over, it is quite a bang: clearly an outstanding match (with Shadab Khan, Imam ul-Haq and Babar Asam standing out for Pakistan and the young opening batsmen Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran hitting the straps for Afghanistan)

Babar Azam 

Gurbaz

 

 

 

 

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