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[This book is a pioneering monograph that brings a rich array of early and previously unpublished images of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) into the global discourse of photography, pairing a striking lens of visual appreciation with distinctly humanizing perspectives.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, Buddhism, commoditification, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, ethnicity, female empowerment, governance, heritage, Hinduism, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, photography, photography & its history, plantations, Portuguese imperialism, power politics, religiosity, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tourism, transport and communications, unusual people, wild life, working class conditions
Ron Slee of Flinders University & Adelaide, …… with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi and some End Notes added
My interest in visiting Sri Lanka has been building for decades, generated by my friendship with two Sri Lankan nationals with whom I play tennis, Michael Roberts and Justin La Brooy. Justin had written me a very helpful short history of the country and added his recommendations of where to see wildlife and scenic beauty and Michael had sent hundreds of photos and personal stories that helped me plan my visit.
Unexpectedly this year,[1] I was able to spend 11 memorable days in their country of origin, including two days visiting Galle Fort where Michael had grown up in the 1940s and 50s.
Paddy Hintz in The Weekend Australian, 25 October 2023, bearing this title “Jungles, curries and wild elephants: why Sri Lanka is a ride”
We’re just in time to climb into Kandalama’s beautiful infinity pool and be” mesmerised by fireflies as monkeys sift through the trees beside us.
The morning tour is spectacular. Sigiriya Rock Fortress features cascading water gardens, a vertigo-inducing climb to find the remnants of a paranoid and murderous king’s domain (complete with ancient swimming pool) and a cliff-face cave full of frescoes of scantily clad concubines.
Sigiriya rock fortress, Sri Lanka. Photo: Dylan Shaw
Antonia Laurence Allen
EA Hornell
The National Trust Sri Lanka is holding its 154th session of its Monthly Lecture Series on “Reversing cultural erasure: looking again at the photographs of E. A. Hornel” by Antonia Laurence Allen, ….. The lecture will be held via ZOOM this Wednesday at 6.00 PM
Zoom Link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Filed under art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, photography, photography & its history, pilgrimages, self-reflexivity, tourism, travelogue, unusual people
SHENELLER introduces many tourist sites in Sri La nka ….and in this video-film episode introduces PIGEON ISLAND off Trincomalee‘s Nilaweli Beach in a video entitled “Swimming with Sharks at Pigeon Island”
https://mail.google.c/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzGtwgkxvGvkShGtfRNZCTMmmdvh?projector=1
Tourists and residents are being evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes due to severe forest fires. The fires began after a prolonged heat wave, and temperatures are expected to rise further in the coming days, and winds are also expected to increase.
DG Sugathapala, in Daily Mirror, 9 June 2023 “Value of a perch in Galle Fort increased to Rs. 22mn”
More than one hundred buildings, located within the Galle Fort, have been purchased by foreigners, increasing the value of one perch to Rs 22 million, the Galle Heritage Foundation said. With this development, the population within the fort, which used to be around three thousand, has decreased to around 1000.
Filed under art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, communal relations, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, photography, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, sri lankan society, tourism, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Bernard Van Cuylenberg, whose chosen title is “An Odyssey: The Search for Heritage, Part Two”
Nilaweli Beach in 2020 –Pix by one Mike Roberts
PROLOGUE: Saying “Goodbye” is never easy. The “Goodbyes” I bid to the Staff at Nilaveli Beach Hotel after a relaxed idyllic holiday following the first leg of my tour was hard. This was where I cut my teeth on life’s road and the ties that bind me to this Hotel were, and remain, very strong. But there was a long road ahead, a road I never travelled before. Travice Ondaatjie, whose late Dad Mr. George Ondaatjie was my Boss when I worked for Nilaveli Beach Hotels Limited drove up to Nilaveli on Friday the 24th and told me that on Sunday the 26th March we would leave for Passekudah, Arugam Bay and travel down the Eastern seaboard right down to the Lahuggala National Park in Amparai to visit the archaeological sites there, and then head for Wellawaya and finally to Colombo.
Amateur Camerawork by Michael Roberts, in Early April 2023
I was fortunate to benefit from the hospitality of Moninna and Gamini Goonewardena of Parawa Street and took the opportunity to record some of the work with autistic teenagers & children that was conducted at ECSAT in Wakwella Rd on the Friday (easily the most vital event during my stay).
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Gagno’s Searing Camerawork
Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, communal relations, cultural transmission, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, photography, population, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan scoiety, tourism, travelogue
thuppahi
