Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) Public Lecture  Did Japan contribute to Sri Lanka and India gaining independence from British colonial rule?”    by Senaka Weeraratna   On Monday 24th  June 2019 at 5.00 p.m. at the Gamini Dissanayake Auditorium No. 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 07 ALL ARE WELCOME […]

Courtesy  Internationalist Communist Forum Introduction To the British public, Sri Lanka is probably best known for idyllic photos in package tour brochures describing it as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean”. But for a large part of its population, the island is anything but idyllic. For half a century, it has been plagued by on-going […]

Dr. Daya Hewavitharana. Nalanda was the first residential university in the history of the world. The Nalanda campus was an exceptionally impressive place, which included many impressive chetiyas, temples, monasteries, hostels, lecture halls, meditation halls, libraries, even parkland with lakes. The three great libraries of Nalanda were: Ratnasagara, Ratnadadhi and Ratnaranjaka. Inscriptional evidence (Yasovarmadeva) reveals that […]

By Senaka Weeraratna  Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) Public Lecture  Did Japan contribute to Sri Lanka and India gaining independence from British colonial rule?”   by Senaka Weeraratna   On Monday 29th April 2019 at 5.00 p.m. at the Gamini Dissanayake Auditorium No. 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 07 ALL ARE WELCOME Abstract The time has come […]

PBS Hemachandra Lieutenant Commander (retired) Sri Lanka Navy Courtesy The Island Carbon dating of the bone samples collected from the Mannar Mass grave in Sri Lanka confirmed that bone samples belonged to the periods when Sri Lanka was ruled by European. Books written by Portuguese, Dutch and English historians recorded massacres of Singhalese people lived […]

by Shashi Tharoor Courtesy RT Screenshot from film Gandhi (1982); Director Richard Attenborough; International Film Investors; National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC); Goldcrest Films International; Indo-British; Carolina Bank The centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre is the right occasion for Britain to apologise for the evils of colonialism. Two years ago, on the UK […]

by P. WEERASEKERA Courtesy The Island The issue of mass graves in Mannar continues to remain an inconclusive hot topic, despite the radio carbon dating analysis report received from the Beta Analytic Testing Laboratory in Florida, USA., which cleared the Sri Lanka Army of responsibility, by declaring the skeletal remains referred to the Laboratory pre-dates […]

Harindra Dunuwille Much has been said and written about the Kandyan Convention of 1815 whereby the Kandyan Kingdom was ceded to the British. Historians and writers have over the years interpreted the events that led to the signing and the cessation of what was the last bastion of Sinhale”. The document itself, its drafting, its […]

by Senaka Weeraratna (This is an edited version of a paper read out at a Public Seminar on the ‘ Kandyan Convention of 1815’ held at the University of Peradeniya, Arts Theatre, on March 09, 2019) The Kandyan Convention (‘Ingrisy – Sinhale Givisuma’) must be examined in the context of British colonial policy seeking British supremacy […]

By Virginia Morell  Courtesy sciencemag.org If you picture early humans dining, you likely imagine them sitting down to a barbecue of mammoth, aurochs, and giant elk meat. But in the rainforests of Sri Lanka, where our ancestors ventured about 45,000 years ago, people hunted more modest fare, primarily monkeys and tree squirrels. Then they turned the bones of […]

john hawks weblog Fascinating: Ancient humans hunted monkeys for tens of thousands of years”. If you picture early humans dining, you likely imagine them sitting down to a barbecue of mammoth, aurochs, and giant elk meat. But in the rainforests of Sri Lanka, where our ancestors ventured about 45,000 years ago, people hunted more modest fare, […]

By Jane Recker SMITHSONIAN.COM After analyzing nearly 15,000 animal remains in Sri Lanka, scientists found humans used carved stone and bone fragments to hunt small game The gray tufted langur was a favorite target for the early humans of Fa Hien Cave in Sri Lanka. (USO / iStock) Early humans were capable of hunting small mammals like monkeys […]

by Senaka Weeraratna (Attorney – at – Law) Sri Lanka together with several other Asian countries owe much in winning their freedom, to Japan’s entry to the Second World War and the resulting chain of events that sealed the fate of European colonialism in Asia. Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister (1947 – 1964) when asked in […]

ප්‍රවීණ මාධ්‍යවේදී උපාලි සමරසිංහ විසින් රචිත ‘‘මහ රජ ගැමුණු ජයමග ඔස්සේ’’ කෘතිය පසුගිය 10 වන දින කොළඹ 07 නිදහස් මාවතේ ජාතික පුස්තකාල හා ප්‍රලේඛන සේවා මණ්ඩලයේ දී ජන ගත කෙරිණ. මැටරඹ හේමරතන නාහිමිපාණන් මෙම උත්සවයේ මුලසුන හෙබවූ අතර පුරාවිද්‍යා චක්‍රවර්තී එල්ලාවල මේධානන්ද හිමි සහ මහාචාර්ය රාජ් සෝමදේව, ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාර්ය අත්තනායක එම්. හේරත් යන මහත්වරු දෙසුම් […]

Courtesy the conversation.com The history of the spice trade conjures up exotic images of caravans plying the Silk Road in storied antiquity as well as warfare between European powers vying for control of what, pound for pound, were among the most valuable commodities in the known world. One of the most valuable of the spices […]

 තිලකා රන්දෙනි  උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින අද සීගිරියේ ඇති බොහෝ චිත‍්‍ර මැකී ගොසිනි. ඒ නිසාම ඒ යුගය ගැන එතරම් පැහැදිලි රූපයක් මවාගත නොහැකිය. එහෙත් චිත‍්‍ර මැකී ගිය ද එක්තරා වාසනාවකට සීගිරි ගී තවමත් කැටපත් පවුරේ ඇත. යම් යම් ලේඛකයෝ වරින් වර තම තම නැණ පමණින් ඒවා විග‍්‍රහ කරති. මේ ගී විග‍්‍රහයන් අඩංගු පොත් දෙකක් හා මෝහන ප‍්‍රතිගමනයක් […]

ලිලානි සුරවීර  (FB) ක්‍රි.ව. 1815 දී උඩරට රාජධානිය ඉංග්‍රීසීන්ට යටත් වීමට හේතු වූ ප්‍රධාන කාරණයක්‌ වූයේ එවකට උඩරට සිටි ප්‍රධානීන් බලලෝභයෙන් භේදභින්න වී කටයුතු කිරීමය. ඔවුහු පසුව ඉංග්‍රීසීන් උඩරටට ගෙන්වා ගෙන ගිවිසුමක්‌ ද අත්සන් කරමින් උඩරට පාලන බලය බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය අධිරාජ්‍යයට පැවරුවෝය. එතැන් පටන් ඉංග්‍රීසීන් විසින් ගෙන ගිය පාලනය උඩරට රදළයන් බලාපොරොත්තු නොවූ එසේම රදළයන්ට අවාසි […]

By Lakshman I. Keerthisinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion – Frederick Douglass -American Author Around two centuries ago our ancestors launched a heroic struggle against the mighty British Empire in an uprising in order to gain freedom from British colonial rule. Reminiscences of that struggle still haunt […]

By Senaka Weeraratna, Categories: Greater East Asian Conference ,Greater East Asian War (Pacific War) ,Japanese History (Culture) Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour ignited the liberation of Asia from Western domination – Time to express Asia’s Gratitude to Japan bySenaka Weeraratna Attorney at Law (Sri Lanka) Good Afternoon. Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you […]

Key-note address delivered at the University, Peradeniya, Kandy By Dr. Palitha Kohona, Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, Former Foreign Secretary  26 November 2018 Today we look back on a heroic struggle that our ancestors waged 200 years ago   against the mightiest empire that the world had known up […]

by  Senaka Weeraratna Attorney at Law (Sri Lanka) Good Afternoon.  Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. The title of my presentation is ‘Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour ignited the liberation of Asia from Western domination – Time to Express Asia`s Gratitude to Japan`.  This is a very important topic […]

Bhanu Sridharan Courtesy scroll.in A study shows Sri Lanka’s dry zone lizards are also found in India, but its wet zone species are endemic. The Indian termite hill gecko. | Prashanthns/Wikimedia Commons [Licensed under CC BY 3.0   Most households in South Asia would have at some point given shelter to the common house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus. […]

Courtesy China Daily Archaeologists sift the dirt carefully (left) to discover the ancient ceramic pieces (right) at the Allaippidy site in Sri Lanka, majority of which appear to have been made in China and have traveled along the ancient maritime Silk Road. [Photo provided to China Daily] Archaeologists from Shanghai Museum have unearthed a large […]

Dharma Sri Kariyawasam Lanka Lead News නිදහසේ පියා ඩී.එස්. පළමු නිදහස් අරගලය පාවා දුන්නේ ය ඩී.එස්. සේනානයක යනු ලංකාවේ නිදහසේ පියා යැයි කීයන පට්ටපල් බොරුව සමාජගත කරන්නට ‘නිදහසේ පියා ඩී.එස්.’ යනුවෙන් චිත්‍රපටයක් හදා විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂ ඇමැතිවරයා දරන උත්සාහය පිළිකුල් සහගත ය. එය ලේ බිඳක් වත් නොසොල්වා 1948 දී ලංකාවට නිදහස ලබා ගත්තේ යැයි කියන බොරුව […]

By Dr.Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai/newsin.asia The Vishwakarma puja, which was observed on September 17, is not restricted to India but is observed in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. The puja closely follows the celebration of the Ganapati festival. In some places, it is performed the day after Diwali in October or November. Vishwakarma puja or Kanya Sankranti is celebrated in the Indian states of […]

 Sri Lankan Solidarity Movement The Sri Lankan Tamils demanding a ‘Tamil homeland’ is a totally bogus demand as per the history and archaeology of the country. Even a few months back, a discovery was made of an archaeological site in Anuradhapura (the ancient capital of the Sinhala people) dating back to 800BC and included beads, […]

Courtesy see.this.onblerd.com One of the most prominent of the human zoo operators was the Hamburg animal trader Carl Hagenbeck. He would go on expeditions in foreign countries and bring back both animals and people for European collections and display. The zoo in Hamburg still bears his name. In his memoirs, Carl Hagenbeck praised himself, writing, […]

Lisa Wade, PhD on October 15, 2012 Courtesy The Society Pages ***TRIGGER WARNING for racism and enslavement*** During a dark period of world history, intellectuals pondered where to draw the line between human and animal.  They arrayed humans hierarchically, from the lightest to the darkest skin.  Believing that Africans were ape-like, they weren’t sure whether to include […]

සාකච්ඡා කළේ එරික්‌ ගාමිණී ජිනප්‍රිය[Divaina] උතුරේ මහ ඇමති සී. වී. විග්නේෂ්වරන් මහතා මහතා උතුරේ ඓතිහාසික දෙමළ රාජ්‍යයක් පැවතියා ද යන කාරණය පිළිබඳව යම් සැකයක් තිබේනම් ඒ පිළිබඳව විශ්වාසදායක සිංහල, දෙමළ ඉතිහාසඥයන්ගෙන් විමසන ලෙස ඉල්ලා ඇත. ඒ අනුව අප එම කාරණය සහ මෙරට ඉතිහාසය සහ පුරවිද්‍යාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් විග්නේෂ්වරන් මහතා පළ කර ඇති අදහස් පිළිබඳව කැලණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ […]

By Radhika Iyengar/Livemint Courtesy NewsIn.Asia New Delhi, July 14: It was in 1952 that the Minister of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) of newly independent India, B.V. Keskar, decided that All India Radio (AIR)—the information and entertainment lifeline of the nation—would not air film songs as they were degenerate and far too Westernized”. He believed they would […]