Courtesy Rediff News Image: The disputed structure in SrinagarPhotographs: Umar Ganai Look at the picture carefully. This nondescript Muslim shrine in Kashmir has shot into the international limelight after many believers claimed it was where Jesus Christ was laid to rest. Inquisitive visitors– mostly Westerners–have started flocking to the shrine, forcing the caretakers to close down the religious structure. Rediff.com‘s Mukhtar […]

Senaka Weeraratna The most important question that people particularly Buddhists should ask themselves is, What are the lessons that we can learn from the total destruction of Nalanda University in the 12th Century? The answer lies in the necessity of Self Defense and the improvement of our abilities of Buddhist resistance.  If the Buddhists cannot defend […]

By Sana Jamal/Gulf News Islamabad December 19: One of the world’s oldest Buddhist temples discovered last year in Pakistan has been featured in the ‘Top 10 Discoveries of 2022’ by the renowned Archaeology Magazine. The temple was uncovered in the town of Barikot in the Swat region of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. The […]

Factually Explained

Courtesy Entertainment Times Ashok Kumar Kainth, a historian is reportedly threatening legal action against the makers of ‘Ram Setu’ starring Akshay Kumar in the lead.According to reports, the Punjabi, who heads the department of Ramayan Research Committee in Sri Lanka, alleged that his research work and life story have been used in the film without his permission. Read Also‘Ram […]

Dutu

Seema Guha Courtesy Outlook India The epic tale says that Ram with the help of Hanuman and Sugriv rescued Sita from Ravan. The epic also mentions that a bridge was constructed by the Vanaras to help Ram and his army cross the ocean. The Ramayan continues to evoke passions in the faithful on both sides […]

NU1’s VLOG හෙලයන්ගේ අක් මුල් සොයා යන රේඩියෝ ටිකාව හෙවත් අපේ ජාතික කතාව , පසුගිය වැඩසටහන් සියල්ලම මෙතැනින් ලබාගත හැක https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list… සීගිරි රාජධානියෙ සිට ගෙන ආ සියලුම වැඩසටහන් මෙතැනින් ලබාගත හැක https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqCB1… අපට අනුග්‍රකත්වය දැක්වීම සදහා ඔබ කැමති නම් අප අමතන්න. 0112507080 0711 95 95 95 whatsapp only ශ්‍රී ලංකා වේලාවෙන් උදෑසන 09 ත් සවස […]

By Howard W. French Courtesy The Nation British colonials with a pet cheetah in Secunderabad, India, 1906. (Hulton Archive / Getty Images) In 2005, Britain’s then–Labour chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, chose the backdrop of Tanzania to make a dramatic statement about his nation’s unmatched record of imperial conquest and rule. The time is long gone,” […]

by Satyajith Andradi Courtesy The Island Sri Lanka continues to be in the grips of many high profile crises of recent origin such as the COVID–19 pandemic, chronic difficulties in servicing foreign debts, shortages of essential items such as food and fuel, skyrocketing cost of living, and crop failures due to the ban of chemical […]

By Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani Courtesy The News Today, on February 4, the people of Sri Lanka are celebrating their 74th Independence Day to commemorate their freedom and sovereignty from British imperialism. The 5,000-year-old ancient island is also described in the sacred Hindu book ‘Ramayana’ as Lanka where Sri Ram had fought with the demon king […]

P.K. Balachandran/Daily Mirror Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, January 25: The name of Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) is deeply etched in the history of Buddhism as the man who passionately and single-mindedly (if not single-handedly), strove to liberate the Buddhist shrine at Buddhagaya in North India from the clutches of a Hindu priest. Sadly, Dharmapala could not achieve […]

By Seneka Abeyratne Courtesy The Island Brahmi inscription on a drip ledge at Vessagiriya, Anuradhapura. Pic courtesy: Preethi de Silva Ruminations on Sri Lanka’s ancient past – Part X By Seneka Abeyratne A distinguishing feature of the Early Historic Period, between 500 BCE and 300 CE, is the dramatic appearance of lithic Brahmi inscriptions, which […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The fossilised skeletal remains of a herd of Rhinoceros that died in a meteoric shower more than 80,000 years ago have been unearthed from an 80ft deep gem mine at the foot of Rilaulu hill range in Lunugala in Modalsima. Biologist of the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology Kelum Nalinda Manamendra […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Governor William Gregory’s term from 1872 to 1877 was the golden age” of Ceylon coffee Colombo: Today, Sri Lanka is synonymous with tea and not coffee. As on date, it is way down in the list of coffee producing countries, 43 rd. to be precise. But back in the 1870s, Ceylon, as Sri […]

By Seneka Abeyratne Courtesy The Island Kozakian Shamshir weapon made of crucible steel from the collection of the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History, Brussels The ancient kings, inspired by Buddhism and the constant need to feed a growing population, produced a new culture as well as a new economy. They also […]

Courtesy HINDUISM AND SANATAN DHARMA The Maya writing system was used in what is now Mexico and Central America for almost two thousand years, until after the arrival of Cortés. It was written in bark paper books, carved on public monuments and inscribed on personal objects of pottery, bone and jade. The invading Spanish outlawed […]

by Tudor Wijeratne I would like to share my memories of a group of young boarders barely out of their teens, who later became household names in the fields of Arts, Music, Linguistics, Sinhala Literature, Journalism, and Medicine. They were boarders in my grandfather’s house in Mt. Lavinia, in the period 1940s – 1950s. Most […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Princeton University Social Anthropologist Prof. Gananath Obeysekere has said that Theosophists led by Col. Henry Steel Olcott introduced a protestant” and purified” form of Buddhism in Ceylon when Buddhists in the island were demoralized” by the disestablishment” of their religion by the British rulers. But Obeysekere’s view is challenged by […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, November 30: The remnants of the Gandhara Buddhist civilization in Pakistan are a sight to behold, not just for Buddhist pilgrims but also for art lovers.  Imposing stupas with intricate and lifelike carvings depicting various events in the Buddha’s life and his past births abound in the Swat Valley […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror Courtesy NewsIn.Asia The Kandyan Kingdom’s dogged resistance to European invaders from the 17 th. Century to the second decade of the 19 th., Century has not received the attention it deserves from military historians, laments historian Dr. Channa Wickremesekera, the author of Kandy at War: Indigenous Military Resistance to European Expansion in […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, November 16 (newsin.asia): A documentary on the Gandhara civilization in Pakistan, jointly produced by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, was launched by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa here on Tuesday. Titled  Gandhara” the documentary is jointly produced by the High Commission of Pakistan in Sri Lanka and Siddhivinayak Cine Arts (Private) […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, November 10: Events leading to the controversial takeover of the Kandyan kingdom by the British in 1815 and the aftermath have been written about both from the British and the Sri Lankan viewpoint. The British view is vividly presented in Ceylon Ancient and Modern published by Chapman and Hall of London […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror Colombo, October 26: The reign of Kandy’s last King, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha (1798-1815), was at once colourful and tragic. On the one hand, it was marked by the transformation of Kandy into a beautiful celestial city” and on the other, it stood out for political intrigue, disloyalty, inhuman retribution, British machination and […]

By Uditha Devapriya/The Island Colombo, October 22: In 851 AD, an Arab merchant called Soleyman wrote an account of his travels to the island of Serendib. Impressionistic but insightful, it records the earliest known engagement of a Muslim with Sri Pada, also known as Samantukuta. Soleyman does not refer to Sri Pada as aadam malayi”, […]

විමල් පටබැඳිගේ (ශාස්ත‍්‍රවේදී, නීතිඥ, විශ‍්‍රාමික සොලිසිටර්* පුදබිමක් බිලි ගනියි තිරිකුණාමලේ (ගෝකණ්ණ පටුනේ* වෙළඳ කටයුතු ආරම්භ කළ විගස කොන්ස්ටන්ටයින් ඩි සා ඩි මෙනෙෂෙස් එහි බලකොටුව ගොඩනගන ලද අවස්ථාවේ ඒ භූමියේ තිබූ පුදබිම (පැගෝඞ්* විනාශ කරන ලද බව පුර්තුගීසි පූජකයෙකු සහ ඉතිහාසඥයෙකු වූ ෆර්නාඩෝ ඩි ක්වේරෝෂ් එළිදරවු කොට ඇත. පුර්තුගීසීන් විසින් විනාශ කරනු ලැබූ පුදබිම හින්දු කොවිලක් […]

by S.A. Wijayatilake (former Principal, Ananda College) * Three and a half centuries of foreign aggression and occupation – at first partial, but since 1815 complete – of the land had not only demoralized and emasculated the Sinhalese people generally, but had adversely affected the position of Buddhism in this Island in particular. The Portuguese, […]

ආචාර්ය සෙනරත් බණ්ඩාර දිසානායක හිටපු පුරාවිද්‍යා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස් පුරාවිද්‍යා විධිනියම හා සම්මත නොතකා අභයගිරිය ලෝක උරුමය වනසන්නේ යයි හිටපු පුරාවිද්‍යා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් ආචාර්ය සෙනරත් දිසානායක විසින් නිකුත් කර ඇති නිවේදනයක් මෙහි දැක්වෙයි. විහාරාධිපතිගේ බිල්ලට නතු වන අභයගිරි ලෝක උරුමය. අභයගිරි විහාරය තනන ලද්දේ  වලගම්බා රජු විසින් ක්‍රිස්තු පූර්ව දෙවන සියවසේය. […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Colombo Diary Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, June 30 (Daily Mirror): While Sri Lanka’s connection with the Tamil country in South India is repeatedly mentioned in the island nation’s ancient chronicles, the Mahawamsa and the Deepawamsa, its connection with Kerala, which is also in South India, finds no mention in either. Kerala appears for the first time only in […]

Courtesy The Daily News Tissa Wewa The Holy City of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka is a place unlikely to be the setting for a fascinating tale of flying objects and other mundane events. Anuradhapura, named after a King’s chieftain called Anuradha, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world. It thus means […]