By Dr.Nirmala Chandrahasan/The Island Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, June 9: The recent discovery of name- boards in public institutions which have omitted one of the national languages, namely Tamil, only to replace it with Mandarin Chinese has caused a furor with Tamil members of Parliament and other politicians voicing their protests. Certainly, this is most unfortunate […]

By Demi Perera Courtesy BBC In recent years, the internet has been alight with speculation that a chart-like carving in Anuradhapura is a stargate: an ancient gateway through which humans can enter the Universe. Sri Lanka’s sacred city of Anuradhapura is an unlikely place to be enmeshed in a fantastic tale of UFOs and otherworldly […]

Tony Donaldson, with underlining emphasis inserted bt The Editor, Thuppahi Courtesy Thuppahi’s Blog On 1 October 1949, the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed by Mao Zedong. Two months later, on 6 January 1950 the Ceylon government recognised Red China– one of the first countries to do so. Seven years later, in early 1957, the Premier of […]

Thomas Babington Macaulay What happened? On 2 February 1835, British historian and politician Thomas Babington Macaulay presented his ‘Minute on Indian Education’ that sought to establish the need to impart English education to Indian ‘natives’. This minute is a very important document for UPSC history. Aspirants should know the gist of this minute and its impact on […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror James Emerson Tennent was Colonial Secretary in Ceylon from 1846 to 1850 and Acting Governor in April-May 1847. Tennent was not just an administrator, a Colonial master lording over obsequious natives. His keen eye and ear caught the nuances of the communities he was administering. His scholarship got him the Presidency of […]

Rohan Abeygunawardena On 25th of February 2021 ‘’Ceylon Daily News’’  published  following news item; ‘’An ancient Ola leaf original copy of the Mahavamsa” (Great Chronicle) currently kept at the library of the University of Peradeniya is to be declared as a UNESCO World Heritage. The decision has been reached by UNESCO experts upon verifying that […]

P.K.Balachandran Courtesy The Daily Mirror Before Sri Lanka became predominantly Buddhist following the conversion of the 3rd. Century King Devanampiya Tissa (247 BC-207 BC), the island had an amazing assortment of religious cults, practices and faiths including animism, Jainism, Shaivism, Brahminism and Buddhism. There were many gods, goddesses and deities of local and Indian origin.  […]

By P. K. Balachandran/Ceylon Today Colombo, March 8: India-Sri Lanka trade goes far into the past, to the Early Historic Era in fact. The island had also played the additional role of being a transit point, a hub, in the trade between the Eastern and Western worlds. The story of India-Sri Lanka trade in ancient […]

By Ama H. Vanniarachchy  Since the Department of Archaeology began exploration and excavation work in the Northern areas of the island, it has been the talk of the town. There were some incidents which stirred up some controversy, starting from arguments about the identity of these ancient monasteries and the true inheritance of them. One […]

  The United States Magazine and Democratic Review (May 1851)   In 1851, An American Journal  (The United States Magazine and Democratic Review), at a time (1851) when they I.e. USA, did not have imperial ambitions that dovetailed with that of British imperialism, highlighted and exposed the genocidal crimes committed on the Sinhalese people in British occupied […]

Courtesy The Indian Express Talking about the aim of the exploration, Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, Prahlad Singh Patel, said, The world should get to know about the Ram Setu through evidence based on scientific research.” Also, Ram Setu’s age will be ascertained through the study of fossils and sedimentation to see […]

Courtesyt glorylearn This is a complete guide to the Biography of Ashoka. In this guide, you will know why King Ashoka killed his 99 brothers and became a Great Indian King in History. So if you want to know about how he became a Great Indian King, you’ll love today’s guide. http://www.glorylearn.com/biography-of-ashoka/

Vernon Corea  Clifford Dodd, the Australian radio expert and administrator who was sent to Radio Ceylon under the Colombo Plan transformed the Commercial Service of the Station http://ivan_corea.tripod.com/id8.html The Hindi Service of Radio Ceylon was instrumental in catapulting the radio station as India’s number one station. Millions tuned in to hear Hindi film music presented […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Governor William Gregory’s term from 1872 to 1877 was the golden age” of Ceylon coffee Colombo, December 8: 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, […]

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia He had to convince the Colonial Office, the Admiralty, and the Board of Trade in London that Colombo was a better location than Galle Colombo, December 6 (Sunday Observer): The Colombo Port is hailed as the best port in South Asia and is the best performing State sector enterprise in Sri […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Ceylon Today By the adoption of a variety of tactics, tailored to suit the power-equation at any given point of time, Lankan Buddhists kept blunting the attack and managed to preserve Buddhism as the dominant religion of the island. Sri Lankan Buddhists came under a sustained and frontal assault by Christian missionaries during Portuguese […]

By Asiff Hussein/Roar.lk Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Names reflect beliefs and attitudes and give an insight into the manifold influences a people have been subjected to in the past, says Asiff Hussein, in his article in Roar.lk. Little do we realise that names are the foundation of all knowledge. Naming people and things makes it easier for […]

YAKK Production https://youtu.be/BGdwAQUb-mw

Courtesy Adaderana Four new members have been appointed to the Presidential Task Force for Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province. The 12-member Task Force was established on the 1st of June under the directives of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, exercising the powers vested in him by Article 33 of the Constitution. However, the following four […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Express The Hindu epic provides rallying points for Hindutva in India as well as Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka The Hindu epic Ramayana has had the unusual function of providing rallying points for two contradictory and clashing nationalisms, namely, Hindu-Indian nationalism in India, and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka. While the Hindutvic […]

By-Dr.Sripali Vaiamon  On the 25th of July(2020) President had held a meeting with MAHA SANGA and also with the new Director General of the Department of Archaeology. According to news papers very important matters have been discussed. Results could be expected without much delay. In view of this other responsible  officers will furnish more detailed […]

Courtesy Firstpost Indians are supposed to accept without compelling scientific proof the existence of Jesus or Mohammed, but a Ram or a Krishna cannot break the glass ceiling of mythology Irony had a hearty laugh last week, skipping across the chain of shoals that links India with Sri Lanka. Embracing Ramayan, the epic that binds […]

Raza Hamdani Courtesy Independent Idol was uncovered in building works near historic religious site Police in Pakistan have arrested four people in connection with the destruction of a third-century life-sized Buddha statue. Four people were detained on Saturday under antiquities law for allegedly destroying the centuries-old statue, police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the northwestern province of Pakistan, told The Independent. The rare […]

By.Dr.Sripali Vaiamon Hon. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a very religious conscious kind personality.I saw recently He has gone to UDAMALUWA OF SRI MAHA BODHIYA, ANURADHAPURA and keeping askance of his face on the Bo brach with leaning his head on it in most sentimental devotion. I fully realized he is ideally matching the great Indian King […]

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Absence of war and expansion of civil, especially, police administration from 1833 onward, led to the Malays giving up soldiering as their dominant occupation Sri Lanka’s tiny community of Malays (40,189 as per the 2012 census) had an overwhelmingly dominant position in the island’s military and police in the colonial period, […]

Macquarie University http://www.mq.edu.au/ “Visions of an Island” is an autobiographical account of Sir Christopher Ondaatje’ romance with Sri Lanka drawing on several of his books. Sir Christopher is writer in residence from 28 March till 14 April 2011, he was born in Ceylon, educated in London and immigrated to Canada in 1956. He has worked […]

Courtesy Adaderana At a jungle-covered cave site in southwestern Sri Lanka, archaeologists have found a remarkable collection of ancient objects, including tools that they believe are among the oldest survival gear humans used in rainforests. The artifacts range in age from 48,000 to 4,000 years old and include 130 bone arrow tips—the oldest arrow tips […]

iflscience.com The earliest human inhabitants of Asia’s tropical rainforests were packing some serious heat, according to a new study in the journal Science Advances, which describes the discovery of 130 arrowheads dating back 48,000 years. Found in a cave in Sri Lanka, the bone projectiles are the oldest weapons of their kind to be found outside […]

Courtesy theconversation.com/ Archaeological excavations deep within the rainforests of Sri Lanka have unearthed the earliest evidence for hunting with bows and arrows outside Africa. At Fa-Hien Lena, a cave in the heart of Sri Lanka’s wet zone forests, we discovered numerous tools made of stone, bone, and tooth – including a number of small arrow points carved […]

By Sasanka Perera & Dev Nath Pathak Courtesy NewsIn.Asia The multi-lingual broadcasts over Radio Ceylon culturally united communities divided into nation states after decolonization. New Delhi, May 6 (newsin.asia): Radio, in our view is not merely a matter of technology through which music, entertainment, information, news and increasingly fake news and many other forms of […]