Depicting the Buddha
His image is so commonplace that you could believe it must always have existed — yet for six centuries after his death, he was never once depicted in human form. A headless seated Buddha, from approximately A.D. 200 to 300, made in Mathura, in what is now central India. Mathura was one of the earliest [...]
The grand old man of tea
Ninety years old……..while those of his vintage have long left the boardroom, maybe 30 years before, the ‘brand’ of Dilmah Tea who is Merrill J. Fernando is in his office in the Peliyagoda complex before 8.30 in the morning. The new coronavirus which has brought about a strict lockdown and curfew in Colombo has put [...]
Depicting the Buddha
We flew through the thin, light-suffused mist of a December afternoon in north India before landing among open fields outside the paramount site of Hindu pilgrimage: Varanasi, a temple town that curls around the Ganges, the equivalent of Rome or Jerusalem in the Hindu imagination. It was here, scarcely 15 miles from the airport, among [...]
Appreciations
A life well lived and a part well played Sellathurai Sivarasa PC S. Sivarasa to his countless clients, “Siva” to pals and “Chitta” to his near and dear passed away peacefully in his sleep in Melbourne, Australia on April 30, at the age of 88. Though death is one certain inevitability of life and with [...]
Arka: Tackling SRH
At the time of writing, Colombo has endured more than a month of curfew to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Roads are empty, businesses are shut. But on the Arka Initiative Whatsapp group, a hive of activity is taking place. Proposals are being written, livestream videos on SRH (sexual and reproductive health) are being planned, [...]
Stuck at home? Take some virtual tours of famed museums
If your first stop when you are in a new city is its museums, then the current lockdown may have dampened your spirits as travel seems a distant dream. But take heart, there are still lots of virtual ways to see the world. Here are a few virtual tours of some the world’s greatest museums [...]
WNPS lectures go online
‘The Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) monthly lecture will move to the online platforms until the social distancing rules are removed and public gatherings are allowed by the authorities. The society will commence the online lecture series from its May lecture ‘Unwinding the secrets of elusive Indian Pangolin’ by Dr Priyan Perera. The lecture [...]
Biodiversity Day: Virtual session
Biodiversity Sri Lanka will commemorate the International Day for Biological Diversity 2020, in partnership with Dilmah Conservation through a joint programme on the theme “Öur Solutions are in Nature”. This year’s programme will be organized as a virtual one on Friday, May 22 at 9.30 a.m. with panelists IUCN’s Director Ecosystem Global Management Programme Dr. [...]