Bamba’s bright beacon of learning for monks
The Vajiraramaya in Bambalapitiya is an oasis in the heart of a dusty, hot city. Here you enter and leave behind the bustling commerce of Colombo 4 to be ensconced in the soothing presence of saffron robes, incense, ample shade and the pleasant mustiness of the scriptorium and monks’ rooms. The temple has been here [...]
Temple murals that became George Keyt’s magnum opus
The image house at the Gothami Vihara in Borella looks deceptively ordinary and insignificant. Shaded by giant trees amidst mouldy white colonial buildings, it is a soft ochre and has a simple if two tiered tiled roof. But walk in and you stand hushed in the presence of some of our most magnificent modern art, [...]
A tribute to centenarian Gerald Upatissa de Alwis
Gerald’s father Samuel George Ernest De Alwis was one of the eldest brothers of my father Felix from a family of thirteen. Gerald had two siblings Mervyn and Rosabelle. Gerald was an English trained teacher with an excellent command of the English language. After a brief period as a teacher he joined the Social Services [...]
Letters to the Editor
We need a rescue and recovery plan for our motherland We have encountered the worse economic disaster that has turned chaotic. Month-long non-violent public protests are now facing counter-violence by government-supported thugs. We cannot go on like this with a paralysed country – with violence, life and property damage and chaos. We will drown in [...]
Appreciations
A courageous lady she was idolised by all of us Eileen Dane It was a gloomy evening with a thin drizzle on Wednesday, April 27 when I entered the highway from Aturugiriya to proceed to my sister-in-law, Eileen Dane’s residence at Hendala. Eileen was in hospital, critically ill. Our immediate family and relatives had organised [...]
In love with her city, Johannesburg
It is not perhaps the stay she envisioned, when the acclaimed young architect arrived in Colombo to deliver the 18th Geoffrey Bawa memorial lecture. Coincidentally she had been mulling over taking a Bawa tour of Sri Lanka and was honoured and indeed delighted to receive the invitation. But it was to an eerily unquiet capital [...]
Kandy’s Mowbray College turns 100 on May 17
The CMS (Church Missionary Society) initially started Mowbray as a home for Bible women and it then transformed into a secondary mission school. The founders Miss A. Earp and Miss L. Denyer were young missionaries from South Africa and England. Their counterpart Miss E. Bellerby’s intervention to promote education to young women in the highlands [...]
Prestigious award for Lankan in Canada
Sri Lankan born Canadian Chulaka Ailapperuma has received the prestigious Public Service Award of Excellence for the year 2020, from the Canadian Privy Council. The award has recognised his “outstanding achievement, dedication and effort in pursuing the priorities of the Public Services in Canada”. It also recognises the exceptional work, commitment and creativity he has [...]