75th Independence
Home » 75th IndependenceFrom glorious kingdoms to foreign rule
Renowned archaeologist Dr. Senarat Paranavitana in his book ‘Sinhalayo’ details the beginning of the decline of Sri Lanka’s ancient kingdoms From the beginning of the fourteenth century, the ancient irrigation system was gradually neglected. The lands which were irrigated by it relapsed into jungle, and the bulk of the population in these areas either perished [...]
The coming of the Portuguese
By Murray da Silva Cosme At the dawn of the 16th century, Colombo was not the sprawling city of today. Its modern history was just about to begin. There was no inkling then that it would blossom into the island’s premier city. It was then a well-established Moorish settlement called Kolontota also known as Kolumpura [...]
The final conquest
The Kandyan Convention On February 14, 1815, General Brownrigg at the head of the second division entered Kandy, which was deserted by the king [Sri Vikrama Rajasinha] and nearly all the inhabitants. On the 18th, the king was taken prisoner with two of his wives in the house of a subordinate headman, about a mile [...]
Battles leading to Independence
A journey through Lanka’s history of rebellion against foreign rule By Yomal Senerath-Yapa They were the last stands of the Sinhalese – in steep ravine, fearsome gorge, treacherous river and inhospitable wet Kandyan forest, when with guerrilla warfare and stratagem they battled a West determined to usher in the dusk of the longest-running monarchy in [...]
The siege that ended Portuguese rule
The Dutch take over (1656-1658) There, however, came a turn in the tide when history began to move quickly in Europe. Spain in union with Portugal bestrode the world. They had declared the oceans under a mare clausum as solely theirs. Holland presented a united front to circumvent it. They decided to beat the enemy [...]
Laid to rest in the Garrison Cemetery
By Udumbara Udugama The Garrison Cemetery is situated in the heart of Kandy behind the Sri Dalada Maligawa, National Museum and the International Buddhist Museum. This 200-year-old cemetery is the final resting place of many notable personalities of British colonial Ceylon. Opened in 1822, it was closed by Governor’s Proclamation in the mid-1870s. Supervisor of [...]
A dark period under British rule
Declaration of Martial Law in 1915 By Priyasath Dep The Government Agent, since 1900, when issuing permits under the Police Ordinance for religious processions imposed a condition that when passing places of religious worship all forms of music should stop. This led to resentment on the part of the Sinhala Buddhists who thought that these [...]
Rare images in family photos
Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky’s historic visit to the island in 1880 By Yomal Senerath-Yapa It was in 2016 that Senaka Weeraratna’s mother Muriel passed on to her son a rusty old aluminum box found in their bungalow in Havelock Town. Prising it open, there fell on the author cum lawyer’s lap some glass negatives and [...]
Buddhist delegation that went to pre-WWII Japan
“It was the eve of World War II. The British Government in Sri Lanka was suspicious of Japan’s role in Asia, and a Pan-Pacific Buddhist Conference (in Japan) must have added to their fears of Japanese hegemony in the region. Upon the return of the (Ceylonese Buddhist) delegates from Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, some of [...]
Japan’s blitzkrieg and Indian freedom struggle helped Lanka win independence
By Senaka Weeraratna Sri Lanka won freedom in step with other Asian countries at the end of the Second World War in 1945. Many factors contributed to the collapse of Western domination of Asia. But the most notable was the massive attack of Japan on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, followed by attacks on [...]
Easter Sunday 1942: A centenarian remembers
By D. L. Sirimanne In the late 1930s, going back in time almost 75 years, Ceylon was a British colony. Everybody was satisfied with the way of life except for some who were talking of self-government. I was happy having a good job as a stenographer at Carson & Co., Ltd., the most prestigious tea [...]
A hope come true
“As far as we are concerned, we do not want to penalize Japan or keep her down. Japan is a great nation. It may be that she made a mistake. It may be that she did harm. Let us forgive and forget the past, and let us hope that Japan will live as a friend [...]
Japanese aid to Sri Lanka
Japan established diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka in 1954 and joined the Colombo Plan in 1954. Since then, more than 14,000 Sri Lankan public officials have benefited from training programmes while 3,000 Japanese experts and 1,100 volunteers have been sent to Sri Lanka. The first grant aid to Sri Lanka was in 1969. It has [...]
Sporadic bombs that fell here and there
Extracts from ‘O.E.G – A biography of Sir Oliver Goonetilleke’ by Sir Charles Jeffries It was still in the early hours of the morning when I received a call from Governor Caldecott. He had spent the night in a specially constructed slit-trench shelter as Queen’s House, being a well-known landmark, was considered unsafe. He, too, [...]
When Colombo’s schools went up-country
By Goolbai Gunasekara I was too young to recall exactly when Principals of Colombo’s big schools decided to evacuate up-country taking with them a large percentage of their pupils. This happened shortly after the Second World War began in 1939 and much of this article in based on what I heard from others. My mother, [...]
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