Isipathanaramaya: City temple with a window to 1920s Ceylon
Isipathanaramaya in Havelock Town is one of the oldest temples in Colombo – a Buddhist beacon with the precincts housing the biggest stupa (120 ft tall) within Colombo, and a Bo tree that is more than two hundred years old. This Poson the temple was quite busy and as the Chief Incumbent the Ven. Waga [...]
A country’s history is changed by a simile of an elephant’s footprint
It was on a Poson Poya that Arahant Mahinda Maha Thera visited Lanka with an entourage of four arahants, Sumana samanera (novice) and Banduka upasaka, (lay devotee). The son of Emperor Ashoka of India decided to come to Lanka as an emissary when Prince Tissa ascended the throne, as he realised King Mutasiva, Tissa’s father [...]
Beautiful, yet troublesome foursome
Smash! Bang! Crash! A tranquil green grove of a sleepy village in the Deep South is woken up. But the disturbance is so frequent, ears now don’t respond. The monkey menace is on! We in the southern villages dread the grey langur in our gardens no less than the town folks dread the pole cat [...]
Letters to the Editor
The smart phone and the not so smart user The smart phone has become an indispensable parenting tool in the modern world. But like every tool it can be used and abused. Adults are either ignorant of or prefer to see only its uses and to ignore the rest. If he were alive today Alexander [...]
Appreciations
The world he wanted Jayantha Dhanapala The essay titled, “The World We Want”, was written some 60 years ago, by a teenager in a senior class at Trinity College, Kandy. The prize in the islandwide competition was a three-month scholarship to the US to represent Ceylon, as it was then known, at the World Youth [...]
Moving to the rhythms of Sri Lanka in Melbourne
The powerful beats of a davula reverberate across the studio in Berrick, as a group of young men and women practise the subtle variations in line, movement and hand gestures between the dance forms of the Matara, Raigama and Benthara regions of southern Sri Lanka. It is the open day of Thaala Asapuwa, an opportunity [...]
‘I like to try and write every day’
A watch repairer occupies the centre of the title story of Keeping Time, Chiranthi Rajapakse’s unpublished collection of short stories shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize 2022 that oozes the nectar of everyday lives – lives both ordinary yet phenomenal. “I was curious about people who are good at working with their hands, because I am [...]
After four years French Spring Festival is back
With a fusion of visual arts, music and cinema, the 11th edition of the ‘French Spring Festival 2023’ organised by the Embassy of France in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and the Alliance Française of Kotte in Colombo will take place from June 24 to July 9 – returning in full after a lapse of [...]