Ringing in the New Year with precious gifts from the Bell family
H.C.P. Bell’s great-grandson Andrew was here from England to hand over valuable volumes authored by Sri Lanka’s ‘Father of Archaeology’ to the Royal Asiatic Society By Kumudini Hettiarachchi They came bearing gifts of immense value to Sri Lanka. The great-grandson of the iconic first-ever Commissioner of Archaeology of colonial Ceylon attempted to bring these gifts [...]
Colomboscope goes green with The Way of the Forest
By Yomal Senerath-Yapa In its eighth edition, the Colomboscope interdisciplinary art festival will focus on those green aisles. Titled The Way of the Forest, it takes us down artistic pathways to rekindle knowledge of interdependence, custodian-ship, and restorative practices across wild terrain like rain forests, wilderness, mountain cultivations, and riverine wet-lands. The festival looks at [...]
Letters to the Editor
An active Bhikkuni Order is of significance for the preservation of Buddhism Uduwap poya or Sangamittta Day in December marks the significance of Arahath Sangamitta Theri bringing the sacred Bo sapling from India, now famous as the Sri Maha Bodhi in Sri Lanka and recognised as the oldest Bo tree in the world. She also [...]
Appreciations
Elvis, Denham and I: Memories of an idyllic time Denham Smith My friend Denham Smith passed away on Christmas night, in his home in Houston, Texas. It brought a flood of memories of an idyllic time in Sri Lanka in the late 1960s. Denham was my neighbour at Nimalka Gardens in Kollupitiya. He went to [...]
Refloating of ‘Goschen’– a novel experience for us railway men
By Lasantha Wijesuriya December 22, 1964 was a very significant day for the people of Sri Lanka. It was on this night that a storm developing in the Bay of Bengal, north-east of Sri Lanka transformed into a high intensity cyclone. With winds gusting over 100 mph, it swept across the northern part of the [...]
Proving that liberation and enlightenment in Buddhist philosophy are “evidence-based”
In the early 1980s, during my undergraduate days, Professor Carlo Fonseka, the then Professor of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine Colombo, started his lecture series on neurophysiology by asking two questions which he then proceeded to answer himself. What is matter? Never mind! What is mind? No matter!! Although these appeared to invoke humour, [...]
Stripes and Checks at Ward Place
Stripes and Checks opened its Ward Place showroom earlier this month with many customers attending the launch. The local brand created by three friends Gajan Vinothan, Kalana Jayasuriya and Udara Rathnayake has enjoyed remarkable growth in the competitive clothing market in recent times.
2 paintings by Segar to adorn Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria
Two of artist Raja Segar’s paintings have been chosen to permanently adorn the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne. One is the 1979 piece he did, titled, Housing Scheme, an angry chock a block of geometric shapes that signify his childhood home in Kollupitiya being razed down to make way for the Liberty Plaza [...]
‘STHRI’ by Selyn
Popular handloom store Selyn launched ‘STHRI’, a collection of handloom occasion wear for empowered women by designer Lonali Rodrigo and stylist Jude Gayantha at their Colombo 5 store earlier this month. - Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara