Download or read book The Story of Sigiriya written by Senani Ponnamperuma and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the fifth century Kasyapa I acquires his throne by murdering his father, who he plasters up alive into a wall. Unable to redeem himself with his people for this crime he abandons his capital and flees deep into the inhospitable forests of central Sri Lanka. There, in an area dominated by a massive black column of rock, he builds himself a new capital. At the center of his new city is the royal citadel, a terrestrial paradise of colorful gardens, pavilions and ponds. The once dark and foreboding rock he transforms to appear like a huge dazzling white cloud. Around its girth, like a giant colorful cummerbund, he paints an exquisite tapestry depicting celestial nymphs. Then on an escarpment half way up this sheer rock he then builds a colossal gatehouse in the form of a fearsome sphinx-like lion giving his lair it name, Sigiriya-Lion Mountain. There on its summit, hidden from view, he lives in splendid isolation tormented by fear and guilt. His city thrives for less than fourteen year. Then as quickly as it appears it disappears, abandoned, and quickly forgotten; relegated to an obscure footnote in history. This is the story of Kashyapa and his masterpiece-Sigiriya as it has never been told before.
Download or read book Sigiriya and Beyond written by Neranjana Gunetilleke and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sigiriya and Its Significance written by Rajendra Henapala De Silva and published by Brecourt Academic. This book was released on 2002 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The monumental complex of Sigiriya, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is located in the central province of Sri Lanka and traditionally has been deemed to be the capital and site of the palace of Kassapa I, 5th-6th century AD. Drawing on archaeological, literary, religious and cultural evidence from Sigiriya, and from Sri Lanka and India in general, Raja de Silva presents a brand new theory on the identity and function of the site. Casting doubt on earlier interpretations of the site as a palace or fortress, he suggests that Sigiriya was never the abode of a God King', but was a long-standing monastery built several centuries before the time of Kassapa. The paintings for which Sigiriya has long been famous are reinterpreted, not as ladies from Kassapa's court, but as representations of Tara, the most important goddess in Mahayana Buddhism to whom the building was dedicated.
Download or read book The Sigiriya Museum written by Senake Bandaranayake and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Sigiriya Royal Gardens written by Nilan Cooray and published by TU Delft. This book was released on 2012-10-19 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Besides the efforts that are of a descriptive and celebrative nature, studies related to Sri Lanka's historical built heritage largely view material remains in historical, sociological, socio-historical and semiological perspectives. There is hardly any serious attempt to view such material remains from a technical-analytical approach to understand the compositional aspects of their design. The 5th century AC royal complex at Sigiriya is no exception in this regard. The enormous wealth of information and the material remains unearthed during more than 100 years of field-based research by several generations of archaeologists provide an ideal opportunity for such analysis. The Sigiriya Royal Gardens fills the gap in research related to Sri Lanka's historical built heritage in general, and to Sigiriya in particular. Therefore, the present research attempts to read Sigiriya as a landscape architectonic design to expose its architectonic composition and design instruments.
Download or read book The Pleasure Gardens of Sigiriya written by Osmund Bopearachchi and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sigiriya written by Senake Bandaranayake and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sigiriya written by Senake Bandaranayake and published by Central Cultural Fund. This book was released on 1999 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brief historical outline of Sigiriya, Sri Lanka.
Download or read book Globejotting written by Dave Fox and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most travel diaries fizzle. By day six of a big trip, people are struggling to recall what happened on days three, four, and five. They return home with mostly empty journals, or bland writing that fails to capture the full spirit of their journeys. Award-winning travel humorist Dave Fox comes to the rescue in this book that's both informative and irreverently funny. You'll learn to: -- Bring destinations to life with bold details. -- Splash those details quickly onto your pages so journaling doesn't gobble up your precious vacation time. -- Elude your "Inner Censor" and write with confidence. -- Weave together your "outer" and "inner" journeys, using unfamiliar places as a backdrop for self-discovery. Dave shares his favorite journaling techniques, shows how to find time to write in the middle of an exciting trip, and infuses it all with a generous dose of his off-the-wall humor. Whether your journeys are weekend road trips or excursions around the world, this book will help transform you into a travel journaling superhero!
Download or read book Sigiriya written by Senani Ponnamperuma and published by Nsm Ponnamperuma. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Palace intrigue, passion, deceit, betrayal, and tragedy-this is the story of King Kasyapa and his beloved Sigiriya. Set fifteen hundred years ago, this compelling novel weaves historical facts into a remarkably entertaining story of fate, dangerous alliances, enduring friendships, and forbidden love.
Download or read book Meaning of the Sigiriya Paintings written by Benille Priyanka and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Study with reference to Sigiriya, Sri Lanka.
Download or read book Ten Thousand Birds written by Tim Birkhead and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-01 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten Thousand Birds provides a thoroughly engaging and authoritative history of modern ornithology, tracing how the study of birds has been shaped by a succession of visionary and often-controversial personalities, and by the unique social and scientific contexts in which these extraordinary individuals worked. This beautifully illustrated book opens in the middle of the nineteenth century when ornithology was a museum-based discipline focused almost exclusively on the anatomy, taxonomy, and classification of dead birds. It describes how in the early 1900s pioneering individuals such as Erwin Stresemann, Ernst Mayr, and Julian Huxley recognized the importance of studying live birds in the field, and how this shift thrust ornithology into the mainstream of the biological sciences. The book tells the stories of eccentrics like Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, a pathological liar who stole specimens from museums and quite likely murdered his wife, and describes the breathtaking insights and discoveries of ambitious and influential figures such as David Lack, Niko Tinbergen, Robert MacArthur, and others who through their studies of birds transformed entire fields of biology. Ten Thousand Birds brings this history vividly to life through the work and achievements of those who advanced the field. Drawing on a wealth of archival material and in-depth interviews, this fascinating book reveals how research on birds has contributed more to our understanding of animal biology than the study of just about any other group of organisms.
Download or read book The Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka written by and published by UNESCO. This book was released on 2004 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A History of Sri Lanka written by K M de Silva and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2005-08-25 with total page 666 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sri Lanka is an ancient civilization, shaped and thrust into the modern globalizing world by its colonial experience. With its own unique problems, many of them historical legacies, it is a nation trying to maintain a democratic, pluralistic state structure while struggling to come to terms with separatist aspirations. This is a complex story, and there is perhaps no better person to present it in reasoned, scholarly terms than K.M. de Silva, Sri Lanka’s most distinguished and prolific historian. A History of Sri Lanka, first published in 1981, has established itself as the standard work on the subject. This fully revised edition, in light of the most recent research, brings the story right up to the early years of the twenty-first century. The book provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of Sri Lanka’s development—from a classical Buddhist society and irrigation economy, to its emergence as a tropical colony producing some of the world’s most important cash crops, such as cinnamon, tea, rubber and coconut, and finally as an Asian democracy. It is a study of the political vicissitudes of Sri Lanka’s ancient civilization and the successive phases of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial rule. The unfortunate consequences of becoming a centre of ethnic tension and Sri Lanka’s long-standing relationship with India are also discussed. Exhaustively researched and analytical, this book is an invaluable reference source for students of ancient, colonial and post-colonial societies, ethnic conflict and democratic transitions, as well as for all those who simply want to get a feel of the rich and varied texture of Sri Lanka’s long history.
Download or read book Archaeologies of Listening written by Peter Ridgway Schmidt and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a fresh and bold look at how archaeologists and heritage managers may enhance their capacity to interpret and understand material culture and heritage values. Drawing on the founding principles of anthropology, Archaeologies of Listening demonstrates the value of cultural apprenticeship, an almost forgotten part of archaeological practice.
Download or read book The Story of Sigiriya written by Senani Ponnamperuma and published by . This book was released on 2015-04-27 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Story of Sigiriya is a beautifully illustrated easy to read book that presents the fascinating tale of Sigiriya in a new light. Senani is a brilliant storyteller, who for the very first time has brought the story of Sigiriya alive. Using a crisp narrative style and numerous asides he brings to light much new information and many previously unknown and overlooked facts. He sets the scene of the time over 1,500 years ago when this story unfolded, introduces us to the key characters, and then guides us through the events leading up to the creation, abandonment and rediscovery of what some consider the 8th Wonder of the World. In the included Site Guide he then continues to describe the ruins today with some of the most vivid and never before seen photographs of Sigiriya. The Story of Sigiriya is that of King Kasyapa, a troubled but visionary monarch, who murders his father by plastering him up in a wall. Overcome by guilt he abandons his capital and flees deep in the forests of Sri Lanka. There in an area dominated by a menacing black rock, 600 feet high, he builds himself a new capital. He transforms the once sinister-looking rock to appear like a huge bedazzling white cloud and surrounds it with lush gardens, ponds, palaces and pavilions. Around its circumference of the rock he paints a spectacular multi-colored tapestry depicting celestial nymphs - the Sigiriya Frescoes. Halfway up this sheer rock he constructs a gatehouse in the form of a sphinx-like lion giving his lair its name, Sigiriya-Lion Mountain. Atop this gigantic rock he builds himself a gleaming white palace of unsurpassed beauty. There, hidden from view he lives in splendid isolation tormented by guilt and fear. Finally betrayed, he commits suicide. His magnificent city is quickly abandoned and soon forgotten. There it lies hidden for over a thousand years until rediscovered by an adventurous young British army officer while on an elephant hunt.
Download or read book Culavamsa Being the More Recent Part of Mahavamsa written by and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
