Download or read book Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History written by Zoltán Biedermann and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2017-06-07 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The peoples of Sri Lanka have participated in far-flung trading networks, religious formations, and Asian and European empires for millennia. This interdisciplinary volume sets out to draw Sri Lanka into the field of Asian and Global History by showing how the latest wave of scholarship has explored the island as a ‘crossroads’, a place defined by its openness to movement across the Indian Ocean.Experts in the history, archaeology, literature and art of the island from c.500 BCE to c.1850 CE use Lankan material to explore a number of pressing scholarly debates. They address these matters from their varied disciplinary perspectives and diverse array of sources, critically assessing concepts such as ethnicity, cosmopolitanism and localisation, and elucidating the subtle ways in which the foreign may be resisted and embraced at the same time. The individual chapters, and the volume as a whole, are a welcome addition to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka, as well as studies of the Indian Ocean region, kingship, colonialism, imperialism, and early modernity.
Download or read book The Mah wanso in Roman Characters written by George Turnour and published by . This book was released on 1837 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sri Lanka in the Modern Age written by Nira Wickramasinghe and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2006-03-31 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late 1970s civil war has left Sri Lanka in an almost permanent state of crisis; conventional histories of the country by liberal and Marxist scholars in the last two decades have thus tended to focus on the state’s failure to accommodate the needs and demands of the minorities. The entire history of the twentieth century has been tied to this one key issue. Sri Lanka in the Modern Age offers a fresh perspective based on new research. Above all, the author has written a history of the peoples of Sri Lanka rather than a history of the nation-state.
Download or read book Taproban written by D. P. M. Weerakkody and published by Brepols Publishers. This book was released on 1997 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author brings together the references to Sri Lanka (the island of Taprobane in Greek and Latin texts) for the purpose of examining their value as sources for the study of ancient Sri Lanka. One of the main reasons for Sri Lanka to maintain political, religious and commercial relationships with the external world was its role as a great emporium in the long distance maritime trade, a result of its central position in the Indian Ocean, its numerous bays and harbours facilitating both sea-borne and inland trade and its holdings of high export value goods such as precious stones, textiles and spices. Any study of this commerce has to be based on literary and epigraphical sources on the one hand and archaeological evidence on the other. The range of the volume is vast and includes not only a critical assessment of all the notices by classical writers on Taprobane (the author provides an up to date analysis), but also a chapter on Roman coins found in Sri Lanka and a chapter on alleged classical references in the interlinear inscriptions from Sri Lanka, which questions their genuineness. Through this book we have a recourse to a work of reference for any study on ancient Sri Lanka and its important position in the world of the Indian Ocean.
Download or read book Cultural Heritage Ethics written by Constantine Sandis and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2014-10-13 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theory without practice is empty, practice without theory is blind, to adapt a phrase from Immanuel Kant. The sentiment could not be truer of cultural heritage ethics. This intra-disciplinary book bridges the gap between theory and practice by bringing together a stellar cast of academics, activists, consultants, journalists, lawyers, and museum practitioners, each contributing their own expertise to the wider debate of what cultural heritage means in the twenty-first century. Cultural Heritage Ethics provides cutting-edge arguments built on case studies of cultural heritage and its management in a range of geographical and cultural contexts. Moreover, the volume feels the pulse of the debate on heritage ethics by discussing timely issues such as access, acquisition, archaeological practice, curatorship, education, ethnology, historiography, integrity, legislation, memory, museum management, ownership, preservation, protection, public trust, restitution, human rights, stewardship, and tourism. This volume is neither a textbook nor a manifesto for any particular approach to heritage ethics, but a snapshot of different positions and approaches that will inspire both thought and action. Cultural Heritage Ethics provides invaluable reading for students and teachers of philosophy of archaeology, history and moral philosophy – and for anyone interested in the theory and practice of cultural preservation.
Download or read book The Archaeology of South Asia written by Robin Coningham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a critical synthesis of the archaeology of South Asia from the Neolithic period (c.6500 BCE), when domestication began, to the spread of Buddhism accompanying the Mauryan Emperor Asoka's reign (third century BCE). The authors examine the growth and character of the Indus civilisation, with its town planning, sophisticated drainage systems, vast cities and international trade. They also consider the strong cultural links between the Indus civilisation and the second, later period of South Asian urbanism which began in the first millennium BCE and developed through the early first millennium CE. In addition to examining the evidence for emerging urban complexity, this book gives equal weight to interactions between rural and urban communities across South Asia and considers the critical roles played by rural areas in social and economic development. The authors explore how narratives of continuity and transformation have been formulated in analyses of South Asia's Prehistoric and Early Historic archaeological record.
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 Prehistoric Sri Lanka written by Halawathage Nimal Perera and published by British Archaeological Reports Limited. This book was released on 2010 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sri Lanka is a tropical island that lies approximately halfway between Africa and Australia along the northern rim of the Indian Ocean, and has one of the best recorded prehistoric sequences in South Asia. A review of its prehistory is a vast subject. The present study investigates the island's hunter-gatherer archaeology between the Late Pleistocene and the middle Holocene, with lowland Wet Zone rockshelters as the principle topic of study. This work synthesises past and current archaeological research in the island as well as presenting new findings from excavations in the Batadomba-lena rockshelter and the open-air site of Bellan-bandi Palassa. The excavation of Batadomba-lena has provided fresh data for understanding human adaptations to the changing environment between approximately 36,000 and 12,000 years ago. A rainforest environment evidently persisted throughout this period in the environs of the site, but the climate was cooler at around the Last Glacial Maximum. Intensive occupation, succeeded by increased attention to the management of plant resources, followed the Last Glacial Maximum. Microliths, small tools defined by the presence of blunting retouch, as well as the bifacially trimmed Balangoda Point and polished bone points, were evident from the earliest occupation. The symbolic capacities of the inhabitants were also revealed through the recovery of ornaments and ochre fragments throughout the sequence. The Batadomba-lena sequence has important implications for the Out-of-Africa theory on modern human origins, as well as Sri Lanka's recognition of its cultural heritage.
Download or read book Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History written by Zoltán Biedermann and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2017-06-07 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The peoples of Sri Lanka have participated in far-flung trading networks, religious formations, and Asian and European empires for millennia. This interdisciplinary volume sets out to draw Sri Lanka into the field of Asian and Global History by showing how the latest wave of scholarship has explored the island as a ‘crossroads’, a place defined by its openness to movement across the Indian Ocean.Experts in the history, archaeology, literature and art of the island from c.500 BCE to c.1850 CE use Lankan material to explore a number of pressing scholarly debates. They address these matters from their varied disciplinary perspectives and diverse array of sources, critically assessing concepts such as ethnicity, cosmopolitanism and localisation, and elucidating the subtle ways in which the foreign may be resisted and embraced at the same time. The individual chapters, and the volume as a whole, are a welcome addition to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka, as well as studies of the Indian Ocean region, kingship, colonialism, imperialism, and early modernity.
Download or read book H C P Bell written by Bethia N. Bell and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: H.C.P.Bell, the first Archaeological Commissioner of Ceylon from 1890 to 1912, was also an authority on the remote Maldive Islands. Self-taught and sublimely self-confident, he began the official survey, excavation and conservation of the buried cities of Anuradhapura and Polunnaruwa and of the extraordinary rock fortress at Siguriya. His work in the Ceyolon jungles was often carried out 'single-handed', but he once declared, 'It is good to be a Head Man even in Hell'. In old age he realised his dream of proving that a Bhuddist civilisation preceded the Muslim conversion of the Maldives, and his posthoumous Monograph became 'the standard of reference for the history, archaeology and epigraphy of the Maldives for many years to come'.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia written by Frank Raymond Allchin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-09-07 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the cities and states of South Asia between c.800BC and AD 250.
Download or read book Being a Christian in Sri Lanka written by Leonard Pinto and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 967 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people know something about their own religions. That knowledge is usually restricted to what is going on at the present time. When it comes to how their religions developed in their countries, their knowledge is on shakier grounds. As for religion in foreign lands, well, for many, that information is nonexistent. Author Leonard Pintos Being a Christian in Sri Lanka: Historical, Political, Social, and Religious Considerations is a critique based on the observations and experience of a Sri Lankan Christian. Pinto shares the history and importance of religion in his native land. Youll learn about Portuguese, Dutch, and British rule in the country formerly known as Ceylon, and how each affected religion there. Pinto dispels popular views about how ruling countries dealt with Christianity and other religions, and with those who practiced them. Youll learn how religion is practiced today from someone who lives it firsthand. Pintos book goes beyond the boundaries of Sri Lanka in assessing the problems faced by Christianity from the corrosive effects of the Age of Enlightenment. In Being a Christian in Sri Lanka: Historical, Political, Social, and Religious Considerations, Pinto comes to the conclusion Sri Lanka would benefit from a Sri Lankan national identity for all its citizens. Hegemony based on ethnicity and religion is dissuaded. Youll also find Pintos conclusions relevant to other countries.
Download or read book The Art and Archaeology of Sri Lanka written by Leelananda Prematilleka and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 896 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Metallic Modern written by Nira Wickramasinghe and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyday life in the Crown colony of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was characterized by a direct encounter of people with modernity through the consumption and use of foreign machines – in particular, the Singer sewing machine, but also the gramophone, tramway, bicycle and varieties of industrial equipment. The ‘metallic modern’ of the 19th and early 20th century Ceylon encompassed multiple worlds of belonging and imagination; and enabled diverse conceptions of time to coexist through encounters with Siam, the United States and Japan as well as a new conception of urban space in Colombo. Metallic Modern describes the modern as it was lived and experienced by non-elite groups – tailors, seamstresses, shopkeepers, workers – and suggests that their idea of the modern was nurtured by a changing material world.
Download or read book Historical archaeology written by Roberta Gilchrist and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ancient Ceylon written by Henry Parker and published by Asian Educational Services. This book was released on 1981 with total page 766 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the aborigines and of part of the early civilization in Sri Lanka.
Download or read book The Lost Dynasty written by Nishantha Gunawardena and published by Traces of Eden. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, historians believed that the Sri Lankan civilisation began with the arrival of Vijaya - the supposed first king and progenitor of the Sinhalese - from northeast India in the 6th century BCE. This text takes the reader on a journey into Sri Lanka's past, that remained hidden for years.
