Download or read book Rajavaliya Or a Historical Narrative of Sinhalese Kings written by B. Gunasekara and published by Asian Educational Services. This book was released on 1995 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Spolia Zeylanica written by and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ceylon Journal of Science written by and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives written by Chandra R. de Silva and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives: Translated Texts from the Age of the Discoveries is designed to provide access to translations of 16th- and 17th-century documents which illustrate various aspects of this encounter, combining texts from indigenous sources with those from the Portuguese histories and archives. These documents contribute to the growing understanding that different groups of European colonizers - missionaries, traders and soldiers - had conflicting motivations and objectives. Scholars have also begun to emphasize that the colonized were not mere victims but had their own agendas and that they occasionally successfully manipulated colonial powers. The texts in this volume help to substantiate these assertions while also illustrating the changing nature of the interactions. The present volume contains chapters covering the Portuguese arrival in Sri Lanka and their first encounters with the island and its peoples, their subsequent relations with Kandy and Jaffna, and a final chapter on Portuguese relations with the Maldive Islands. A historical introduction provides the context in which the documents can be read and a select bibliography indicates the most recent and authoritative secondary works on the subject
Download or read book The Buddha in Sri Lanka written by Gananath Obeyesekere and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines culture, religion and polity in the context of Buddhism. Gananath Obeyesekere, one of the foremost analytical voices from South Asia develops Freud’s notion of ‘dream work’, the ‘work of culture’ and ideas of no-self (anatta) to understand Buddhism in contemporary Sri Lanka. This work offers a restorative interpretation of Buddhist myths in contrast to the perspective involving deconstruction. The book deals with a range of themes connected with Buddhism, including oral traditions and stories, the religious pantheon, philosophy, emotions, reform movements, questions of identity and culture, and issues of modernity. This fascinating volume will greatly interest students, teachers and researchers of religion and philosophy, especially Buddhism, ethics, cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, Sri Lanka and modern South Asian history.
Download or read book Nation Constitutionalism and Buddhism in Sri Lanka written by Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nation, Constitutionalism and Buddhism in Sri Lanka offers a new perspective on contemporary debates about Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka. In this book de Silva Wijeyeratne argues forcefully that ‘Sinhalese Buddhism’ in the period prior to its engagement with the British colonial State signified a relatively unbounded (although at times boundary forming) set of practices that facilitated both the inclusion and exclusion of non-‘Buddhist’ concepts and people within a particular cosmological frame. Juxtaposing the premodern against the backdrop of colonial modernity, de Silva Wijeyeratne tells us that in contrast modern 'Sinhalese Buddhism/nationalism' is a much more reified and bounded concept, one imagined through a 19th century epistemology whose purpose was not so much inclusion, but a much more radical exclusion of non-‘Buddhist’ ideas and people. In this insightful analysis modern Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, then, emerges through the conjunction of discourse, power and knowledge at a distinct moment in the trajectory of the colonial State. An intrinsic feature of this modernist moment is that premodern categories (such as the cosmic order) were subject to a bureaucratic re-valuation that generated profound consequences for State-society relations and the wider constitutional/legal imaginary. This book goes onto explore how key constitutional and nation-building moments were framed within the cultural milieu of modern Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism – a nationalism that reveals the power of a re-valued Buddhist cosmic order to still inform the present. Given the intensification of the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist project following the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in 2009, this book is of interest to scholars of nationalism, South Asian studies, the anthropology of ritual, and comparative legal history.
Download or read book Sinhalese Banners and Standards written by Edward Walter Perera and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The R j valiya written by B. Guṇasēkara and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Buddhism in Sinhalese Society 1750 1900 written by Kitsiri Malalgoda and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1976-01-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Devas Demons and Buddhist Cosmology in Sri Lanka written by Achala Gunasekara-Rockwell and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-08-19 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the worship of devas and demons in Sri Lanka, illustrating how diverse influences interacted to create the Sinhala Buddhist cosmology. The work explains the processes by which apotheosis plays an important role in revitalizing that cosmology. The author offers an examination of holy sites associated with the worship of Hūniyam. These sacred spaces each have a unique background historically, and the ritualists associated with these sites have divergent understandings concerning Hūniyam. Building upon the examination of the temples, the book delves into the iconography of Hūniyam, illustrating his transformation from demon to deity in the manner that he is depicted in imagery associated with his worship. The book moves to a discussion of Aritṭ ạ Kivenḍu Perumāl, a South Indian adventurer, demonstrating the likelihood that he is the historical figure later apotheosized as Hūniyam. Sri Lankan society felt his impact so strongly that in death he became a demon in the Sinhala Buddhist cosmology. Finally, the book demonstrates that the same apotheosis processes are at work today. This book will be of interest to researchers and students engaged in the study of religion, anthropology, folklore, and history, specifically in the South Asian context.
Download or read book Relics of the Buddha written by John S. Strong and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhism is popularly seen as a religion stressing the truth of impermanence. How, then, to account for the long-standing veneration, in Asian Buddhist communities, of bone fragments, hair, teeth, and other bodily bits said to come from the historic Buddha? Early European and American scholars of religion, influenced by a characteristic Protestant bias against relic worship, declared such practices to be superstitious and fraudulent, and far from the true essence of Buddhism. John Strong's book, by contrast, argues that relic veneration has played a serious and integral role in Buddhist traditions in South and Southeast Asia-and that it is in no way foreign to Buddhism. The book is structured around the life story of the Buddha, starting with traditions about relics of previous buddhas and relics from the past lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni. It then considers the death of the Buddha, the collection of his bodily relics after his cremation, and stories of their spread to different parts of Asia. The book ends with a consideration of the legend of the future parinirvana (extinction) of the relics prior to the advent of the next Buddha, Maitreya. Throughout, the author does not hesitate to explore the many versions of these legends and to relate them to their ritual, doctrinal, artistic, and social contexts.
Download or read book Tamil Nationalism in Sri Lanka written by A.R. Sriskanda Rajah and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-10-31 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka and provides insights on how Tamil nationalism has survived the destruction of the Tamil Tigers after May 2009 and continues to thrive, despite the absence of a charismatic leadership to lead it or a centralised organisation to mobilise the Tamils along ethnic nationalistic lines. The ethnic nationalist ideology shaped up by the Tamil Tigers continues to remain the driving force of the Tamil polity in Sri Lanka and the Diaspora. Using a Foucauldian counter-historical theoretical framework, the author analyses and offers answers to these questions: What is keeping Tamil nationalism alive despite the demise of the Tamil Tigers over a decade ago? Why do many Tamils in Sri Lanka and abroad refuse to accept a Sri Lankan political identity? How are Tamils able to continue on a nationalist path despite the absence of a unified political leadership? The book argues that Tamil nationalism has survived the latter’s destruction because it has become counter-historical. It is this that has allowed, despite the internecine rivalries between Tamil political parties and Diaspora groups, the Tamil nationalist spirit to remain alive. The author also suggests that counter-history has, for many Tamil political parties and Diaspora groups, become the means of waging war, other than through an armed struggle, against the Sri Lankan state. Based on field research, interviews and documentary analysis, the book provides empirical and unique insights on Foucault’s thesis that power is multifaceted and can function in the absence of centralised mechanisms. This book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of Politics and International Relations, in particular those working on ethnic nationalism, post-armed conflict peacebuilding/conflict resolution, the politics in Sri Lanka, diaspora politics and Foucault.
Download or read book Re exploring the Links written by Jorge Manuel Flores and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 2007 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The island of Ceilao occupied a permanent and singular place in the political imagination of early modern Portugal. Concurrently, the Portuguese left a strong imprint in the Sri Lankan collective memory of the period. Five centuries later, a group of historians, art historians, anthropologists, and linguists reflect on the multiple dimensions of this phenomenon by rethinking texts and maps, ruined churches and ivory caskets, oral tales and Creole communities. Authored by 15 international scholars, Re-exploring the Links is divided in four parts: "Political Realities and Cultural Imagination"; "Religion: Con. ict and Interaction"; "Space and Heritage: Construction, Representation"; "Language and Ethnicity, Identity and Memory". While published on the occasion of the Portuguese arrival in Sri Lanka five centuries ago, this book is far from being a celebratory piece. Re-exploring the Links does not conform to nationalist models of historical interpretation and refuses both the rhetoric of discovery and the rhetoric of aggression. The aim of the volume is not to celebrate "encounters", but to reinvent an academic debate, independent of any political agenda and concerning a history that is Portuguese and Sri Lankan alike.INTRODUCTORY ESSAYChandra R. de Silva, Portugal and Sri Lanka: Recent Trends in HistoriographyPOLITICAL REALITIES AND CULTURAL IMAGINATION S. Pathmanathan The Portuguese in Northeast Sri Lanka (1543-1658): An Assessment of Impressions Recorded in Tamil Chronicles and Poems Rohini Paranavitana, Sinhalese War Poems and the Portuguese Karunasena Dias Paranavitana The Portuguese Tombos as a Source of Sixteenthand Seventeenth-Century Sri Lankan History Rui Manuel Loureiro, The Matter of Ceylon in Diogo do Couto's Decadas da Asia Jorge Flores, Maria Augusta Lima Cruz A 'Tale of Two Cities', a 'Veteran Soldier', or the Struggle for Endangered Nobilities: The Two Jornadas de Huva (1633, 1635)RELIGION: CONFLICT AND INTERACTIONAlan Strathern, The Conversion of Rulers in Portuguese-Era Sri Lanka John Clifford Holt, Buddhist Rebuttals: The Changing of the Gods and Royal (Re)legitimization in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Sri Lanka Ines G. Zupanov, Goan Brahmans in the Land of Promise: Missionaries, Spies and Gentiles in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Sri Lanka Jurrien van Goor, State and Religion under the Dutch in Ceylon, c. 1640-1796SPACE AND HERITAGE: CONSTRUCTION, REPRESENTATIONZoltan Biedermann, Perceptions and Representations of the Sri Lankan Space in Sixteenth-Century Portuguese Texts and MapsHelder Carita, Portuguese-Influenced Religious Architecture in Ceylon: Creation, Types and ContinuityNuno Vassallo e Silva, An Art for Export: Sinhalese Ivory and Crystal in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenturiesLANGUAGE AND ETHNICITY, IDENTITY AND MEMORYKenneth David, Jackson Singelle Nona/Jinggli Nona: A Traveling Portuguese Burgher MuseDennis B. McGilvray, The Portuguese Burghers of Eastern Sri Lanka in the Wake of Civil War and Tsunami
Download or read book INDEPENDENCE TO FREEDOM written by Samanga Amarasinghe and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011-08-24 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current research signifies that the resolutions for a solid post war development in Sri Lanka are hidden within its own history. Through a close study of the Sri Lankan history from 6th century BC to 2009 AD using various research methods one can uncover this. Moreover, utilizing a range of diverse resources which include documents compiled byColonial governors, addition to parliamentary debates of Sri Lanka and Britain, archeological research conducted by the department of archeology, eyewitness accounts, and other historical documents pertaining to the selected time frames, has be strictly studied and compared in proving the weight of this theory.
Download or read book Biology Pamphlets written by and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The City as Text written by James S. Duncan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that landscapes are not only culturally produced, but they also influence governing ideas of political and religious life.
Download or read book In Defense of Dharma written by Tessa J. Bartholomeusz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-07-26 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to examine war and violence in Sri Lanka through the lens of cross-cultural studies on just-war tradition and theory. In a study that is textual, historical and anthropological, it is argued that the ongoing Sinhala-Tamil conflict is in actual practice often justified by a resort to religious stories that allow for war when Buddhism is in peril. Though Buddhism is commonly assumed to be a religion that never allows for war, this study suggests otherwise, thereby bringing Buddhism into the ethical dialogue on religion and war. Without a realistic consideration of just-war thinking in contemporary Sri Lanka, it will remain impossible to understand the power of religion there to create both peace and war.