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Kaluthara
Kalutara (, ) or Kalutota is a major city in Kalutara District, Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is also the administrative capital of Kalutara District. It is located approximately south of the capital Colombo. The city holds a unique position for one of the four major rivers in Sri Lanka, the Kalu Ganga, which joins the sea at the centre of the city. Kaluthara is known for making rope, baskets, and other articles from the fibre of the coconut palm. The area also produces the Mangosteens, a fruit introduced from Malaysia in the 19th century. Etymology Once an important spice-trading centre, the town's name is derived from the Kalu Ganga ('Black River' in native Sinhala). In the 11th century, the town was temporarily made a capital on the orders of a South Indian Prince. The region was later planted with coconut trees, whose by-products are used for both internal and external trade. The location also boast fortifications (Kalutara fort) dating back from the times when Portugu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalutara Bodhiya
Kalutara Bodhiya is a Ficus religiosa, Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa, sacred fig) located in Kalutara, Western Province of Sri Lanka. Situated on the Galle Colombo main road, by the side of Kalu River just south to the Kalutara city, it is believed to be one of the 32 saplings of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. A Buddhist temple Kalutara Viharaya and a modern Stupa, Kalutara Chaitya are located in close proximity to this sacred fig. One of the most venerated religious place in Sri Lanka, hundreds of Buddhists and foreign tourists visit this religious place daily. History Kalutara Bodhiya is an old Bodhi tree which is identified as one of the 32 saplings of Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi which was planted during the reign of Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura, king Devanampiyatissa in the 2nd century BC at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalutara Fort
Kalutara fort ( ''Kaluthara Balakotuwa''; ) was built by the Portuguese in 1622. It was located in Kalutara, Sri Lanka. In 1574, Portuguese forces, commanded by Diogo de Melo de Castro, devastated the area south of Colombo destroying numerous shrines and temple. In late 1594 Portuguese forces, led by Jerónimo de Azevedo, captured the town of Kalutara. In 1622 the Portuguese and built a fort on the site of the destroyed Gangathilaka temple. The fort was constructed under the supervision of Jorge de Albuquerque. It was subsequently captured by King Rajasinghe I of the Sitawaka kingdom. Then still later it was captured by the Dutch and re-captured by the Portuguese. On 15 October 1655 following a siege by Dutch forces, led by Gerard Hulft, the Portuguese commander of the fort, Anthonio Mendes de Aranha, surrendered the fort and garrison of 255 men, without a shot being fired. In 1677 the Dutch fortified it by constructing two additional bastions, increasing the size of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agreed definition of the lower boundary for their size. In a narrower sense, a city can be defined as a permanent and Urban density, densely populated place with administratively defined boundaries whose members work primarily on non-agricultural tasks. Cities generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, Public utilities, utilities, land use, Manufacturing, production of goods, and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organisations, government organizations, and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process, such as improving the efficiency of goods and service distribution. Historically, city dwellers have been a small proportion of humanity overall, bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was born in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, to royal parents of the Shakya clan, but renounced his home life to live as a wandering ascetic. After leading a life of mendicancy, asceticism, and meditation, he attained nirvana at Bodh Gayā in what is now India. The Buddha then wandered through the lower Indo-Gangetic Plain, teaching and building a monastic order. Buddhist tradition holds he died in Kushinagar and reached ''parinirvana'' ("final release from conditioned existence"). According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism, leading to freedom from ignorance, craving, rebirth, and suffering. His core teachings are summarized in the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Ei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stupa
In Buddhism, a stupa (, ) is a domed hemispherical structure containing several types of sacred relics, including images, statues, metals, and '' śarīra''—the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns. It is used as a place of pilgrimage and meditation. Walking around a stupa in a clockwise direction, known as '' pradakhshina'', has been an important ritual and devotional practice in Buddhism since the earliest times, and stupas always have a ''pradakhshina'' path around them. The original South Asian form is a large solid dome above a tholobate, or drum, with vertical sides, which usually sits on a square base. There is no access to the inside of the structure. In large stupas, there may be walkways for circumambulation on top of the base as well as on the ground below it. Large stupas have, or had, ''vedikā'' railings outside the path around the base, often highly decorated with sculpture, especially at the torana gateways, of which there are usually four. At the top of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalutara Vihara
The Kalutara Chaitya is a Stupa (buddhist shrine) located immediately south of the Kalutara Bridge in the Kalutara District of Sri Lanka. It is one of only a few hollow Buddhist stupas in the world and its interior contains 74 murals, each depicting a different aspect of the Buddha's life. Four small chaityas (stupas) are located inside the larger hollow stupa and on the walls of the larger stupa, scenes from Jataka tales are painted. Visitors can walk inside the Kalutara Chaitya to worship and to look at the statues and wall paintings of the stories of Buddha. The stupa was commissioned by Sir Cyril de Zoysa, with the design undertaken by Justin Samarasekera in collaboration with A. N. S. Kulasinghe. The construction was carried out by the State Engineering Corporation of Sri Lanka, whose computer (the first in the country) enabled the complicated calculations to be carried out. The large diameter and circumference concrete dome has a thin shell with a thickness of . It was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples that Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, migrated to Britain after its End of Roman rule in Britain, Roman occupiers left. English is the list of languages by total number of speakers, most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British Empire (succeeded by the Commonwealth of Nations) and the United States. English is the list of languages by number of native speakers, third-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish language, Spanish; it is also the most widely learned second language in the world, with more second-language speakers than native speakers. English is either the official language or one of the official languages in list of countries and territories where English ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burgher People
Burgher people, also known simply as Burghers, are a small Eurasian ethnic group in Sri Lanka descended from Portuguese, Dutch, British and other Europeans who settled in Ceylon. The Portuguese and Dutch had held some of the maritime provinces of the island for centuries before the advent of the British Empire.Cook, Elsie K (1953). ''Ceylon – Its Geography, Its Resources and Its People''. London: Macmillan & Company Ltd 1953. pp 272—274. Burgher people are often referred to as belonging to one of two sub-groups, either Dutch Burghers or Portuguese Burghers, though both are of mixed descent. Most of those who retained close ties with the Netherlands departed with the establishment of British Ceylon as a crown colony at the end of the 18th century. However, a significant community of Burghers remained and largely adopted the English language. During British rule, they occupied a highly important place in Sri Lankan social and economic life. Portuguese settlers were mostly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sri Lankan Malays
Sri Lankan Malays ( ''Shri Lanka Mæle Janathava'' (Standard); ''Mæle Minissu / Ja Minissu'' (Colloquially); ), historically known as Ceylon Malays, are Sri Lankan citizens with full or partial ancestry from the Indonesian Archipelago, Malaysia, or Singapore. The term is a misnomer, as it is used as a historical catch-all for all native ethnic groups of the Malay Archipelago who reside in Sri Lanka; it does not apply solely to the ethnic Malays. Sri Lankan Malays are primarily of Javanese, Ambonese, Bandanese, Balinese, Madurese, Malay, Bugis, and Peranakan Chinese descent. They number approximately 40,000 and make up 0.2% of the Sri Lankan population, making them the fourth largest of the five main ethnic groups in the country. Sri Lankan Malays first settled in the country in 200 B.C., when the Austronesian expansion reached the island of Sri Lanka from Maritime Southeast Asia (which includes peoples as diverse as Sumatrans to Lucoes) and brought speakers of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Tamils Of Sri Lanka
Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka are Tamils, Tamil people of Indian origin in Sri Lanka. They are also known as Malayaga Tamilar, Hill Country Tamils, Up-Country Tamils or simply Indian Tamils. They predominantly descend from workers sent during the British Raj from South India, Southern India to Sri Lanka in the 19th and 20th centuries to work in coffee, tea and rubber plantations. Some also migrated on their own as merchants and as other service providers. These Tamil language, Tamil speakers mostly live in the central highlands, also known as the Malayakam or Hill Country, yet others are also found in major urban areas and in the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province. Although they are all termed as Tamils today, some have Telugu people, Telugu and Malayalee origins as well as diverse South Indian caste origins. They are instrumental in the plantation sector economy of Sri Lanka. In general, socio-economically their standard of living is below that of the national average a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
