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Sri Lankan Music
The music of Sri Lanka has its roots in five primary influences: ancient folk rituals, Hindu religious traditions, Buddhist religious traditions, the legacy of European colonisation, and the commercial and historical influence of nearby Indian culture—specifically, Kollywood cinema and Bollywood cinema. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in Sri Lanka, landing in the mid-15th century. They brought with them traditional cantiga ballads, ukuleles and guitars, as well as conscripted Africans (referred to, historically, as ''kaffrinhas''), who spread their own style of music known as baila. The influence of both European and African traditions served to further diversify the musical roots of contemporary Sri Lankan music. Folk music -based folk poems, ''Jana Kavi'', originated as communal song shared within individual groups as they engaged in daily work. Today, they remain a popular form of cultural expression. Folk poems were sung by ancient people of Sri Lanka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parsi Theatre
Parsi theatre is a generic term for an influential theatre tradition, staged by Parsis, and theatre companies largely-owned by the Parsi business community, which flourished between 1850 and the 1930s. Plays were primarily in the Hindustani language (especially the Urdu dialect), as well as Gujarati to an extent. After its beginning in Bombay, it soon developed into various travelling theatre companies, which toured across India, especially north and western India (now Gujarat and Maharashtra), popularizing proscenium-style theatre in regional languages. Entertainment-driven and incorporating musical theatre and folk theatre, in the early 1900s, some Parsi theatre producers switched to new media like bioscope and subsequently many became film producers. The theatre diminished in popularity, with the arrival of the talkies era in Hindi cinema in the 1930s. Post-independence, it experienced a revival in the 1950s, much like theatre in the rest of India. History The British commun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinesh Subasinghe
Dinesh (Devanagari: ') is a common Hindu male given name. The Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ... word ' is a compound of ' 'day' and ' 'lord', meaning 'day-lord', an epithet of the Sun. Notable people with the name include: * Dinesh, Indian film actor * Dinesh Baboo, Indian film director, cinematographer, producer, actor and screenwriter * Dinesh Chand, Fijian golfer * Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lankan cricketer * Dinesh Chandra Sen, Indian researcher on Bengali folklore * Dinesh D'Souza, Indian-American political commentator * Dinesh Gunawardena, Sri Lankan politician * Dinesh Gupta, Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary * Dinesh Hingoo, Indian actor * Dinesh Karthik, Indian cricketer * Dinesh Kumar, Indian choreographer * Dinesh Lamba, Indian act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ramayana
The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics of Hinduism known as the ''Itihasas'', the other being the ''Mahabharata''. The epic narrates the life of Rama, the seventh ''avatar'' of the Hindu deity Vishnu, who is a prince of Ayodhya (Ramayana), Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala. The epic follows Exile of Lord Rama, his fourteen-year exile to the forest urged by his father King Dasharatha, on the request of Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi; his travels across the forests in the Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana; the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, the king of Lanka, that resulted in bloodbath; and Rama's eventual return to Ayodhya (Ramayana), Ayodhya along with Sita to be crowned as a king amidst jubilation and celebration. Scholarly estimates for the earliest stage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ravanahatha
A ravanahatha (variant names: ''ravanhatta'', ''rawanhattha'', ''ravanastron'', ''ravana hasta veena'') is an ancient bowed, stringed instrument, used in India, Sri Lanka, and surrounding areas. It has been suggested as an ancestor of the violin. Construction The ravanahatha's sound box may be a gourd, a halved coconut shell or hollowed-out cylinder of wood, with a membrane of stretched goat or other hide. A neck of wood or bamboo is attached, carrying between one and four or more peg-tuned strings of gut, hair or steel, strung over a bridge. Some examples may have several sympathetic strings. The bow is usually of horsehair; examples vary in length. History In Indian tradition, the ravanahatha is believed to have originated among the Hela people of Lanka during the time of the legendary king Ravana, after whom the instrument is supposedly named. The Hela people, however, had only settled in Sri Lanka around 500 BCE, and had not found any trace of an earlier civilization, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head. Tambourines are often used with regular percussion sets. They can be mounted, for example on a stand as part of a drum kit (and played with drum sticks), or they can be held in the hand and played by tapping, hitting, or shaking the instrument. Tambourines come in many shapes with the most common being circular. It is found in many forms of music: Albanian folk music, Arabic folk music, Israeli folk music, Turkish folk music, Greek folk music, Italian folk music, French folk music, classical music, Galician traditional music, Asturian traditional music, Persian music, samba, gospel music, pop music, country music, and rock music. History The origin of the tambourine is unknown, but it appea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bongo Drum
Bongos ( Spanish: ''bongó'') are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. The pair consists of the larger ''hembra'' () and the smaller ''macho'' (), which are joined by a wooden bridge. They are played with both hands and usually held between the legs, although in some cases, as in classical music, they may be played with sticks or mounted on stands. Bongos are mainly employed in the rhythm section of son cubano and salsa ensembles, often alongside other drums such as the larger congas and the stick-struck timbales. In these groups, the bongo player is known as ''bongosero'' and often plays a continuous eight-stroke pattern called ''martillo'' () as well as more rhythmically free parts, providing improvisatory flourishes and rhythmic counterpoint. Bongos originated in eastern Cuba at the end of the 19th century, possibly from a pair of larger drums such as the bokú. These older, larger bongos are known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptocarya Glaucescens
''Cryptocarya glaucescens'', commonly known as jackwood, silver sycamore, native laurel, brown beech, bolly laurel or brown laurel, is a species of flowering plant in the laurel family and is endemic to eastern Australia. Its leaves are lance-shaped to elliptic, the flowers cream-coloured or pale green, perfumed and tube-shaped, and the fruit a black drupe. Description ''Cryptocarya glaucescens'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to with a trunk dbh of , its stem sometimes buttressed. The bark is dark brown or reddish brown and often scaly. Its leaves are arranged alternately, lance-shaped to elliptic, long, wide on a petiole long and glaucous on the lower surface. The flowers are cream-coloured to green, perfumed, arranged in panicles in leaf axils and usually shorter than the leaves. The perianth tube is long and wide, the outer tepals long and wide, the inner tepals long and wide. The ovary is long and wide and glabrous with a glabrous style. Fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corypha Umbraculifera
''Corypha umbraculifera'', the talipot palm, is a species of palm native to eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also grown in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Mauritius and the Andaman Islands. It is one of the five accepted species in the genus ''Corypha''. It is a flowering plant with the largest inflorescence in the world. It lives up to 60 years before bearing flowers and fruits. It dies shortly after. Description It is one of the largest palms with individual specimens having reached heights of up to with stems up to in diameter. It is a fan palm (Arecaceae tribe Corypheae), with large, palmate leaves up to in diameter, with a petiole up to , and up to 130 leaflets. The talipot palm bears the largest inflorescence of any plant, long, consisting of one to several million small flowers borne on a branched stalk that forms at the top of the trunk (the titan arum, ''Amorphophallus titanum'', from the family Araceae, has the largest unbranched inflorescence, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)
''The Sunday Times'' is a weekly Sri Lankan broadsheet initially published by the now defunct Times Group, until 1991, when it was taken over by Wijeya Newspapers. The paper features articles of journalists such as defence columnist Iqbal Athas and Ameen Izzadeen. The daily counterpart of the Sri Lankan ''Sunday Times'' is the ''Daily Mirror''. History The first ''Times'' newspaper, '' Ceylon Times'' was established in 1846. The Times of Ceylon Ltd, which existed for 131 years, was taken over by the Sri Lankan government in 1977. Ranjith Wijewardena, the son of D. R. Wijewardena, and the chairman of Wijeya Newspapers Ltd, purchased the company which was under liquidation, in 1986. However, the newspaper ''The Sunday Times'' came into being in 1991. See also *List of newspapers in Sri Lanka The List of newspapers in Sri Lanka lists every daily and non-daily news publication currently operating in Sri Lanka. The list includes information on whether it is distributed daily or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cymbal
A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a definite note (such as crotales). Cymbals are used in many ensembles ranging from the orchestra, percussion ensembles, jazz bands, heavy metal bands, and marching groups. Drum kits usually incorporate at least a crash, ride, or crash/ride, and a pair of hi-hat cymbals. A player of cymbals is known as a cymbalist. Etymology and names The word cymbal is derived from the Latin , which is the latinisation , which in turn derives . In orchestral scores, cymbals may be indicated by the French ; German , , , or ; Italian or ; and Spanish . Many of these derive from the word for plates. History Cymbals have existed since ancient times. Representations of cymbals may be found in reliefs and paintings from Armenian Highlands (7t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kandy
Kandy (, ; , ) is a major city located in the Central Province, Sri Lanka, Central Province of Sri Lanka. It was the last capital of the Sinhalese monarchy from 1469 to 1818, under the Kingdom of Kandy. The city is situated in the midst of hills in the Kandy plateau, which crosses an area of tropical plantations, mainly tea. Kandy is both an administrative and religious city and the capital of the Central Province. Kandy is the home of the Temple of the Tooth Relic (''Sri Dalada Maligawa''), one of the most sacred places of worship in the Buddhist world. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988. Historically the local Buddhist rulers resisted Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial expansion and occupation. Etymology The city and the region have been known by many different names and versions of those names. Some scholars suggest that the original name of Kandy was Katubulu Nuwara located near the present Watapuluwa. However, the more popular historical name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
