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Tank Cascade System
The tank cascade system () is an ancient irrigation system spanning the island of Sri Lanka. It is a network of thousands of small irrigation tanks () draining to large reservoirs that store rainwater and surface runoff for later use. They make agriculture possible in the dry-zone, where periods of drought and flooding otherwise make it difficult to support paddy fields and livestock. Originating in the 1st millennium BCE, the system was designated as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2017. Centralized bureaucratic management of large-scale systems was implemented from the 3rd to the 13th centuries. Small-scale systems continued to be well-maintained up until the abolishment of compulsory labor, following British consolidation of control over the island. Efforts since independence to rehabilitate the tanks have resulted in much of the system being restored, as well as the addition and integration of ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sri Lanka Tank
Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in languages of South Asia, South and classification schemes for Southeast Asian languages, Southeast Asian languages such as Assamese language, Assamese, Meitei language, Meitei (Manipuri language, Manipuri), Marathi language, Marathi, Malay language, Malay (including Indonesian language, Indonesian and Malaysian language, Malaysian), Javanese language, Javanese, Balinese language, Balinese, Sundanese language, Sundanese, Sinhala language, Sinhalese, Thai language, Thai, Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu language, Telugu, Odia language, Odia, Assamese language, Assamese, Punjabi language, Punjabi, Hindi language, Hindi, Bengali language, Bengali, Nepali language, Nepali, Malayalam language, Malayalam, Kannada language, Kannada, Sanskrit, Pali, Khmer language, Khmer, and also among Philippine languages. It is usually transliterated as ''Sri'', ''Sree'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydraulic Civilization
A hydraulic empire, also known as a hydraulic despotism, hydraulic society, hydraulic civilization, or water monopoly empire, is a social or government structure which maintains power and control through exclusive control over access to water. It arises through the need for flood control and irrigation, which requires central coordination and a specialized bureaucracy. Often associated with these terms and concepts is the notion of a ''water dynasty''. This body is a political structure which is commonly characterized by a system of hierarchy and control often based on class or caste. Power, both over resources (food, water, energy) and a means of enforcement such as the military, is vital for the maintenance of control. Civilizations A developed hydraulic civilization maintains control over its population by means of controlling the supply of water. The term was coined by the German-American historian Karl August Wittfogel (1896–1988), in his book '' Oriental Despotism: A Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dīpavaṃsa
The ''Dīpavaṃsa'' (दीपवंस, , "Chronicle of the Island") is the oldest historical record of Sri Lanka. The chronicle is believed to be compiled from Atthakatha and other sources around the 3rd to 4th century CE. Together with the ''Mahāvaṃsa'', it is the source of many accounts of the ancient history of Sri Lanka and India. Its importance resides not only as a source of history and legend but also as an important early work in Buddhist and Pali literature. Contents It is probably authored by several Buddhist monks or nuns of the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya in the 3rd-4th century. The ''Dipavamsa'' was likely the first completely new Pali text composed in Sri Lanka; it was also among the last texts to be composed anonymously. The preamble begins with "Listen! I shall relate the chronicle of the Buddha's visits to the island, the arrival of the Tooth Relic and the Bodhi tree, the advent of the Buddha's doctrine, the rise of the teachers, the spread of Buddhism in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indo-Aryan Migrations
The Indo-Aryan migrations were the migrations into the Indian subcontinent of Indo-Aryan peoples, an ethnolinguistic group that spoke Indo-Aryan languages. These are the predominant languages of today's Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, North India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Indo-Aryan migration into the region, from Central Asia, is considered to have started after 2000 BCE as a slow diffusion during the Indus Valley Civilisation#Late Harappan, Late Harappan period and led to a language shift in the northern Indian subcontinent. Several hundred years later, the Iranian languages were brought into the Iranian plateau by the Iranians, who were closely related to the Indo-Aryans. The Indo-Iranians, Proto-Indo-Iranian culture, which gave rise to the Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryans and Iranians, developed on the Eurasian Steppe#Kazakh Steppe (Central Steppe), Central Asian steppes north of the Caspian Sea as the Sintashta culture (c. 2200-1900 BCE), in present-day Russia and Kazakhstan, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yaksha
The Yakshas (, , ) in Mythology are a broad class of nature spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness. They appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, as well as ancient and medieval era temples of South Asia and Southeast Asia as guardian deities. The feminine form of the word is or Yakshini (, ; ). In Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, the s have a dual personality. On the one hand, a may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is also a darker version of the , which is a kind of ( bhuta) that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travellers, similar to the rakṣasas. Early yakshas Yakshas appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts. Several monumental yakshas are known from the time of the Maurya Empire period. They are variously dated from around the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century BCE. These statues are monumental (usua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahiyangana
Mahiyanganaya is a town situated close to the Mahaweli River in Badulla District, Uva Province of Sri Lanka. It is said that Gautama Buddha visited Mahiyanganaya on the Duruthu full moon poya day in order to settle a dispute arose between Yakkas and Nagas (two tribes which then inhabited the area) and this was his first ever visit to Sri Lanka. Then the Buddha preached Dhamma to Sumana Saman, a leader in this area, to whom the Buddha gave a handful of his hair relic so that people could worship. After that Sumana Saman (now the god Sumana Saman) built a golden chethiya in which the sacred hair relic was deposited. Later on about seven chethiyas were built over the original golden chethiya from time to time, the last one being built by the King Dutugemunu. As such, this historic town is a very sacred place for Buddhists. Mahiyanganaya is a Sinhala Buddhist stronghold in Sri Lanka.Religious composition in Mahiyanganaya DS Division according to 2012 census is Buddhists 73,410-96.89 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sorabora Wewa
Sorabora Wewa ( Sinhalese: ) is an ancient reservoir in Mahiyangana, Badulla District Sri Lanka. It is thought to have been constructed during the reign of King Dutugemunu (161 BC – 137 BC) by a giant named Bulatha. In the ancient past, this tank was known as the 'Sea of Bintenna'. The tank was built by damming the Diyawanna Oya with a 485-meter embankment. It does not make use of the structure called Bisokotuwa, which helps to regulate water pressure at the sluice gates from inside the tank and protect the embankment from erosion. Instead that the sluice gate (Sorowwa) of the tank has been placed strategically away from the embankment and made up utilizing the massive natural rock around the tank. It is said that this is the only such type sluice gate found in Sri Lanka. See also * Badulla Pillar Inscription * List of Archaeological Protected Monuments in Badulla District This is a list of Archaeological Protected Monuments in Badulla District, Sri Lanka. Notes Refere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sluice
A sluice ( ) is a water channel containing a sluice gate, a type of lock to manage the water flow and water level. There are various types of sluice gates, including flap sluice gates and fan gates. Different depths are calculated when design sluice gates. Sluices are used for channeling water toward a water mill, including for transporting logs from steep hillsides. Different terms are used regionally for sluices; the terms ''sluice'', ''sluice gate'', ''knife gate'', and ''slide gate'' are used interchangeably in the water and wastewater control industry. Etymology The term "sluice" originates from the Middle English word scluse, which derived from the Old French escluse (modern French: écluse). This, in turn, came from the Late Latin exclusa, a shortening of aqua exclusa, meaning "excluded water" or "a shut-off water channel." The Latin exclusa is the feminine past participle of excludere ("to shut out, exclude"), from *ex-* ("out") and claudere ("to close"). Regional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weir
A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs. There are many weir designs, but commonly water flows freely over the top of the weir crest before cascading down to a lower level. There is no single definition as to what constitutes a weir. ''Weir'' can also refer to the skimmer found in most in-ground swimming pools, which controls the flow of water pulled into the filtering system. Etymology The word likely originated from Middle English ''were'', Old English ''wer'', a derivative of the root of the verb ''werian,'' meaning "to defend, dam". The German cognate is ''Wehr'', which means the same as English weir. Function Commonly, weirs are used to prevent flooding, measure water discharge, and help render rivers more Navigability, navigable by boat. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spillway
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure that water does not damage parts of the structure not designed to convey water. Spillways can include floodgates and fuse plugs to regulate water flow and reservoir level. Such features enable a spillway to regulate downstream flow—by releasing water in a controlled manner before the reservoir is full, operators can prevent an unacceptably large release later. Other uses of the term "spillway" include bypasses of dams and outlets of channels used during high water, and outlet channels carved through natural dams such as moraines. Water normally flows over a spillway only during flood periods, when the reservoir has reached its capacity and water continues entering faster than it can be released. In contrast, an intake tower is a structure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Kush, the Amu Darya is formed by the confluence of the Vakhsh River, Vakhsh and Panj River, Panj rivers, in the Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and flows from there north-westwards into the South Aral Sea, southern remnants of the Aral Sea. In its upper course, the river forms part of Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. In ancient history, the river was regarded as the boundary of Greater Iran with Turan, which roughly corresponded to present-day Central Asia.B. SpulerĀmū Daryā in Encyclopædia Iranica, online ed., 2009 The Amu Darya has a flow of about 70 cubic kilometres per year on average. Names In classical antiquity, the river was known as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gurganj Dam
Konye-Urgench (, ; , ), also known as Old Urgench or Urganj, was a city in north Turkmenistan, just south from its border with Uzbekistan. It is the site of the ancient town of Gurgānj, which contains the ruins of the capital of Khwarazm. Its inhabitants deserted the town in the early eighteenth century in order to develop a new settlement, and Konye-Urgench has remained undisturbed ever since. In 2005, the ruins of Old Urgench were inscribed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites. Overview Located on the south side of the Amu Darya River, Old Ürgenç was situated on one of the most important medieval paths: the Silk Road, the crossroad of western and eastern civilisations. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in Turkmenistan, lying within a vast zone of protected landscape and containing a large number of well-preserved monuments, dating from the 11th to the 16th centuries. They comprise mosques, the gates of a caravanserai, fortresses, mausoleums and a mina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
