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In the fifth century Kasyapa I acquires his throne by murdering his father, who he plasters up alive into a wall. Unable to redeem himself with his people for this crime he abandons his capital and flees deep into the inhospitable forests of central Sri Lanka. There, in an area dominated by a massive black column of rock, he builds himself a new capital. At the center of his new city is the royal citadel, a terrestrial paradise of colorful gardens, pavilions and ponds. The once dark and foreboding rock he transforms to appear like a huge dazzling white cloud. Around its girth, like a giant colorful cummerbund, he paints an exquisite tapestry depicting celestial nymphs. Then on an escarpment half way up this sheer rock he then builds a colossal gatehouse in the form of a fearsome sphinx-like lion giving his lair it name, Sigiriya-Lion Mountain. There on its summit, hidden from view, he lives in splendid isolation tormented by fear and guilt. His city thrives for less than fourteen year. Then as quickly as it appears it disappears, abandoned, and quickly forgotten; relegated to an obscure footnote in history. This is the story of Kashyapa and his masterpiece-Sigiriya as it has never been told before.
Palace intrigue, passion, deceit, betrayal, and tragedy-this is the story of King Kasyapa and his beloved Sigiriya. Set fifteen hundred years ago, this compelling novel weaves historical facts into a remarkably entertaining story of fate, dangerous alliances, enduring friendships, and forbidden love.
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.
For nearly 1400 years, the Anuradhapura Kingdom flourished as one of the great civilisations of the ancient world. Its capital, resplendent with gleaming dagobas and huge monasteries with thousands of monks proclaimed its opulence and grandeur. Then, in the space of just a few years, it was snuffed out, abandoned, engulfed by forest, and forgotten.
In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India, " Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by an exceptional writer.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE A searing novel about the obstacles facing women in Zimbabwe, by one of the country’s most notable authors Anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job, Tambudzai finds herself living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare. For reasons that include her grim financial prospects and her age, she moves to a widow’s boarding house and eventually finds work as a biology teacher. But at every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself, she is faced with a fresh humiliation, until the painful contrast between the future she imagined and her daily reality ultimately drives her to a breaking point. In This Mournable Body, Tsitsi Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, to examine how the hope and potential of a young girl and a fledgling nation can sour over time and become a bitter and floundering struggle for survival. As a last resort, Tambudzai takes an ecotourism job that forces her to return to her parents’ impoverished homestead. It is this homecoming, in Dangarembga’s tense and psychologically charged novel, that culminates in an act of betrayal, revealing just how toxic the combination of colonialism and capitalism can be.
Besides the efforts that are of a descriptive and celebrative nature, studies related to Sri Lanka's historical built heritage largely view material remains in historical, sociological, socio-historical and semiological perspectives. There is hardly any serious attempt to view such material remains from a technical-analytical approach to understand the compositional aspects of their design. The 5th century AC royal complex at Sigiriya is no exception in this regard. The enormous wealth of information and the material remains unearthed during more than 100 years of field-based research by several generations of archaeologists provide an ideal opportunity for such analysis. The Sigiriya Royal Gardens fills the gap in research related to Sri Lanka's historical built heritage in general, and to Sigiriya in particular. Therefore, the present research attempts to read Sigiriya as a landscape architectonic design to expose its architectonic composition and design instruments.
This book provides a fresh and bold look at how archaeologists and heritage managers may enhance their capacity to interpret and understand material culture and heritage values. Drawing on the founding principles of anthropology, Archaeologies of Listening demonstrates the value of cultural apprenticeship, an almost forgotten part of archaeological practice.