Piyasena Kahandagamage (1938?- 2003.08.16) is a Sinhala novelist and poet. Born in Baddegama, Galle, Sri Lanka he was a teacher by profession and a union leader. After the UNP government came to power in 1977 he was transferred (as a punishment for his political work) to rural Bintanne in Ampara district, where he based most of his novels.
Baddegama is a town in Galle District, Southern Province, Sri Lanka. Baddegama is accessible from the E01 Southern Expressway, and is located 1.8 km (1.1 mi) from the Baddegama Expressway Exchange and 102 km (63 mi) from Colombo.
Galle is a major city in Sri Lanka, situated on the southwestern tip, 119 km from Colombo. Galle is the administrative capital of Southern Province, Sri Lanka and is the district capital of Galle District.
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea. The island is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo.
Kahandagamage lost his job after the 1980 general strike. He started writing several serialized novels and articles for the Divaina newspaper. Most of his stories are based around Dambana area where he lived and worked. He wrote several non-fiction books on Veddha culture, language and Sri Lankan farming methods.
Divaina is a Sinhala language daily newspaper published by the Upali Newspapers in Sri Lanka. A sister newspaper of The Island, Divaina was established in 1981. Its Sunday edition is the Sunday Divaina. The daily newspaper currently has a circulation of 156,000 and its Sunday edition, 340,000 per issue. The paper was founded by Upali Wijewardene, and it takes a Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist editorial stance.
His unique experience living among veddhas and his writings put him among the handful of writers who wrote about the rural Sinhalese and veddhas, including Leonard Wolfe and Maya Ranjan. His book Vanagatha Charika was translated to English as Jungle juants by Tilak Balasuriya.
The Vedda are a minority indigenous group of people in Sri Lanka who, among other self-identified native communities such as Coast Veddas, Anuradhapura Veddas and Bintenne Veddas, are accorded indigenous status. The Veddha minority in Sri Lanka is in threat of becoming extinct. Most speak Sinhala instead of their indigenous languages which are nearing extinction.
"Sri Lanka Matha" is the national anthem of Sri Lanka.
Theravada Buddhism is the official religion of the majority of Sri Lanka practiced by 70% of Sri Lanka's population. Practitioners of Buddhism can be found amongst the Sinhalese population as well as the Tamil population. Buddhism has been given the foremost place under Article 9 of the Constitution which can be traced back to an attempt to bring the status of Buddhism back to the status it enjoyed prior to being destroyed by colonialists. However, by virtue of Article 10 of the Sri Lankan constitution, religious rights of all communities are preserved. Sri Lanka is the traditionally oldest religious Buddhist country where Buddhist Aryan culture is protected and preserved. The island has been a center of Buddhist scholarship and learning since the introduction of Buddhism in the third century BCE producing eminent scholars such as Buddhaghosa and preserving the vast Pāli Canon. Throughout most of its history, Sri Lankan kings have played a major role in the maintenance and revival of the Buddhist institutions of the island. During the 19th century, a modern Buddhist revival took place on the island which promoted Buddhist education and learning. There are around 6,000 Buddhist monasteries on Sri Lanka with approximately 15,000 monks.
Lama Hewage Don Martin Wickramasinghe commonly Martin Wickramasinghe, MBE was a Sri Lankan novelist. His books have been translated into several languages.
Sri Lankabhimanya Ahangamage Tudor Ariyaratne is the founder and president of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka. He was nominated to the Constitutional Council as a civil representative on 10 September 2015. He received the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 1991.
Ediriweera Sarachchandra was a Sri Lankan playwright, novelist, poet, literary critic, essayist and social commentator. Considered Sri Lanka's premier playwright, he was a senior lecturer at the University of Peradeniya for many years and served as Sri Lankan Ambassador to France (1974–1977).
Hugh L. Nevill was a British civil servant, best known for his scholarship and studies of the culture of Sri Lanka.
Siri Gunasinghe was a Sri Lankan academic, Sanskritist, art historian, author and film maker.
Sri Lankan Tamils, also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils in Tamil, are members of the Tamil ethnic group native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. According to the anthropological and archaeological evidence, Sri Lankan Tamils have a very long history in Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since at least around the 2nd century BCE. Most modern Sri Lankan Tamils claim descent from residents of Jaffna Kingdom, a former kingdom in the north of the island and Vannimai chieftaincies from the east. They constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
Sri Lankan cinema encompasses the films made in Sri Lanka. It is a fledgling industry that has struggled to find a footing since its inauguration in 1947 with Kadawunu Poronduwa produced by S. M. Nayagam of Chitra Kala Movietone. Sri Lankan films are usually made in the Sinhala language, as well as in the Tamil language.
The Last Theorem is a 2008 science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl. It was first published in the United Kingdom by HarperVoyager in July 2008, and in the United States by Del Rey Books in August 2008. The book is about a young Sri Lankan mathematician who finds a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, while an alien invasion of Earth is in progress.
Binod Bihari Verma (1937–2003) was a Maithili writer, doctor and member of the military. He is most noted for his pioneering work on Panjis, which are ancient genealogical charts, Maithili Karna Kayasthak Panjik Sarvekshan. He is also known for his depiction of rural poor of the Mithila region in his writings. He worked as a medical officer in the Indian Army, as a lecturer in a Dental College, and as a private medical practitioner. He simultaneously carried on his literary works by independent publishing and in the magazines Mithila Mihir and Karnamrit. He had command over a number of languages including Urdu, Sanskrit, Odia, Assamese and Bengali and scripts of various Indian languages, such as old Maithili, Assamese, Gurmukhi, Odia and Nepali.
Several languages are spoken in Sri Lanka within the Indo-European, Dravidian and Austronesian families. Sri Lanka accords official status to Sinhala and Tamil. The languages spoken on the island nation are deeply influenced by the languages of neighbouring India, the Maldives and Malaysia. Arab settlers and the colonial powers of Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain have also influenced the development of modern languages in Sri Lanka.
Mahinda Nandimithra Ekanayake is a Sri Lankan politician.
W.J. Basil Fernando is a Sri Lankan jurist, author, poet, human rights activist, editor of Article 2 and Ethics in Action, and a prolific writer. He was educated at St. Anthony's College, Wattala and St. Benedict's College, Kotahena. He earned a LLB from the University of Ceylon in 1972, registered as an Attorney-At-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 1980 and practised law in Sri Lanka up to the end of 1989. He became a legal adviser to Vietnamese refugees in a UNHCR-sponsored project in Hong Kong. He joined the United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTAC) in 1992 as a senior human rights officer and later also served as the Chief of Legal Assistance to Cambodia of the UN Centre of Human Rights. He is associated with Asian Human Rights Commission and Asian Legal Resource centre, based in Hong Kong since 1994. In 2014, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "his tireless and outstanding work to support and document the implementation of human rights in Asia."
Batticaloa Tamil dialect is one of the Sri Lankan Tamil dialects, which uses in Eastern provinces Batti - Ampara districts of Sri Lanka. Batticaloa Tamil dialect slightly differs from other Sri Lankan Tamil dialects such as Jaffna Tamil dialect, Negombo Tamil dialect, Estate Tamil dialects, Colombo, Trincomalee & Vanni Tamil dialects.
Hemasiri Dhanawatha Liyanage , is an award winning actor in Sri Lankan cinema, theater, and television. He is well known for the dramatic roles in Thattu Gewal and Thaththa teledramas and films Sankranthi, Sthuthi Nawatha Enna and Madhura Charika.
Madhura Charika is a 2018 Sri Lankan Sinhala drama film directed and produced by Udayakantha Warnasuriya. It stars Hemasiri Liyanage in lead role along with Nalin Pradeep Udawela, Madani Malwattage and Kumara Thirimadura. Music composed by Navaratne Gamage.
Daya Dissanayake is an award-winning bilingual Sri Lankan novelist, poet and blogger. His work spans nine novels in English, six novels in Sinhala and a collection of poems, and numerous articles in newspapers, journals and magazines. He is the author of the first e-novel in Asia, 'The Saadhu Testament' (1998), and the first e-novel in Sinhala, 'Vessan Novu Wedun' (2003). He is the only Sri Lankan writer to receive the Sri Lankan State Literary Award for the best English novel thrice and was awarded the SAARC Literary Award in 2013. Being the first Sri Lankan to release his work online and for free access, he is often seen as one of Sri Lanka's earliest and most vocal advocates for the ebook format, copyleft and Creative Commons.
Benaragama Vidanalage Jagath Champika Benaragama [Sinhala]), popularly as Jagath Benaragama, is an award-winning actor in Sri Lankan cinema, television and theater. He is best known for the role Ukkuwa in Paba teledrama and main protagonist in critically acclaimed movie Prathiroo.
