The Lighthouse is a large bungalow (as mansions are referred to locally) in Colombo, Sri Lanka. At present it is owned by the Sri Lankan Government and houses the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies. [1]
A bungalow is a type of building, originally developed in the Bengal region of the subcontinent. The meaning of the word bungalow varies internationally. Common features of many bungalows include verandas and being low-rise. In Australia, the California bungalow associated with the United States was popular after the First World War. In North America and the United Kingdom, a bungalow today is a house, normally detached, that may contain a small loft. It is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof, usually with dormer windows.
Colombo is the commercial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the city proper. It is the financial centre of the island and a popular tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the legislative capital of Sri Lanka and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is within the urban area of, and a suburb of, Colombo. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District. Colombo is a busy and vibrant place with a mixture of modern life and colonial buildings and ruins. It was the legislative capital of Sri Lanka until 1982.
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 historically and culturally intertwined with the Indian subcontinent, but 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.
Located in the Cinnamon Gardens a suburb of Colombo, it was built by Mr. D. D. Peiris, contemporaneity style with a mixture of early twentieth century Ceylon architecture and British colonial architecture. It was acquired by the British Board of Trade in 1933 and was home to the Imperial Lighthouse Service of Ceylon and Minicoy until 1976, when it along with all of the lighthouses run by the Imperial Lighthouse Service was transferred to the Sri Lanka Navy. Since the Navy came under the overview of the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence, when the ministry was split in 1977 the house was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Cinnamon Gardens is an affluent neighbourhood of Colombo, Sri Lanka located 3 kilometers south-east from Colombo's centre. Cinnamon Gardens is named from the former cinnamon plantation in this area. In the year 1789, there were 289 acres (1.17 km2) of cinnamon trees in the gardens.
The United Kingdom, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but more commonly known as the UK or Britain, is a sovereign country lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.
The Board of Trade is a British government department concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations, but is commonly known as the Board of Trade, and formerly known as the Lords of Trade and Plantations or Lords of Trade, and it has been a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. The Board has gone through several evolutions, beginning with extensive involvement in colonial matters in the 17th Century, to powerful regulatory functions in the Victorian Era, to virtually being dormant in the last third of 20th century. In 2017, it was revitalized as an advisory board headed by the International Trade Secretary who has nominally held the title of President of the Board of Trade, and who at present is the only privy counsellor of the Board, the other members of the present Board filling roles as advisers.
Since then it has been used for many functions, including serving as the official residence of then Lt Col Ranjan Wijeratne Minister of Foreign Affairs until his assassination. Since 2006 it has been used for the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies.
General Ranjan Wijeratne was the former Sri Lankan Cabinet Minister of foreign affairs, Minister of State for defence and Minister of plantation industries from 1989 to 1991 in President Ranasinghe Premadasa's cabinet.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs is an appointment in the Cabinet of Sri Lanka who is responsible for overseeing the international diplomacy of the Government of Sri Lanka. The post was first created in 1947 as Minister of External Affairs and Defence, in 1978 the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence separated into two ministries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence. Prior to the separation of the post the Minister of External Affairs and Defence was held by the Prime Minister since 1947, with a Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and External Affairs who was an elected parliamentarian and was the de facto foreign minister.
