STUDIO TIMES SRI LANKA IMAGE ARCHIVE

Friday, November 5, 2010

STUDIO TIMES BULLETIN - NOVEMBER 2010

Dheeghavapi Chaitya, Ampara

An imposing mound of brickwork, the base of Dheegavapi Chaitya spreads over a large area of ground. Built by King Saddhatissa (137-119 BC) at its full height it would have been a very impressive structure. As you walk around it you will see a few stone altars lying at its base, the remains of a wahalkada (altar) with weather worn stone elephants and carved pillars. The Dheeghavapi Museum has an interesting array of stone sculpture and terracotta carving.

Lessar Adjutant Stork, Wasgamuwa National Park

Photography-Anu Weerasuriya

Often referred to as Sri Lanka’s ugliest bird, this bird looked more decrepit than usual. It was sick and probably breathing its last at the Wasgamuwa National Park Office. Tall and sturdy, the Adjutant has commanding presence and is easily spotted in the marshlands. Yet, it is an extremely shy and wary bird, which likes to maintain its distance. It watches your approach with its large eyes and takes wing the moment you cross that invisible boundary that it maintains.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

AN ELEPHANT HUNT IN CEYLON

TEA AND TEA COUNTRY

Monday, October 4, 2010

STUDIO TIMES BULLETIN - OCTOBER 2010

Menik Vehera, Polonnaruwa

Photography-Anu Weerasuriya

Considered to be one of the earliest shrines in Polonnaruwa, it is believed to have been built by King Vijayabahu. Differing slightly in shape from the other chaityas, the brick built dagaba rests on a stone platform. The relic chamber in the centre, which is normally placed underground, lies with its niches and reliquary stone open to the sky. It is also unique in that the outerwall of the monument is decorated with terra cotta tiles carved with lions. Close to the dagoba is an Image House with stone Buddha statues.

Wild Passion Fruit, Passiflora foetida

(S) Del-batu Wel, Pada gedi. (T) Thaatu poodu kodi.

Photography-Anu Weerasuriya

Having its origins in South America, according to Exotic Medicinal Plants in Sri Lanka & their Uses by Ranil Senanayake (2010) an infusion made with the flowers, buds and leaves is a cure for sleeplessness and stress. When whooping cough is associated with convulsions, it is known to give relief, and it also used as a remedy for pain, particularly of the neuralgic type.

This creeper was photographed in Pidurangala. The flower is similar to that of the Passion Fruit that is made into the most delicious juice that we love to drink. The leaf and the fruit, however, are different. The leaf is shaped differently and is lighter in colour. The fruit is also lemony green like the leaf and has whiskery tendrils that curl around it. The villagers seem to have named it after the sound it makes when it is squeezed.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

STUDIO TIMES BULLETIN - SEPTEMBER 2010

Changing Room, Kumara Pokuna, Polonnaruwa - Photography-Anu Weerasuriya

Located next to the Kumara Pokuna in Polonnaruwa is this small structure which is the remains of the changing room. A double platformed building of stone slab walls, the walls of the inner chamber are carved with lions, each one looking in a different direction. At the entrance are steps with a plain balustrade and a moonstone elaborately carved with three rows of animals in accordance with the moonstones of the Polonnaruwa period, the cow having being omitted as it is sacred to the Hindus.

The Kumana Pokuna lies next to King Parakramabahu’s State Council Chamber and close to his Palace.

Kuchchaveli - Photography-Christopher Silva

There is this boulder on the beach, the villagers told us. It has been lying there for years and we took no notice of it. Then the tsunami came. Pushed by the waves the boulder had turned over. And then we saw what had been lying hidden in the sands.

Carved on the side that was now revealed was a grid of sixteen dagobas. All of equal size within equal squares. It is not a contemporary discovery however. According to the Register of Ancient Monuments wherein the existence of this stone carving is recorded, this site may have been a monastery dating back to the Anuradhpura period. A torso of a limestone Buddha statue in Amaravati style and a sanskrit inscription of the 8^th century has also been found here. - Anu, Sept 2005

The shrine complex is situated between the present Rest House and the Police Precinct. Ruins are found in the coast where many circular shaped small rock peaks are situated. The first eye-catching archaeological piece is a carving of a few stupas on the face of a rock at the side of a cave on a panel 4’x4’. Sixteen squares are engraved where we find ten carvings of miniature stupas. Sculpture of this nature not being so common in Sri Lanka can be believed to be of Mahayana origin. They were in pleasing form when I visited them in 1966, but when I again saw them in 1978, the upper parts of most of them were destroyed.

- Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thera, The Sinhala Buddhist Heritage in the East and the North of Shri Lanka, 2005