Culture & Heritage

The Malays of Sri Lanka who were brought over during the period of Dutch rule in the country, practice a number of traditional customs derived from both Islamic practice and long-cherished Malay cultural traditions that evolved in Indonesia and Malaysia. Here are the main ones marking the main landmarks of life.   BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD   The birth customs of …

Depicting a scene in the hospital at Cordóba, then in Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), this 1883 illustration shows the famed physician Al-Zahrawi (called Abulcasis in the West) attending to a patient while his assistant carries a box of medicines (photo: Science Photo Library/Sheila Terry). Contents 1 Asylum of the Sick 2 The First Hospitals 3 Mobile Dispensaries 4 Permanent Hospitals 5 Organization 6 Patient Care 7 Young Frenchman’s …

Late Dr. A.C.S. Hameed entered Sri Lankan legislature in March 1960, Representing Harispattuwa constituency, in the Central Province.   He had been in Parliament winning 8 elections for a continuous period of 39 years from 1960 to 1999.  This was one of the longest unbroken Parliamentary records of a member of the U.N.P.  He passed away on September 3, 1999 after …

A statue of Mimar Sinan sits in front of the Selimiye Mosque in Turkey’s Edirne (Wikimedia)   Responsible for designing some of Turkey’s most impressive structures, Sinan was the Ottoman Empire’s chief architect in the 16th century   Modern cities are often recognised for their skyscrapers, such as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa or London’s Shard. But that is not the case in Istanbul, where the …

සෑම අභිරහසක් පිටුපසම විද්‍යාවක් තිබෙනවා. නමුත් සමහර පුදුමසහගත දේවල් විද්‍යාවෙන් ඔබ්බට ගිය විට, හුදෙකලාවෙ වුවත් අපේ මොළය සෑම විටම ඒ පුදුමසහගත සංසිද්ධිය ගැන සිතමින් සිටිනවා. අපි දැන් බලන්න යන්නේ එවැනි සංසිද්ධියක් ගැන තමයි. හරියට කඃබා මස්ජිදයේ ඉඳලා අඩි හැට හයක් නැගෙනහිර දෙසට වන්නට ළිඳක් තියෙනවා. මේ එක් ළිඳ තමයි මේ දක්වා මුළු ලෝකයම ආපසු හැරී බලන්නට සලසල තියෙන්නේ. මේ ළිඳේ …