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Books : History : Asia : Sri Lanka
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From the snowcapped Himalayas and the Indus valley, to the Ganges delta and the Sri Lankan forests, the Indian subcontinent is home to 13% of the world's species of birds and thousands of birders and ecotourists flock to the area every year. This field guide will be indispensable to those who wish to find and identify the many species of avifauna of the Indian subcontinent and environs.
Featuring more than 150 color plates by eminent bird illustrators from Europe and India, it depicts all the known species in the region, ranging from the Himalayan Snowcock in the north to the Sri Lanka Spurfowl in the south. The plates include all relevant identifiable subspecies, as well as ages and sexes. It contains hundreds of range maps and the succinct text on the facing pages covers identification, voice, and distribution. Specially designed for use in the field, it is a compact version of the landmark A Guide to the Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, hailed on its publication as a "stunning book" that "advanced the cause of Indian birding by 20-30 years." With its modest price, small trim size, and sturdy, weather-resistant binding, this field guide is the one volume that every adventurous traveler to the Indian subcontinent must have.
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Could actions have been taken prior to September 11 th to prevent the formation of a strong and resilient al Qaeda ? Might alternative development policies have prevented the World Trade Center attacks and forestalled the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq? Paradise Poisoned draws crucial lessons from Sri Lanka's civil wars to demonstrate that violent conflict and terrorism are both predictable and preventable .John Richardson's study - carried out over nearly twenty years - employs rigorous political and economic analysis and a multi-disciplinary engagement of the systemic linkages between development, governance, and civil conflict. The author - a noted development professor and practitioner, applied systems theorist, and South Asian scholar - traces ten development failures that spawned conflict and terrorism in Sri Lanka, and he proposes a comprehensive prevention strategy summarised in ten key imperatives.
Thus, while contextually rich in its examination of Sri Lankan political history, the policy relevance of Paradise Poisoned extends also to cases like Kosovo, Kashmir, Palestine, Sudan, Afghanistan and now, in particular, Iraq.
Of special utility are 3 policy leverage points discussed at length by Richardson: meeting the needs and expectations of young men, increasing police effectiveness, and prioritizing business community involvement.
Political leaders often say they 'had no choice' when implementing policies such as the US invasion of Iraq or earlier Sri Lankan government interventions, yet this is rarely true. Multiple choices are usually available, and the longer the time horizon, the greater the range of choices. Paradise Poisoned demonstrates that deadly conflict and terrorism are both predictable and preventable.
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Over 300 hundred years ago, the first European colonists landed in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean to found permanent outposts of the great empires. This epic migration continued until after World War II, when some of these tropical colonies became independent black nations and the white colonials were forced -- or chose -- to return to the mother country. Among the descendants of the colonizing powers, however, were some who had become outcasts in the poorest strata of society and, unable to afford the long journey home, were left behind, ignored by both the former oppressed indigenous population and the modern privileged white immigrants.
At the dawn of the twenty-first century these lost white tribes still hold out, tucked away in remote valleys and hills or in the midst of burgeoning metropolises, living in poverty while tending the myths of their colonial ancestors. Forced to marry within their own group if they hope to retain their fair-skinned "purity," they are torn between the memory of past privilege and the extraordinary pressure to integrate. All are decreasing in number; some are on the verge of extinction and fighting to survive in countries that ostracize them because of the color of their skin and the traditions they represent. Though resident for generations, these people are permanently out of place, an awkward and embarrassing reminder of things past in newly redefined countries that are eager to forget both them and their historical homelands.
In the remote interior and in bustling São Paulo, the Confederados of Brazil linger on, the descendants of Confederate families that fled the American South to rebuild their society here rather than face victorious Yankees. Wrenchingly poor then and now, these would-be genteel planters cling to their romanticized memory of a proud antebellum past. In Sri Lanka, once Ceylon, the children of Dutch Burghers haunt their crumbling mansions, putting on airs and keeping up appearances. In the steaming jungle of Guadeloupe, the inbred and deformed Matignons Blancs scrape out an existence while claiming the blood of French kings in their veins. On the beaches of Jamaica, a young man with incongruously blond dreadlocks -- the destitute descendant of a shoemaker from the Duchy of Saxony who became an indentured servant to earn passage from Germany to the new world -- still gazes out at the Caribbean over a century and half later. The Poles of Haiti are descended from troops lured over by Napoleon to quell slave rebellions. His promise of independence for their homeland went unfulfilled; they persist in hidden valleys in the island's interior. In the desert expanses of Southwest Africa, the famously devout Basters, the green-eyed, mixed-race Afrikaners, still doggedly pursue vast territorial claims as the continent's new power brokers sweep them aside. These are the lost white tribes.
More than an entrée into a world we are unfamiliar with, this amazing chronicle opens up a world that we did not even know existed. In his masterful report, Riccardo Orizio has written the final chapter in the history of the postcolonial world, and in him these forgotten peoples have found their unique historian.
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*Continues the story of the Sarvodaya Movement begun in Joanna Macy’s Dharma and Development
*Up-to-date information stems from ten years of scholarly and field research
In one of the world’s most inspirational grassroots-development stories, Buddhism at Work outlines the vision and evolution of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka, as its members have sought to engage and awaken society with Buddhist and Gandhian ideals.
Now an international movement and NGO, Sarvodaya calls for individuals and groups to achieve non-violent social transformation through cooperative work. Its vision and its voice are poised to contribute to the emerging global dialogue on peace, social justice, and community development. Buddhism at Work embraces a new hope for humanity.
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Theravada is the branch of Buddhism is found in Sri Lanka and parts of South East Asia. The Buddha preached in north-east India in about the fifth-century BC. He claimed that human beings are responsible for their own salvation, and put foward a new ideal of the holy life, establishing a monastic Order to enable men and women to pursue that ideal. For most of its history the fortunes of Theravada, the most conservative form of Buddhism, have been identified with those of that Order. Under the great Indian emperor, Asoka, himself a Buddhist, Theravada reached Sri Lanka in about 250 BC. There it became the religion of the Sinhala state, and from there it spread, much later, to Burma and Thailand.
Richard Gombrich's book, widely recognised as the classic introduction to the field of Theravada Buddhism, shows how Theravada Buddhism has influenced and been influenced by its social surroundings. He explores the influences of the Buddha's predecessors and the social and religious contexts against whichBuddhism has developed and changed throughout history. This revised and updated new edition incorporates recent research, including recent controversies over the date of the Buddha, as well as reflecting recent social and political developments in Sri Lanka.
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This is the story of the Allied air campaign across Australia, Sumatra, Java, the Philippines, Burma and Ceylon during World War II. It documents the Allied underestimation of Japanese ability, and ends with the Japanese at the extremities of their advance.
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This is the story of the Allied air campaign across Singapore, Malaya, Burma, Ceylon and the Philippines during World War II. It documents the Allied underestimation of Japanese ability, which led to the destruction of 50% of the British bomber force in two days.
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Translated by James Legge. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1886 edition by the Clarendon Press, Oxford.
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The Mahavamsa is the epic tale of Sri Lanka's founding and early history. It is the least known of all the world's great chronicles, and much less familiar than its Subcontinent forebears, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.The Mahavamsa or "Great Chronicle" describes the founding era of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Its sweeping relation of the period from 500 BC through 300 AD details the origins of virtually every religious practice and social institution in Sri Lanka and South India today. Some of these are:
A. The commonwealth that developed between ruler, religion and populace
B. Popular Buddhism's fusion with local shamanistic beliefs and practices
C. The dilution of the caste system after removing its religious proscriptions
D. The great reservoir based irrigation system which made a complex civilization on the island possible
E. The culture which developed from the cultivator mentality of the rice paddy and moral principles of Buddhism
The Mahavamsa's literary qualities place it alongside the best of the literature emanating from Subcontinent traditions. While the palace literature of the time was sparse and stilted, and monastic literature was confined to edifying stories about the Buddha, the popular oral storytelling tradition which was the ultimate origin of the Mahavamsa was a very rich brew of fables, folk stories, hearth and fireside songs, incantations worship, animism and the lore of paddy culture. All this life and liveliness found its way into the pages of Mahavamsa.
This edition contains the text of the Mahavamsa, plus numerous explanatory notes and commentaries that paint a broad picture of the era in which Mahavamsa was written.
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Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict has become protracted and intractable. The twenty five- year-old civil war has been interrupted numerous times for a negotiated peace and political settlement, yet the conflict has defied deescalation. All failed attempts at negotiated peace have propelled the civil war forward with greater vitality and intensity. Both war and peace appear to be mutually sustaining dimensions of a single process of conflict produced and sustained by two defining dynamics: (1) intense competition for state power between state-seeking minority nationalism and state-asserting majority nationalism; and (2) the fact that the ethnic war has acquired relative autonomy from the political process of the ethnic conflict. Against this backdrop, attempts at negotiated settlement, with or without ceasefires, have not only failed but have redefined the conflict. This study suggests that early deescalation or a long-term settlement is not possible at present. A protracted conflict requires a protracted process of political transformation. Since the question of state power is at the core of the conflict, a credible short-term path to peace should begin with negotiations that aim at, and lead to, reconstituting state power along ethnic lines. This will require a grand ethnic compromise among Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim elites, backed by the people in the three main ethnic formations.
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The Work of Kings is a stunning new look at the turbulent modern history and sociology of the Sri Lankan Buddhist Monkhood and its effects upon contemporary society. Using never-before translated Sinhalese documents and extensive interviews with monks, Sri Lankan anthropologist H.L. Seneviratne unravels the inner workings of this New Buddhism and the ideology on which it is based.
Beginning with Anagarika Dharmapala's "rationalization" of Buddhism in the early twentieth century, which called for monks to take on a more activist role in the community, Seneviratne shows how the monks have gradually revised their role to include involvement in political and economic spheres. The altruistic, morally pure monks of Dharamapala's dreams have become, Seneviratne trenchantly argues, self-centered and arrogant, concealing self-aggrandizement behind a façade of "social service."
A compelling call for reform and a forceful analysis, The Work of Kings is essential to anthropologists, historians of religion, and those interested in colonialism, nationalism, and postcolonial politics.
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Economy, Culture, and Civil War in Sri Lanka provides a lucid and up-to-date interpretation of Sri Lankan society and its 20-year civil conflict. An interdisciplinary examination of the relationship between the economy, broadly defined, and the reproduction of violent conflict, this volume argues that the war is grounded not just in the goals and intentions of the opposing sides, but also in the everyday orientations, experiences, and material practices of all Sri Lankan people. The contributors explore changing political and policy contexts; the effect of long-term conflict on employment opportunities and life choices for rural and urban youth; life histories, memory, and narratives of violence; the "economics of enlisting" and individual decisions about involvement in the war; and nationalism and the moral debate triggered by women's employment in the international garment manufacturing industry.Contributors are Francesca Bremner, Michele Ruth Gamburd, Newton Gunasinghe, Siri T. Hettige, Caitrin Lynch, John M. Richardson, Jr., Amita Shastri, Deborah Winslow, and Michael D. Woost.
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The bitter civil war in Sri Lanka created thousands of refugees. The United Nations refugee policy played an important role in protecting some of Sri Lanka's citizens. Written by the former head of the agency, this book provides an unrivalled account of what went on during the war in the early 1990s and what could and should have been done by the United Nations to protect Sri Lanka's refugees.
Providing a broad account of Sri Lanka's history and the roots of the conflict, the book explores the evolution of U.N. protective practices. The author's unique experience provides a crucial insight not only into the conflict in Sri Lanka but also into U.N. practice regarding refugees and internally displaced persons more generally. It is ideal for anyone involved in humanitarian work and for students of conflict resolution.
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This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1857 edition by Wm. H. Allen and Co., London.
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It is the story of a king, shrouded in mystery, introduced as fiction, betrayed by history, unveiled by a tsunami that reintroduces himself, his kingdom, and his dynasty ... as true history. For centuries Sri Lankans and many historians have believed that the Sri Lankan civilization begins with the arrival of Vijaya, the supposed first king and progenitor of the Sinhalese, from northeastern India in the sixth century BCE. "If so," the author asks, "how is it that Egyptian Pharaohs, Prophet Moses, King Solomon, King Hiram, all indicate to have had trading links with the island more than a millennium before the arrival of Vijaya?" In a 13-year quest, avoiding landmines and Tamil Tigers the author finds and subjugate myths, legends, lore, and even ancient palm leaf chronicles of Sri Lankas past to rigorous and exhausting tests with the latest research by Oxford University and National Geographic Society in archeology, genetics, paleography, anthropology, literary analysis, and statistics. In THE LOST DYNASTY, all recovered clues are meticulously assembled to reconstruct a past even most Sri Lankans do not know existed - a past more glorious than they ever dreamed of. Hidden in neglected rock inscriptions are the story a prosperous kingdom with international colonies and trade links ruled by a powerful dynasty that was vanquished and lost to history by an unwise war and an unforeseeable tsunami more than 3000 years ago. The Book contains 178 stunning and rare images spanning over 200 years. Table of Content Chapter 1: War and Peace Chapter 2: The Tamil Homeland Chapter 3: An Ancient Terror Chapter 4: Ancestor or Invader? Chapter 5: Chronicles Chapter 6: Palladium of Kingship Chapter 7: The Missing Chapter Chapter 8: Pearl Harbor Chapter 9: The Forgotten Kingdom Acknowledgements Bibliography Index
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This work explores the British encounter with Buddhism in nineteenth century Sri Lanka. Its central concern is the way Buddhism was represented and constructed in the eyes of the British scholars, officials, travelers and religious seekers who first encountered it. The book traces the three main historical phases of the encounter from 1796 to 1900 and gives a sensitive and nuanced exegesis of the cultural and political influences which shaped the early British understanding of Buddhism and which would condition its subsequent transmission to the West. This work fills a significant gap in scholarship on Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka by concentrating on missionary writings and by a thorough exploration of original materials of several important pioneers in Buddhist Studies and Mission Studies. It expands the readers' understanding of inter-religious relations between Christians and Buddhists.