A pure and undying love for Batik
There is a moment Jezima Mohamed has never forgotten. She was in her twenties, sitting in a cooking class in Matara, Sri Lanka, when she saw it for the first time: a batik textile, alive with colour, the wax-resist cracks running through it like lightning frozen in fabric. She had been painting since she was [...]
Unearthing the buried roots of Ceylon’s early botanic gardens
The early history of the establishment of botanic gardens in this country which culminated in the establishment of the present Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) at Peradeniya is still shrouded in mystery. The establishment of a botanic garden exclusively for scientific use by specialist botanists and the public for leisure activities was, in essence, a European [...]
Letters to the Editor
Repeated tariff hikes for electricity: How to move beyond them We are now paying the price for electing successive governments that, with their oligarchic advisers, promoted continued dependence on imported fossil fuels for personal gain rather than national interest. This has been reinforced by repeated tariff hikes, resulting in an unfair transfer of the burden [...]
APPRECIATIONs
A rice breeder par excellence DR. M.P. DHANAPALA It is with great sadness I learnt that Dr. M.P. Dhanapala (Dhane to many of us) had passed away earlier this month after a brief illness. Dr. Dhanapala was the Director of the Rice Research and Development Institute at Batalagoda and has been a long-standing loyal servant [...]
Renewable energy: Green shift in the future of plantations
A quiet but significant transformation is underway across Sri Lanka’s plantation sector. For decades, energy was treated as a routine operational cost. Today, that thinking is changing. Decentralised renewable energy is emerging as a practical pathway to reduce costs, strengthen climate resilience and support sustainable land management. At a recent high-level workshop under the UNDP/GEF-7 [...]
Gratiaen Prize longlist is out
The longlist for the 33rd annual Gratiaen Prize was announced on Thursday by the Gratiaen Trust, in partnership with the John Keells Foundation, and supported by the British Council. The 2026 invitation for applications for the Prize received a record number of entries, showcasing a broad mix of voices, styles, and perspectives in contemporary Sri [...]
A dialogue between artists across centuries: Sky Gallery presents ICONS
You can stand in front of a life-size Vermeer or a monumental Monet and feel the dialogue between artists who never met but shaped each other across time. From April 24 – May 3, the Sky Gallery of the Fareed Uduman Art Forum will present its new exhibition ICONS. ICONS is conceived as “a dialogue [...]
Palms together: Turning traditional crafts into village incomes
In the landscape of Sri Lankan development, “training” is a common word. From Colombo to the furthest corners of the North and East, thousands of women have attended workshops and received certificates in various crafts. Yet, for many, the journey ends when the workshop closes. Without a bridge to the market or a leader to [...]
Valuable information on a critical environmental problem
“Soil Erosion and Conservation: With Special Reference to Sri Lankan Dry Zone” written by Dr. P.B. Dharmasena and published by Cambridge Publishers provides valuable information on the most critical environmental problem related to land. Soil erosion is a serious global issue, affecting billions of people and undermining food security, livelihoods and the climate, with up [...]
A mother’s well-crafted poetry and a daughter following in her footsteps
I was looking forward to reading Pia’s collection of poems having enjoyed reading some of her work along the way. Pia’s poems, let me say at the outset, are wonderfully clever and well crafted – pithy at most times and often piercingly poignant, weaving in and out of personal relationships. One’s mind often resonates with [...]