Anouska Hempel

"Anouska Hempel, director of the first Sri Lankan Biennale to be held in Colombo in September, is a fine artist, interior designer, and yoga practitioner. A woman who likes to trailblaze new ideas – and always in unique, spiritual spots – she has a natural affinity for the arts and in particular the teaching of yoga; which she does on her spiritual trips known as ‘Journeys to Nirvana’.

Aimed at yoga lovers, these one- and two-week tours take in both known and relatively unknown sacred sites of Sri Lanka. Yoga and meditation are practiced daily at all the spiritual places visited, which include the beautiful Arankale – an ancient Buddhist temple with meditation walk leading to a purification tank; Ritigala – another centuries-old Buddhist monastery set in the jungle and surrounded by ancient ruins; a meditation cave in Sigiriya; Polonnaruwa; Kandy; and the littleknown Nalanda Gedige (20km south of Dambulla), where a small temple, also of great antiquity, marks the very centre of the island.

The mystical Ramboda Falls, one of the many tour highlights, is within the locale of the Hanuman temple, where rituals – rich with drumming, chanting, and incense – are performed daily to the Shiva Lingam (sacred Hindu phallic stone). The yoga trip finishes at Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada, or Samanala Kanda), where climbers must start at 2 am to ensure that the summit is reached in time for the spectacular sunrise. Anouska Hempel moved with her family from England to Sri Lanka’s Galle Fort seven years ago, where she opened the first Fort art gallery. In December 2004, when Galle was ravaged by the Boxing Day tsunami, the building became headquarters for PG’05, a year-long relief operation which gave help to over 10,000 Sri Lankans in need. Shortly afterward, Anouska moved to Colombo for her children’s education, and combined studying yoga with launching the arts initiative ‘Imagining Peace’, with the aim of creating the very first Sri Lankan Art Biennale (September 10-14).

Anouska says: “It’s not only about showcasing Sri Lankan art; this is a project with a vision.” She feels that CAB’09 ‘Imagining Peace’ will be a groundbreaking event that will not only mark and herald this historic and long-awaited time of peace in Sri Lanka but will inspire, and act as a launch pad for a celebrated, internationally recognized biannual presentation of Sri Lankan expressive creativity."

Published in Serendip Magazine | July 2009

Perahera

The spell of Sri Lanka

My friend Jessica just found an old coffee table photo book in their local thrift shop - serendipitous! - an enormous old tome published in the early 70s of photos by Roloff Beny with epilogue by Arthur C Clark.

He writes " ...if you have read this far you may already be doomed - my conscience will not allow me to close without a warning. I came to Ceylon in 1956, intending to stay for six months to write one book about the exploration of the island's coastal waters. Fourteen years and twenty books later, I am still here, and hope to remain for the rest of my life."

Manampitiya Flag

"The above photograph shows the Manampitiya Banner from the private collection of Mrs. M. G. Fernando, the author of the book ''Sri Lanka Flags - Unique Memorials of Heraldry", 1980. The banner has been faithfully reproduced from the original found in Manampitiya, by a local artist A. Albert Appuhamy."

"The banner shows a mounted Elephant as the principal device with emblems of the Sun, Moon and Stars, the fish, a monstrance, a Pyx and very specially a crucifix. The flag has belonged to members of the Karava caste, long settled in the area Manampitiya, in the District of Tamankaduwa. The families have fled from the maritime provinces of Negombo, to avoid persecution by the Dutch. The flag itself may have originated in Portuguese times or much earlier. On conversion to Christianity the symbol of the cross and the Pyx have been added. Over a century later the families that settled in Manampitiya adopted the Hindu religion."

http://www.defonseka.com/k25.htm

Faces of Buddha by Bill Bevan

Bill Bevan is a photographer, writer and archaeologist.

He specialises in visualising and writing about archaeological and historical sites from around the world. "My aim is to evoke the sense of place and people's engagement with a site as well as its historical importance"

http://billbevan.photium.com/portfolio51655.html

Sihigiri

"Hail! It is certain that those who go to Sihigiri, remembering it, will go there again. Even though other things should be forgotten, wherefore should this not be remembered?"

Early engraving in Sinhala verse.

http://www.srilankainstyle.com/sri_lanka_experience_page.php?expid=17

Peradeniya Botanical Gardens

Originally created in the reign of the Sinhalese King Wickramabahu III during the 14th century, these gardens were improved by his successors and later by the English after their conquest of Kandy.

Marianne North in 1876 during her visit to the island befriended and wrote about the then director, Dr G. H. K. Thwaites, who with his great acquirements and steady devotion to science, gave a world wide reputation to the Gardens during his tenure of office from 1849 to 1880. “He had planted half the trees himself, and had seldom been out of it for forty years, steadily refusing to cut vistas, or make riband-borders and other inventions of the modern gardener”, she remarked with astonishment. The trees were massed together most picturesquely, with creepers growing over them on a natural and enchanting tangle.

Here is a great gallery by Alex Meeres: http://www.pbase.com/alexjet/garden

Thai Matchbox Museum

"There's a thin line between passion and obsession. In a dusty shophouse on Wong Sawang Road, picture frames are piled on tables and hung on walls, and miscellaneous items are placed on the floor and poke out from a glass cupboard. Only the sign outside, written in Thai, indicates that this is a matchbox museum.

"I wish others to learn more about matchboxes here," said Chuan Sunthranan, the 81-year-old owner and enthusiastic matchbox collector."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/070608_Outlook/07Jun2008_out001.php