X-Nico

27 unusual facts about Sri Lanka


AH43

In Sri Lanka, the road continues through the town of Talaimannar and the Sri Lankan cities of Mannar, Anuradhapura, Dambulla (AH44), Kurunegala, Kandy, Colombo, Galle and Matara.

Ba Takat Bridge

The Ba Takat Bridge can be found 28 miles to the west of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Batticaloa Jailbreak

1983 Batticaloa Jailbreak, carried out by Tamil militants in September 1983 in Sri Lanka.

Celestina Dias

Celestina Dias (11 July 1858–26 March 1933) (née Patthinihennadige Warnadeepthia Kurukulasuriya Rodrigo), also known as Mrs. Jeremias Dias, was the wife of Jeremias Dias of Panadura, who is known for beginning the premier Buddhist School for girls in Sri Lanka, Visakha Vidyalaya, located in Bambalapitiya, Colombo.

Chandrarathna Bandara

It dealt with the complicated issues faced by a politically motivated young man in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka in 1980s.

Dennis Hapugalle

During the 1971 Insurrection, as a Colonel he was appointed Chief of Civil Defence based in Colombo and thereafter took up appointment as the Military Coordinating Officer for Mannar, commanding military operations in the district.

Eric Gross

Following professional engagements in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and New Caledonia, he settled in Sydney in 1958.

Grant McCann Erickson

Grant McCann Erickson is a leading Sri Lankan advertising agency and part of the McCann Worldgroup which has offices in over 130 countries and almost eight decades of multinational experience.

Iceland Crisis Response Unit

It had a civilian observer mission in Sri Lanka in co-operation with Norway (previously a Nordic mission) and has explosive ordnance disposal personnel from the Icelandic Coast Guard to Lebanon and Iraq.

Indian special forces training school

Indian army conducts joint special forces exercise and training with the special forces of countries such as US, Sri Lanka, Russia, France, Bangladesh, Thailand at this school.

Informatics Institute of Technology

IIT, Informatics Institute of Technology (formerly IICS, Informatics Institute of Computer Studies) is a private higher educational institute in Sri Lanka which specializes in Information Technology.

James Ramsbotham, 2nd Viscount Soulbury

From the late 1950s he lived in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where his father had been Governor-General, as a Hindu yogi under the name Santhaswami.

Kadawedduwe Jinavamsa Mahathera

Jinavamsa Mahathera was born Don Dinesh on 1 April 1907 in the Kadawedduwa village in Matara.

Kinniya Bridge

The bridge was completed and declared open on 20 October 2009 by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

M. H. Gunaratne

Later he became the commanding officer of the 4 (V) Design Ceylon Engineers; Army units in Mannar; Echelon Barracks; Army units in Jaffna; Sri Lanka Army Pioneer Corps and the 1st Reconnaissance Regiment, Sri Lanka Armoured Corps.

Mandapam Camp

With nowhere else to go, these people left Sri Lanka by boat from a northern town called Mannar, (18 km from the Indian coast) and arrived in Mandapam, India.

Manil Mendis

However it caused much humiliation to the government as Galle was the provincial capital of the Southern Province, the home province of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Michael Jeh

Jeh was born in Colombo, Ceylon and emigrated to Australia as a refugee at the age of 15.

Military ranks and insignia of the Sri Lanka Navy

Sri Lanka does have the admiral(1) rank, but it is only awarded to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) or as an honorary rank.

Northern Theater of Eelam War IV

Silavaturai, named after the small partidge (bird) known in Sinhala as "kirava", is a coastal location that served as a supply point for the LTTE in the Mannar (Mannaārama) area.

Operation Trishul

Operation Trishul, along with Operation Viraat, was an anti-insurgency operation launched by the IPKF against the LTTE in April 1988 in Northern Sri Lanka, in the provinces of Maannar to Mullaitivu and Elephant Pass to Vavuniya.

Philippus Baldaeus

The Dutch campaign against the Portuguese began in Jaffna, passing Mannar, Tuticorin and Nagapattinam and ended in South India.

Professor Kingsley De Silva

Mapalagama Liyanage Neville Kingsley Pierre De Silva ( Professor Kingsley De Silva) 'born on October 26, 1932 in Kandana, Sri Lanka, was one of the leading Obstetrician & Gynaecologist in Sri Lanka

Shrine of Our Lady of Matara

Shrine of Our Lady of Matara is a Roman Catholic church devoted to the Virgin Mary, in the town of Matara, Sri Lanka.

St. Mary's Convent Matara

Mary's Convent is a very famous girls school in Matara, Sri Lanka

Transport in Nagpur

Nagpur is also at the junction of two Asian Highways namely AH43 Agra, India to Matara, Sri Lanka and AH46 connecting Kharagpur, India to Dhule, India Moreover, Nagpur city has come in the national spotlight recently for its good roads, which were developed as part of the upgradation and renewal works under Integrated Road Development Project (IRDP), spearheaded by the erstwhile Commissioner of the Corporation Dr. T Chandrashekhar.

Treaty of Batticaloa

The king also had to acknowledge Dutch imperial possessions in Colombo, Matara, Kalpitiya, Galle, Trincomalee, Mannar, and Batticaloa.


Adele Ann Wilby

Adele Balasingham moved with her husband initially to Madras in India then on to northern part of Sri Lanka in Jaffna during the early stages of the Sri Lankan civil war that started after the 1983 Black July pogrom.

Annius Plocamus

Annius Plocamus was a Roman tax collector from the Mediterranean, who facilitated direct trade and the first contacts between the Roman Empire and Ancient Ceylon, present day Sri Lanka.

Ansell

In November 2013 the company became the target of a global campaign launched by IndustriALL Global Union and LabourStart due to its anti-union practices in Sri Lanka.

Anuruddha Ratwatte

He entered the Sri Lanka Parliament in February 1989 as a nominated Member on the National List, In 1994, he was elected to parliament from the Kandy District representing the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and was appointed by Chandrika Kumaratunga, his niece as Cabinet Minister for Power and Energy and Deputy Defense Minister.

Assistant superintendent

This rank is used Sri Lanka where the officer is supposed to be in the Sri Lanka Police Service (where it is denoted by one, two or three stars depending on seniority) and the police forces of a number of other Commonwealth countries.

Badi-ud-din Mahmud

Deshamanya Dr. Badi-ud-din Mahmud (23 June 1904 - 1997) was a Sri Lankan politician.

Battle of Gannoruwa

The Battle of Gannoruwa was a battle of the Sinhalese–Portuguese War fought in 1638 between the occupying Portuguese forces and the Sinhalese King's army at Gannoruwa in the District of Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Blue Shaddy

Having lived in the city of Perth for some 14 years and meeting band members, Malaysian born Arun Satgunasingam (drummer and percussionist) and percussionist Sri Lankan born Kanchana Karunaratna, the band has been exposed to new influences which leads to what Blue Shaddy are today.

Bodhi Vamsa

The Bodhi-Vamsa, or Mahabodhi-Vamsa, is a prose poem in elaborate Sanskritized Pali, composed by Upatissa in the reign of Mahinda IV of Sri Lanka about AD 980.

C. H. Fernando

Major General C.H. Fernando, VSV, psc, SLAC (1930 - ) is a Sri Lankan general, who was the former Director of Operations, General Staff; GOC, 2 Division; Commander, Northern Command.

Callum Macrae

Outsider Television went on to produce several documentaries for various television channels, including Dispatches, Enemies Within and Sri Lanka's Killing Fields for Channel 4, Witness and People in Power for Al Jazeera and Panorama for the BBC.

Canadian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 2000–01

The Canada national cricket team toured Sri Lanka in May 2001 season and played eight one-day matches against various provincial teams in Colombo, Galle, Moratuwa and Gampaha.

Charles Lavigne

Bishop Charles Lavigne, S.J. (born 11 June 1840, Marvejols, France – died 11 December 1913, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka) was a Roman Catholic bishop in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the first bishop of Kottayam.

Clarence Wijewardena

Clarence Wijewardena was born on 3 August 1943, in Haputale, Sri Lanka, to an estate medical practitioner.

Clifton Cricket Club

Clifton Cricket Club has employed such professionals as Pakistani international Mansoor Rana and Sri Lankan U19s Captain Chintaka Jayasinghe.

Dharmasoka College

It is one of the educational institute supported by the Buddhist Theosophical Society led by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, and accordingly is one of Sri Lanka's oldest schools.

Disperis

Disperis is a genus of 74 species distributed in tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar, Mascarenes, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Ryukyu Islands, China, Taiwan, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, Philippines, New Guinea, and Carolines.

Ediriweera Sarachchandra

He completed his early education at Richmond College in Galle, St. John's College in Panadura, S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia and St. Aloysius' College in Galle.

Great Basses Reef Lighthouse

Great Basses Reef Lighthouse is an offshore lighthouse in the south of Sri Lanka, and it is operated and maintained by the Sri Lanka Navy.

Harsha Abeywickrama

Air Marshal Harsha Abeywickrema, RWP, RSP, VSV, USP, rcds, psc, qfi, SLAF is a Sri Lankan fighter pilot and the current Commander of the Sri Lankan Air Force.

Hazing

1975: Rupa Rathnaseeli, a 22 year old female student of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka became paralyzed as a result of jumping from the second floor of the hostel "Ramanathan Hall" to escape the physical ragging carried out by older students.

Humphrey Hawksley

In 1986, Hawksley was expelled from Sri Lanka where he had reported on a number of government atrocities in its conflict with Tamil separatists.

International Tea Day

International Tea Day is a day observed since 2005 in many tea producing countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda, India and Tanzania.

Irakkandi Bridge

Irakkandi Bridge is the third longest bridge in Sri Lanka with a length of 300m metres.

Kandalama Reservoir

The Kandalama Reservoir (also erroneously known as the Kandalama Lake) is a reservoir in Kandalama, Sri Lanka.

Kirti Sri Rajasinha of Kandy

A reason to call on the British for assistance by the Kandyan King in 1762 was that after the treaty of Paris, the Dutch poured troops into Sri Lanka.

Lesser bandicoot rat

They can be up to 40 cm long (including the tail), are considered a pest in the cereal crops and gardens of India and Sri Lanka, and emit piglike grunts when attacking.

Lucian Scherman

From October 1910 to December 1911, Scherman and his wife Christine undertook an extended research trip to Ceylon (today Sri Lanka), Burma (today Myanmar), and India (today India and Pakistan).

Marakkalage

The name Marakkalage derives from the type of craft Marakkar (Marakkalam in Tamil means Wooden Ship) used in trade and warfare by the rulers of the Kuru Mandala coast (the region of the Kurus) and Sri Lanka.

Mufaddal Saifuddin

As a child, during the era of Syenda Taher Saifuddin, he began the recitation of the Quran in Saifee Villa; Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Nihal Jayawickrama

He was the former Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice (1970–1977), Professor of Law at University of Hong Kong (1984-1997), Ariel F Sallows Professor of Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada (1992-1993), and Executive Director of Transparency International (1997-2000).

Nishantha Ranatunga

An all-rounder of note in domestic cricket, he is the brother of former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanjeeva Ranatunga and Dammika Ranatunga.

Ronald K. McMullen

Other overseas assignments include serving as Deputy Principal Officer in Cape Town, South Africa; Economic Officer in Libreville, Gabon; Political Officer in Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Vice Consul in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Samanera Bodhesako

He embraced Buddhism in 1966 in India, where he was ordained at the Bengal Buddhist Association of Calcutta, and spent several years as a monk in Island Hermitage and elsewhere in Sri Lanka.

Sebastianites Cricket and Athletic Club

Sebastianites Cricket and Athletic Club are a first-class cricket team based in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

South Indian Film Artistes' Association

;Sri Lankan civil-war hunger strike: In September 2008, Sarathkumar organized a one-day hunger strike, protesting the deaths of several Tamils in Sri Lanka and the ongoing Sri Lankan Civil War.

Starcom IP Asia

Starcom IP Asia consists of 17 countries and 29 offices, with locations in Australia (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane) Bangalore, Bangladesh, China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong), India (New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai), Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand (Auckland, Wellington), Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Stigmatogobius sadanundio

Stigmatogobius sadanundio is a species of goby native to south Asia from India to Indonesia including Sri Lanka and the Andaman Islands.

Teaching Hospital, Peradeniya

Teaching Hospital, Peradeniya, is one of the three hospitals in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Telecommunications in Sri Lanka

The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Tim Wohlforth

They were expelled in 1964 after demanding a discussion of the significance of the Sri Lankan LSSP's entry into the government of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

Tissa Weeratunga

In 1971 a Lieutenant Colonel, he saw combat during the 1971 Insurrection as coordinating officer, Moneragala District and later took command of the Ceylon Army General Service Corps and the Ceylon Army Pioneer Corps.

Udo Recker

In 1991 he was part of a German archaeological team under the direction of the late Prof. Dr. Klaus Kilian (1939–1992) of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) excavating in Pidurangula, Central Province, Sri Lanka.

VentureSoft

It was founded in 1998, and currently operates in Singapore, Malaysia, India, Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Europe and the USA.

World Bicycle Relief

In partnership with World Vision, Trek Bicycle and local government, World Bicycle Relief provided 24,3676 bicycles in Sri Lanka to men, women and children in greatest need following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Yasodara Devi Balika Maha Vidyalaya

Yasodara Devi Balika Maha Vidyalaya is a girls' school located in Gampaha district in Sri Lanka.