Niloshini Kulathunga

Batamullakanda Buddha Statue is situated on the top of a hillock in Matugama. It is 135 ft tall. It is considered as the tallest standing Buddha statue in South Asia.  This statue of Lord Buddha is based on the famous Avukana Buddha Statue situated in the ancient city of Anuradhapura. There is a temple & a Little stupa along with the statue. Below this huge statue, there is a meditation centre with several cabins in order to provide dedicated areas for devotees to engage in worship or reflection.  The whole premises is recognized as an International Buddhist Centre. It was founded by Jagath Pinnagodawitana, a UNP organiser in Mathugama. Nowadays, lot of people are rushing to see the record-breaking statue. As a result, the place is among one of the top places to visit in Kalutara district. The temple premises is located 23 km from Kalutara and it will take only about 40 minutes to reach.

Richmond Castle is situated in Kalutara, Western Province. It was owned by a local landowner and philanthropist named Padikara Mudali Nanayakkara Rajawasala Appuhamilage Don Arthur de Silva Wijesinghe Siriwardena. He was born on 12th November 1889 & died on 8th July 1947.  Don Arthur de Silva Wijesinghe Siriwardena Siriwardena studied in Britain. After completing his studies, he was bestowed the position of Mudaliyar by the King. Then, he returned to Ceylon to take up the position.  This mansion, Richmond Castle was built based on a similar plan of a castle in India. That was owned by one of Siriwardena's schoolmates called Raja Rajeswara Sethupathi. He was the Raja of Ramnad, India. After he saw this Indian castle, Sriwardena had requested a copy of the building plans from Sethupathi. But, the request was rejected by the Raja as he thought the Ceylonese were not capable enough of undertaking such a huge construction project.  Siriwardena was inspired by this rejectio...

  Natural environment provides us with a wide range of ‘ecosystem services’. All the things that people need and want that come from the natural world of which human beings are a part. Healthy ecosystems can purify the air specially and also clean the water, maintain the soil, regulate the climate, recycle nutrients and provide provisioning services such as food, fiber, energy, raw materials, medicine and building materials etc. This is very vital as they are the foundation of all civilizations. The earth is the only planet that man can call home, so we must love and take care of it. When man refuses to acknowledge his responsibility to care for nature, destruction occurs. Devastation happens either by omission or commission. Animals and plants also face risks because man destroys their natural habitats and kills them. Plant life is essentially destroyed by continuous cutting of trees and burning of grasslands. Animals become endangered or extinct because of irresponsible hunting...

  Television plays an important role in our lives. It keeps us updated. Most of the people spends their free time watching television. There are many advantages of television and disadvantages too. Television is a rich source for education, entertainment and global understanding. We get news from all around the world through television. We can watch movies, watch songs and listen to music, watch tele dramas etc. for entertainment. School children can get many knowledge from the television. Kids can enjoy watching cartoons. One can learn about arts and crafts, decorations, medical facts, food recipes etc. from the TV.   Those are common advantages of television. There are some disadvantages too. Some programs are full of hate, violence, evil and many bad qualities. Children and youth can be addicted to those bad qualities. Sometimes, people get negative inspirations from the television. Many TV shows are not suitable for the society and culture. And also, health prob...

Sinharaja Forest Reserve is a hotspot full of biodiversity in Sri Lanka. It has an international significance. It has been designated a Biosphere Reserve in 1978 and a World Heritage Site in 1988 by UNESCO. • Location - Sabaragamuwa and Southern Provinces, Sri Lanka • Area    -       88.64 km2 • Established   -   April, 1978 • Governing body   -   Department of For Conservation In Sinharaja, more than 60% of the trees are endemic and many of them are considered rare. 50% of animals are Sri Lankan's endemics species, especially butterfly, amphibians, birds, snakes and fish species. It is home to 95% endemic birds.   The hilly virgin rainforest is a part of the Sri Lanka lowland. Due to the dense vegetation in Sinharaja, wildlife is not easily seen as in dry-zone parks such as Yala. There are only about 3 elephants, and 15 or so leopards in this forest. The most common mammal we can see here is the endemic purp...

Destruction of public property is called vandalism. It is a common problem in all over the world. Usually,   it costs any government billions of dollars. Since vandalism means the deliberate destruction of public property, it is regarded as an offence punishable by the law. It is a senseless crime. There are many forms of vandalism. Among them, spray painting & scribbling on the walls, scratching, defacing etc. are very common & usual forms of vandalism. Changing   the information in a personal web account   is also another form of vandalism. According to the researches, most of the vandals are teenagers & both boys and girls engage in vandalism. However, boys are more tend for vandalism than girls. Normally ,elderly people are rarely found in engaging in vandalism. Most of the times, vandalism occurs in public places including public transport services, libraries, historical sites, parks & schools. School vandals mostly vandalize desks and chairs, n...

Communication is defined as the exchange of ideas, messages or information by speech, signals or writing. Without communication, any organizations would not function. It is no doubt that communication plays a vital role in human life. It doesn’t only help to share information and knowledge, but also helps people to develop relationships among them.  There are 3 major types of communication. They are, verbal communication, written communication and non-verbal communication. Effective communication is a very important part of everyday life of people. Because, there are many things that good communication can achieve. It helps us to understand a person or a situation better and builds trust and respect with the people around us. Effective communication creates the environments where creative ideas, problem solving, love, affection and caring can exist. It is very important to communicate effectively with each other. Because, it helps us to share our opinions openly with people and to ...

  Now, the internet has become an important part of our lives. It has changed the human life for good and bad both. But when we talk about the uses of internet, we see, people use internet for many reasons everywhere in the world. We use internet for communication, shopping, booking, researching and also for studying etc.  The internet has brought the people closer and made the whole world a global village. Be it your friends, family members or your business partners, everyone is just a click away now. Communicating with friends and relatives living in foreign lands is no longer a costly thing. One can connect with them very easily on social media, emails, web calls and messenger. Anyone can chat with others or call them at any time of the day with the help of internet.  Internet is a source of entertainment too. Everything you need for entertainment such as music, movies and e-books are now available on internet. Furthermore, internet helps business world as well.  ...

                      Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He is a British author. The novel series "Sherlock Holmes" is very popular all over the world. Holmes is referred to a "consulting detective" in the stories. He is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science, and logical reasoning when investigating cases. He offered his service for a wide variety of clients of the society including Scotland Yard.                     The first appearing of the story in 1887 was called "A Study in Scarlet". Then, the popularity of the character "Holmes" became widespread with the first series of short stories beginning with the story named "A Scandal in Bohemia". It was published in The Strand Magazine, 1891. After that, many additional tales of the story appeared until 1927 totalling 4 novels and 56 short stories.  ...

                                             Kalutara Bodhiya is a sacred tree worshipped by Buddhists. It is located in Kalutara, Western Province of Sri Lanka.  Together with this sacred Bo tree, there is a Buddhist temple called "Kalutara Viharaya" and a modern Stupa called "Kalutara Chaitya". This temple is one of the most venerated religious places in Sri Lanka. Hundreds of Buddhist people and also tourists visit here daily.  People believe that this tree is one of the 32 saplings of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura, Sri  Lanka. According to ancient chronicle Sinhala Bodhiwamsa, those saplings were planted in different parts of the  country as instructed by Arahant Mahinda Thera.  However, it is said that the Buddhist public of Sri Lanka started to consider this place as a sacred place after Wickrema Pandya who was a ...

                      This Stream which is situated in Kaluthara District is attracted by the local visitors and International tourists as it has very beautiful and attractive natural ponds for bathing. It is situated in between the borders of Western Province and Southern Province. Usually, if a tourist need to visit a natural waterfall or a stream, he has to travel a tough way for a long while. But, in order to reach ‘Kalu Dola’ ,we don’t have to do an adventure. This rivulet is first named as ‘Kalu Dola’. It is started at sapugahahena,pidurangala Mountain in Western province and is nurtured from the residual forests of Sinharaja Rain Forest. Because of this,the forest density around the rivulet was very thick before. The surrounding and the water of the rivulet were also a little dark. Because of this, the name ‘Kalu Dola’ has been created. But recently, a bund was built in order to support the cultivations of the a...

                              P awura kanda Raja Maha Viharaya situated at Halwala about 10Km from Lewwanduwa junction. One can see the ancient Buddhist heritage and a rock fortress in this temple. And also, the horizon up to the Southern coastal areas, Benthara River, Southern Express Way, ancient frescoes, statues, a pond and many things can be seen. Visiting this temple can be considered as a pilgrimage as well as an adventure picnic because of the rough path. In the past, King Manabharana fled to Pasyodunrata with his brothers Kithsirimegha and Sri Wallabha after got defeated by Wikramabhahu and then got protection in this temple. There is a natural fortress here and it is said that it is king Manabharana’s fortress.It is called Pawura kanda. Recently, footprint of Lord Buddha had been carved at the mountain peak and it is called Piunchi Sripada. In this peak, there is a cave, where about 400 ...

                                       A century ago, a German company named ‘Broodenburge’ arrived in Sri Lanka in order to discover graphite and ended up in Rathmale. Rathmale is a village which is situated in Agalawaththa. They started a graphite mine in a meadow in Rathmale. After the 1 st World War, the company was bankrupt and left Sri Lanka. The graphite mine and also closed. Because of the graphite spread from this huge mine, the whole meadow appeared in silver color. The Sinhala word for ‘meadow’ is ‘ ඕවිට ’. The Sinhala word for ‘Silver’ is ‘ රිදී ’. People started to call this area as ‘ රිදී ඕවිට ’ first. Then, it became ‘ රිදීවිට ’. There is not a mine now, but there is a huge forest cover in that area which created a beautiful ecosystem. Now this village is famous again because of a waterfall called ‘ රිදීවිට ඇල්ල ’. There is anoth...