Sri Lanka Holidays Skanda Pandia Lanka Light & Enlightenment 3: Information websites

YOU CAN SET SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS IN OUTLOOK EXPRESS

SRI LANKA Holidays

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[Sri Lanka Holidays ] 25
Tamil Thai Pongal Day (BPM),2008/1/15
Duruthu Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/1/22
National Day (BPM),2008/2/4
Navam Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/2/20
Mahasivarathri Day (BP),2008/3/6
Milad-Un-Nabi (Holy Prophet’s Birthday) (BPM),2008/3/20
Medin Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/3/21
Good Friday (BP),2008/3/21
Day Prior to Sinhala & Tamil New Year Day (BPM),2008/4/12
Sinhala & Tamil New Year Day (BPM),2008/4/13
Bak Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/4/19
May Day (BPM),2008/5/1
Vesak Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/5/19
Day following Vesak Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/5/20
Poson Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/6/18
Esala Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/7/17
Nikini Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/8/16
Binara Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/9/14
Id-Ul-Fitr (Ramazan Festival Day) (BP),2008/10/01
Vap Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/10/14
Deepavali Festival Day (BP),2008/11/27
Il Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/11/12
Id-Ul-Alha (Hadji Festival Day) (BP),2008/12/9
Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day (BPM),2008/12/12
Christmas Day (BPM),2008/12/25

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Instructions

A) Backup the existing SRI LANKA Holidays file
1. Exit Outlook if it is running.
2. Locate Outlook.hol file and create a backup of it.
Outlook 2007: drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\1033\Outlook.hol
Outlook 2003: drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\1033\Outlook.hol

B) Update the Outlook Holiday file
1. Exit Outlook if it is running.
2. Open the Outlook.hol file in a text editor, such as Notepad.
3. If you're doing this for the first time, copy and paste the above section between "Start Copy" and "End Copy" to the end of the Outlook.hol file. Update your existing list with the above if you've already have a section for the Sri Lanka Holidays.
4. Save and close Outlook.hol.

C) To update the Outlook calendar
1. Start Outlook.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. On the Preferences tab, under Calendar, click Calendar Options.
4. In the Calendar Options dialog box, under Calendar options, click Add SRI LANKA Holidays.
5. Select the check box "Sri Lanka HOLIDAYS " and click OK.

Note: If a set of SRI LANKA holidays or events observed has already been selected in the Add SRI LANKA Holidays to Calendar dialog box and you try to add the same again, you see the message, " SRILANKA Holidays for country are already installed. Do you want to install them again?" Click No. If you click Yes, the SRI LANKA holidays and events are installed a second time, and you will see duplicate holiday and event entries in your calendar.

How would you like to sit on the stone floor in front of this serene Buddha statue in our temple?

How would you like to sit on the stone floor in front of this serene Buddha statue in our temple?

No hats, no shoes, no short skirts, no short pants, I mean you are supposed to wear long pants, long skirts in the temples, please. Imagine for a moment how beautiful it would be in lifesize. Now you are seeing only a tiny virtual image. Close your eyes & imagine the statue.... No, that wouldn't do, you have to visit Sri Lanka to see & observe & get into the trance. Please sit down here with me. You will get slowed down, get calm & collected & sink into a trance with the beauty & serenity of the magnificent statue. Sri Lanka, one of the least promoted worldclass destinations, is one of the places you must visit before you die. THE: Total Holiday Experience inThe Land of Delights. TOUR SRI LANKA WITH RIOLTA LANKA HOLIDAYS (PVT) LTD., SRI LANKA. www.rioltalankaholidays.com ***bunpeiris

www.rioltalankaholidays.com (www.mysrilankaholidays.com) (www.bunpeiris.com)

An open word to the Inbound Tour Operators to Sri Lanka by bunpeiris.

Gentlemen,
We needn't hesitate in facing up to terrorism, speaking against terrorism in the same breadth as Tourism. Such is the reality, ours is the least promoted world class destination: Total Holiday Experience (THE). Over & above the failure in publicity of the successive governments to promote the inbound tourism to the island, our island has been suffering, for three decades under a killer transient phenomenon caused by a very sick mind: terrorism.
Once again it was mainly due to the pathetic failure of successive governments to counter terrorist propaganda. Now, led by the political will & military discipline, we have government institutions which have taken up the task of countering the propaganda of the terrorists.
We can but only gain from promoting Tourism & countering Terrorism propaganda on the same platforms ranging from online publicity to International tourism trade fares. Do you dare? Fortune favours the brave.
Anyway, with terrorist cargo ships already in the bottom of the sea, deep underground fortresses getting demolished with weapons we never had till a couple of years ago, with the wounded megalomaniac mass murderer Pol Pot the second suffering from hypertension & diabetes in is last leg, any time it could be "Match Over"
We have survived for 2550 years of foreign invasions from Southern India, Portugal, Netherlands, England, India & Norway.

Take heart & redouble your efforts to promote the least promoted tourist destination of the world that could provide one & all THE (TOTAL HOLIDAY EXPERIENCE) in "THE LAND OF DELIGHTS".

Good times soon

May all beings get cured of their maladies; may all small & gods protect our island & our Defence Forces.

We reveal for you to revel: Our Island, Our Nation & Our Faith Will Prevail
We reveal for you to revel: The Land Of Delights
www.rioltalankaholidays.com www.mysrilankaholidays.com

Yours truly
bunpeiris
1st Feb.2008

"The point that I am trying to make is that the current negative perceptions cannot be wished away. They have to be tackled, negated, counter-pointed or counter weighted or else they will become a millstone in our brand building efforts"
Arun Nanda , Colombo, 2007

May our Island, nation & faith be protected for another 2500 years!

An extract from The Revolt in the Temple by D. C. Vijayavardhana Sinha Publications, Ceylon, 1953

According to the Mahavamsa & the ancient Pali Commentaries, the Mahaparinibbana (final extinction) of the Buddha, & the landing in Lanka of Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhalese race, too place on one & the same day.

The Mahavamsa relates that the Buddha, on the day of Mahaparibbana, addressed Sakra, the king of the gods, thus; ‘My doctrine, O Sakra, will eventually be established in the Island of Lanka;& on this day, Vijaya, eldest son of Sinha Bahu, King of Sinhapura in the Lata country, lands there with seven hundred followers, & will assume the sovereignty there. Do thou, therefore, guard well the King & his train & the island of Lanka”

On receiving the Buddha’s command, Sakra summoned Vishnu; “Do thou, O lotus-hued One, protect with zeal Prince Vijaya & his followere, & the Doctrine that is to endure in Lanka for full five thousand years.’

Thus the Mahavamsa synchronizes the Mahaparinibbana (final extinction) of the Buddha founding of the Sinhalese race; & therefore, in 1956 will occur the unique three-fold event-the completion of 2500 years of Buddhism, of the life of Sinhalese race, & of Ceylon’s history.

Ptolemy's 140 A. D. map of Sri Lanka

Ptolemy's 140 A. D. map of Sri Lanka

It was an Egyptian mathematician Claudius Ptolemy, who in the infancy of geography attempted to give Sri Lanka form & shape. His remarkable map of Taprobane, as Lanka was called by Greeks, dating back to about the year 140 AD, made lanka fouteen times its present size. A Sinhalese chronicle, the Rajavaliya (Line of Kings), records that "great sea encroaced & submerged altogether eleven-twelfths of what was left of Lanka".That was in 200 BC. The Island which is known by the name of Lanka, and to the western nations by that of Ceylon, is said to have been called in the time of the three previous Buddhas of the present age Ojadipa, Varadipa, and Mandadipa respectively. To the Greeks and Romans it was Taprobane, in Pali Tambapanni. This properly was the name of a district on the north-west coast, in ancient times the portion of the country best known to seafaring traders; as in the ease of India and of Asia itself the name of the part has been transferred to the `whole. In the Periplus its older name is given as Taprobane and its modern as Palaisimundu. After the Sinhala settlement it was styled in Sanskrit Sinhala-dvipa, and in Pali Sihala-dipa, a name which in process of time passed into Arabic as Serendib, or was known simply as Sinhala or Sihala. This in the form Sinhale still survives in common parlance as the name of the Kandyan districts, which last retained their independence, and is the origin of our `Ceylon,' through the medium of Arabic and Portuguese; In Sinhala the letters S and H are often interchangeable, and the old language, untouched by Sanskrit, is the Helu or Elu, names also derived from `Sinhala.'

The Romans, Greeks & Sinhalese

The Romans and Greeks believed the island to be far greater in size than it is, partly because of the great cities and fairly dense populations they encountered during their brief sojourns on the island. The high central mountain ridge, that rises to eight thousand feet in some parts, helped to support this exaggerated conception of the island's area. An embassy from the King of Ceylon that visited the court of Rome during the reign of the Emperor Claudius (A.D. 40) and an exchange of ambassadors during the reign of the Emperor Julian (fourth century A.D.) generated some interest in the island and its size, inhabitants, wealth, and natural resources.

Mahawamsa (Great Chronicle) of Sri Lanka

1) 0543 BC Arrival of Prince Vijaya & his 700 men from Eastern India. Beginning of Agrarian civilization of Aryan Sinhalese

(2) 0543 BC Final extinction of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, (the most Profound religion ever) in Northern India

(3) 0543 BC-1815AD Succession of 176 rulers of Sri Lanka

(4) 497AD-525AD Buddhist monk Mahanama Thera begins written record of history of Lanka: Mahawamsa (Great Chronicle). Following Bhikku Mahanama, a succession of Buddhist monks continue the narration of Mahavamsa & Chulavamsa to 1795, begining of the British colonail period

(5) 1815 Capitulation of Ceylon

(6) 1815- 1948 Colonial period During the Ceylonese colonial era, Pali language of the original Suttas (sutras) was so obscure that few Dutch or British bothered to learn it. As a result Mahawamsa (Great Chronicle) written in Pali language was largely the preserve of of Buddhist monks & elite & erudite Sinhalese.

(7)1826 Interest in Mahawamsa by the philologists following discovery of Ceylon’s Rosetta Stone, long lost commentary, called “Tika” at Mulkirigala rock monastery, Sri Lanka. The Tika established the factual nature of much of what the Mahawamsa related. First translation of Mahawamsa by Turnour (British Colonial civil servant in Ceylon

(8) Reprinted by L. C. Wijesinha (Sinhalese)

(9)1908 A Critical edition in Pali was made by Prof. Wilhelm Geiger Ph. D. published by the Pali Text Society

(10)1910 Translation into German by Prof. Geiger of his own revised critical edition published by the Pali Text Society in 1908

(11)1912 Translation of German edition into English by Dr. Mabel Haynes Bode, Ph. D

(12)1948 End of British Colonial rule: Ceylon gains independence

(13) 1989 Translation by Ananda Guruge (Sinhalese)

(14) 2003 Reprint by offset in Great Britain ISBN: 955-8540-83-8

(15) 2005 Second Revised Edition od Dr. Ananda W. P. Guruge's translation with 403 page prolegomena & introduction

Preamble to the text of Mahawamsa

HAVING made obeisance to the Sambuddha the pure, sprung of a pure race, I will recite the Mahãvamsa, of varied content and lacking nothing. That (Mahävamsa) which was compiled by the ancient (sages) was here too long drawn out and there too closely knit; and contained many repetitions. Attend ye now to this (Mahavamsa) that is free from such faults, easy to understand and remember, arousing serene joy and emotion and handed down (to us) by tradition, (attend ye to it) while that ye call up serenejoy and emotion (in you) `at passages that awaken serene joy and emotion.

Evolution of the Great Chronicle

1 The Living Historical Tradition. The continually growing mass of myth, legends, ballads, eulogies, heroic poems, biographies, ecclesiastical histories, tales of sacred objects & places, personal records of good deeds, quasi-historical records
2 Sinhala Atthakatha – Historical records of Sangha (Buddhist monks) activities from the earliest times in old Sinhala & Pali
3 The Dipavamsa, the earliest extant chronicle of Sri Lanka believed to be the work of two Buddhist nuns Sivala & Maharuha from India
4 Samantha Pasadika
5 Mahavamsa ( great Chronicle)
6.Vamsatthappakasini ( Mahavamsa Tika) (Commentary)
7 Extended (“Cambodian”) Mahavamsa
Above is an adaptation from “The Evolution of the Chronicle from Early Beginnings to the Extended Mahavamsa,” Ananda Guruge
The later chronicles of the island, written from time to time, are the Attana-galu Vihara Vamsa, the Dhatuvamsa, the Elu-Attanagaluvamsa, the Elu-Bodhivamsa, the Maha Bodhivamsa, the Thupavamsa, the Daladavamsa, the Viharavamsa etc.

From Bengal to Lanka

Legends prior to Aryan Sinhalese settlement

1.Kingdom of Lanka founded in the island by Malyavath, Sumalin, & Malin of Yakka (demon) tribe. They were evicted from the island by god Vishnu owing to their evil deeds.
2. Reign of King Kuvera with great splendor & immense grandeur in Lanka. It is also believed flamboyant King Kasyapa aspired to be the god king with Sigiriya Rock Citadel as the very personification of his divinity, to rule his kingdom up high, like the king Kuvera
3. Reign of King Ravana (a grandson of Malyavath) of epic Ramayana most possibly 1810 BC according to Sir William Jones (1746-1794)
4. No legend for another 1200 years
5. 6^thCentury.BC Yakka tribe kings Chulodara & Mahodara & three visits of Gauthama Buddha to the resplendent island of Lanka

Kalinga Magha to utter shame

Sri Lanka

’s recorded history of unbroken Aryan Sinhalese civilization begins in 543BC. The year is disputed by the scholars: an argument has emerged to proclaim the beginning of Sinhalese nation was in 486BC. In that case Buddha Jayanthi is yet to arrive: 2500-486 BC=2014 BC. Poetical verses written by Buddhist monk Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula during the reign of Parakrama Bahu the sixth of Kotte (15^th century), a prince named Diyasena is destined to establish a Buddhist Kingdom in Sri Lanka when the Buddhism shall have completed 2500 years. Diyasena or no Diyasena, Buddhist kingdom or no Buddhist kingdom, Sri Lanka has to get rid of the psychopath Pol Pot mass murderer who, by means of his endless crimes for three decades, has put even marauding invader Kalinga Magha to utter shame

Three Sinhale Puthra Rajapaksa for a United Sri Lanka

Three Sinhale Puthra Rajapaksa for a United Sri Lanka

What does this mean in concrete terms? It means that the LTTE must be eliminated as a military challenge to Sri Lanka's unity and territorial integrity. This in turn means that the Tigers must no longer be an armed force capable of rivalling Sri Lanka's armed forces. The LTTE must no longer exist as a parallel army. This entails the destruction of the LTTE as a fighting force; the elimination of its leadership, its armed cadre and military assets. This would create the opportunity for the LTTE to convert itself into a democratic political formation, provided it accepts that any solution to Tamil political grievances and identity issues must be pursued peacefully and democratically within the parameters of a single, united Sri Lanka. By Dayan Jayathilaka Friday, December 28, 2007

We reveal for you to revel: Our Land, Our Nation & Our Faith Will Prevail

A Prince from Ruhuna put an end to Magha

In 1225, the Tamils under Magha of Kalinga, more merciless than any previous invader, landed in Lanka “This Magha, who was like unto fierce drought, commanded his army of strong men to ransack the kingdom of Lanka, even as a wild fire doth a forest. Thereupon, these wicked disturbers of the peace stalked about the land hither & thither crying out boastfully, ‘Lo! We are the giants of Kerala’.” They killed man & beast, amputated limbs, broke images, destroyed temples & made dwelling-places of viharas, & tortured the rich for their wealth. They took Sinhalese king Parakrama Pandu captive, plucked out his eyes, & despoiled him of his treasures. “Alas! Alas! Even so did those Tamil giants, like the giants of Mara, destroy the kingdom & religion of land…& robbed all the treasures that were therein with all the pearls & precious stones.” The island of Lanka was rescued under brought under a single standard by Prince Kirthi of Ruhuna. The hero was crowned king of the whole resplendent island under the title of Vijaya Bahu the third (1246AD-1250AD)

The British couldn't take our Roots Off: our heritage survived

In 1796, the British took over and entrusted the national education system to the Anglican Church and other Christian missionaries. Missionaries attracted the villagers to their schools, while Buddhist community schools were closed. A few exceptional British teachers realized the unfairness of the British policy, however, and objected to forceful conversions. To quote one enlightened head of a British school, Rev. Kenneth Saunders: "What do they (the church authorities in England) want me to do? To placate my colleagues' the Christian missionaries... to alienate the up and coming generation from [their] national culture and heritage. This cannot be any worse crime than lowering the self-esteem of the young in any nation. When I point this out, they question my patriotism.... What they want me to do is to ensure that generation after generation of this country become docile, submissive subjects of the Great Empire."