Eloquence in Stone: the Lithic Saga of Sri Lanka
Eloquence in Stone journeys through the two and half millennia of Sri
Lanka's history and delves further back into the shadowy world of the
pre-historic period where man lived in caves in Batadombalen and planted
oats and barley in Horton Plains.
It tells a tale of destruction and downfall, flowering and
regeneration, decline and inexorable decay. As it unfolds we move from
the age of stone to the age of wood and finally to the era of wattle and
daub. Much more than the story of monuments in stone, it is an account
of the culture which grew up around them, the world which produced them
and the people who built them.
Around fifteen years ago Nihal Fernando found in SinhaRaja
Tamitta-Delgoda the author he had been searching for to write this
classic work on the archaeological sites that Fernando had been
documenting for years.
Travelling together with the Studio Times team they spent the next
couple of years traversing the many roads and by roads and exploring the
trackless jungle sites of this country, photographing and researching
the archaeological sites that lie scattered all over this land of ours.
From the sites at our doorstep in Kotte to Velgam Vihara in the
north-east, the Elephant Stables in Tissamaharama to Horse Point,
Kudirimale in Wilpattu and from Budupatuna in the Wila Oya basin and
Handpanvillu Flood Plains, they went photographing the land and its
people, the cave and the tanks and the ancient temples and palaces.
Spearheaded initially by Nihal Fernando and thereafter by Anu
Weerasuriya, this monumental work is now ready for publication by Studio
Times Ltd. Of over 475 pages and 460 photographs, with glossary and
bibliography, it is a book where words and images combine to tell the
story of this land and its people.
Eloquence in Stone: the Lithic Saga of Sri Lanka by Nihal Fernando &
Sinharaja Tamitta-Delgoda with supplementary photography by Anu
Weerasuriya, Luxshmanan Nadaraja, Christopher Silva, Devaka Seneviratne
& Roshan Perret and designed by Eranga Tennekoon, may now be purchased
with the publishers Studio Times Ltd.
studiot@sltnet.lk
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