List Of Sinhalese People
This is a list of Sinhalese people by their country of domicile or origin. All communities that speak Sinhalese or spoke Sinhalese and originally came from Sri Lanka are included. Sinhalese are the majority ethnic group in Sri Lanka. Academics *Professor Rohan Abeyaratne * Gladys Jayawardene *Professor Rohan Gunaratna *Professor Sir Nicholas Attygalle *Professor Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri *Professor Kapila Gunasekara *Professor K. N. Jayatilleke *Professor Sam Karunaratne *Professor W.S. Karunaratne *Professor G. L. Peiris *Professor Walpola Rahula *Professor V. K. Samaranayake *Professor Ajith Kumar Siriwardena Activists * Ajith C. S. Perera *Shantha Bandara Actors and actresses * Joe Abeywickrama * Jackson Anthony * Gamini Fonseka * Malini Fonseka *Shanudrie Priyasad *Tony Jayawardena *Henry Jayasena * Vijaya Kumaratunga * Tony Ranasinghe * Ravindra Randeniya * Iranganie Serasinghe * Pooja Umashankar *Yashoda Wimaladharma Archaeologists and anthropologists * S. U. D ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sinhalese People
Sinhalese people ( si, සිංහල ජනතාව, Sinhala Janathāva) are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the island of Sri Lanka. They were historically known as Hela people ( si, හෙළ). They constitute about 75% of the Sri Lankan population and number more than 16.2 million. The Sinhalese identity is based on language, cultural heritage and nationality. The Sinhalese people speak Sinhala, an insular Indo-Aryan language, and are predominantly Theravada Buddhists, although a minority of Sinhalese follow branches of Christianity and other religions. Since 1815, they were broadly divided into two respective groups: The 'Up-country Sinhalese' in the central mountainous regions, and the 'Low-country Sinhalese' in the coastal regions; although both groups speak the same language, they are distinguished as they observe different cultural customs. According to the Mahavamsa and the Dipavamsa, a third–fifth century treatise written in Pali by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Malini Fonseka
Wanniarachchige Malini Senehelatha Fonseka, popularly as Malini Fonseka ( Sinhala:මාලිනී ෆොන්සේකා) (born 30 April 1947, in Kelaniya) is an actress in Sri Lankan cinema, theatre and television as well as a director. Often considered as the "Queen of Sinhalese cinema", Fonseka first became widely known when she won the 'Best Actress Award' at the 1969 National State Drama Festival. This was followed by Sarasaviya Best Actress Awards for ''Hingana Kolla'' in 1980, ''Aradhana'' in 1982 and ''Yasa Isuru'' in 1983. Apart from cinema, she is also a former member of Sri Lanka Parliament. Her cinema career has spanned seven decades and began with Tissa Liyansooriya's ''Punchi Baba'' in 1968. She has won the Slim Nielsen Peoples' Award for the Most Popular Actress a record twelve times in a row. In 2010, she was named by CNN as one of Asia's 25 greatest film actors of all time. Biography Early life Born as the third child of eleventh siblings to Gilbert Fon ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oliver Weerasinghe
Oliver Weerasinghe, OBE, FRIBA (29 September 1907 – 20 January 1980) was a Sri Lankan architect and diplomat. He was Sri Lanka's first City Planner and for this reason, he is referred to as the "Father of Sri Lanka's Town Planning". He is a former Ambassador to the United States. Weerasinghe was educated at the Royal College Colombo and went on to study architecture at the University of Liverpool under Sir Patrick Abercrombie. Later he became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute. He was a founding President of the Ceylon Institute of Architects. He gained wide recognition when he designed the "Lake House Building", the head office of the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon, owned by press baron D. R. Wijewardena. He then became Ceylon's first city planner, when he was appointed to the newly created post of Architect and City Planner of Ceylon, as the head of Ceylon's first Department of Town and Country Plann ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ellawala Medhananda Thero
Ellawala Medhananda Thero (එල්ලාවල මේධානන්ද) is a Sri Lankan politician and a former member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka The Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ''Shri Lanka Parlimenthuwa'', Tamil: இலங்கை நாடாளுமன்றம் ''Ila .... He had also organized many charities and engaged himself in educational activities in under-prevailed rural communities. As an academic scholar (see Pieris, ''op. cit.'') he has published 40 books of academic and archaeological research of which the book on the "Sinhala-Buddhist Heritage in the Northern and Eastern Provinces" published in 2003 by Jayakody Publishers in Colombo is most well known Medhananda was a parliamentarian elected by the Jathika hela Urumaya, a party which campaigned for the rights of Buddhists. As a consequence, many Marxist as well as minority Tamil write ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Senarat Paranavithana
Senarath Paranavitana ( Sinhala:සෙනරත් පරණවිතාන) (26 December 1896 – 4 October 1972) was a pioneering archeologist and epigraphist of Sri Lanka. His works dominated Sri Lankan archaeology and history in the middle-part of the 20th century. He became the Archeological Commissioner in 1940, following H. C. P. Bell, and Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe in that position. Life Paranavitana was born on 26 December 1896 at Metaramba, Galle, and had his early education at the Metaramba Government School. He later entered Buona Vista College in Galle. He studied Oriental languages at Ranweligoda Pirivena in Heenatigala and was a school teacher at the Udugampola Government School. Paranavitana joined the Department of Archaeology in 1923. He married in 1930. Paranavitana received his Ph.D. degree in 1936 from the University of Leiden and was appointed Archaeological Commissioner on 1 October 1940 in which capacity he served diligently till Dec ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yashoda Wimaladharma
Yashoda Wimaladharma ( Sinhala: යශෝධා විමලධර්ම) is a Sri Lankan actress in Sri Lankan cinema, stage drama and television. Often referred to as the "innocent on the small screen", Wimaladharma excelled in cinema, television and theatre in a career spanning more than three decades. Through her experience in domestic and foreign cinema, she is also working as a jury member of foreign cinema festivals. Biography Yashoda Wimaladharma was born on 28 October 1970 in Sri Lanka to Ravilal Wimaladharma, a Hindi language lecturer at University of Kelaniya and Mallika Wimaladharma, a former dancer and school teacher. Her sister Thusitha, now a school teacher, is seven years older than Yashoda. She has a master's degree in Hindi and fluent in the language. Wimaladharma attended St. Paul’s Girls School, Milagiriya in Colombo. Career She was invited to act in the teledrama ''Atta Bindei'' in 1988 directed by her uncle Bandula Vithanage. This marks the beginn ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pooja Umashankar
Pooja Gauthami Umashankar, mononymously known as Pooja, is an Indian-Sri Lankan actress, who has primarily appeared in Tamil, Sinhala and Malayalam language films. Early and personal life Pooja's mother, Sandhya, is a Sri Lankan Sinhalese and her father, H. R. Umashankar, is an Indian Kannadiga Brahmin from Sringeri, in the Chikmagalur district of Karnataka. Umashankar was at Valparai, working with Hindustan Unilever Limited, as a manager. Pooja can speak Kannada, Sinhala, Tamil, and English. After she did her pre-schooling in Sri Lanka, she came to India and went to Poornapragnya in Aldur, Chikmagalur and then to Nirmala Convent in Mysuru. Later she continued her education at Baldwin's Girls High school in Bengaluru and did graduation (B.Com.) and Post Graduation (MBA) at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. In December 2016, she married Prashan David Vethakan, who is a Sri Lankan businessman. Career Pooja was introduced by a friend of her to cinematographer-turned-director J ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Iranganie Serasinghe
Kala Keerthi Iranganie Roxanna Meedeniya, (born 9 June 1927"Irangani As Told to Kumar de Silva", Kumar de Silva, Samaranayake Publishers, 2013), popularly as Iranganie Serasinghe, is an actress in Sri Lankan cinema, theater and television. Since her debut in ''Rekava'', Serasinghe has become recognized for playing motherly figures in various films and television serials. She is the aunt of President Ranil Wickramasinghe. Early life and education She was born on 9 June 1927 in Mudungomuwa, Ruwanwella, Sri Lanka to Joseph Hercules Meedeniya, Rate Mahatmaya of Ratnapura and Violet Ellawela. Her paternal grandfather was J. H. Meedeniya, J. H. Meedeniya Adigar was elected unopposed to the Ruwanwella seat in the State Council and her uncles included D. R. Wijewardena and Sir Francis Molamure. Her mother was the sister of Nanda Ellawala's father who was a Member of Parliament for Ratnapura. She had three siblings, Indrani Meedeniya, Kamani Vitharana who married Professor Tissa Vitharana ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ravindra Randeniya
Liyanage Boniface Walter Perera (born 5 June 1945), popularly known by his stage name Ravindra Randeniya, is a Sri Lankan actor and former politician. He rose to fame in Lester James Peries's film ''Desa Nisa'' in 1972, and was a popular actor during the 1970s and 1980s; He won the Sarasaviya Best Actor Award in 1984 (''Dadayama''), 1985 (''Maya''), 1989 (''Sandakada Pahana''), and 1990 (''Sri Medura''). Randeniya hosted the quiz program ''Mind Star'' on ITN, which gain huge publicity. Personal life Randeniya was born in Dalugama, Kelaniya Sri Lanka in 1945 as the second child in a family with 6 siblings. His father, L.P. Perera was a well known businessman in Dalugama, Kelaniya who was popular in the brass hinge industry. His mother was Caroline Egodawatte, born in Sapugaskanda. Ravindra has one elder brother: Callistus, two younger sisters: Gertie, Helen, and two younger brothers: Amal and Shantha. Randeniya attended St. Benedict College in Kotahena. His beloved friend was h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tony Ranasinghe
Deshabandu Ranasinghe Hettiarachchilage Ignatius Anthony Silva (31 July 1937 – 16 June 2015 as ටෝනි රණසිංහ), popularly as Tony Ranasinghe, was an actor in Sri Lankan cinema, theater and television. He is known as the Lover of the 70s in Sri Lankan cinema due to the many popular films in which he acted. He was mostly restricted to innocent main role which is full of glamour and feelings. According to critics, he is the last Crowned king in Sri Lankan cinema to die after Gamini Fonseka and Joe Abeywickrama. He has acted in 115 films, in 43 of which he was the leading actor and in 72 of which he played a supporting role. He also contributed as a script writer in two films. Personal life Ranasinghe Hettiarachchilage Ignatius Anthony Silva, who later became popular as Tony Ranasinghe, was born July 31, 1937 in Modara to Emmanuel Cyril and Lilian Fernando as the second of the family. He had 8 siblings in the family - The eldest is the Ralex. Other younger memb ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vijaya Kumaratunga
Kovilage Anton Vijaya Kumaranatunga ( si, කොවිලගේ ඇන්ටන් විජය කුමාරණතුංග; ta, விஜய_குமாரணதுங்க; 9 October 1945 – 16 February 1988), popularly known as Vijaya Kumaratunga'','' was a Sri Lankan film actor, playback singer and a politician. Regarded as one of the most popular icons in Sri Lankan cinema of all time. He was married to former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaranatunga from 1978 until his assassination in 1988. He was the Founder of Sri Lanka Mahajana Party. Early life He was born on October 9, 1945, at the government hospital in Ragama to Roman Catholic parents. His father was Kovilage Benjamin Kumaratunga, a village headmen and mother was Clara Beatrice Perera. Vijaya had three brothers and sisters: Sydney Kumaratunga, Vivian Kumaratunga and Rupa Kumaratunga. He received his primary education at Seeduwa Davisamara Maha Vidyalaya, secondary education at St. Benedict's Colleg ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |