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Narada Maha Thera
Narada Mahathera ( si, නාරද මහා ස්ථවිරයන් වහන්සේ), born Sumanapala Perera (14 July 1898 – 2 October 1983) was a Theravada Buddhist monk, scholar, translator, educator and Buddhist missionary who was for many years the Superior of Vajiraramaya in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was a popular figure in his native country, Sri Lanka, and beyond. Biography He was born in Kotahena, Colombo to a middle-class family, educated at St. Benedict's College and Ceylon University College, and ordained at the age of eighteen. In 1929 he represented Sri Lanka at the opening ceremony for the new Mulagandhakuti vihara at Sarnath, India, and in 1934 he visited Indonesia, the first Theravadan monk to do so in more than 450 years. During this opportunity he planted and blessed a bodhi tree in southeastern side of Borobudur on 10 March 1934, and some Upasakas were ordained as monks. From that point on he travelled to many countries to conduct missionary work: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kotahena
Kotahena is a suburb part of Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is an area known as ''Colombo 13'' Places of worship Kotahena is the location of some places of worship: *Dipaduttamarama, where in 1885 for the first time the Buddhist flag was shown and where some jewels found in the Buddha stupa in Piprahwa and were enshrined in the Ratna Chetiya in 1908. *Sri Ponnambalavaneshwarar Hindu Temple * St. Lucia's Cathedral (1881) this is called a cathedral because it holds the chair of the bishop of the diocese in this case the Archbishop's chair. The cathedral, one of the largest churches in the entirety of Sri Lanka, is also the first bishop's house in Colombo, Bishop Bonjeen. St Benedict's College was formed by de Lasale brothers and Good Shepherd Convent was formed by Good Shepherd sisters with the invitation of Bishop Bonjeen St Lucias College was a government school but now under the Archbishop. * St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade, Kotahena (not to be confused with the town of the same name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the first President of the United States (1789–1797). Located almost due east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial, the monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, is both the world's tallest predominantly stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing tall according to the U.S. National Geodetic Survey (measured 2013–14) or tall, according to the National Park Service (measured 1884). It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances. It was the tallest structure in the world between 1884 and 1889, after which it was overtaken by the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Previously, the tallest structure was the Cologne Cathedral. Construction of the presidenti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alumni Of The Ceylon University College
Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women. The word is Latin and means "one who is being (or has been) nourished". The term is not synonymous with "graduate"; one can be an alumnus without graduating (Burt Reynolds, alumnus but not graduate of Florida State, is an example). The term is sometimes used to refer to a former employee or member of an organization, contributor, or inmate. Etymology The Latin noun ''alumnus'' means "foster son" or "pupil". It is derived from PIE ''*h₂el-'' (grow, nourish), and it is a variant of the Latin verb ''alere'' "to nourish".Merriam-Webster: alumnus .. Separate, but from the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sri Lankan Buddhist Missionaries
Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, Balinese, Sinhala, Thai, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Nepali, Malayalam, Kannada, Sanskrit, Pali, Khmer, and also among Philippine languages. It is usually transliterated as ''Sri'', ''Sree'', ''Shri'', Shiri, Shree, ''Si'', or ''Seri'' based on the local convention for transliteration. The term is used in Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia as a polite form of address equivalent to the English "Mr." in written and spoken language, but also as a title of veneration for deities or as honorific title for local rulers. Shri is also another name for Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, while a ''yantra'' or a mystical diagram popularly used to worship her is called Shri Yantra. Etymology Monier-Williams Dictionary gives the meaning of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1983 Deaths
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the true Internet). * January 24 – Twenty-five members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1978 murder of Italian politician Aldo Moro. * January 25 ** High-ranking Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia. ** IRAS is launched from Vandenberg AFB, to conduct the world's first all-sky infrared survey from space. February * February 2 – Giovanni Vigliotto goes on trial on charges of polygamy involving 105 women. * February 3 – Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser is granted a double dissolution of both houses of parliament, for elections on March 5, 1983. As Fraser is being granted the dissolution, Bill Hayden resigns as leader of the Australian Labor Party, and in the subsequ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1898 Births
Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island. * January 13 – Novelist Émile Zola's open letter to the President of the French Republic on the Dreyfus affair, ''J'Accuse…!'', is published on the front page of the Paris daily newspaper ''L'Aurore'', accusing the government of wrongfully imprisoning Alfred Dreyfus and of antisemitism. * February 12 – The automobile belonging to Henry Lindfield of Brighton rolls out of control down a hill in Purley, London, England, and hits a tree; thus he becomes the world's first fatality from an automobile accident on a public highway. * February 15 – Spanish–American War: The USS ''Maine'' explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba, for reasons never fully established, killing 266 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sri Lankan Buddhist Monks
Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, Balinese, Sinhala, Thai, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Nepali, Malayalam, Kannada, Sanskrit, Pali, Khmer, and also among Philippine languages. It is usually transliterated as ''Sri'', ''Sree'', ''Shri'', Shiri, Shree, ''Si'', or ''Seri'' based on the local convention for transliteration. The term is used in Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia as a polite form of address equivalent to the English "Mr." in written and spoken language, but also as a title of veneration for deities or as honorific title for local rulers. Shri is also another name for Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, while a ''yantra'' or a mystical diagram popularly used to worship her is called Shri Yantra. Etymology Monier-Williams Dictionary gives the meaning of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piyadassi Maha Thera
Piyadassi Maha Thera ( si, පියදස්සි මහා ස්ථවිරයන් වහන්සේ, 8 July 1914 – 18 August 1998) was a preacher of the Dhamma both in Sinhala and in English. He was born on 8 July 1914 at Kotahena in Colombo, Sri Lanka and was educated at Nalanda College, Colombo, thereafter at the University of Sri Lanka and the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University as a research student. At the age of twenty, he entered the Buddhist monastic order under Pelene Siri Vajiragnana Nayaka Thera, founder of the Vajirarama Bambalapitiya. Later, he received his higher ordination under the tutorship of Vajiranna, founding superior of the Vajirarama Colombo. Piyadassi Maha Thera was the Sinhala editor at the Buddhist Publication Society until his death. Along with Nyanaponika Thera, he was one of the chief '' kalyāṇamittas'' of American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi.In Bodhi (2000), ''The Connected Discourses of the Buddha'', p. 5, B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thích Ca Phật Đài
Thích Ca Phật Đài () is a notable Theravada Buddhist temple in the coastal city of Vung Tau in southern Vietnam. It lies to the northwest of the Lớn mountain and was built between 1961 and 1963 when it was opened. It is set on a plot of around five hectares, with a Zen Buddhist monastery at the foot of the plot and the Thích Ca Phật Đài at the top. The Zen monastery is a small brick temple built by a government official from Vung Tau in 1957. In 1961, the Buddhist association organised for a renovation of the monastery and decided to build the Thích Ca Phật Đài further up the mountain. Additional lodgings were built to cater to Buddhist pilgrims who come and visit the site. The temple is reached by taking a left turn from the Bến Đình markets and travelling one kilometre to the foot of the Lớn mountain. This leads to the front of the temple, which is marked by a triple gate held up by four imposing and solid pillars. Past the triple gate, there is a long pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of the Cold War after the 1954 division of Vietnam. It first received international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the French Union, with its capital at Saigon (renamed to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976), before becoming a republic in 1955. South Vietnam was bordered by North Vietnam to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. Its sovereignty was recognized by the United States and 87 other nations, though it failed to gain admission into the United Nations as a result of a Soviet veto in 1957. It was succeeded by the Republic of South Vietnam in 1975. The end of the Second World War saw anti-Japanese Việt Minh guerrilla forces, led by communist fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
