Saga (event)
Saga is an annual musical festival organized by Royal College Colombo. The first SAGA was held in 2004 and since then has become an important event on Colombo's cultural calendar. It is named after the ancient Greek epic poems the Odyssey and the Iliad attributed to Homer. In the aspect of oriental music the term referred to the oriental version of sing musical scales as ‘Sa’ refers to the oriental equivalent of the 1st degree- “Do” while “Ga” refers to the equivalent of the 3rd degree, or “Me” History For many years before Saga, an annual concert performed by the Royal College Hostel named Miyasi Meerawaya. Miyasi Meerawaya was limited to hostelers, however Upali Gunasekara, the newly appointed Principal of Royal College Colombo wished to broaden the scope for every one to perform. As a result, ''Saga I'' was organized in 2004 with the leadership of Principal Upali Gunasekara and Music Teacher Ashoka Pushpakumara. The project was joined by the School Development So ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and southeast of the Arabian Sea; it is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and Maldives. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital, and Colombo is its largest city and financial centre. Sri Lanka has a population of around 22 million (2020) and is a multinational state, home to diverse cultures, languages, and ethnicities. The Sinhalese are the majority of the nation's population. The Tamils, who are a large minority group, have also played an influential role in the island's history. Other long established groups include the Moors, the Burghers ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Royal College Colombo
Royal College, Colombo is a selective entry boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by Rev Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton in January 1836, as part of the implementation of the recommendations of the Colebrooke Cameron Commission (1833), and was the first government-run secondary school for boys in the island. Royal College is the first public school in Sri Lanka and is often referred to as the "Eton of Sri Lanka". The school was founded in the British public school tradition, based on the recommendations of the Colebrooke Cameron Commission (1833), and having been named the Royal College, Colombo in 1881 with consent from Queen Victoria, it became the first school to gain the prefix, "Royal", outside of the British Isles and it was one of the first schools to be designated as a national school by the Sri Lankan Government in the 1980s. As a national school, it is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the Municipality. It is the financial centre of the island and a tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is itself within the urban/suburban area of Colombo. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District. Colombo is a busy and vibrant city with a mixture of modern life, colonial buildings and monuments. Due to its large harbour and its strategic position along th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Greek Language
Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting impo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Epic Poems
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. Etymology The English word ''epic'' comes from Latin ''epicus'', which itself comes from the Ancient Greek adjective (''epikos''), from (''epos''), "word, story, poem." In ancient Greek, 'epic' could refer to all poetry in dactylic hexameter (''epea''), which included not only Homer but also the wisdom poetry of Hesiod, the utterances of the Delphic oracle, and the strange theological verses attributed to Orpheus. Later tradition, however, has restricted the term 'epic' to ''heroic epic'', as described in this article. Overview Originating before the invention of writing, primary epics, such as those of Homer, were composed by bards who used complex rhetorical and metrical schemes by which they could memorize the epic as received in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero cult, Greek hero Odysseus, king of Homer's Ithaca, Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey lasted for ten additional years, during which time he encountered many perils and all his crew mates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a Suitors of Penelope, group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. The ''Odyssey'' was originally composed in Homeric Greek in around the 8th or 7th century BCE and, by the mid-6th century BCE, had become part of the Greek literary canon. In Classic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and contains 15,693 lines in its most widely accepted version, and was written in dactylic hexameter. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts significant events in the siege's final weeks. In particular, it depicts a fierce quarrel between King Agamemnon and a celebrated warrior, Achilles. It is a central part of the Epic Cycle. The ''Iliad'' is often regarded as the first substantial piece of European literature. The ''Iliad'', and the ''Odyssey'', were likely written down in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects, probably around the late 8th or early 7th century BC. Homer's ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history. Homer's ''Iliad'' centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. The ''Odyssey'' chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy. The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. Homer's epic poems shaped aspects of ancient Greek culture and education, fostering ideals of heroism, glory, and honor. To Plato, Homer was simply the one who ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2009 Suicide Air Raid On Colombo
On February 20, 2009, the Air Tigers, air wing of the Tamil Tigers separatist militia launched a suicide attack against military locations in and around Colombo, Sri Lanka, using two weaponized light aircraft. It is speculated that the raids were intended to mimic the September 11 attacks, where aircraft were used as flying bombs and crashed directly into their targets. The attackers failed to reach their presumed targets and crashed to the ground after being shot down by the Sri Lanka Air Force, although one of the aircraft struck a government building in Colombo, killing two people, and over 50 people in total were injured in both crashes. Background The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers, was a separatist militant organization that was fighting to create an independent Tamil people, Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Between 1983 and 2009, they engaged in a violent conflict with the military of Sri Lanka, which resulted i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Navarangahala
The Navarangahala (''"New Theatre"''), in Colombo, is one of the main national theatres of Sri Lanka. History Built between 1966 and 1969 by the 4 Field Engineer Regiment, SLE as the Royal Primary School Hall, it was specially designed for local drama and music which required open air type auditorium in accordance to Natya Shastra. Funding for the construction and equipment came from the government and donations. Until it was built there were no purpose-built indoor theatres for the local arts, apart from the few open air amphitheatres. The foundation stone for the theatre was laid by the Minister for Education, I. M. R. A. Iriyagolla, on 11 November 1966 and it was officially opened by the Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake on 1 August 1969. Following the amalgamation of Royal Preparatory School with Royal College in December 1977, Navarangahala became part of Royal College. Notable events On 22 May 1972 the House of Representatives of Ceylon met at the Navarangahala to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre
The Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre ( si, නෙළුම් පොකුණ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රඟහල, ''nelum pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa rangahala''; often known as Nelum Pokuna; previously the National Performing Arts Theatre, prior to naming at the opening ceremony after which the President Mahinda Rajapaksa named it after himself) is a performing arts centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The theatre opened on 15 December 2011. Design and features The architecture of the building is inspired by the 12th-century ''Nelum Pokuna'' (lotus pond) in Polonnaruwa. Built by King Parakramabahu the Great, Polonnaruwa's Nelum Pokuna is shaped as a stylised eight-petalled lotus flower. The total estimated cost of the project is LKR 3,080 million. Government of the People's Republic of China provided LKR 2430 million out of the total cost of the building. The building spreads over of floor area. The theatre is equipped with an auditorium with 1,288 seats, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall
The Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), ( si, බණ්ඩාරනායක ජාත්යාන්තර සම්මන්ත්රණ ශාලාව ta, பண்டாரநாயக்க சர்வதேச மாநாட்டு மண்டபம்) is a convention center located in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Built between 1970 and 1973, the convention centre was a gift from the People's Republic of China in memory of Solomon Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, Prime Minister (1956–1959). The construction of the hall was carried out by a joint Sri Lankan and Chinese workforce with a considerable portion of the building materials being imported from China. In 1998 a small Exhibition Centre, the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorial Exhibition Centre, was built on the grounds as a gift from China. The BMICH premises is managed by the S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike National Memorial Foundation (BNMF) which is chaired by the President of Sri Lanka. The B ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |