List of Endemic birds Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is the world famous bird living place which had recorded 427 species, 250 species are resident and 26 species are endemic to the island. Most of endemic birds are living in the wet zone at sinharaja forest which is published as world heritage. List of the endemic birds is given bellow.

	English Name	Scientific Name	SinhalaName
1	Ceylon Junglefowl	Gallus lafayettii (Phasianidae)	Wali Kukula
2	Ceylon Spurfowl	Galloperdix bicalcarata (Phasianidae)	Lanka Haban Kukula
3	Layard's Parakeet	Psittacula calthorpae (Psittacidae)	-
4	Green-billed Coucal	Centropus chlororhynchos (Cuculidae)	-
5	Sri Lanka Woodpigeon	Columba torringtoni (Columbidae)	Mailagoya
6	Sri Lankan Hanging Parrot	Loriculus beryllinus (Psittacidae)	Lanka Giramalitta
7	Chestnut-backed Owlet	Glaucidium castanonotum (Strigidae)	-
8	Red-faced Malkoha	Phaenicophaeus pyrrhocephalus (Cuculidae)	Wataratu Malkoha
9	Sri Lankan Gray Hornbill	Ocyceros gingalensis (Bucerotidae)	Kendetta
10	Sri Lankan Bush Warbler	Elaphrornis palliseri (Sylviidae)	-
11	Yellow-eared Bulbul	Pycnonotus penicillatus (Pycnonotidae)	Oluwa Rathu Kottoruwa
12	Sri Lanka Blue Magpie	Urocissa ornata (Corvidae)	-
13	Ashy-headed Laughing-thrush	Garrulax cinereifrons (Timaliidae)	-
14	Orange-billed Babbler	Turdoides rufescens (Timaliidae)	Ratu Demalichcha
15	Sri Lanka White-eye	Zosterops ceylonensis (Zosteropidae)	Lanka Sithasiya
16	Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush	Myophonus blighi (Turdidae)	-
17	Sri Lanka Myna	Gracula ptilogenys (Sturnidae)	Lanka Salalihiniya
18	White-faced Starling	Sturnus albofrenatus (Sturnidae)	-
19	Spot-winged Thrush	Zoothera spiloptera (Turdidae)	Lanka Thithpiya Thirasikaya
20	Dull Verditer Flycatcher	Eumyias sordidus (Muscicapidae)	-
21	Legge's Flower pecker	Dicaeum vincens (Dicaeidae)	-
22	The Black-capped Bulbul	Pycnontus melanicterus	Hisakalu Kondaya

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History of the Buddhist flag

Buddhist Flag

Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country. Majority of peoples in Sri Lanka are Buddhists. Current flag of the Buddhism created in 1885 CE. Buddhism was collapsed in 18^th century due to various impacts of the British missionaries.    Therefore Sinhala leaders built a society for protect Buddhism and provides leadership for battle to gain independence. This society appointed a committee for creates a flag for Buddhism; in that time as a religion Buddhism had not flag. Committee members was,

1. Ven. Migettuwaththe Gunananda thero
2. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala thero
3. Don Karolis hewavitharana
4. P.D. Damma Gunawardene
5. Charls de Silva
6. Peetar Abru
7. N.S. Fanando
8. Karolis pujitha Gunawardene

Structure of the flag was designed by Karolis Pojitha Jayawardena and it was accepted by the committee. This was flag was design according to colors circle of rays of Buddha.   Flag had five colors. Those are Blue, yellow, red, white and orange. Flag was published in newspaper named “Sarasavi Sandha Rasa” in order to exhibit to public. First Buddhist flag was used in 17^th April, 1885 Vesak Poya day. And it was hoisted by Ven. Migettuwaththe Gunananda.  In the 1950 this flag also use as flag for the Buddhism after approved by the World Buddhist Associations Meeting conduced in Colombo.

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National symbols of Sri Lanka

Various nations are living in world and they speak various languages and they believe various religions. Also their lifestyles, clothes, customs, foods vary from one nation to one, but all countries use national symbols to shown their national and cultural uniqueness. As well as several national symbols can be identified in Sri Lanka

• National flag
• National Song
• National logo
• National bird
• National Flower
• National Cloth
• National Sport
• National tree

Some countries use these all symbols and most of countries use only several symbols. But Sri Lanka use those all symbols.

National flag of the Sri Lanka

National flag is common this in every country. Usage of the flag has lot of history. According to historical fact, first map in the world created in chain year before1122 CE.  First evident for using flag in Sri Lanka is one of the drawing about arrival of the Vijaya to Sri Lanka in the Sanchi Sthupa india. Current flad of the Sri Lanka created base on the flag of the final king, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe.   Background of this flag was red color and it consists with yellow color border. This flag acquired by British and it was deposited in the write hall church. In the 1908 that flag was found in the England. Sri Lanka acquired independence in 04^th February 1948. After that first prime Minister Mr. DS Senanayeke appointed a committee in order to design flog for Sri Lanka. Committee members was,

• S.W.R.D Bandaranayake (presendent of the Committee)
• Prof. Senarath Paranavithana (Secretory of the committee)
• Mr. T.B.Jaya
• Mr. G.G. Ponnambalam
• Mr. J.R.Jayewardene
• Mr. Lalith Rajapaksha
• Mr. Jorn Kothalawala

Flag was rebuilt by Mr. J.A.D. Perera and S.J. Charlis according to the guidelines of the committee.

Elements of National flag Sri Lanka

Background of the flag is red color and consists with a lion with a sword and there are four Boo leafs corner on the flog. Left site on the lion there are have two lines with orange and green colors. Orange colored line represents Tamil peoples and green colored line represents the Muslim peoples. Lion who with a sword represents arrogant of the nation and four leafs symbolize the righteous of peoples. Committee decided some standards for National flag, length of the flag should be two times of width of the flag.  They also decided the size of the symbols in the flag.

        

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Sigiriya Rock Fortress

Sigiriya in Google map


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Sigiriya is a one of the famous and most attractive place in Sri Lanka. Sigiriya means lion’s rock. Hight of the rock is around 200 meters.  According to the history of Sri Lanka this rock used as a kingdom in Sri Lanka by king Kashyapa in 5^th century.  This rock is one of the UNESCO heritages in Sri Lanka. Sigiriya consists with all features in the kingdom such as flower gardens, lakes, caves etc. According to the Mahawansha (main Chronicle of Sri Lanka) king kashyapa built his kingdom in Sigiriya to protect from his brother king Mihidu.  But legends says that king Kashyapa  subsided during the war between his brother. Sigiriya provides evident for the great technologies in ancient Sri Lanka.  Several ponds are located in the top of the Sigiriya. Water for this water gardens come from the underground pipes system. This system is also active in rain season. 

Drawings of Maidens

Most of the people climb Sigiriya in order to watch these drawings. Those are very beautiful. Most of the peoples believes those drawings shows the ladies who was gone for warship the Buddha. But some peoples give various interpretations for these paintings. They says those paintings describes Angeles. According to the legends and references there was 500 paintings in Sigiriya, but today 22 drawings only exists.

The mirror wall

The mirror wall is a face of the rock polished as the mirror. This is another example for great technique in ancient Sri Lanka. In this wall peoples who visit Sigiriya wrote thousands of poems to describe their experience. Those are describing the beauty of the drawings. These poems wrote in ancient language in Sri Lanka.   

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Sri Lanka Economic between 1970 and 1977 years

Economic policies which followed in the Sri Lanka in between 1970 -1977 and after the 1977 years are totally different. Before 1977, Economic of Sri Lanka followed internal oriented economic policies, such as limitation of exports and imports, limitation of the foreign exchange currency. In these time most of the Economic policies of Sri Lanka tried to build a national economic without any interfere of other countries. Follow mentioned some characteristics of the economy in that time.

• Restricted for the import, in order to achieve these policy makers conducted huge amount of custom duties.
• Economic polies built policies buildup for develop import substitution industries inside the Sri Lanka. Government gave   assistance for these industries.
• Strong rules for foreign currency control are conducted by policy makers.  Government conducted foreign currency exchange rates. Government did not allow deciding it by market operations. Therefore in this period Sri Lanka has an over valuated exchange rate.
• Capital account and current account were closeted. Thereby peoples couldn’t exchange rupees in to foreign currencies even for use transactions of current account.
• Government controlled prices of the economy. Therefore open market mechanism was interrupted. Involvement of government for the market was high and main industries conducted by government.

In the 1977, government changed and new president Mr. J.R. Jayawardene decided to change economic policies. He opened the market for private section. Foreign policies were totally changed. Government followed liberal policies Instead of the government involvement for all element of the economy. Government allowed and promoted investment in private section. After the 1977, policy makers follow more external oriented policies. Some characterizes of the Economic in these years, shown below.

• Liberalization of the economy
• Decrease rules related import and exports
• Cancel the Multiple exchange rates and official exchange rates. Then, established the floating exchange rates decided according to demand and supply in exchange currency market.
• Foreign investments were increased in Sri Lankan Economy.
• Prices of the internal market mainly decided by market demand and supply, but prices of some goods and services still control by government authorities. (Bus fees, petroleum etc.)
• Industries developed armed to foreign market

     

  

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