SRI LANKA

SRI LANKA / ශ්‍රී ලංකා - இலங்கை.

150th Anniversary of Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, 1845-1995.
1378 map based on Ptolemy's map of the island of Toprobana, 150 AD, and Society Arms.
Stamp issued on 17.05.1995.
Face value: 1 Sri Lankan rupee.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 30 x 41 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 1084.
- Scott No. 1128.
- StampWorld No. 661.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 1300.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 1068.

The Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL), based in Colombo, is one of the oldest learned societies in the country. It was established on February 7, 1845, paralleling the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, to further oriental research as the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1977 establishes his current name. The Society played a major role in the establishment of national institutions including the Colombo National Museum, Department of Archaeology, Department of National Archives, Department of Meteorology, Department of Statistics, the University of Ceylon, Historical Manuscripts Commission and the Sinhalese Dictionary. It pioneered the studies on the Veddas (the aborigines of Sri Lanka), an English translation of the Mahavamsa (the Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka), study of the etymology of the Sinhala language, research and translation of the Dutch Archives, Maldivian studies, toponymy of Sri Lanka and translations of Pali Buddhist commentaries into Sinhala.

The map depicted on the stamp is a version dated 1378 of a 2nd century Ptolemy’s map of Taprobana, an island in the Indian Ocean that supposedly corresponds to present-day Sri Lanka.