SRI LANKA

SRI LANKA / ශ්‍රී ලංකා - இலங்கை

Lighthauses.
Devinuwara Lighthouse.
Third stamp in a minisheet of 4, issued on 22.01.1996.
Face value: 2.00 Sri Lankan rupee.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 29 x 40 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 1100.
- Scott No. 1149.
- StampWorld No. 677.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 1317.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 1089.

Devinuwara (Sinhala: දෙවිනුවර) Lighthouse is located on Dondra Head, the southernmost point in Sri Lanka and is Sri Lanka's tallest lighthouse, and also one of the tallest in South East Asia. The name Dondra is a synonym for "Devi-Nuwara" in the local Sinhala language, "Devi" meaning "Gods" and "Nuwara" meaning "City". The 49-meter (161 ft) lighthouse, designed by James Nicholas Douglass, began construction in November 1887 and became operational in March 1890. It is an octagonal tower with balcony and lantern. The rotating lens was removed in 2020 and replaced by a static flashing LED light.

SRI LANKA

SRI LANKA / ශ්‍රී ලංකා - இலங்கை

Lighthouses.
Galle Lighthouse.
Last stamp in a minisheet of 4, issued on 22.01.1996.
Face value: 20 Sri Lankan rupee.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 29 x 40 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 1101.
- Scott No. 1150.
- StampWorld No. 678.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 1318.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 1090.

The Galle Lighthouse (also known as Pointe de Galle Light) is Sri Lanka's oldest light station. The first lighthouse at Galle was built by the British in 1848 from cast-iron plates, imported from England, designed by British architect Alexander Gordon. In July 1936 it was destroyed by fire. The current 26.5-metre-high (87 ft) concrete lighthouse was erected about 100 m (330 ft) from the original site in 1939.

SRI LANKA

SRI LANKA / ශ්‍රී ලංකා - இலங்கை.

Ancient maps of Sri Lanka.
Map of Ceylon Island published by Robert Knox in 1681.
Last stamp in a set of 3, issued on 22.09.2020.
Face value: 15 Sri Lankan rupee.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Print: 300,000 copies.
Size: 41 x 30 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 2323A.
- StampWorld No. 1914.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 2263.

Robert Knox (1641-1720) was an English sea captain in the service of the British East India Company. In January 1658, together with his father, he began a voyage by sea from Persia, and in November of the following year, a storm threw his ship to the shores of present-day Sri Lanka, where the entire crew was captured by the soldiers of the Kandy's king Rajasinghe II, who treated them rather leniently: young Knox managed to settle down and work as a farmer and peddler, and after nineteen years of captivity he was able to escape and take refuge in Arippu, a Dutch fort on the island's northwest coast, from where he was able to return to London. During the trip he wrote his An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, an account of his experiences, which was published in 1681, accompanied by engravings, among which is the map reproduced on the stamp.

SRI LANKA

SRI LANKA / ශ්‍රී ලංකා - இலங்கை.

Ancient Maps of Sri Lanka.
Map of Taprobana (Sri Lanka) by Tommaso Porcacchi (1572).
Second stamp in a set of 3, issued on 22.09.2020.
Face value: 15 Sri Lankan Rupee.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 41 x 30 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 2322A.
- StampWorld No. 1913.

Taprobana (Ancient Greek: Ταπροβανᾶ) was the name by which the island of Sri Lanka was known to the ancient Greeks.

Tommaso Porcacchi (Castiglion Fiorentino, 1530 - Udine, 1576) was an Italian humanist, geographer, bibliophile, polygraph, and scholar. Among his most outstanding works is L'isole più famose del mondo descritte da Thomaso Porcacchi da Castiglione arretino and intagliate da Girolamo Porro padovano con l'aggiunta di molte isole ('The most famous islands in the world described by Thomaso Porcacchi da Castiglione from Arezzo and carved by Girolamo Porro from Padua with the addition of many islands'). It was published in Venice by Simon Galignani and Girolamo Porro in 1576. The map reproduced in the stamp was drawn in 1572.

CEYLON

CEYLON (British colony, now Sri Lanka).

Segiriya Rock and portrait of King George V.
Fifth stamp in a set of 13, issued on 01.02.1938.
Face value: 10 cents of Ceylon rupees.
Printing: Recess.
Size: 38 x 26 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 234Y.
- Scott No. 281.
- StampWorld No. 250.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 389.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 255.

Sigiriya (Sinhalese: සීගිරිය; Tamil: சிகிரியா) is a large rock column 349 m (1,145 ft) high, on top of which are the remains of an ancient citadel. It is located in the north of the Matale district, near the town of Dambulla (Central Province of Sri Lanka). It is popularly known as Sīnhāgiri (the Lion's Rock) since it was accessed through a door in the shape of a huge lion: there King Kashyapa I (477-495) had his new capital built, with a sumptuous palace. Then the place was used as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century. Sirigiya is one of the best preserved examples of ancient urbanism, and in 1982 it was included by UNESCO in the World Heritage list. The rock was discovered as an archaeological site in 1831 by Jonathan Forbes, a major in the British Army.

SRI LANKA

 SRI LANKA / ශ්‍රී ලංකා - இலங்கை.

Ancient Maps of Sri Lanka. 
Map of Ceylon Island (1560-65 A.D.)
First stamp in a set of 3, issued on 22.09.2020.
Face value: 15 Sri Lankan rupee.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Print: 300,000 copies.
Size: 41 x 30 mm.

Catalogs
- StampWorld No. 1912.

The map reproduced on the stamp belongs to the time of the Jaffna Kingdom or Kingdom of Aryachakravarti (1215-1624) and Portuguese domination of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) from 1505 to 1658. Its author was Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594), and was published by Jodocus Hondius in 1609, and its son Henricus in 1630. The map is part of a large collection of rare old cartographic items. The legend reads: Ceilan quæ incolis Tenarisin dicitur.

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. 

SRI LANKA

SRI LANKA / ශ්‍රී ලංකා - இலங்கை.

125th anniversary of the Labugama reservoir and water purification plant.
Stamp issued on 18.01.2011.
Face value: 5 Sri Lankan rupee.
Size: 60 x 30 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 1821.
- StampWorld No. 1406.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 2070.

Labugama Reservoir is located in Western Province of Sri Lanka, in the mountainous area of Udagama Kanda, about 40 km (25 mi) southeast of the city of Colombo, to which it supplies water. It has an elevation of 162 m (532 ft) above sea level. Construction was completed in 1886, and the water purification plant began construction in 1912 and became effective in 1929.

CEYLON

CEYLON (British colony, now Sri Lanka).

Adam's Peak, with the portrait of King George V.
Second stamp in a set of 13, issued in 1938.
Face value: 3 cents of Ceylon rupees.
Printing: Recess.
Printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson and De La Rue, London.
Size: 25 x 38 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 231.
- Scott No. 279.
- StampWorld No. 247.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 387.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 239.

Adam's Peak is a 2,243 m (7,360 ft) high conical mountain located in central Sri Lanka island. Near its top is a 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) rock formation known to Sinhalese as Sri Pada ("holy footprint"), which Buddhist tradition considers the imprint of Buddha's left foot, Hindu tradition that of Hanuman or Shiva, and some Islamic and Christian traditions that of Adam, left when he stepped on Earth for the first time after being expelled from paradise. Marco Polo wrote in his Travels (1298 CE) that Adam's Peak was an important pilgrimage site, but did not mention the footprint in the rock. In 1344 CE, the Arab traveler Ibn Battuta climbed to the top of the mountain, which he called Sarandīb.

SRI LANKA

SRI LANKA.

International Women's Year 1975.
Simplified map.
Stamp issued on 22.12.1975.
Face value: 1.15 Sri Lankan rupees.

Catalogues
- Scott No. 494.
- StampWorld No. 19.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 610.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 466.