Features

The changing faces of Galle Face

Published

3 years ago

2022/10/9

by Ismeth Raheem and Angeline Ondaatjie

Galle Face is Colombo’s most-prized open-aired public space, extending over a mile along the Fort oceanfront in Colombo. Over the course of Sri Lanka’s history, it has been the de facto stage for landmark public gatherings. Most recently over the months of April to July 2022, the Galle Face Green was the centerstage of the People’s Aragalaya, a protest movement that arose from economic hardship in Sri Lanka. During those weeks the protestors renamed it Gotagogama (GGG) and even had a Google marker to prove it. On July 9, 2022, unprecedented crowds from all parts of Sri Lanka gathered in the Galle Face Area breaking attendance records of Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake’s funeral in 1952, the 1953 hartal, and Pope Francis’s holy mass in 2015.

While it seems like it has been iconized by the Aragalaya over just the last few months, Galle Face’s rich history dates back centuries. Prior to the first fortifications that adorn it today (built by the Portuguese in the 16^th century) it was referred to as Mapanne, meaning “large open plain”. Long before it became the open stretch of grassy plain sans trees/plants that we know it as, it was a large marsh land and part of the Colombo Lake (later known as the Beira Lake).

In this vast marshland, there were numerous small streams, ponds, and boulders. This extensive delta was created by numerous branches of the Kelani Ganga, the main river that flows to the sea by the ancient Kelani Temple, and is the third longest in the island. The Portuguese used the flooded areas as a defensive measure against possible attacks from the Kandyan Kingdom. Later the Dutch put their efforts into controlling and channeling the lake by creating a network of connected canals.

On the other hand, the British, who succeeded the Dutch in 1789, spent their efforts in reclaiming much of the lake area, believing that this would alleviate the flooding of Colombo’s low-lying areas. The original open stretch on the Southern side of the Fort (now known as Galle Face Esplanade) somehow gained more land around its periphery. Many of the new buildings that adorn the skyline of Slave Island (which owes its name to the slave tenements confined to a moat-surrounded land mass during the Dutch period) are in this reclaimed area of the Beira Lake.The open “Green” stretch was only seldom used for recreation under the Portuguese and Dutch occupations. This changed during the first decades of the 19^thcentury, when it came into its own as the amusement, exercise, and sports venue that it is used as today.

The Galle Face Burial Grounds

Galle Face hosted the site of the first British burial grounds for over half a century from 1803, until the tombstones were translocated to the General Cemetery at Kanatte in 1877. This land may have been a part of the site that was reclaimed by the Dutch Administration of the East India Company around 1700-1750. [See Map of Colombo, 1750]. The timber palisade enclosing the cemetery and the tombstones are clearly indicated in the views of the Galle Face in the coloured engravings by John Deschamps [1848]. The burials were necessitated by the British army’s heavy military casualties from the wars with the King of Kandy during the administration of Governor North between 1801-1805.

For years, the Galle Face Cemetery was known as the “Padre Bailey’s Godown”, after the Archdeacon Bailey who officiated at the burials. J. P. Lewis’s “Tombstones and Monuments of Ceylon”, records the inscriptions on the headstones.

The open stretch of land outside the South Gate of the Colombo Fort was the site of military executions. In close proximity, at the northern end of the current esplanade, featured a guardhouse and a large block of wood: a “whipping post” where punishments were administered by public flogging.

The Esplanade and the Recreation Galle Face Green

In 1853, the sea-front walk of the Galle Face was constructed by Governor Henry Ward. An inscription on the pillar midway through the walk still stands; it reads “Galle Face Walk completed in 1856 and recommended to his successors in the interest of the Ladies and Children of Colombo”.

Henry Charles, the author of “Ceylon and the Cingalese” compared Galle Face Green to Hyde Park in London. “At half past five the “Galle Face, or the Hyde Park of Colombo, begins to wear an animated appearance, there being many vehicles and horses in motion. Every description of conveyance to be seen driving around the Galle Face, from the Long Acre Built carriages of the Governor, the dashing phaeton of the wealthy merchant, the unassuming gig, the country- built palanquin and the humble bandy.”

The Galle Face Esplanade by John Deschamps shows the view from the ramparts of the Fort of Colombo facing the Galle Face Green. In the foreground are two Royal Military officers enjoying the scene. The Beira Lake, which was used for aquatic sports, the Round Pavilion, and Grand Stand of the Race Course are also in the background. The large bungalow towards the right of their view is the building that was later replaced by the Galle Face Hotel. The country house in the distant far right is the home of Governor Maitland, which later became the Mount Lavinia Hotel. The Race Bungalow, as the Grand Stand was later called, became The Colombo Club and still exists within the premises of the Taj Hotel.

In 1829, Sir Edward Barnes introduced horse racing at Galle Face after leveling a mile and a quarter of the grounds. While the upper floor of the conical-roofed race stand had the best views of the horse racing, it was also the venue for grand balls. The verandahs of the ball room were used for card playing, darts, and other favorite past times. By the 1830s, cricket and a whole host of Victorian sports and leisure activities were introduced and enjoyed by both the British and middle class locals, making it the most popular space in Colombo.

The Galle Face Railway Line Controversy (1873-75)

The railway line from Fort to the coast was originally planned to cut through the Galle Face Green. The Railway authorities set out an intended rail track from Maradana (the first railway station in Ceylon), Colombo Fort to Moratuwa cutting across Galle Face created a major controversy which involved the public, the legislative council, and the Governor of Ceylon.

The Times of Ceylon of Dec 4, 1873 stated – It is intended “to carry a line from a station to be constructed in the vacant plot near the Lotus Pond road, where passengers and goods from the Fort may be loaded, and where trains may run in connection with the railway station at Maradana; from the Fort Station, the line will diverge at the Police Station on the Galle Face, and skirt the sea-beach as far as Mount Lavinia”.

Public discontent at the impending desecration of the Galle Face walk soon became articulate – but the official trace by the railway planners did not appear to admit any change. On October 14, 1874, the Governor gave another version where he stated, “Inconvenience has been apprehended from trains running so near the road of the Galle Face, but care shall be taken that the train shall not run during evening”.

Some of the members of the Council were still discontent and by January 6, 1875 the tender notices for the construction of the Southern Line were published in the public press. The debate continued. The Government was prominently reminded of Sir Henry Ward’s recommendation of Galle Face to the Women and Children of Colombo by the Council and the public refused to be reconciled of this infringement. Yet the notices calling for tenders did not weaken the effort to save the Galle Face Walk.

The Council reminded the Governor of Galle Face’s dedication to the public and refused that it be desecrated and rendered unsafe by the “snorting and rattling and smoking vapours of the railway train”. The Governor responded by accepting the protest, since they represented the ladies of Colombo who were afraid that they will be deprived of their drive, and stated “I feel there is a good deal in this objection”.

On March 13, 1875, the Government took serious notice of the protests and assured the public that an alternate route will be used, which prompted the Observer in proclaiming in its issue of March 15, 1975: “GALLE FACE SAVED.”

Subsequently, the railway line from Fort as we see it today is connected to Compani Vidiya via an underground tunnel to the coast at Kollupitiya, honouring the decision to leave Galle Face Green untouched.The public recreation space and sacredness of Galle Face was saved, and allowed Sri Lankans to witness the historic mass independence rally on February 4, 1948. Radio Ceylon broadcasts were heard as far as Mount Everest, legendary school cricket matches, and most recently, the peaceful protests of the Aragalaya were also on Galle Face. The current legislators should learn their history and maintain the freedom and sanctity of this earth lung that is the only true free space in Colombo.

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Features

Recruiting academics to state universities – beset by archaic selection processes?

Published

20 hours ago

2026/03/3

Thilina Walpola

by Kaushalya Perera

Time has, by and large, stood still in the business of academic staff recruitment to state universities. Qualifications have proliferated and evolved to be more interdisciplinary, but our selection processes and evaluation criteria are unchanged since at least the late 1990s. But before I delve into the problems, I will describe the existing processes and schemes of recruitment. The discussion is limited to UGC-governed state universities (and does not include recruitment to medical and engineering sectors) though the problems may be relevant to other higher education institutions (HEIs).

How recruitment happens currently in SL state universities

Academic ranks in Sri Lankan state universities can be divided into three tiers (subdivisions are not discussed).

* Lecturer (Probationary)

– recruited with a four-year undergraduate degree. A tiny step higher is the Lecturer (Unconfirmed), recruited with a postgraduate degree but no teaching experience.

* A Senior Lecturer can be recruited with certain postgraduate qualifications and some number of years of teaching and research.

* Above this is the professor (of four types), which can be left out of this discussion since only one of those (Chair Professor) is by application.

State universities cannot hire permanent academic staff as and when they wish. Prior to advertising a vacancy, approval to recruit is obtained through a mind-numbing and time-consuming process (months!) ending at the Department of Management Services. The call for applications must list all ranks up to Senior Lecturer. All eligible candidates for Probationary to Senior Lecturer are interviewed, e.g., if a Department wants someone with a doctoral degree, they must still advertise for and interview candidates for all ranks, not only candidates with a doctoral degree. In the evaluation criteria, the first degree is more important than the doctoral degree (more on this strange phenomenon later). All of this is only possible when universities are not under a ‘hiring freeze’, which governments declare regularly and generally lasts several years.

Problem type 1

– Archaic processes and evaluation criteria

Twenty-five years ago, as a probationary lecturer with a first degree, I was a typical hire. We would be recruited, work some years and obtain postgraduate degrees (ideally using the privilege of paid study leave to attend a reputed university in the first world). State universities are primarily undergraduate teaching spaces, and when doctoral degrees were scarce, hiring probationary lecturers may have been a practical solution. The path to a higher degree was through the academic job. Now, due to availability of candidates with postgraduate qualifications and the problems of retaining academics who find foreign postgraduate opportunities, preference for candidates applying with a postgraduate qualification is growing. The evaluation scheme, however, prioritises the first degree over the candidate’s postgraduate education. Were I to apply to a Faculty of Education, despite a PhD on language teaching and research in education, I may not even be interviewed since my undergraduate degree is not in education. The ‘first degree first’ phenomenon shows that universities essentially ignore the intellectual development of a person beyond their early twenties. It also ignores the breadth of disciplines and their overlap with other fields.

This can be helped (not solved) by a simple fix, which can also reduce brain drain: give precedence to the doctoral degree in the required field, regardless of the candidate’s first degree, effected by a UGC circular. The suggestion is not fool-proof. It is a first step, and offered with the understanding that any selection process, however well the evaluation criteria are articulated, will be beset by multiple issues, including that of bias. Like other Sri Lankan institutions, universities, too, have tribal tendencies, surfacing in the form of a preference for one’s own alumni. Nevertheless, there are other problems that are, arguably, more pressing as I discuss next. In relation to the evaluation criteria, a problem is the narrow interpretation of any regulation, e.g., deciding the degree’s suitability based on the title rather than considering courses in the transcript. Despite rhetoric promoting internationalising and inter-disciplinarity, decision-making administrative and academic bodies have very literal expectations of candidates’ qualifications, e.g., a candidate with knowledge of digital literacy should show this through the title of the degree!

Problem type 2 – The mess of badly regulated higher education

A direct consequence of the contemporary expansion of higher education is a large number of applicants with myriad qualifications. The diversity of degree programmes cited makes the responsibility of selecting a suitable candidate for the job a challenging but very important one. After all, the job is for life – it is very difficult to fire a permanent employer in the state sector.

Widely varying undergraduate degree programmes.

At present, Sri Lankan undergraduates bring qualifications (at times more than one) from multiple types of higher education institutions: a degree from a UGC-affiliated state university, a state university external to the UGC, a state institution that is not a university, a foreign university, or a private HEI aka ‘private university’. It could be a degree received by attending on-site, in Sri Lanka or abroad. It could be from a private HEI’s affiliated foreign university or an external degree from a state university or an online only degree from a private HEI that is ‘UGC-approved’ or ‘Ministry of Education approved’, i.e., never studied in a university setting. Needless to say, the diversity (and their differences in quality) are dizzying. Unfortunately, under the evaluation scheme all degrees ‘recognised’ by the UGC are assigned the same marks. The same goes for the candidates’ merits or distinctions, first classes, etc., regardless of how difficult or easy the degree programme may be and even when capabilities, exposure, input, etc are obviously different.

Similar issues are faced when we consider postgraduate qualifications, though to a lesser degree. In my discipline(s), at least, a postgraduate degree obtained on-site from a first-world university is preferable to one from a local university (which usually have weekend or evening classes similar to part-time study) or online from a foreign university. Elitist this may be, but even the best local postgraduate degrees cannot provide the experience and intellectual growth gained by being in a university that gives you access to six million books and teaching and supervision by internationally-recognised scholars. Unfortunately, in the evaluation schemes for recruitment, the worst postgraduate qualification you know of will receive the same marks as one from NUS, Harvard or Leiden.

The problem is clear but what about a solution?

Recruitment to state universities needs to change to meet contemporary needs. We need evaluation criteria that allows us to get rid of the dross as well as a more sophisticated institutional understanding of using them. Recruitment is key if we want our institutions (and our country) to progress. I reiterate here the recommendations proposed in ‘Considerations for Higher Education Reform’ circulated previously by Kuppi Collective:

* Change bond regulations to be more just, in order to retain better qualified academics.

* Update the schemes of recruitment to reflect present-day realities of inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary training in order to recruit suitably qualified candidates.

* Ensure recruitment processes are made transparent by university administrations.

Kaushalya Perera is a senior lecturer at the University of Colombo.

(Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall that parodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchies.)

Features

Talento … oozing with talent

Published

20 hours ago

2026/03/3

Thilina Walpola

Talento: Gained recognition as a leading wedding and dance band

This week, too, the spotlight is on an outfit that has gained popularity, mainly through social media.

Last week we had MISTER Band in our scene, and on 10th February, Yellow Beatz – both social media favourites.

Talento is a seven-piece band that plays all types of music, from the ‘60s to the modern tracks of today.

The band has reached many heights, since its inception in 2012, and has gained recognition as a leading wedding and dance band in the scene here.

The members that makeup the outfit have a solid musical background, which comes through years of hard work and dedication

Their portfolio of music contains a mix of both western and eastern songs and are carefully selected, they say, to match the requirements of the intended audience, occasion, or event.

Although the baila is a specialty, which is inherent to this group, that originates from Moratuwa, their repertoire is made up of a vast collection of love, classic, oldies and modern-day hits.

The musicians, who make up Talento, are:

Prabuddha Geetharuchi:

Geilee Fonseka: Dynamic and charismatic vocalist

Prabuddha Geetharuchi: The main man behind the band Talento

(Vocalist/ Frontman). He is an avid music enthusiast and was mentored by a lot of famous musicians, and trainers, since he was a child. Growing up with them influenced him to take on western songs, as well as other music styles. A Peterite, he is the main man behind the band Talento and is a versatile singer/entertainer who never fails to get the crowd going.

Geilee Fonseka (Vocals):

A dynamic and charismatic vocalist whose vibrant stage presence, and powerful voice, bring a fresh spark to every performance. Young, energetic, and musically refined, she is an artiste who effortlessly blends passion with precision – captivating audiences from the very first note. Blessed with an immense vocal range, Geilee is a truly versatile singer, confidently delivering Western and Eastern music across multiple languages and genres.

Chandana Perera (Drummer):

His expertise and exceptional skills have earned him recognition as one of the finest acoustic drummers in Sri Lanka. With over 40 tours under his belt, Chandana has demonstrated his dedication and passion for music, embodying the essential role of a drummer as the heartbeat of any band.

Harsha Soysa:

(Bassist/Vocalist). He a chorister of the western choir of St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, who began his musical education under famous voice trainers, as well as bass guitar trainers in Sri Lanka. He has also performed at events overseas. He acts as the second singer of the band

Udara Jayakody:

(Keyboardist). He is also a qualified pianist, adding technical flavour to Talento’s music. His singing and harmonising skills are an extra asset to the band. From his childhood he has been a part of a number of orchestras as a pianist. He has also previously performed with several famous western bands.

Aruna Madushanka:

(Saxophonist). His proficiciency in playing various instruments, including the saxophone, soprano saxophone, and western flute, showcases his versatility as a musician, and his musical repertoire is further enhanced by his remarkable singing ability.

Prashan Pramuditha:

(Lead guitar). He has the ability to play different styles, both oriental and western music, and he also creates unique tones and patterns with the guitar..

Features

Special milestone for JJ Twins

Published

20 hours ago

2026/03/3

Thilina Walpola

Twin brothers Julian and Jason Prins

The JJ Twins, the Sri Lankan musical duo, performing in the Maldives, and known for blending R&B, Hip Hop, and Sri Lankan rhythms, thereby creating a unique sound, have come out with a brand-new single ‘Me Mawathe.’

In fact, it’s a very special milestone for the twin brothers, Julian and Jason Prins, as ‘Me Mawathe’ is their first ever Sinhala song!

‘Me Mawathe’ showcases a fresh new sound, while staying true to the signature harmony and emotion that their fans love.

This heartfelt track captures the beauty of love, journey, and connection, brought to life through powerful vocals and captivating melodies.

It marks an exciting new chapter for the JJ Twins as they expand their musical journey and connect with audiences in a whole new way.

Their recent album, ‘CONCLUDED,’ explores themes of love, heartbreak, and healing, and include hits like ‘Can’t Get You Off My Mind’ and ‘You Left Me Here to Die’ which showcase their emotional intensity.

Readers could stay connected and follow JJ Twins on social media for exclusive updates, behind-the-scenes moments, and upcoming releases:

Instagram: http://instagram.com/jjtwinsofficial

TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@jjtwinsmusic

Facebook: http://facebook.com/jjtwinssingers

YouTube: http://youtube.com/jjtwins