As varied as their land, Sri Lankans are a piquantmix of many ethnic and cultural roots Sinhala,Tami, lMoor, Malay,Burgher,forest dwelling aboriginal Veddah.Legend as well as history record that Sri Lanka has always delighted visitorsto it's shore.For countless centuries it's fragrant spices, priceless gems and pearls,legendary beauty, sublime culture andfriendly people captivated pricess,poets,traders,empire builders and admirers.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Vasco Da Gama
Prince Henry, the great explorer who never left home,dide in 1460 the year that Vasco Da Gamawas born.It was Vasco Da Gama who reachedIndia in 1498.Ten years before, bartholamew Diaz had rounded the Cape of God Hope,but have been driven back the threat of a mutiny. At last there was sea rouet to india, and the Portuguese set up colonies in Africa and in India
In the second century A.D., Ptolemy mapped the Nile.In Ptolemy's mapthe Indian ocean is enclosed.With the coming of the Dark Ages, recordsof exploration were practically non- existent.
The Phoenicians were the most remarkable seamen and traders of the ancient world. Natives of Phoenicia,in the Lebanon, they colonised the Mediterranean during the twenty centuries before Christ.The greatest Phoenician exploit was the voyage of Hanno the Cathaginian in about 500 B.C. He set out with a fleet and colonised the north west cost of Africa.
The first explorer we know of is a nameless figure.The ancient Egyptions sailed down the east costof Africa to obtain gold from the Zambezi riverarea.The Necho ii ordered a phoenician fleet under an unknown Egyption Sea Captain to follow the coast of Africa right round until he reached the Maditerranean. Three years went by, and the fleet must have been given up for lost, But then Ships returned through the Mediterranean having sailed 9000 miles.
The wandering desert tribes discovered the waters of the Nile and the fertile ground surrounding it.Soon a great nation grew up on it's banks. The Pharaoh named Necho ii tried to build a canal where the Suez canal now is.He defeated the Assyrians and drove them out of Egypt. Necho also ordered a fleet under an unknown captain to sail around Africa.
Although America had been discovered, there wasstill no way to Asia by sea.Ferdinand Magallan'sgret ambition was to find such a route and, in particuler,to reach the Spice Islands in what is nowIndonesia.Though he died in the attempt in 1521,his expedition proved that the world was round.
Marco Polo's Father and Uncle, merchants of Venice,and travelled across Asia to the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol Emperor who wanted them to come back again with Christian monks to out-argue.his own priests! They could only get two, who deserted them, but in 1271 they left Venice with Marco, Nicolo Polo's son.They walk across Persia, the freezing Pamir plateau,Gobi Desert, the Great Wall of China.They visited Malaya,India, and Ceylon returned to Venice 24 years after they had set out on theirgreat adventure.
Herodotus,the great Greek Historian, was also an explorer.He explored Persia and the Nile in the fifth century B.C. Much of our knowledge of the early explorers is due tohim and to other Greek his torians
Born in 1728,was the son of an Agricultural Labourer.No-one did more than he to open up the Pacific and southern oceans.Though he annexed parts of Austrailia for Great Britain,his work was scientific.He surveyed part of Antarctica.
1kg samba rice, 500ml ghee, 200g onions, 1 stick rampe,a few sprigs of curry leaves, a few cardamoms,1 stick cinnamon,water,salt.
Clean,wash and soak the rice in water. Heat ghee in a vessel, saute onion, rampe, cinnamon, cardamom and curry leaves tillthe onions turn golden brown.
Drain the rice and add to the vessel, sautefor a few minutes,add water.
