The public lecture delivered by the Dr. M.S. Nagaraja Rao at the National Museum Auditorium, Colombo, Sri Lanka is available to download as MP3 or FLV(You can listen to the lecture). The Powerpoint presentation is available as a PDF to download. An image gallery of the lecture is also available.

Hema Goonatilake PhD (Lond) Visiting Professor, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia Published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, New Series, Vol. LIII, 2008 The development of Sinhalese-Lao relations is tied to Sinhalese relations with the broad South-east Asian region, immediately prior to the establishment of the Lao kingdom. It is therefore useful to survey the political and religious situation in the region, with special emphasis on their relations with Sri Lanka.

Raj Somadeva1 and Sudevi Ranasinghe2 1Senior Lecturer, Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, Colombo, 2Researcher, Department of Archaeology, Colombo. Abstract A rescue excavation conducted in a prehistoric shell-midden identified in the littoral area of southern Sri Lanka had revealed a substantial set of information pertaining to the coastal adaptation of the prehistoric communities in Sri Lanka in c. fourth millennium BC. Seven human skeletons were excavated. The faunal remains associated with the prehistoric levels at the site show a wide range of exploitative selection of the prehistoric subsistence pattern in the dry-arid maritime littoral eco zone of the country. The article presents a preliminary account of the discovery.

Call for Papers The 6th National Conference on Buddhist Studies will be held on Saturday 4th – Sunday 5th December 2010. The Conference is organized by the Dept. of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Sri Jayewardenepura University in association with the Buddhist Times Trust and Buddhist Activities Fund.

Hema Goonatilake PhD (Lond) Visiting Professor, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia Published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, New Series, Vol. LIII, 2008. Sri Lanka, till the arrival of the Europeans, has been very possibly the major influence of a high culture in the whole South East Asian region. The earlier Hindu influences which led to such descriptions as “The Indianized States of Southeast Asia’1 are now being increasingly recognised as an over-statement. South Asian influences outside the royal court and among the common people actually occurred largely through Sinhalese contacts (Hall, 1981, p. 22)”.

Hema Goonatilake PhD (Lond) Visiting Professor, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia Introduction The intensive relations between Sri Lanka and Myanmar span over a period of 1000 years beginning with the emergence of the city of Bagan (written by British as Pagan) in the 11th century as the cradle of Burmese culture and civilization. This ancient capital of Myanmar epitomizes one of the world’s greatest feats of building construction – greater than all of Europe’s cathedrals, the construction of which spread over nearly seven centuries whereas Bagan is home to 4,446 monuments built within a period of two and a half centuries, mostly within a period of 150 years. Bagan is a unique city encompassing approximately 40 square km. with a wide variety of religious buildings, some standing higher than 70 metres. Among these are 260 large monuments influenced by Sinhalese.

Rasika Muthucumarana Maritime Archaeologist Maritime Archaeology unit – Central cultural fund – Galle – Sri Lanka Godawaya is a small fishing village, which belongs to the Hambantota district of Southern Sri Lanka. It is situated between Ambalantota and Hambantota near the river mouth of the Walawe River, the fourth-biggest river of the country. This used to be the old river mouth, but with some changes happened in the coastal area and due to the massive sand deposits the river mouth was blocked many years ago. The river is now flowing to the sea from Ambalantota 3 km west to Godawaya. The mouth is blocked by a narrow sand strip, time to time it get cleared by floods or the villagers have to create an artificial outlet at the river mouth to divert the flooding. (Figure 01) The temple on a small rocky mountain near the left bank of the river