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Home / News / SAHARA Highlights: Sri Lanka
Something to celebrate: the return of the SAH study tours. The popular series was paused at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first in the long-awaited “comeback” of the program will be an outstanding tour of Sri Lanka. Read more about the itinerary and details at sah.org/tour-sri-lanka .
Many of the sites featured here will be included in the upcoming tour. Sri Lanka is quite well represented in the SAHARA collections, and we look forward to many more contributions from tour attendees. T hank you, as always, to our many travelers and contributors.
1. Kaludiya Pokuna Monastery, Mihintale, Sri Lanka, 2nd C BCE – 6th C CE. The monastery complex includes cave hermitages and temple structures constructed upon and into the rock features of the landscape. Photograph by Sandy Isenstadt, 2018.
2. Geoffrey Bawa and Anura Ratnavibushana, State Mortgage Bank/Mahweli Headquarters, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1976-78. Photograph by Anoma Pieris, 1993.
3. Shigeru Ban, Post-Tsunami Housing, Tissamaharama, Sri Lanka, 2007. Photograph by Rixt Woudstra, 2016.
4. Devendra Mulachariya, King’s Audience Hall, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 1783. Photograph by Anoma Pieris, 2010.
5. Kuttam Pokuna (Twin Bathing Pools), Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, 5th C BCE – 11th C CE. Considered a hydrological engineering feat, the twin bathing/washing pools are one of the finest examples of such pools in Sri Lanka. While practical in their purpose, the pools were designed within a sacred and religious landscape informed by Buddhist symbology and design principles of the time. Photograph by Sandy Isenstadt, 2018.
6. Geoffrey Bawa, Lunuganga, Bentota, Sri Lanka, 1948. Photograph by Mark Hinchman, 2015.
7. Bevis Bawa, Brief Estate Garden, Bentota, Sri Lanka, 1929. Photograph by Mark Hinchman, 2015.
8. Isurumuniya, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, ca 3rd C BCE – 5th C CE with later restorations. This detail shows the man and horse bas relief in the natural granite. Photograph by Sandy Isenstadt, 2018.
9. Street Scene, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photograph by Gerald Moorhead, 1997.
10. Narasimha Rao, Jaffna Public Library, Jaffna, Sri Lanka, 1933-34, destroyed 1981, restored 2001-03. Photograph by Mayuri Paranthahan, 2022.
11. Abayagiri Monastery Complex, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, 1st C BCE – 16th C CE. View of the Abayagiri stupa. Photograph by Sandy Isenstadt, 2018.
SAHARA is a digital image archive developed by the Society of Architectural Historians in collaboration with JSTOR/ITHAKA and funded by the Mellon Foundation. Monthly selections presented by SAHARA Co-Editors Jacqueline Spafford and Jeannine Keefer. Join SAH to access nearly 200,000 images of the built environment for your research and teaching.
SAH thanks the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the Alphawood Foundation for their operating support.
Founded in 1940, the Society of Architectural Historians is an international nonprofit membership organization that promotes the study, interpretation and conservation of architecture, design, landscapes and urbanism worldwide.
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