Virtual Views of Ten Sri Lankan Buildings

 

Sysco LABS building as featured in my previous blog post “Diverse Views of Sri Lanka”.

I love buildings, so I decided to write a blog post embedding virtual views of Sri Lankan buildings from Google Street View. This is a personal selection that I made. I feature the most buildings from Colombo as that’s my hometown. I also include some structures which are not traditional buildings like lighthouses and clock towers. You can explore the areas in the Google Street View embedded sections. There is also a “View on Google Maps” button enabling you to explore it in a larger size in another window. This is also useful if the embedded content does not load.

This is Independence Memorial Hall in Independence Square. It’s an important symbol of Sri Lanka’s independence from colonialism.

Here’s the Dutch Hospital Shopping Precinct. One of the places seen is the Java Lounge. I enjoyed having something sweet there in 2017.

Here’s the Christian church Christ Church, Galle Face. It’s in the centre. It’s nice to see palm trees on its property. Skyscrapers around it offer a nice contrast of traditional and modern architecture.

A modern building by SLTMobitel.

The cool Sysco LABS building. I like its use of blue and palm trees at the front.

We’re now moving far away to the Point Pedro Lighthouse in the North.

In the same region, we’re looking at the Jaffna Post Office. I like its colourful look.

This is the iconic Galle Fort Clock Tower.

This is the edge of the Kandy City Centre, a 21st century shopping complex in Kandy that’s both modern and influenced by traditional Kandyan architecture.  

We’re now moving to another shopping complex, this time the Colombo City Centre. These kinds of modern buildings are my favourite type of architecture. It’s awesome that it says “I Love CMB” at the front as I love Colombo.

I hope you enjoyed the selection of Sri Lankan buildings featured. I tried to feature a mix of both modern and traditional architecture throughout Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka at 75

Today, the Fourth of February 2023 marks 75 years of Sri Lanka’s independence from Britain. Unfortunately, it’s so tragic that Sri Lanka is in one of its darkest periods right now, going through a severe economic crisis. I wish Sri Lanka was in a much better place without all the current and long-term problems that predated the crisis. I decided to give a short reflection on this anniversary of Sri Lanka’s independence. My view is that the corrupt politicians may be able to steal Sri Lanka’s money & resources and use its people, but they cannot take away the meaning and importance of the country, including Sri Lanka’s Independence Day. We Sri Lankans must not let them do that.

Sri Lanka’s Independence Day represents breaking free from colonialism which the country had suffered greatly from. Though the British became the first colonial power to colonise the whole island in 1815, Sri Lanka had been colonised by the Dutch & Portuguese prior to the British having experienced a total of almost 400 years of colonialism. This day is also a day to enjoy and celebrate Sri Lanka. 75 years of independence is a landmark anniversary for Sri Lanka. Sri Lankans of all generations can look back to positive memories and experiences of theirs in Sri Lanka covering 1948 to the present day. This can include beautiful Sri Lankan scenery you’ve seen, trips taken with family and/or friends, great Sri Lankan days of yours and much more.

A positive aspect of Sri Lanka’s independence movement is that it was achieved peacefully. That gives us hope of what we can achieve with sensible movements for change in Sri Lanka. May we gain wisdom to take Sri Lanka forward. We must learn from our wrongdoings, failures and mistakes. Let’s make the next 75 years much better than the previous 75 years. We need to do this for our future generations. We can make Sri Lanka clean, transform our bad politics into something good, remove discrimination, have a unified Sri Lankan identity, diversify our exports, attract needed foreign direct investments (FDI), build a stable economy and more. Happy Sri Lankan Independence Day!