CULTURAL SYMBOLS OF SRILANKA 🇱🇰☸️🐓🪔

"CULTURAL SYMBOLS OF SRILANKA 🇱🇰☸️🐓"

Culture is a mosaic of traditions, beliefs, and customs that shape the identity of societies around the world. Within this rich tapestry, cultural symbols stand as emblems of heritage, values, and shared experiences. These symbols serve as powerful means of communication, fostering a sense of belonging and understanding among people. In this article, we explore the significance of cultural symbols, delving into examples from different parts of the world and understanding their roles in promoting unity and diversity.

 Below are the cultural symbols of Sri Lanka....

NATIONAL FLAG 🇱🇰

The National Flag of Sri Lanka represents the country and her heritage as a rallying device that integrates the minority races with the majority race.

The flag is an improvisation of the civil standard of the last king of Sri Lanka, Sri Wickrama Rajasingha.

The civil standard had a passant royal lion with a sword in it's right fore paw at the center, and a bo-leaf on each of the four corners on a plain border.

When Sri Lanka gained her independence from Great Britain on February 4, 1948, it was the lion flag of the last king of Sri Lanka that was hoisted.

The first Prime Minister of independent Sri Lanka, D.S.Senanayake, appointed a committee to advice the government on the design of a new national flag. The design approved by the committee in February 1950 retained the symbol of the lion with the sword and the bo-leaves from the civil standard of the last king of Sri Lanka, with the inclusion of two vertical stripes green and orange in colour.

* The significance of each symbol of the national flag is as follows:

* The lion in the flag represents the Sinhala race.

* The sword of the lion represents the sovereignty of the country.

* Curly hair on the lion's head indicates religious observance, wisdom and meditation.

* The beard denotes purity of words.

* The handle of the sword highlights the elements of water, fire, air and earth.

* The nose indicates intelligence.

* two front paws purport to purity in handling wealth.

* The vertical stripe of orange represents the minority Tamil race and the green vertical stripe the minority Muslim race.

* The border round the flag, which is yellow in colour, represents other minor races.

* The bo-leaves at the four corners of the flag represent Buddhism and it's influence on the nation. They also stand for the four virtues - Kindness, Friendliness, Happiness and Equanimity.

* The maroon coloured portion of the flag manifests the other minor religions.

NATIONAL FLOWER 💜

The Water Lily is a beautiful flower which is usually violet-blue in color with reddish edges. The plant has been used since ancient times to enhance the beauty of ponds. Some varieties have white, purple, mauve, or fuchsia-colored flowers. Water Lily is native to southern and eastern parts of Asia.

The beautiful Nil Manel or blue water lily, was declared as the national flower of Sri Lanka in 1986. Again in 2016, the national flower was officially announced as the Water Lily, more commonly known as the Manel flower, and not limited to the Nil Manel. According to Buddhist legends, this flower was one of the 108 auspicious signs found on Prince Siddhartha’s footprint. It is said that when Lord Buddha died, lotus flowers blossomed everywhere that he had walked in his lifetime.

NATIONAL TREE ☘️

Scientific name : Mesua ferrea

Na Tree was decided as the National Tree of Sri Lanka on February 26, 1986, because this tree is most closely related to the Sri Lankan people socially and habitually for thousands of years. This tree has special value for the people of Sri Lanka. This is closely related to the Sri Lankan people in some centuries before who did not use it a little like an ancient Aryuveda medicinal plant, wooden buildings in ancient temples and bridges.

The flowers are among the parts of worship in religious rituals and adorn the national park with the beauty of trees and flowers. In Indonesia alone, especially in Java, the Na Tree, known as the Nagasari tree, has little benefit in both its wood and fruit and flowers. Some ethnic groups believe it is a repellent tree.

This tree which is a rare plant in Sri Lanka is one of the fortified species because of its connection with national identity and Sri Lanka’s strong commitment to preserving the environment.

The flowers are white, fragrant, and are used as herbal ingredients. While the wood is the hardest and longest so that it is not used little for temples, bridges and so on in the past.

The shape of the leaves varies, from thin to thick, measuring 1 × 5 cm to 5 × 18 cm, but often 3 × 10 cm. The leaves are narrow, elongated, oval, long and pointed round. Young leaves at the top are pink and turn green if they are old. The combination that creates the Na tree looks beautiful.

Buah Na is an oval capsule containing 1-3 seeds. The fruit and seeds of Na contain 76% oil and have a high value because they can be used as medicine.

Na trees can be up to 30 meters high and 70 cm in diameter. The inner skin is dark brown. The next coat is filamentous reddish brown and publishes clear color sap. The brown wood is pseudo-brown in pink. The hardwood is red, hardest, solid and thick — the smallest branch, round and hard to see.

NATIONAL BIRD 🐓

The Sri Lankan Jungle fowl (Gallus lafeyetii) was first described in 1831 by Lesson and is a member of the family Gallus, the same family as the domestic chicken. The ancestor to all domestic chickens is the Red Jungle fowl (Gallus gallus). It has the distinct honor of being the national bird of Sri Lanka and is depicted in postage stamps etc. There are 4 species of Gallus so far recorded from Asia. The Red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus), the Grey jungle fowl (Gallus sonneratii), the green jungle fowl (Gallus varius) and the Sri Lankan jungle fowl (Gallus lafeyetii). The Sri Lanka Jungle fowl is endemic to Sri Lanka, and is not found anywhere else in the world.

As the norm for the genus Gallus, the males and females can be easily identified due to their different colours. Males are reddish orange to yellow in colour, sporting a red comb (crest) and a yellow patch in the centre. Their tail is metallic blue-black. The females are usually different shades of brown in colour with black markings and buff bands on top. They have reddish-brown and black wavy lines, streaked with brownish-buff below, and the rest being largely black-streaked.

The Jungle fowl is a terrestrial species, and is found always scratching the ground for food as with the domestic chicken. They are omnivorous by habit and feed on a myriad of food, ranging from worms, fruits, frogs, and other vertebrates and invertebrates.

The female lays 2 to 4 eggs on nests abandoned by other birds or even squirrels, or on nests built on the forest floor of Sri Lanka's hill country. Males play an active role in protecting the nests an in rearing chicks.

The call of the Jungle fowl is said to sound like the name John Joyce, which is repeated every few seconds. They are also known to flap their wings, this sound is made when a male announces his arrival or when there is a territorial dispute amongst males.

TEMPLE OF THE TOOTH ☸️🪔

The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a world-renowned place of worship, where the left Canine tooth of Gautama Buddha is enshrined. The temple which is venerated by thousands of local & foreign devotees and tourists daily was named as a world heritage by UNESCO in 1988.

The temple which carries a lot of value to Buddhists all over the world also has immense cultural value. The architecture is of unique Kandyan architectural style with a combination of the unique style used to build “Dalada Mandira” the shrines which housed the Sacred Tooth Relic previously in other kingdoms.

The temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is built in the city of Kandy near the ancient Royal Palace which is situated to the North of the temple and the forest reserve called “Udawaththa Kelaya” to the East. The famous Kandy Lake also known as “Kiri Muhuda” to the South and “Natha & Paththini Devala” on the West. The temple is adorned with intricate carvings using gold, silver, bronze, and ivory. 

The symbols that show the culture of Sri Lanka can be described as follows.

Happy reading 🫂

Warmly,

Chathu ❤️😘