Sri Lanka scouts attending coronation ceremony of King Charles III meets President

‘God save the King’: Unforgettable moments from King Charles’ historic coronation

In a ceremony steeped in tradition and grandeur, King Charles III has been crowned as Britain’s new monarch in historic scenes that have not been witnessed by the public in 70 years.

After a lifetime as the heir to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles, 74, became the oldest sovereign to be crowned at London’s Westminster Abbey on Saturday, May 6 in front of over 2300 guests and millions watching around the world.

The momentous day began with The King’s Procession as the soon-to-be crowned King and Queen departed Buckingham Palace in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach for Westminster Abbey, followed by other members of the Royal Family.

Accompanied by The Household Calverly, the royal couple were greeted by cheering crowds as they made their way through the streets of London.

Their Majesties entered Westminster Abbey through the Great West Door, upon which the choir sang Hubert Parry’s I was glad, which was composed for the Coronation of King Edward VII.

The Archbishop of Canterbury gave a greeting from the High Altar, welcoming the congregation to the Service. The choir then sang the Kyrie, which was sung in Welsh for the first time.

After being officially recognised as the true monarch, King Charles turned to each point of the compass to receive recognition from key figures. Lady Eilish Angiolini, Christopher Finney, and Baroness Amos were just a few of the esteemed individuals in attendance to recognise the King’s coronation.

The King was then presented with a new Holy Bible commissioned for the service by Lambeth Palace, before taking the Oath and signing copies presented by the Lord Chamberlain. As the choir sang an Anthem by William Byrd, His Majesty kneeled before the High Altar to pray aloud, inspired by the hymn I vow to thee, my country.

The Anointing, regarded as the most sacred element of the ceremony, was conducted away from public view. The Guardsmen of the Household Division ushered in the Anointing Screen, and behind it, the Archbishop of Canterbury anointed the King’s hands, chest, and head. This solemn act, shrouded in secrecy, imbued the ceremony with a profound sense of spiritual significance, underscoring the importance of this momentous occasion.

 

 

Four Rover Scouts from the Sri Lanka Scout Association representing Sri Lanka at the Coronation Camp organised by The Scout Association, United Kingdom called on His Excellency, Ranil Wickramasinghe in London this morning. 

 

The Scouts discussed with the President their role in supporting the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla. Further discussions on the role of young people to take on the future leadership of the country was discussed where the President encouraged the Scouts to actively engage in national and global issues particularly highlighting the global climate crisis. The four Scouts who represented Sri Lanka Scouts at the Coronation were Shalini Perera, Aritha Bandara, Asel Bandara and Sarith Fernando. The participation of the Sri Lanka Scouts at the Coronation Ceremony and meeting with H.E the President was coordinated by Chief Commissioner Attorney-at-Law Janaprith Fernando

 

තුන්වන චාල්ස් රජුගේ රාජාභිෂේක මංගල්‍යයට සහභාගී වූ ශ්‍රී ලංකා බාලදක්ෂයින් ජනපති හමුවෙයි

එක්සත් රාජධානියේ බාලදක්ෂ සංගමය විසින් සංවිධානය කරන ලද රාජාභිෂේක කඳවුරට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නියෝජනය කරමින් සහභාගී වු ශ්‍රී ලංකා බාලදක්ෂ සංගමයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ බාලදක්ෂ, බාලදක්ෂිකාවන් සහ ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා අතර හමුව ඊයේ (07) ලන්ඩන් නුවරදී සිදුවිය.

ශලිනි පෙරේරා, අරිතා බණ්ඩාර, අසේල් බණ්ඩාර සහ සරිත් ප්‍රනාන්දු යන බාලදක්ෂ, බාල දක්ෂිකාවන් සිවුදෙනා රාජාභිෂේකය සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකා බාලදක්ෂ කණ්ඩායම නියෝජනය කළහ.

ඔවුන් සමඟ සුහඳ කථා බහක නිරත වූ ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ගෝලීය දේශගුණික අර්බුදය ඇතුළු ජාතික හා ගෝලීය අවශ්‍යතා සඳහා ක්‍රියාකාරීව නිරත වීමට බාලදක්ෂ, බාලදක්ෂිකාවන් දිරිමත් කළේය.

රටේ අනාගත නායකත්වය භාර ගැනීමට තරුණ පරපූර සූදානම් විය යුතු ආකාරය පිළිබඳව ද ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් කරුණු පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. ශ්‍රී ලංකා බාලදක්ෂ සංගමයේ ප්‍රධාන කොමසාරිස් නීතීඥ ජනප්‍රිත් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතාගේ ඉල්ලීමකට අනුව මෙම හමුව සංවිධානය කෙරිණි.

Beauty in the miniscule! an incredibly talented artist from Sri Lanka

Miniature arts are fascinating. They require great talent as well as patience. As archaeologists say, the history of miniature art dates back to prehistory. 

 

 

The attention to fine detail and exquisite craftsmanship is what is fascinating and delightful about miniature art. Today, in a more commercial world, where arts have lost value as a classical hobby, a classical craft, and a classical prestigious career, miniature art has been able to maintain its place as a more lucrative career as well as a hobby.

Miniature art, commonly known as micro art, is popular among modern generations. It is somewhat new to Sri Lanka, although it has been a thing in the world for quite some time. Micro art is about carving, engraving, painting, and moulding miniature models of paintings, architectural structures, and objects which are of normal size. The entire structure of a normal size object is scaled into a micro size and is carved or painted on a micro surface. This is not an easy task. It takes time, patience, and great skill. 

Daya Micro Arts by Dayananda Lokuliyange

Carving on pencils and engraving on rice grains are such micro arts that require great talent. In Sri Lanka, Dayananda Lokuliyanage is one such talented artist. He carves on pencils and rice grains. Seeing his amazing work, we at Ceylon Today contacted him to know more about his work and talent. His works are branded as Daya Micro Arts.

“My father was also an artist,” started Dayananda. “Therefore, art has always been in my family and in my blood.”

Hailing from a family in Kandy, Haadeniya, Dayananda said that he studied arts at school, mostly ordinary drawing and painting. After school, as he got himself busy with his career art was not a priority in his life. Once again in 2010, he started to pick up art which he has not given attention to since he left school in 2003.

For about one year Dayananda had painted but once again had to keep the art aside due to his career.

A passion for micro arts since school days

At school, he has attempted to do miniature creations such as writing in extra small letters and making extra small short notes for fun. He used to write a one-page note in between two single rules in school days.

“During COVID-19, I was at home. I was involved in the tourism industry and due to the Easter Attacks and then COVID-19, most of the tourism-related industries and entrepreneurs faced difficulties. During this time, I thought of reviving my artwork once again.”

Dayananda said that he was thinking to do something unique and uncommon. Therefore, he did some research on various carving works such as coconut shell carving, and eggshell carvings. Then he noticed micro arts on pencils by foreign artists. He was inspired by many wonderful pencil carvings and tried his luck on this craft.

“I have been doing this now for almost four years now. I started with the basic tools I had and gradually purchased more and more tools for the craft. Now I have excelled in pencil carving,” said Dayananda with pride. “Leading senior foreign artists are also in touch with me.”

Engraving on rice grains

“These days I am engraving on rice grains,” Dayananda revealed.

What is interesting about Dayananda’s rice grain art is that he perhaps is the only artist in Sri Lanka to do rice carvings the way he does. Although this makes him a unique artist, it also means that there is no other artist in Sri Lanka with whom he can compare notes or share ideas. “However, world-class micro artists comment on my work,” Dayananda said.

He also spoke about various tools such as microscopes and other carving tools that he uses for his carvings and engravings. Some of these tools are extremely expensive and hard to afford. If Dayananda has more of these tools and equipment, he could well produce more exquisite work.

I have only requested opportunities from the authorities. In foreign countries, these artists are considered icons. In the world, these micro arts are admired.

Although in Sri Lanka, people have no value for this work, in the international, my work is admired.”

Although graphite or pencil micro art is not that unheard of in the global arena, rice grain carvings are a unique and rare form of micro art. Hence, Dayananda said he is investing a great amount of time and energy in rice grain engraving.

Talking about the market for these works, he said that it is hard to mark a high price for these works in Sri Lanka. This is actually an issue faced by many local artists. Due to many social and economic factors, the art market in Sri Lanka does not recognise the true value of artistic creations.

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Planning to exhibit his unique collection

“I have a collection of about 300 – 400 pencil carvings with me and hope to have my own gallery and museum one day,” Dayananda said, adding that he is confident that no one else in Sri Lanka has such a collection.

Dayananda also revealed his desire to do a solo exhibition one day, and said he is currently working on it. According to him, unlike organising an ordinary art exhibition, displaying, lighting, and viewing micro arts is not an easy task.

Among the international admirers of Dayananda’s work are micri artists Grahan Short and Dr. Willard Wigan. “They admire my work after seeing them on social media. Dr. Wigan is a micro engraver who works on needle eyes. These great artists are humble and down to earth.”

We wish Dayananda all the very best for his future endeavours and may he have the strength and opportunities to awe the world further.