By Aruliniyan Mahalingam Shashi Tharoor gave the sort of speech he is known for at the Colombo Literary Festival last week: fluent, warm, faintly flattering to its hosts. Standing in the Arcade at Independence Square, he called Sri Lanka a land “profoundly steeped in rich, mesmerising oral traditions,” and traced its historical pulse to two ancient chronicles: the Mahavamsa, or Great Chronicle, and its predecessor the Dipavamsa, or Island Chronicle. These, he said, were “a library of cultural m

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka —It began as a feel-good story about a stray dog that captivated thousands of Hindu pilgrims across Sri Lanka. It ended with a Sri Lankan migrant worker from the eastern town of Kalmunai being sentenced to five years in a Saudi prison over a single comment on Facebook. The worker, identified by his family as Anojan, a Sri Lankan Tamil employed in the kingdom, was sentenced on Sunday after posting a Facebook comment that Saudi authorities deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhamma

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Thousands of Buddhist monks gathered in Colombo on Monday for a conference where speakers voiced concern over possible constitutional reforms, the administration of archaeological lands in Sri Lanka's Northern and Eastern provinces, and what they said was growing criticism of the Buddhist clergy. The Maha Sangha Conference, held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall under the theme "Sukhā Sanghassa Sāmaggī" ("The Unity of the Sangha Brings Happiness"),