The world’s largest single natural blue sapphire has been found in Sri Lanka, according to the National Gem and Jewellery Authority
Jewish Footprints and Connections that Shaped Sri Lanka’s History
Today, the Chabad Houses in Colombo and on Sri Lanka's southern coast have attracted considerable attention amid a rise in anti-Semitic incidents and rhetoric. It is noteworthy that Colombo once had an active synagogue, which served as a regular place of worship for British Jewish servicemen World War II
Repositioning India as the Capital of Buddhist Tourism: A Blueprint for a Global Destination
Buddhist tourism as an important tool of India’s soft power. The shared Buddhist heritage can help develop cultural ties with Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Mongolia, South Korea, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, and several other Buddhist-majority nations through cooperation in archaeology, monk-to-monk dialogues, youth programs, academic exchanges, and cultural festivals
Mohenjo-daro’s ‘Dancing Girl’: The Silence Surrounding Women in Public History
Mohenjo-daro offers South Asia an opportunity to look backwards without dividing the past into national possessions, and to recognise that the region’s cultural memory is older and more interconnected than its modern inheritors.
How a Film by a Boston-Based Immigrant is Dismantling the Model-Minority Concept
Jam Boy represents a much-needed question for the South Asia diaspora, about why it takes a third aggressor for us to see the common struggles that we share, and why it is only in these situations that we remember that our ideas of home are the same.
More on Soft Power, Culture and Society
One-minute Bhutanese film on climate change wins Best Documentary Award
A one-minute Bhutanese film “Snow Lion and The Glaciologist” has won the Best Documentary Award at the International Mobile Film Festival during the awards ceremony on World Climate Day in Paris on December 8
Much ado over a water bottle: Pakistan opposition politician Bilawal Bhutto under fire for not opening bottle himself
Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has come under fire from the public for asking Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani, a man much senior to him in politics, to open a water bottle for him at a press conference
College principal among 40 people indicted in Pakistan over 'objectionable gesture and vulgar dance'
At least 40 people in Pakistan, including a college principal, have been indicted over 'objectionable gesture and vulgar dance' at a college festival after video clips of these events went viral on social media
Malala urges US for more support to Afghan women; says Afghanistan will suffer if girls don’t learn
The United States should do more to support Afghan women and their right to education and work, Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize awardee and human rights activist Malala Yousafzai told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
First transgender elected as rural council head in Bangladesh
In a sign of changing times, a transgender person, Nazrul Islam Ritu, has been elected as the chairperson of the Union Parishad - a rural council - of Trilochanpur Union of Kaliganj in Jhenaidha district of Bangladesh
Australia India Film Council to build on 'dosti' between the two countries
An Australia India Film Council has been formed to forge greater cultural, economic and creative collaboration between the two countries that are deepening and diversifying their "strategic partnership" across all areas
Women take on rightwing bullies at Christian prayer hall in India
Rightwing activists from the Hindu ultranationalist Bajrang Dal allegedly barged into a Christian prayer hall in Belur city in Karnataka in south India on Sunday, accused the group of conversion and pushed around the faithful before the women in the congregation forced them to leave
Sikhs protest over Pakistani fashion model posing bareheaded in front of Kartarpur Gurdwara: Pakistani minister seeks apology from designer, model
Angry protests by Sikhs and others in India over a fashion model posing bareheaded and with her back to the revered Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan forced the Pakistani fashion brand Mannat to apologise for posting the pictures, while Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry demanded that the model tender an apology for the disrespect
Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai now graduates from Oxford University
Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who survived an attack in 2012 from a Taliban gunman in her native Pakistan while returning home from school, has graduated from Oxford University with a philosophy, politics and economics degree
'Afghan girl', the face of Afghanistan's conflict and suffering, gets refuge in Italy
Sharbat Gula, the famous green-eyed “Afghan Girl” whose iconic photo in 1985 by a National Geographic photographer became the face of the Afghan conflict, has been given asylum by Italy, Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office said
A cricket lover's dream: Dubai offers to host India-Pakistan bilateral series
A bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan is a cricket lover's dream but, with the current political and diplomatic tensions between the two countries, that seems a distant proposition
Monkeys as unsung Covid heroes: India's Covaxin was successfully tested on 20 monkeys first
India became the fifth country to isolate a strain of the coronavirus as the country recorded several milestones in its fight against the diseases - tracing the contacts of the first case diagnosed in India in January 2020
Pakistani cricket team felt they were 'playing in Pakistan', not Bangladesh
The Pakistan cricket team has received so much crowd support during their Bangladesh tour that after playing in Dhaka and getting enthusiastic support from Bangladeshi supporters, the Pakistani cricketers said that it seems that they are playing in Pakistan and not in Dhaka
Ray’s movies opened a whole new world for me: Hollywood titan Martin Scorsese
Hollywood director-filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who was honored with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, said films of Satyajit Ray opened a whole new world for him, UNI news agency reported
