sandakada pahana auction in England

[United Arab Al Lanka]

අපේ සදකඩ පහනක් එංගලන්තයේ වෙන්දේසියක
සදකඩ පහන කියන්නේ අපේ රටේ අතීත කලා නිර්මාණ අතර බොහොම සුවිශේෂ එකක්.කෝකයේ වැඩිම කථා බහට ලක් වු ශ්‍රී ලජකීය කලා නිර්මාණය සදකඩ පහනයි කිවුවොත් වරදක් නැහැ.
බොන්හැම්ි නැමති ආයතනය මගින් මෙම වෙන්දේසිය පවත්වනු ලබන අතර මෙම සදකට පහන ස්ටර්ලින් පවුම් 30 000 කට එනම් රුපියල් මිලියන 7 කට වැඩි මුදලකට ලන්සු තබා තිබෙනවා.එම සමාගම පවසන අන්දමට 1950 වසරේ දී පමණ ලංකාවෙන් රුගෙන ගිය බව කියන මෙම නිර්මාණය වසර 1500 පමණ පැරණි බව පැවසෙනවා. කෙසේ වෙතත් අපේ පුරාවිද්‍ය දෙපාර්තුමෙන්තුව පවසන්නේ අපේ රටේ සොයාගත් කිසිදු ඉපැරණි සදකඩ පහනක් අස්ථාන ගත වී නැති බවයි

obtain from internet.. translate not on me..

 

[United Arab Al Lanka]

By Indika Sri Aravinda
The government has sought the assistance of the international police, INTERPOL, to recover the ancient moonstone which is to be auctioned in Britain.
Minister of National Heritage Dr. Jagath M. Balasooriya said INTERPOL assistance had been sought through the British High Commission in Colombo.
The Minister told The Sunday Leader that assistance had also been sought from the British government to recover the Sandakada Pahana moonstone.
He however said the authorities have yet to confirm if the moonstone is authentic but they believe it may have been taken out of Sri Lanka during the British rule of the then Ceylon.
“A group of monks in the UK are also collecting money to try to purchase the stone at the auction if our attempts fail. We have also made an appeal to UNESCO to help us get back the stone to Sri Lanka,” the Minister said.
A BBC report had said that the garden doorstep at a home in Devon in the UK had been identified as a rare Sri Lankan artifact expected to fetch more than £30,000 at the auction.
The auctioneer Bonhams had said that the carved granite step is a Sandakada Pahana – or moonstone – similar to those found in temples dating back from Sri Lanka’s Anuradhapura period (400BC-1000AD).
The stone was found in the garden of a bungalow in Devon. Its owner said that it was originally in a home in Sussex that her family had bought in 1950. Bonhams says the house had been purchased from a tea planter who had lived in Sri Lanka.
Experts said that the discovery of such a stone outside Sri Lanka is extremely rare.