Thirty large albums with color plates on 30 selected shrines countrywide. The albums present to the national and International community the most treasured remains of murals Sri Lanka ranging from the 5 th century to the 20 th century . Among the painted shrines in this series , some have hitherto remained obscure or unrecorded . Yet the mural content and the aesthetical trends expressed by these are of unique excellence. The detailed introduction of each volume deals with location , history , Layout, subject matter , date, style and comparison. The iconographic details and the aesthetic and stylistic evaluation of the murals put forward new concepts.

The albums are authored by atrio of scholars of International repute, Nandana Chutiwongs, Leelananda Premathillaka and Roland Silva. The volumes contain sinhalese translations of the English descriptions of each temple for the benefit of the Sinhalese reading public . Each volume contains 36 large color plates covering important aspects of the respective murals of the shrine concerned.

Visitor Guides to Ancient Sites

The publication of a series of visitor guides by the Central Cultural Fund throws new light into the respective sites and are written in Sinhalese and English by local scholars , some of whom have gained first hand knowledge on the sites by being involved in excavation and conservation programmers. Guides published by outside authors , too, are included in the list and are available for sale at the Central Cultural Fund Publication Unit.

These guides are of immense help to the visitors to gain reliable information about the sites. The guide books are well illustrated in color and black & white. Each guide constitutes a veritable mine of valuable information to the connoisseurs and lovers of ancient Sri Lankan Culture.

Lama Sahitya Katha , written in all three languages, Sinhala, Tamil and English, are published in the form of bed-time stories about Sri Lankan History with a view to imparting historical education to children with much less effort. These publications have already gained popularity among school children and are much in demand. The language used in the texts is simple and uncomplicated. The books constitute a form of recreation with educational value.

Already 12 story books are published, and the objective is to publish 100 books altogether. Books available for sale are,

Vihara - Vamsa

A series of publications written in Sinhalese, provides descriptions of some important Buddhist temples in Dambadeniya, authored by learned village monks and knowledgeable persons in the areas. The descriptions throw light on the history, religion, art and archaeology, society and environment, thus forming important and interesting corpuses on the lifestyle ahd cultural environments of the village temples.

ICOMOS / International

The information publications of the ICOMOS by the Central Cultural Fund were published on the occasion of the 10th General Assembly series held at the BMICH in 1993. The albums written by international scholars consist of a large variety of topics ranging from monuments and sites of member countries tourism, heritage, art and archaeology, conservation economics and Assembly proceedings. The Publications are of great interest to scholars conducting research on such subjects.

The Publication Unit of the Central Cultural Fund has undertaken the publication of several Journals and Quarterlys providing research articles mainly on topics relating to archaeo­logical activities and important finds of the Cultural Triangle sites.