Tissa Devendra

Tissa Devendra
Born	1929 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Residence	Sri Lanka
Nationality	Sri Lankan
Ethnicity	Sinhalese
Alma mater	Nalanda College, Colombo Ananda College, Colombo University of Ceylon University of Cambridge
Religion	Theravada Buddhism

Tissa Devendra is a writer of repute besides being a top retired civil servant in Sri Lanka.

Childhood & education

Tissa received his education from Dharmaraja College, Kandy, Nalanda College, Colombo and Ananda College Colombo . Later graduated from University of Ceylon and University of Cambridge.

Career

Tissa's long career in the public service started in 1953 as a District Land Officer. Later was General Manager of the River Valleys Development Project in Walawe.

Tissa was the Government Agent in Matara, Trincomalee and Jaffna. He also held positions as Chairman of Public Service Commission, Chairman of Salaries Commission. First President of the Colombo University Alumni Association. Tissa also served as National Expert for the FAO and United Nations.

Author

Devendra is a book writer of repute and authored many books both in Sinhalese and English. His book Tales from the Provinces was short-listed for the Gratiaen Prize in 1998. Tissa was also a reviewer of English films along with the late Regi Siriwardena, the late Donald Abeysinghe, the late Mervyn De Silva.

Tissa who had served 40 years in public service scripted an acclaimed TV documentary on George Keyt in 1987. Some of his published books are: The Emerald Island, Tales from the Provinces, Princes Peasants and Clever Beasts, More Princes, Peasants and Clever Beasts and On Horseshoe Street.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 10, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.