The Uththama Pooja Pranama Padakkama (Medal of Honour for Supreme Sacrifice) ( Sinhala : උත්තම පූජා ප්රණාම පදක්කම uṭama pūjā pranāma padakkama ) is the medal presented to the next of kin of all servicepersons of the military and police of Sri Lanka in recognition of a serviceperson's death in the line of duty. It is awarded to the families of personnel confirmed killed in action or missing in action .
6-458: The medal is gold-plated metal circular in shape, suspended from a blue ribbon. The obverse face holds at its center an outline of the Sri Lankan island mass incised in its center with an engraved form of a male soldier holding a weapon with his left hand, and the right raised in triumph. The engraving is meant to symbolize a lack of life, indicating the death of the serviceperson. The figure stands on
12-512: A half circle at the bottom of the medal. The medal has thus far been awarded by the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence . Award regulations stipulate that the medal be awarded jointly to the spouse, children and parents of a dead or missing serviceperson should he/she have been married at the time of (confirmed or suspected) death, and to the parents only should the serviceperson have been unmarried at
18-603: A pair of upraised hands from below, symbolizing his/her family and their support and encouragement contributing to the serviceperson's sacrifice. Both faces of the medal are bordered by stylized crepuscular rays along the edge, meant to symbolize the brighter future the individual ensured for their nation with their sacrifice. The obverse holds the Emblem of Sri Lanka with the Sinhala inscription ශ්රී ලංකා ප්රජාතාන්ත්රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජය (Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka) engraved in
24-602: The twilight period. Crepuscular rays are noticeable when the contrast between light and dark is most obvious. Crepuscular comes from the Latin word crepusculum , meaning "twilight". Crepuscular rays usually appear orange because the path through the atmosphere at dawn and dusk passes through up to 40 times as much air as rays from a high Sun at noon . Particles in the air scatter short- wavelength light (blue and green) through Rayleigh scattering much more strongly than longer-wavelength yellow and red light. Loosely,
30-413: The term crepuscular rays is sometimes extended to the general phenomenon of rays of sunlight that appear to converge at a point in the sky, irrespective of time of day. A rare related phenomena are anticrepuscular rays which can appear at the same time (and coloration) as crepuscular rays but in the opposite direction of the setting sun (east rather than west). This optics -related article
36-527: The time of death. The President has the authority to annul or restore the award to any person on the recommendation of the Defence Secretary. Being a posthumous award, the medal has no accompanying ribbon bar . Crepuscular rays Crepuscular rays , sometimes colloquially referred to as god rays , are sunbeams that originate when the Sun appears to be just above or below a layer of clouds, during
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